Social investment is one of the dominant approaches to welfare reform worldwide. Highlighting the positive contribution of social policy to the economy, social investment constitutes a valuable alternative to austerity. In this research note, we argue that—despite its merits—social investment is problematic from an ecological and global justice perspective, as it remains tied to the capitalist regime of overproduction and overconsumption that causes the transgression of planetary boundaries and the exploitation of the global South. Against this backdrop, we propose “sustainable welfare” as an alternative framework for social policy reform. Rejecting productivism, the sustainable welfare paradigm embraces a post-capitalist socioeconomic system, which puts the care for people and planet center stage.

Disabled youth are over-represented among care-leavers transitioning into adulthood. However, the experiences and needs of disabled care-leavers are not well understood—largely due to inconsistencies in definition and data collection practices. Applying the lens of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2007), this paper examines the strengths and limitations of existing definitions and data collection practices regarding disabled care-leavers in four countries: Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. While each country has made progress toward meeting the needs of disabled care-leavers, careful identification of this group has been overlooked to varying degrees within their policy frameworks, limiting evaluation and planning efforts within and across countries. Implications of current definition and data approaches are considered, and recommendations to improve and better coordinate data collection efforts are offered to promote advocacy for the well-being of disabled care-leavers internationally.

This study draws on perspectives from social exchange theory and Chinese filial piety to assess the validity of these frameworks in explaining grandchildren's caregiving behaviour. Through in-depth interviews, data on caregiving experiences were collected from 40 grandchildren who had provided care for disabled or ill grandparents. Thematic analysis was employed, yielding four main themes: “childhood support and reciprocity,” “prior help and traditional filial obligation,” “reducing parents' caregiving burden,” and “interactions of reciprocity, traditional familism, reducing parents' burden and availability.” The findings reveal that grandchildren's caregiving cannot be fully explained by social exchange or filial piety alone; instead, it emerges from a combination of factors, including the individual grandchild's availability, their relationship with their grandparents, their attachment to traditional family values and living arrangements. Since prior support from grandparents is a key driver of grandchildren's caregiving, ageing-in-place policies and welfare agencies should foster intergenerational interaction and strengthen family bonds. This is particularly important in societies where childcare is often outsourced to foreign domestic helpers.

To encourage transitions into employment or education, governments impose benefit sanctions on unemployed individuals who fail to comply with conditionality requirements. However, evidence on the effectiveness of such sanctions remains limited, particularly among young adults. We investigated whether sanctions are associated with transitions into employment or education and whether effects differ among individuals facing labour market disadvantages. To estimate causal effects using observational data, we applied a target trial emulation framework. We used nationwide Finnish register data on 52,890 unemployed individuals under the age of 25 in 2022. Following a target trial emulation framework, we treated sanctions as the intervention and applied coarsened exact matching with importance weights to approximate random allocation. We constructed a labour market disadvantage score by summing five indicators associated with poorer labour market attachment. Time-to-event outcomes over a 24-month follow-up were estimated using parametric survival models. Overall, 78% of young adults transitioned to employment or education within an average of 10 months. Pooled across all sanction types, sanctions were associated with a modestly higher transition hazard (HR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.05–1.14) and a 0.9-month shorter median time to employment or education. Among individuals without labour market disadvantages, sanctions were associated with a 1.7-month reduction in median time to transition (HR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.29–1.58). By contrast, among those with one or more disadvantages, hazard ratios were statistically non-significant (HR = 0.99–1.07) and differences in median time were negligible (0.1–0.2 months). Unemployment benefit sanctions can facilitate transitions to employment or education among unemployed young adults without labour market disadvantages. However, the effects of sanctions differ between those with and without such disadvantages. Policymakers may use these findings to retarget sanctions or combine them with supportive measures.

Utilizing panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2010–2022, this study identifies parental migration experience between ages 0 and 12 and constructs an Individual Multidimensional Development Index (IMDI) using the entropy-weighting method to examine the long-term association between childhood left-behind experience and individual development. The results show that early left-behind experience is significantly and negatively associated with individuals' multidimensional development in adulthood, and this association remains robust after controlling for individual, household, and regional characteristics. Regarding migration patterns, the negative association for dual-parent migration is stronger than that for single-parent migration; when parental roles are distinguished, maternal migration is associated with a significant negative association, whereas paternal migration shows limited compensatory patterns. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal that the long-term adverse consequences of left-behind experience are primarily concentrated in cognitive ability, mental health, and educational attainment, with no significant effect observed for non-cognitive skills; moreover, these negative effects are more pronounced among individuals from urban hukou backgrounds, males, and those residing in the eastern region. These findings highlight the need to reduce parent–child separation and provide targeted support for left-behind children and their families to mitigate long-term disadvantage.

