Family time, parental behaviour model and the initiation of smoking and alcohol use by ten-year-old children: an epidemiological study in Kaunas, Lithuania

BACKGROUND: Family is considered to be the first and the most important child development and socialization bond. Nevertheless, parental behaviour model importance for the children, as well as family time for shared activity amount influence upon the child's health-related behaviour habit development has not been yet thoroughly examined. The aim of this paper is to indicate the advanced health-hazardous behaviour modelling possibilities in the families, as well as time spent for joint family activities, and to examine the importance of time spent for joint family activities for the smoking and alcohol use habit initiation among children. METHODS: This research was carried out in Kaunas, Lithuania, during the school year 2004–2005. The research population consisted of 369 fifth-grade schoolchildren (211 (57.2%) boys and 158 (42.8%) girls) and 565 parents: 323 (57.2%) mothers and 242 (48.2%) fathers. The response rate was 80.7% for children; 96.1% and 90.6% for mothers and fathers correspondingly. RESULTS: Eating a meal together was the most frequent joint family activity, whereas visiting friends or relatives together, going for a walk, or playing sports were the most infrequent joint family activities. More than two thirds (81.5%) of parents (248 (77.0%) mothers and 207 (85.9%) fathers (p < 0.05)) reported frequenting alcohol furnished parties at least once a month. About half of the surveyed fathers (50.6%) together with one fifth of the mothers (19.9%) (p < 0.001) were smokers. More frequently than girls, boys reported having tried smoking (6.6% and 23.0% respectively; p < 0.001) as well as alcohol (31.16% and 40.1% respectively; p < 0.05). Child alcohol use was associated both with paternal alcohol use, and with the time, spent in joint family activities. For instance, boys were more prone to try alcohol, if their fathers frequented alcohol furnished parties, whereas girls were more prone to try alcohol, if family members spent less time together. CONCLUSION: Joint family activity time deficit together with frequent parental examples of smoking and alcohol use underlie the development of alcohol and smoking addictions in children to some extent. The above-mentioned issues are suggested to be widely addressed in the comprehensive family health education programs

Lithuanian higher education: between path dependence and change

Over the past century, Lithuanian higher education has experienced a steady horizontal differentiation. It started with a moderate differentiation in the Soviet times and intensified after 1990 when two regional universities and new specialized universities were created, many universities opened new programmes, and Vytautas Magnus University was re-established. Horizontal differentiation was especially fostered by the Law on Higher Education and Science in 2000, as it created a binary higher education system and allowed the establishment of private universities and institutions of a non-university type. This development opened the door to a number of small private and public colleges which strongly focused on management, business and law - the subjects which were in high demand at that time. These subjects were also taught at different universities, with new management and social sciences programmes being introduced at all universities, even though they could be, for instance, specialized in sports or agriculture. This blossoming of programmes and rapid system expansion catered for the ever increasing number of students, when up to 70% of high school graduate cohorts were going to obtain higher education. Issues of quality as well as funding through tuition fees were often the topic of policy debates. The state used quality assurance instruments of programme accreditation as well as institutional evaluations to "tame" the expansion of programmes and to ensure minimum quality. As the demographic reality started to change and student numbers started to drop (with the prognosis of 40% drop until 2020) the vertical differentiation started to increase even further. Some institutions in Lithuania have changed their names quite a few times, sometimes to ensure that the same rector will be in office for a longer period of time than usual (e.g. Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, Mykolas Romeris University). At the same time, renaming institutions has served the symbolic purpose of "relabelling" into a new profile, which may reflect institutions’ intentions to "abandon" earlier legacies and specializations (in the case of Mykolas Romeris - former police school, and then law and social sciences orientation) and to signal that the profile of the institution has become broader. The Lithuanian higher education system was vertically differentiated from the outset - with one main classical comprehensive university catering for the needs of the nation. This trend has been maintained after 1990. However, the stratification of the institutions has increased due to the creation of the binary system, as well as the appearance of private higher education institutions. The prestige of public traditional universities and technological universities has remained the same, with Vilnius University still being the top university in terms of research output and student numbers. The specialized public institutions are stratified into two main categories. The well-established and prestigious specialized Arts and Music Academies and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences recruit students on a national basis and have good reputation both nationally and internationally. At the same time, regional universities as well as some private higher education institutions and public colleges serve regional needs. They enjoy moderate prestige and have certain research strengths, but their main focus is on teaching and contribution to regional economy and knowledge transfer. Recent national rankings, a variety of international rankings of study programmes and the attempt of the Ministry of Education and Science to evaluate research quality at Lithuanian universities in 2014-2015 show that the government is keen to identify "winners and losers" in the system. Further, the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education with its programme and institutional accreditations has indirectly sustained the system’s vertical differentiation. However, it is not that easy to establish a thoroughly stratified system in Lithuania as there are many lobby forces and a strong tradition of higher education funding on historical basis, which is not easy to uproot. The main developments towards performance-based funding and especially the availability of science funding via Lithuanian Research Council for basic research using EU Structural Funds seem to be one of the main instruments to boost the prestige of researchers and research groups from Lithuanian universities. Teaching and research at universities have been "reconnected" in stronger ways due to external research funding. In this respect, the role of the Lithuanian Research Council as well as EU funding in the stratification of the system should not be neglected. [...

