Social Sciences

This study investigated the feelings of loneliness felt by older adults in Keelung City as well as the relationship between demographic variables, voluntary service participation, social support, and the feelings of loneliness felt by older adults. This study looked at the predictive ability of demographic variables, voluntary service participation, and social support in predicting levels of loneliness. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on a population consisting of older adults aged 65 and above. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a valid sample of 364 people. Tools used include the UCLA Loneliness Scale and a structured questionnaire (prepared by the author) which factored in demographic variables, voluntary service participation, and social support. Statistical analysis of the data obtained was carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version). Significant differences were found for education level and self-perceived health status. Respondents who graduated from high school or above felt lower levels of loneliness compared to respondents who were illiterate or had only graduated from elementary school; respondents who perceived themselves as having poor health felt greater levels of loneliness compared to normal or healthy respondents. Voluntary service participation and social support were found to be significantly and negatively correlated to the level of loneliness, indicating that respondents felt lower levels of loneliness when they had stronger intentions of participating in voluntary service or received stronger levels of emotional and social support. Together, voluntary service participation, social support, education level, and self-perceived health status explained 36.4% of the variance in loneliness levels. Of these factors, voluntary service participation was the main predictor of loneliness, followed by social support.

Like in other developing nations, the hill rural- Terrie urban migration is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon mainly as a direct response to environmental degradation and rural poverty. In this regard, some socio-economic and demographic correlates play a pivotal role in the out-migration of masses from villages. A total of 200 households were survey to know the trend and major Pull and Push factors of community in the region. Under modernized perspectives, the drastic depletion in agriculture land and simultaneously the number of settlement sand population increases in the immigrant village. Thus raising the lower middle and middle class economy much pronounced, to fast out migration from rural hill to foot hill villages of Uttrakhand. The study has estimate the reason of the rural migration from hill area to terrain area of Uttrakhand after separation from Uttrapradesh. The results and people perceptions stated that high migration occurs for quality and sustaining social and economic services in the area. Thus the State and Central Government policy makers, planners and executive agencies has need of mitigate the serious problems and run a parallel programs for development of remote rural area of hill by community appraisals and Public Private Partnership.

This research examines the influence of motivation towards academic achievement among gifted students in Saudi Arabia. The discussion in the study is base on the theoretical framework of the emotional intelligence Theory Goleman’s (1995), the Mayer and Salovey Model (1995) and achievement motivation Theory. These theories are appropriate for the study because they allow the reader to understand how academic achievement is significantly influenced by motivation among gifted students in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this study was to see whether any significant relationship exists among EFL learners’ self-esteem, autonomy, and reading comprehension; and whether there is any significant difference between EFL learners’ self-esteem and autonomy in predicting their reading comprehension skill. For this purpose, 121 EFL participants who were studying English Language Literature and Translation at Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch, were randomly selected. The researcher tested different ranges of students with different levels of proficiency. The Coopersmith self-esteem inventory, autonomy questionnaire and reading comprehension section of Preliminary English Test (PET) were administered. Correlation and regression analysis demonstrated that there is a significant relationship among EFL learners’ self-esteem, autonomy, and reading comprehension. There is also a significant difference between EFL learners’ self-esteem and autonomy in predicting their reading comprehension.

Student violence has been a problem in the Kenyan educational system for a long time now. The first case of student unrest in Kenya was reported at Maseno School at the beginning of the 20th century (1908). To date, the situation is still unabated. The trend is rather alarming and the magnitude of violent acts by students is high and worrying. The paper therefore using a random sample of 251 students who were selected from five purposively chosen secondary schools in Njoro division were interviewed using a standardized research questionnaire. The students were selected using a combination of stratified random sampling and the systematic sampling techniques, which are probability sampling procedures. The data collected was analysed using both the descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found out that three factors related to the school social environment determined the students’ participation in violence in secondary schools as discussed in this paper. The paper recommends that there should be a better understanding of the school social environment factors as aggravators of student violence in secondary schools.

Community based tourism is taking its place in the world as an alternative to traditional tourist destinations, especially in developing countries. This form of tourism allows for greater contact with the local community and for the tourist to experience new sensations while enabling the economic and social development of the geographic area. In this paper, the results of fieldwork carried out in the Latpanchar Village (Darjeeling District of West Bengal, India) is presented, assessing the opinion and perception tourists visiting this area have of both the quality of the services offered by community based tourism enterprises, as well as the potential of the tourism resources in the area. The main results of the investigation endorse the quality of services offered to tourists by local businesses and highlight the hospitality of the local community, a key element for the development of this kind of tourism, particularly in different villages of this district. Similarly, it highlights the tourist satisfaction with services received and the need to strengthen the training to tourism staff through aid. The originality of this research comes from analysis of the demand made on a concrete base for Latpanchar, a village which is producing a huge economic development through the community based tourism approach.

The main thrust of the paper could be brought down to the thesis that the concept of middle class is an oxymoron. This is the case because there is a contradiction between the associations pertaining to the adjective part of the term in question and those pertinent to its noun part. "The middle" is a hierarchical term, which fits social stratification rather than class, as class relations generally have a more complex character. The said confusion matters because of some important weaknesses of stratification approaches.

Pluralism in health care practices needs the pragmatism to have strong roots in the cultural practices. Any community which has to have continuous confrontation with nature develops methods which are not disturbing the balance which is naturally established and existing. Further these communities opt for the methods which are easy to follow and easy to practice. Migrating communities have more opportunities to face different kinds of environment and certainly develop more methods to face the disturbances in health conditions. Lambani community is one such community with history of migrating life style. Lambani community is characterizd by the socio-cultural practices which are connected to nature, especially to forest and products of forests. Being a community with long history of nomadic life styles, is having greater chances to accommodate various health practices found in other communities while dealing with them during their migratory course of community development. Further, unique language and life style of this community prevented whatever information gathered in community to remain within the community for long time. Thus this community got more chances to collect knowledge them sharing health care practices which involve utilization of forest products are more easier to follow and practice few of these practices existed even today the community to maintain health under certain conditions. Information about their health care practices passes from generation to generation. However, certain resource persons who adopt the life style to serve community with their health care knowledge are also present in this community. These persons though some time collect nominal reward for having rendered their service as knowledge resource of the community. A study of these practices and those of knowledge resource persons have been made in Davanagere District of Karnataka state, India. Role of knowledge of health care practices and resource persons in community has been discussed. Pressure of modernization on these practices and reaction of the community have been observed and recorded for the discussion.

Education through educational institutions is at the center of the evolution of societies because it contributes to the development process of a country. It has been the subject of many international consultations, including the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) in Thailand in 1990 and the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, etc. This effectively explains why education is one of the indicators of human development.

Co-curricular activities are seen as the best medium to develop leadership skills which can be learned, trained and upgraded from time to time through the extensive involvement of students in co-curricular activities Through involvement in various activities, leadership skills can be applied and trained in the students whether realized or not. This article is about student involvement, co-curricular activities and leadership skills. The result of the study is from analysis of data from reading material like journals of previous researches and books.