Ragnhild Dybdahl, Torgeir Sørensen, Hans A. Hauge, Kjersti Røsvik, Lars Lien and Ketil Eide
There is substantial research on the experiences, needs and well-being of unaccompanied refugee adolescents, but less is known about existential aspects of their lives. The…
Abstract
Purpose
There is substantial research on the experiences, needs and well-being of unaccompanied refugee adolescents, but less is known about existential aspects of their lives. The purpose of the current study is to explore existential meaning-making among unaccompanied refugee children.
Design/methodology/approach
The informants in this study are young unaccompanied refugees (n = 30) living in Norway, and young Norwegians (n = 46). The authors undertook a secondary analysis of in-depth qualitative refugee interview data and a quantitative analysis of questionnaire data from Norwegian informants.
Findings
Both the refugee youths and the Norwegian youths expressed that social relationships and connections to others were most important for meaning. Moreover, both groups emphasized the importance of relatedness and generativity, i. e. commitment to worldly affairs beyond one’s immediate needs. The main differences between the two groups were related to the significance attached to religion and to loneliness.
Research limitations/implications
The comparison between the two groups is only possible to some degree. Secondary analyses have some limitations, as well as strengths.
Practical implications
The findings may be useful for supporting young refugees, as they provide insights into less-studied aspects of their lives.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in the focus on and broad interpretation of meaning, of secondary data analyses, and of comparisons between youths that are refugees versus non-refugees.
Details
Keywords
Jan Aasen, Fredrik Nilsson, Torgeir Sørensen, Lars Lien and Marja Leonhardt
This study aims to explore how people with concurrent mental health and substance use disorders and lived experience of deep social marginalization perceived barriers and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how people with concurrent mental health and substance use disorders and lived experience of deep social marginalization perceived barriers and facilitators to mainstream social participation. The purpose of this study is to identify meaningful and relevant learning content for a virtual reality-based intervention to promote social participation in this group.
Design/methodology/approach
This formative qualitative study was conducted in Norway during Autumn 2022. Nine in-depth individual interviews with adults recovering from dual diagnosis were conducted, audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis in a collaborative analysis process.
Findings
Results indicated that social alienation, poor social skills, stigma, low self-esteem and social anxiety were key barriers to social participation in this group. This study suggests a need to learn appropriate social behaviour in mainstream society, in addition to better employability skills, civic literacy and health literacy to improve utilization of social opportunities.
Practical implications
This study implies that virtual reality-based interventions for promoting social participation in people with dual diagnosis should primarily focus on learning and practising appropriate social behaviour in shared public spaces before practising advanced social skills such as employability skills in simulated work environments. Learning and practising social skills appears decisive for using more complex social opportunities, such as in education, health, social services and work.
Originality/value
This research provides suggestions for the content of a novel virtual reality-based intervention to promote social participation among people in recovery from dual diagnosis.
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Keywords
Jana Deprez, Ellen R. Peeters and Marjan J. Gorgievski
This paper seeks to identify how intrapreneurial self-efficacy (ISE) grows in a group of graduate students during their internship. We investigate which agency and structure…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to identify how intrapreneurial self-efficacy (ISE) grows in a group of graduate students during their internship. We investigate which agency and structure factors shape their experience and stabilize or help grow their ISE and how this evolves in the course of their internship.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted group interviews with 49 last year master students of a large Belgian university during their seven-month internship. We focused on those interns with low starter ISE to better understand which factors aid or hinder ISE development.
Findings
Our results show that students who did not experience ISE growth were less aware of their own agency factors, lacked supportive colleagues and experienced a misfit with their supervisors. Students who did grow their ISE did so mostly because of an initial experimentation phase, which was structured by their supervisor. This created a positive spiral where they started feeling increasingly better and able to act intrapreneurially.
Originality/value
With this study, we contribute to the extant literature in two main ways. First, we use a graduate employability lens to study the genesis of ISE. As such, we are amongst the first to investigate how education can nurture intrapreneurship and which agency and structure factors are particularly important for this. Second, we take a qualitative process approach, rather than a static and quantitative focus of most entrepreneurial education studies. As such, we gain better knowledge to the drivers of ISE at students first steps and during their internship.