PAAUGLIŲ POTYRIAI TĖVAMS IŠVYKUS Į UŽSIENĮ

Padidėjusi lietuvių emigracija turėjo nemažos įtakos demografiniams, ekonominiams bei socialiniams procesams. Emigracija daugiausia įtakos daro šeimoms ir vaikams. Emigrantai dažnai siekdami ekonominės naudos nepaiso socialinių emigracijos pasekmių šeimai. Nereti atvejai, kai išvyksta vienas ar abu tėvai, vaikus ilgam palikdami giminaičių ar net svetimų žmonių globai, o kartais ir visai be globos. Tėvams išvykus, daugelis vaikų susiduria su mokymosi problemomis, trečdaliui pablogėjo mokymosi rezultatai; tyrimo dalyviai nurodo, kad ketvirtadalis vaikų pradėjo praleidinėti pamokas. Visgi aktualiausia problema tampa pasikeitęs vaiko elgesys ir su juo susiję padariniai. Taip pat nustatyta, jog iš socialinio darbuotojo veiklų šeimoms, globojančioms emigravusių tėvų vaikus, mažiau svarbi socialinio darbuotojo organizacinė veikla, rengiant mokymus globėjams, bei daugiau nei trečdalis šeimų, globojančios emigravusių tėvų vaikus, nepageidauja socialinio darbuotojo tarpininkavimo, padedant nustatyti psichologo konsultacijų poreikį vaikui.Background: The Increased Lithuanian emigration had a significant impact on the demographic,economic and social processes. Families and children are largely influenced by the emigration factor. Seeking economic benefits, emigrants often ignore social effects of emigration on their family. It is often the case that parents,who are about to emigrate either singly or together, leave their children behind for an indefinite time to relatives or even to stranger care. Aim: To determine the experience and psychological well-beeing of adolescens after parental emigration. Method: Quantitative study, anonymous questionnaire. Research results and conclusion: After parents‘ emigration, many children face learning problems, one-third of the children get lowergrades at school. The respondents of the study designate that a quarter of the children begin playing truant. However, the most relevant problem is a change in child’s behavior and other related issues. One-third of the respondents indicate that a child becomes more reserved and a quarter of children have displayed signs of aggression. Half of the respondents specified that usually family members help the guardians to deal with the arising problems when taking care of the left behind children and only a quarter of guardians turn for help to the social pedagogue. The findings of the research demonstrate that from all the activities of a social worker, educational activity is needed the most. Educational activity involves providing information on the institutions which organize social assistance for the families, who take up the children of the emigrants. A quarter of keepers would prefer social worker’s representation inhelpingto protecta child‘sinterests in variousinstitutions and more tha none-third would favor prevention activities which would help to assess child‘s problems and find a solution to fix them. It was also revealed that from a social worker’s activities to families, fostering children of the emigrated parents, of less importance is asocial worker‘s organizational performance through training guardiansand more than one-third of families, caring forchildrenwhose parents have emigrated, do not wish a social worker to mediate in helping to determine a child‘s need for psychological consultation

Internationalisation of higher education and nation building: resolving language policy dilemmas in Lithuania

Our paper discusses trends and challenges faced by Lithuanian Higher Education (HE) internationalisation policy processes in the context of European and global internationalisation tendencies. Using 2001-2011 EU mobility statistics and data from recent HE Lithuanian strategic programmes aimed at promoting the internationalisation of university education (for 2009-2010 and 2011-2012), we discuss implications of these developments for the country's language (education) policy and its practical implementation. The officially practiced policy approach that aims to strengthen the national language and culture (as is visible throughout the post-Soviet space) faces challenges with the development of societal multilingualism. This contrasts with Western policy practices, where common/mutual rationales and approaches seek to support multilingualism and multiculturalism. In the Baltic region, protectionist national political instruments have had to address dilemmas that have arisen in connection with Western-mediated HE internationalisation processes. This has led to the deployment of different internationalisation policy rationales that promote global and regional cooperation. New approaches focused on linking Baltic language studies centres with departments of Baltistics and Indo-European studies have worked to establish stronger bonds with structures at foreign universities. As a consequence common interests in the study, research, development and promotion of the languages in the Baltic are now more widely shared, both regionally and internationally.</p