Social Development & Welfare Planning

Abstract The need to security is among the primary needs that man experiences in his life. Some scholars consider it as one of the underlying factors in formation of human societies. This need is of both objective and subjective dimensions. The objective dimension lies in the real conditions of society, and the subjective one is, in fact, the interpretation of the objective conditions that people make in their minds. The present research aims to study the subjective dimension of social security, i.e. social security feeling among Afghan migrants residing in Tehran, as well as its relationship with their social capital.
This was an explanatory study and the statistical population included all Afghan migrants residing in the city of Tehran (i.e. around 67,000 people). Based on Cochran's sample size formula and using cluster as well as snowballing sampling methods, 399 subjects were selected. A researcher-made questionnaire, validity and reliability of which was confirmed, was used to measure the social security feeling and social capital. The results showed that the respondents had an average-level of social security feeling and social capital. Moreover, there was a significant positive relationship between the extent of Afghan migrants’ social security feeling and their status of social capital. The results also indicated that social trust and norms of cooperation, as two aspects of social capital, had a significant relationship with social security feeling, confirmingtheories of Putnam and Cox.
 

Abstract Today, creating work-life balance is among the most important concerns of employees of organizations. In other words, the most successful employees are those who can manage to create a balance between their work and life. Development of flexible plans in organizations is an instrument in doing so. Hospitals are among the organizations in which executing flexible plans among employees (i.e. nurses) is more justified. The statistical population of the present research included all the nurses working at the hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Using multi-stage cluster sampling method, 220 subjects were selected. The content validity of the research was confirmed by a panel of experts as well as using conformity factor analysis. The reliability of the research instrument was also tested and approved using Cronbach's coefficient alpha. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS and Lisrel software. The results of the structural equation model showed that work-life balance had a significant effect on job attitude (i.e. job satisfaction, job attachment, and tendencytowards job relinquishment). At the end, the applied implications of the study are discussed.
 

Abstract Thepresent research aims to study the social health rate and the social factors effective on it among women heading households in Qurveh city, Kurdistan province. The theoretical framework of the studyconsists of the Keyes’s social health approach, Weber's theory of socio-economic status, Stark and Gluck model of religious beliefs, and Vatzik’s model of communication skills.The statistical population included all women heading households in Qurveh city who were under coverage of State Welfare Organization (n=92). Also, 92 housewives residing in the same city were randomly selected to be surveyed as the comparison. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between women heading households and housewives, in terms of the social health rate and its different aspects (including five aspects). Moreover,no significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of socio-economic variables, religious beliefs, and communication skills.
 

Abstract The present paper aims to study the status of job satisfaction among the NIGC employees as well as the role of social capital in explaining the satisfaction. The study was a survey research and the data was collected using a questionnaire. The statistical population included all the employees of the NIGC Tehran headquarter (=1000 people), out of which, 290 employees were selected as sample. The independent variable of the study was social capital and the dependent variable was job satisfaction. The results were indicative of a significant relationship between the two variables. Moreover, the most important variables explaining the employees’ status of job satisfaction included participation in organizational decision-makings, prevailing norms, employees’ trust, and working background.
 

Abstract Many scholars are on the belief that ethnicity, ethnocentrism, and nationalism are sensitive issues of countries. As a result of the growth of information capacities of the modern world in the last few decades, ethnic tensions have been increased and created new issues. Taking a content analysis approach, the present research aims to study the issue of ethnic identity-seeking in cyberspace. The statistical population included all the contents of the 29 websites active in the ethnic (i.e. Turk/Azeri) identity-seeking affairsin May, 2012. In this paper, the concept of ‘ethnic identity-seeking’ is studied on a scale from ethnocentrism, being the lowest grade, and ethnic cleansing, being the highest grade. The results showed that the majority of ethnic materials in cyberspace were related to ethnocentrism (54%). These materials are written with purpose of promoting thoughts such as enmity of Persians and Turks, colonization of Turks by the Persian government, and historical as well as geographical distortion of Azerbaijan. Separatist nationalism, beingmore radical than ethnocentrism, focuses on the necessity of separating from Iran land and the independence of Turkish regions of Iran.
The majority of the materials related to ethnic identity-seeking are generated by the ‘ArazNews’, ‘Qirmiz’, and ‘Gunaz.TV’ websites. What is most blamed by these media includes the government of the Islamic Republic as well as some Turk activists.
 

Abstract The concept of lifestyle, as a means of explaining the people’s way of living as well as cultural and behavioral patterns of society, is considered as one of the fundamental notions in human sciences, especially psychology and social sciences. On the other hand, religiousness is regarded as a set of cognitions, beliefs, moralities, and religious rules, commitment to which gives people life, discipline, prosperity, and integrity. It is defined by the scholars as a very strong factor in determining the type of lifestyle. On this basis, the present research aims to study the relationship between religiousness and lifestyle. The main objective of the study, in fact, is to explain the way the two variables of religiousness and lifestyle interact in the statistical population of the research.
This was a survey study, and the data was collected using a questionnaire-interview technique. Validity and reliability of the main research scales, i.e. religiousness and lifestyle, were confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The statistical population included all the residents of Kashan city in the first half of the year 2011. Based onCochran's sample size formula and using Quota sampling method, 640 subjects were selected. The results were indicative of a significant relationship between the extent of religiousness and all aspects of lifestyle among the respondents. The results of Spearman’s correlation coefficient also showed that there was a significant relationship of 99% confidence between the two variables (r_s=0.312). Moreover, the results of the stepwise step-wise regression analysis indicated that the aspects of belief and religious awareness affected the residents’ lifestyle by 29% and 28% respectively.

Abstract The present research aims to investigate the relationship between the family social capital rate and the entrepreneurial characteristics of the people participating in short-term entrepreneurship training courses in different districts of Tehran in 2010. Based on Cochran's sample size formula and using simple random sampling method, 201 subjects were selected from among 2010 people. This was a survey study, and the data was collected using a questionnaireconsisting of standard items about the research dependent variableas well as some standardized researcher-made items on the variable offamilysocial capital along with otherindependentvariables.
The entrepreneurial dimensions in people’s personality which were focused in this research included moderate risk taking, control center, the need to success, intellectual health, practicality, ambiguity tolerance, day-dreaming, and challenge seeking. The results indicated that family social capital had a significant positive relationship with the research dependent variable, i.e. entrepreneur personality. There was also a significant positive relationship between this variable and seven out of eight entrepreneurial dimensions in the personality of children. However, it showed no significant relationship with practicality rate in the personality of children.