/library/oar/handle/123456789/97862 2025-12-25T07:08:01Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/101841 Title: Connecting children with their family of origin : a study of contact arrangements for fostered children in Malta Abstract: Maintaining links with the family of origin is significant to children's welfare. This thesis studies contact arrangements between children in foster care and their family of origin. Contact with birth parents, siblings and the extended family is explored. A survey of social work case files is carried out. The survey of 136 fostered children reports that children live in long term care. Same sibling placement is uncommon. Children are most frequently in contact with siblings, followed by contact with the mother. Contact with the father is associated negatively with educational attainment, whilst contact with the mother is associated with emotional/behavioural concerns. As a result of the survey's findings, this thesis develops an intensive study of contact. Twenty two children residing in foster care and their 21 foster carers are interviewed. Pictorial vignettes and visual spatial techniques are administered to children. Through these techniques children's views, experiences and wishes of contact are reported. A questionnaire and an interview are also administered to foster carers. Children view contact favourably with siblings and the extended family. Negative emotions are found when contact with parents is discussed. Most children have face-to face contact with siblings. They also wish to have more contact with siblings. Contact with the extended family such as grandparents is non threatening. Foster carers hold ambivalent views about contact. Whilst promoting contact, they show reluctance towards children's contact with parents and the extended family. The study reports that both children and foster carers are involved, by practitioners, in contact issues. Moreover, contact is identified as significant to children's identity development. A practice model of contact is discussed in the conclusion of this thesis. Description: PH.D. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/101541 Title: The specification and estimation of a model for the Maltese aggregate labour market Abstract: In this thesis an aggregate labour market model is formulated and its parameters are estimated using Maltese annual time-series data, covering the years 1954-1979. Many empirical studies on labour markets do not make adequate allowance for the possibility of disequilibrium, and some contain the assumption, explicit or otherwise, that the wage rate continually cleared the market. This present work does not impose this constraint, and the labour market model specified in such a way as to enable the researcher to judge whether or not the assumption of equilibrium is valid. The study opens with some background information about the Maltese economy, since the interrelationships to be investigated occur within this setting. This is followed by two chapters dedicated to a discussion on the specification of the labour demand and labour supply relations. In the chapter that follows, it is argued that the labour demand and labour supply equations cannot be estimated in isolation from each other because of the possible simultaneous determination of labour supply and demand and of wage rates, and that since disequilibrium is a distinct possibility, specific allowance should be made for it. The labour market model proposed in this study turns out to be a simultaneous system of equations, which apart from the labour supply and demand equations, contains a wage adjustment equation, and an equation explaining the observed quantity of labour in relation to labour supply and demand. The results obtained from the estimation of the model suggest that the labour market in Malta was not characterised by equilibrium during the period of our study. As expected, it was found that the balance between labour demand and labour supply is influenced by real output, the working age population, real wage rates and by short run factors such as partial adjustment of labour demand to its desired level, and labour supply response to cyclical fluctuations. Another important conclusion that emerges from our study is that real wage rate changes are influenced by the balance between labour demand and labour supply, and also by non-competitive forces, in particular Union pushfulness. An implication drawn from these results is that some form of trade off may have to be sought to achieve acceptable rates of real wage increases and of involuntary unemployment. Description: PH.D.SOCIAL WELLBEING STUD. 1982-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/101013 Title: An evaluation of housing patterns and policies in Malta Abstract: The thesis shows that the housing sector in Malta is suffering from traits of excess; it was found to be over- and under- priced; over and under-populated; over-productive and, at times, wrongly located and badly distributed. The rental stock is old and substandard while owner-occupation has grown rapidly and has become very expensive. The sector has no housing associations and no non-government organisations and there is little consideration given to the special housing needs by particular users. The State is the sole provider of affordable housing while the private sector considers housing to be one of the most profitable and safest forms of investment. This thesis provides an introduction to the scope of housing, purpose and objective of policy and the motivation of householders. It expounds the European scenario within which it is written, analysis the sources of information that have been tapped during its compilation and introduces a zonation of the country. The thesis argues that housing in Malta is an endemic problem. Having put Malta's housing patterns and policies within their geographical perspective, it proposes a model for housing policies, introduces the stake holders in the housing sector and traces the pattern of development of housing policies since the early 16th century. Mainly, it focuses upon the evolution of housing policies since the late 1940s and examines the major issues that have emanated from them. A housing quality survey is An evaluation of housing patterns and policies in Malta Abstract analysed, and factors that influence the price of housing in Malta are identified and evaluated. Finally, the thesis expresses concern with housing rent policies in Malta and, in justification, includes references to rent policies in Western Europe. The thesis ends with a summary of the key findings; a comparison of the housing patterns and policies in Malta with those of other European countries; and a discussion of proposals to improve housing policies in Malta. Description: PH.D. 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/100186 Title: Becoming a nurse : a process of learning Abstract: This thesis is about the process whereby a student becomes a nurse. This occurs at a professional level and a subjective level. The professional process is determined by others through which the individual learns the knowledge, skills, language, attitudes, values and behaviours. It occurs through a process of socialisation which commences as formal education and continues once the individual engages in practice. The subjective level is an internal process in which each individual sheds the student identity and embodies a new nurse identity. Initially, newly qualified nurses are thrown into disarray highlighting a disjuncture between what is known and what is not known, demonstrated through an inability to perfonn independently in practice. This process results in a disjuncture between the subjective (the lifeworld) and objective (out-there-world). It is at this point that individuals actively learn in an attempt to seek harmony between the two worlds. Through a variety of experiences and repeated routines, they deyelop the ability to perform, become significant team members and in so doing, acquire a new identity. Although both the professional and subjective processes are necessary for an identity to truly be embodied within the person, this thesis focuses upon the subjective process in the change of identity. The acquisition of the identity is traced through five separate interviews held over a twenty-two month period: initially at the end of the fonnal education programme, followed by interviews at three, six, twelve and eighteen months of practice. The findings of this study show that as individuals acquire a new identity, the ability to practise autonomously is influenced by varying degrees of personal and professional confidence. Yet this is complicated by the fluidity of the every changing world (both subjective and professional) which precipitates individuals into a constant state of flux. Therefore in attempting to be a nurse, they are forever in a process of becoming the nurse. Hence an identity is constantly being reinvented. Description: PhD 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z