Rural China has recently witnessed a disproportionate increase in its aging population. Emerging community-based eldercare is driving transformation in the caregiving landscape in rural China. This study explores older adults' experiences of community-based eldercare in rural Zhejiang Province. We employed a descriptive phenomenological approach and conducted face-to-face, in-depth interviews with older adults (N = 29) and village officials (N = 15) from 8 villages in Jindong region. Three themes emerged: Changing family support for older adults, emerging community-based eldercare, and community-based eldercare and aging-in-village. Community-based eldercare boosted older adults' autonomy, protected their rural identity, alleviated their family's caregiving shortages, and leveraged filial piety to a broader social responsibility. This study offers timely and contextualized insights regarding the implications of community-based eldercare in rural China for older adults' aging experiences within the broad sociocultural transformation.

Ostracism (social exclusion) is a common interpersonal experience linked to maladaptive behaviours such as digital addiction. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association between various forms of digital addiction and ostracism. A search of PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest up to June 2024 identified 1056 studies, of which 29 met the inclusion criteria. Pooled effect sizes indicated a small-to-moderate positive correlation between ostracism and digital addiction: 0.23 (95% CI: 0.13–0.33) for internet addiction, 0.28 (95% CI: 0.23–0.32) for smartphone addiction, and 0.28 (95% CI: 0.14–0.41) for social media addiction. Adolescents emerged as particularly vulnerable. Psychological and contextual factors such as nomophobia, loneliness, boredom, anger, impulsivity, rejection sensitivity, poor self-control, negative parenting, and narcissistic traits were associated with stronger correlations between ostracism and addictive behaviours. Conversely, protective factors including resilience, social self-efficacy, and supportive family environments helped buffer the negative effects of ostracism. These findings underscore the importance of psychosocial, school-based and family-based interventions to address digital addiction related to social exclusion.

This methodological article aims to acquire a better understanding of how current research in the traditional income distribution literature considers shared-care families and what kind of implications these approaches pose for measuring the economic well-being of children living in two homes. Second, it provides insights on how to measure the economic standard of living of individuals in shared-care families. These aims are related to research gaps identified in existing research on separated families. The article pursues these goals by addressing the problems involved, highlighting some of these issues' magnitude and proposing ways to reduce bias in estimates of income inequality and poverty in post-separation families. The article also demonstrates the need to revise current theoretical assumptions that guide measures of economic well-being in order to accurately estimate the standard of living of children and parents in shared-care families.

This study examined the relationships of excessive internet use and school performance among children in China and the United States by analyzing data from 8162 (49% girls) third-year middle-school students surveyed in the 2016 China Education Panel Survey and 5515 8th graders (50% girls) surveyed in the 2016 Monitoring the Future Survey. Approximately 20% of children in both countries spent 20+ h per week on the internet for non-schoolwork-related activities. Multivariate regressions showed that in China, children who spent five or fewer hours per week on non-school-related internet use had the significantly highest GPA and lowest odds of truancy. US children who used the internet for non-school-related purposes for 6–9 h per week had the highest GPA, while those who spent 20+ h per week had significantly higher odds of truancy. Moderate use may enhance educational experience; however, excessive use for non-educational purposes may negatively impact school performance and engagement.

Youth homelessness is an increasingly significant social issue in Europe, with individuals aged 18–29 at elevated risk of severe social exclusion. Futuro&Co is a community-based social intervention programme implemented by the FACIAM network in Spain, aiming to promote the autonomy and social inclusion of young people in situations of homelessness (YPSH). This study examined the impact of Futuro&Co on improving community social support, perceived social support, loneliness and self-esteem among YPSH. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental, non-randomised controlled design was employed, involving a test group participating in Futuro&Co and a control group receiving standard homelessness services. Quantitative data were collected at programme entry, midpoint, and conclusion using validated questionnaires. Participants in the test group showed significantly greater improvements in overall community social support (F = 4.06, p = 0.02), particularly in terms of community participation (F = 2.91, p = 0.05) and informal support systems (F = 3.73, p = 0.03). Self-esteem also increased significantly (F = 3.16, p = 0.04), primarily due to reductions in negative self-perception. Although there were no statistically significant differences in overall social support or loneliness, the proportion of intervention participants reporting low social support decreased notably between the midpoint and programme closure. The findings highlight the value of community-based, de-institutionalising approaches for YPSH. By fostering informal relational networks, participation and self-esteem, Futuro&Co supports the reconstruction of social ties and autonomy. However, sustained and structural interventions remain essential to reduce loneliness and consolidate long-term social inclusion.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 authorizes programs targeting marginalized youth. However, no peer-reviewed studies have used national data to examine participation and outcomes specifically for disconnected youth (DY). Utilizing PY 2021 US Department of Labor performance data, this comprehensive study found that 62.3% of all active participants were disconnected at program entry, though rates varied by state (e.g., Indiana: 35.0%; California: 74.7%). Disconnection at entry was associated with significant barriers to participation, including foster care or legal system involvement, experiencing homelessness, or having lower educational attainment. Logistic regression results showed that, even after controlling for other sociodemographics, DY active participants had significantly lower odds of gaining recognized credentials or post-program employment compared to out-of-school youth who were working at entry. This suggests that systematic disadvantages persist despite WIOA Youth services. Implications for future research, policy, and professional practice that might better support this population are presented.

