Bio-Psycho-Social Complaints and Stress in Social Work Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Shortly after the WHO declared the Corona outbreak a pandemic on March 12, 2020, universities around the world closed and teaching switched almost entirely to an online format, creating additional challenges and requiring students to quickly adjust their study habits. These changes and the uncertainty of when universities would reopen created additional potential sources of stress. The aim of this study is to investigate the bio-psycho-social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among social work students at a faculty of applied social sciences in Germany in a multidimensional manner. Our central research question was therefore: how do students experience study-related stressors after the outbreak of the pandemic and what are the effects on physical and mental health? We analyzed data from 618 students (age: 28.73, SD = 8.20 years;gender: 84.4 % female, 13.1 % male, 2.1 % inter/diverse). The data collection was conducted through an online survey from 08/03/2020 to 11/01/2020. The results showed a significant increase in psychological complaints as well as social, economic and study-related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. These correlated significantly, as expected, with psychological discomfort due to reduction in social contact (r = .647, p < .001), with somatic discomfort (r = .597, p < .001), area-specific concerns (r = .520, p < .001, living alone (r = .244, p < .001), and with fear of infection (r = .164, p < .001). In contrast, the number of semesters studied (r = .0119, p < .695) and the question about receiving a student loan (r = -.078, p < .107) were not significant. The reduction of social contacts shows multiple effects on different levels, in the area of emotions, cognitions and behavior. In order to reduce students' stress levels and strengthen coping resources, issues of self-efficacy, sense of coherence, and improvement of study conditions are discussed. © 2022 Duncker und Humblot GmbH. All rights reserved.

Examining the Experience of Women in Justice-Involved Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Impact of Familial Incarceration

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social inequities have compounded hardships among justice-involved families, who are more likely to be marginalized by systemic disadvantage. Little is known about the experience of the pandemic for justice-involved families, particularly those with an incarcerated family member. We examined the concerns and resource barriers of women in justice-involved families, including the unique challenges faced by those with a currently incarcerated family member. Results revealed bimodal concern for, and impact of the pandemic on, their incarcerated family member;however, economic concerns largely superseded concern for their incarcerated family members. Additional analyses highlighted the financial precarity of families with an incarcerated family member, who reported more housing instability, less access to transportation, greater food insecurity, and more discrimination. These findings highlight the need to support marginalized families during a national crisis;justice-involved families are more likely to face systemic barriers that may be exacerbated by the pandemic.

Concerns about COVID-19 among undocumented women in justice-involved families

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated chronic disparities in income, employment and health-care access. Yet, little is known about how various sources of economic and emotional strain (i.e. caregiving, justice system involvement and documentation status) intersect during the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to understand how undocumented women in justice-involved families experienced the pandemic. Design/methodology/approachSurveys of 221 mothers of justice-involved youth examined differences between documented and undocumented parents in COVID-19 testing, health and economic concerns related to the pandemic and generalized anxiety. FindingsThe results revealed undocumented women were less likely to receive COVID-19 testing than documented women, despite no difference between the two groups in suspicion that they may have contracted the virus. Also, undocumented women were more concerned than documented women about losing a job, not having enough food, not having enough non-food supplies, not having access to basic utilities or internet, losing their usual childcare services and losing a loved one to COVID-19. Originality/valueThe findings highlight the vulnerability of justice-involved families who have an undocumented member and implications for long-term solutions to address these disparities are discussed.

Rapid Reconfiguration of Supply Chains with Simulation as a Support to Public–Private Partnerships during Pandemics

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many medical device manufacturers faced a significant and unexpected increase in demand. To handle this sudden spike in demand, a ramp-up of production and inbound material flow had to be organized. At the same time, the pandemic caused issues in the supply of materials for their medical products. Due to disruptions in global transportation, local unavailability of parts, and the urgency of the demand, companies established public–private partnerships to allow the organization of sufficient part supply for the production of medical products. In order to engage in the public–private partnership and to specify the necessary support, it is required to identify bottlenecks within the supply chain and options to address them. One of the methods commonly used to specify bottlenecks in a dynamic environment is event discrete simulation. To support the sudden simulation requirement by companies, a generalized simulation model is set up as a service to support, in particular, small and medium enterprises. The service allows to identify part bottlenecks and evaluate options in a rapid mode. The resulting service enables companies to address supply chain bottlenecks to ensure a fast ramp-up of production. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

An attention-based view of supply disruption risk management: balancing biased attentional processing for improved resilience in the COVID-19 context

Purpose In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigates a variety of approaches to supply disruption risk management for achieving effective responses for resilience at the supply management subunit level (e.g. category of items). Drawing on the attention-based view of the firm, the authors model the attentional antecedents of supply resilience as (1) attentional perspectives and (2) attentional selection. Attentional perspectives focus on either supply risk sources or supply network recoverability, and both are hypothesised to have a direct positive association with supply resilience. Attentional selection is top down or bottom up when it comes to disruption detection, and these are hypothesised to moderate the association between disruption risk management perspectives and resilience. Design/methodology/approach Conducted at the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study employs a hierarchical regression analysis on a multicountry survey of 190 procurement professionals, each responding from the perspective of their own subunit area of supply responsibility. Findings Both attentional disruption risk management perspectives are needed to achieve supply resilience, and neither is superior in terms of achieving supply resilience. Both the efficiency of the top down and exposure to the unexpected with the bottom up are needed - to a balanced degree - for improved supply resilience. Practical implications The results encourage firms to purposefully develop their supply risk management practices, first, to include both perspectives and, second, to avoid biases in attentional selection for disruption detection. Ensuring a more balanced approach may allow firms to improve their supply resilience. Originality/value The results contribute to the understanding of the microfoundations that underpin firms' operational capabilities for supply risk and disruption management and possible attentional biases.

Blockchain-Enabled Trust in Intercompany Networks Applying the Agency Theory

Globalization, digitalization and disruptions recently driven by the Covid19 pandemic are affecting today's supply chains and thus are challenging companies in maintaining their businesses. Resulting uncertainties lead to potential over- and undercapacities and therefore to economic inefficiencies in companies. Engaging in intercompany networks can be a way to circumvent inefficiencies by sharing resources via electronic markets. Here, negotiation mechanisms can be used to allocate the exchanged goods tailored to the needs and payment conditions of the network participants. Ensuring trust and enabling cooperation between the participants in such a virtual ecosystem is a major challenge and essential for raising its potentials. Lacks of trust within the single transaction phases impede the negotiation process and in worst case the maintaining of the network. For this reason, Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and their inherent consensus-building functionalities as well as abilities to utilize smart contracts deserve closer investigation. The aim of this paper is to provide a literature review of DLT functionalities coping with behavioral uncertainties, with a closer view on the context of supply chain. The paper examines, to what extend the integration of DLT provides a beneficial contribution to solving trust problems occurring in intercompany negotiations. © 2021 Owner/Author.