Journal of Intellectual Disability - Diagnosis and Treatment

585-591

Authors: Kazuaki Maebara, Jun Yaeda

Background: There has been growing hope for initiatives supporting the transition of persons with disabilities from employment-related welfare services to employees in companies. This is against the backdrop of a significant increase in employment among persons with disabilities in Japan.Objective:To improve the quality of this transition, this study examined the relationship between the collaboration of the Work Support Centers for Continuous Employment Type B (WSC-B) with vocational rehabilitation organizations (VROs) and knowledge and skills related to employment support.Methods: A survey including all 122 WSC-B in L-Prefecture was conducted by postal mail. The respondents were asked to rate items on the following six levels concerning collaboration with VROs and understanding of VROs. We used the Japanese version of the Self-Assessment for Students or Counselors (SASC-J) to assess knowledge and skills related to work support.Results: The t-test conducted on knowledge and skills status between WSC-B with a high degree of cooperation with VROs and those with low degrees confirmed significant differences among the various subsystems in VROs.Conclusion: Based on our results, we suggest that maximizing the use of collaboration in work support will enhance the support provided by WSC-B and promote transition support for people with disabilities

601-614

Authors: Samuel Chukwudi Agunyai, Victor Ojakorotu

This study examines the effect of using children as begging guides by people with sensory disabilities in Africa. It argues that in some African countries, visually impaired persons, especially parents and relatives, have devised the strategy of abusing their children or someone very close to them as begging guides for financial gain. While this strategy has remained a recurrent problem with severe social, economic, political, and legal implications, scientific research on addressing these implications is scarce. Given this, the article examines the rationale for using children as begging guides, its effects on the children and visually impaired parents, and mitigation strategies against abuse of children as begging guides in Africa. The qualitative research design based on key informant interviews (KIIs) complemented social exclusion and childhood theoretical underpinnings of the study. Results from (KIIs) showed that poverty, religion, cultural beliefs, financial profiteering, poor governance, breakdown in policy implementation against begging are among the rationale why children are abused and used as begging guides. The results also showed that these children experience low academic performance in school, harassment, psychological trauma, health complications from laborious trekking. At the same time, their visually impaired parents suffer from regrets and guilt of not being able to provide good parental care to their children. It concludes that good rehabilitation, vocational programmes, and prompt government supports for people with sensory disabilities would lessen the abuse and use of children as begging guides in Africa.

628-640

Authors: Zinina Anna Yurievna, Gurieva Svetlana Dzakhotovna, Gogitsaeva Olga Uruzbekovna

The spread of gambling addiction is one of the serious problems of modern society. A person involved in gambling creates preconditions for inevitable failure. Effective rehabilitation involves the reconstruction of the personality and aims to return the addict to a healthy and socially valuable life. The value-semantic sphere serves as one of the factors of psychological adaptation and the purpose of psychological correction of game addicts. The present research aimed to study the peculiarities of the transformation of the value-semantic sphere of pathological players in the context of a rehabilitation program. The research involved 42 pathological players undergoing a rehabilitation program for 6 months. We used methods: "Diagnosis of Interpersonal Relationships" by Leary; "Personality Time Perspective Questionnaire" by Zimbardo; "Meaning-Life Orientations" Leontiev; Stolin's Self-Ratio Questionnaire; "Morphological test of life values" by Sopov and Karpushina and personal data questionnaire. As a result of the study, the connection between the participation in the rehabilitation program and the change of the relationship profile of the pathological players to a more independent one was found. Changes in the time perspective of positive future, an increase of meaningfulness of life, an increase of the level of self-esteem, and a decrease of self-blame were revealed. The change of value from material provision to self-development and acceptance of oneself in the context of rehabilitation was revealed. As a result of the research, it was established that in rehabilitation conditions, the transformation of the valuesemantic sphere of pathological players towards more adaptive is possible.

651-666

Authors: Oksana M. Shyian, Larysa F. Foster, Tatiana M. Kuzmenko, Larysa V. Yeremenko, Nina P. Liesnichenko

The article considers the socio-psychological criteria for the formation of gender stereotypes of appearance. The priority of the study is implementing a system of criteria for gender stereotypes of appearance, taking into account the system of socio-psychological factors and gender-oriented forms of prevention of overcoming sexism and discrimination on the grounds of personality attractiveness. It is substantiated that social evaluation through physical criteria creates several psychological problems because the "physical self" is an essential component of the "selfconcept" and one of the criteria of self-esteem. It is proved that the properties of gender stereotypes coincide with the social ones. They are the bearer of emotional and evaluative characteristics, taking into account the group of values associated with the ambivalence of ideas about another. A methodical approach to the assessment of gender stereotypes of appearance and personality is proposed, which allows determining the criteria of human well-being, taking into account discrimination factors, intrapersonal parameters of affective-negative perception of one's appearance and self-concept, as well as the aesthetic perception of identity. An assessment of socio-psychological factors of gender stereotypes of appearance, which is based on the methodological provisions of psychoanalysis and humanism, cognitive paradigm, dispositional theory, cross-cultural approach, and some sociological studies, is carried out. As an experiment on empirical verification of the stereotypes of appearance, their gender differences, and socio-psychological factors, a set of methods of psychological diagnosis is used, which allow determining indicators of stereotypes of appearance, selfesteem, and attitude to beauty; socio-psychological criteria for the formation of gender stereotypes of appearance. A methodology for assessing the criteria for improving the attitude of respondents to their own appearance by determining the level of self-esteem, satisfaction with appearance, awareness of gender differences in appearance, and the desire to improve their own appearance in case of discrimination has been developed and implemented.