Caregivers' ability to access, engage with, and critically evaluate digital information on parenting practices (henceforth, “e-parenting literacy”) is emerging as an increasingly important determinant of early childhood development (ECD) outcomes. Therefore, the current study provides empirical evidence of the role of e-parenting literacy for ECD outcomes of 6- to 24-month-olds (N = 564) in rural households in a coastal province in East-China. The study focuses on the role of e-parenting literacy of the two most common types of primary caregivers (i.e., persons in charge of the daily care) of young children in the study region: mother and grandmother caregivers. Empirical results show that 76% of the primary caregivers (N = 429) are mothers, the remaining 135 primary caregivers are grandmothers. Overall, e-parenting literacy is found to be positively and significantly associated with children's early cognitive development outcomes. Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis shows that e-parenting literacy is positively and significantly associated with children's early cognitive and language outcomes when the primary caregiver is a grandmother, but not when the primary caregiver is a mother. This may reflect greater heterogeneity in grandmothers' digital device use and e-parenting literacy, while most mothers already possess adequate e-parenting skills. Additionally, older children (i.e., 16- to 24-month-olds), who may require more advanced parenting skills than their slightly younger peers, are also found to benefit more from gains in e-parenting literacy. This research highlights how digital inclusion can help to bridge gaps in caregiving practices and developmental opportunities of young children growing up in developing settings.

The rising concern over social worker turnover underscores the need to identify its determinants in order to promote occupational stability. In recent years, machine learning techniques have emerged as powerful tools for predicting individual risk behaviors and uncovering the underlying drivers of workforce attrition. This study applied and compared three widely used machine learning algorithms, namely Random Forest, Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM), and Support Vector Machine, to identify key predictors of turnover intention among social workers. Predictors were analyzed across individual, organizational, and value-based dimensions. Among the models tested, LightGBM achieved the best overall performance. To enhance interpretability, Shapley Additive Explanations were employed to quantify and visualize the contribution of each predictor. The eight most influential predictors identified were depersonalization, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, social belief, salary satisfaction, managerial support, marital status, and age. These findings demonstrate the utility of machine learning approaches for forecasting turnover intention and provide actionable evidence to inform the development of targeted retention policies and strategies.

Based on cross-sectional data from the 2021 National Youth Policy Institute survey (N = 1088), this study explored the role of family, gender factors, and online anonymity in digital sexual violence (DSV) among Korean adolescents indexed by victimization and perpetration of DSV. Results indicated that female adolescents reported significantly better perceived parenting qualities and lower levels of gender stereotypes and DSV perpetration than did male adolescents. Adolescents using anonymous accounts reported higher rates of both victimization and perpetration of DSV. Furthermore, positive parenting qualities and frequent family meal times were negatively associated with DSV experiences, while stronger gender stereotypes were associated with increased DSV victimization and perpetration. These findings highlight the complex interplay between family and gender factors and online anonymity in shaping adolescents' experiences with DSV. This research emphasizes the need for targeted interventions that consider gender and family factors and online anonymity in tackling DSV among adolescents.

This article comes at a time when regulatory initiatives, court rulings and collective agreements, which played a limited role in the early stages, have begun to have a significant impact across geographical boundaries. It conducts a global mapping of jurisprudence, social dialogue and legislative reforms in the platform economy, based on an extensive review of academic and grey literature, institutional and research databases and media, including developments relating to misclassification. Building on an analysis of this compilation, the article provides insights into the present state of affairs, while identifying the dominant trends.

This study examines the standard employment life course among the post-war generation in five countries traditionally classified as liberal and investigates variations in the pluralisation and differentiation of life course employment patterns within liberal welfare states. Using retrospective data from five liberal-leaning countries (England, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, and Chile) we reconstruct men's and women's working trajectories from ages 15 to 65. Our sequence analysis reveals inconsistent levels of pluralisation across these countries but a consistent trend towards greater differentiation. We also find that gender and educational differences do not uniformly account for these patterns. The findings challenge the notion of all-pervasive standard employment within this generation and demonstrate that even nations sharing similar welfare typologies can produce divergent life course outcomes. We conclude that historical legacies, cultural norms, and market deregulations shape diverse employment pathways, underlining the need for comparative, longitudinal approaches. Implications for comparative research and potential policy levers are discussed cautiously.

The Galápagos is best known for being home to flora and fauna rarely found in other parts of the world and for inspiring Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection. However, the Galápagos is also home to thousands of people, including youth. Despite growing research with people who live in the Galápagos, there is a dearth of research examining youths' experiences and needs growing up in the Galápagos. To address this gap, and informed by Critical Positive Youth Development, we used Photovoice with 20 youth (15–17 years old) in San Cristóbal to explore the question, “What do youth want the world to know about their needs growing up in the Galápagos?” Through photo-assignments and group discussion, participants identified needs and potential solutions related to recreation, education, and physical and mental health. The findings demonstrate youth engagement in critical reflection related to their social environments. Participants described pathways for contribution through advocacy, community action, and institutional engagement, illustrating the relevance of Critical Positive Youth Development for understanding youth experiences in the Galápagos.