Aim: The present study aims to investigate the effects of social capital components on childbearing tendencies with an emphasis on generational differences.

Method: The statistical population of this study is people aged 15 years and older in Babol city. Using Cochran’s formula, 383 people were selected as the sample population and a multi-stage cluster sampling method was used. The research method, survey, and data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed through face validity. The reliability of the items was obtained through Cronbach’s alpha of 0.8. Also, the theoretical framework of this study was a combination of theories of social capital and childbearing tendencies. 

Findings: The results of the Pearson test indicated a statistically significant correlation between some variables of social capital and childbearing tendencies. Furthermore, the results of generation regression analysis on some independent variables (trust, support, and real social network) and research dependent variables showed that 23.7% of the changes in these variables could be explained by generations. Also, the results of social capital regression analysis on childbearing tendencies revealed a relationship between the variables of social trust, social support, and real social network. Among these three variables, social support was found to be the strongest predictor variable with a beta coefficient of 0.387. The results of path analysis, like regression analysis, showed the effect of age, trust, support, and real social network variables on childbearing tendencies; in total, social support variable had the greatest overall effect on childbearing tendencies (0.492).

Social Work Practice as Intercultural Communication

In this essay I take a look at the theory of intercultural communication. I try to find inspirations for social work practice in the texts of the most important Polish scholars dealing with this topic. I point out that the application potential of research on intercultural communication goes beyond the field of cross-cultural education and aid activities for migrants and national minorities. Referring to Leszek Korporowicz, I consider intercultural space to go beyond the sphere of contacts between people of different national and ethnic identities. This approach allows me to look at the contact between the client and the social worker as a form of intercultural communication. 

The paper is overviewing ubiquitous digitalisation and its exertion into the educational sphere. Instant transfer into online mode of teaching during the COVID-19 lockdown raised the discussion on the effectiveness of such mode. The analysis of what are the factors that potentially can harm academic progress is done. However, the COVID-19 lockdown showed that criteria of effectiveness can be ignored as less important. That is why there is a need to analyse it and in the result implement the changes into online education that would allow it to resemble the in-class mode as much as possible. In the paper, an exemplary solution is proposed – the design of a language online course. The course is created using the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) method. So, it covers not only learning of language, but also of content, that is digital hygiene in this case. At the end of the paper expert evaluations of the course design are done. 

In permanently introducing this new section to our periodical, we wish to call the reader’s attention to a unique approach we are consciously taking. In a desire to identify impending foci in our field, we have invited the youngest of our colleagues – MA and PhD candidates in social work – to act as our reviewers. Furthermore, considering the vast multitude of scholarly articles published annually, we have asked our students to primarily focus on this segment which is more likely to reflect the most recent findings. That said, we have not set a strict date range in the hope that our reviewers will freely discover or recover studies which might have been overlooked heretofore.

H. Robinson, B. MacDonald, E. Broadbent (2014). The Role of Healthcare Robots for Older People at Home: A Review. “International Journal of Social Robotics”, 6: 575–591.
Reviewed by Karina Melnyk

J.H. Jönsson (2019). Servants of a ‘Sinking Titanic’ or Actors of Change? Contested Identities of Social Workers in Sweden. “European Journal of Social Work”, 22: 2: 212–224.
Reviewed by Stefan Strobl

M. Newcomb, J. Burton, N. Edwards, Z. Hazelwood (2015). How Jung’s Concept of the Wounded Healer Can Guide Learning and Teaching in Social Work and Human Services. “Advances in Social Work & Welfare Education”, 2 (17): 55–69.
Reviewed by Anna Szargiej