Successful functioning of an organization, especially agricultural one, implies the necessity for a properly organized system of employee health and safety. The system will function properly only when employees perceive organizational safety processes and procedures as a part of their behavior at work. The purpose of this study with reference to scientific literature and empirical research to determine the main factors that predict higher safety climate in organization. 961 employees from a large Lithuanian company of agricultural industry participated in the survey. The study was conducted using Sexton’s Safety Climate Questionnaire and two scales from Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. The analysis of data via Structural Equation Modeling confirmed the theoretical model of psychosocial safety climate antecedents. The findings of the study showed that employee trust in management had higher predictive value as compared to workplace commitment, and that the leader’s role in promoting safety in an organization is more important than employee attitudes or declared safety-related orders and procedures in the organization.

Life satisfaction has been a major goal of both the individual and society since ancient times. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about which personal characteristics can affect our satisfaction with life. It may be assumed that higher levels of education, being related to better health, may also be a factor increasing one’s cognitive element of well-being i.e., life satisfaction. It is also known that satisfaction with one’s life is also related to positive attitudes towards other people. Nevertheless, it is not clear whether education is directly related to satisfaction with life or via certain attitudes. The purpose of the study is to analyze links between the length of education and satisfaction with life with regard to positive attitudes toward others using a representative sample. Methods and data. Expert-generated single-item questions were used to measure the level of satisfaction with life and attitudes towards other people. The study is based on the data (N=1127) of the Lithuanian National Science Programme “Welfare society”. Respondents were between 18 and 97 years of age (M=48). For statistical analysis correlation and simple mediation models were used. Results. The analysis of the data showed that higher levels of life satisfaction were predicted by years of completed education directly, and indirectly – through more positive attitudes towards others, while controlling for age, gender, level of income. Discussion. The study confirms previous findings that education is related to life satisfaction through more positive attitudes towards others and suggests that education impacts on life satisfaction not only as a promoter of higher income. Conclusion. Longer duration of studying (learning) is related to higher satisfaction with life and more positive attitudes towards others independently of gender, age and income.

The study was oriented to identify the main risk and safety factors for the professional burnout among university teachers in Lithuania. 257 participants filled up a self-administered questionnaire in a cross-sectional survey. 42.8 percent of university teachers in Lithuania indicated that are often or permanently suffering from professional burnout. Quantitative and emotional demands alongside with perceived social support from a supervisor acted as risk factors, and personal resources and social support from colleagues – assafety factors for the professional burnout.

Aging is one of the most significant trends of the 21st century. According to the recent European Union Annual Aging Report (2017), the proportion of the Lithuanian population aged over 65 years was 19.2% in 2016 and is expected to reach 29.6 % in 2070. Population aging and increases in life expectancy in the developed world have led to clinical, public health and policy interest in how to age “successfully“. Successful aging has been one of the most popular concepts in the gerontological literature over the last few years. At present, however, there is no universally accepted definition of what the term “successful aging“ means and different authors use different interpretative frameworks. Also there are a lot of successful aging models. Much of the literature on successful aging is based on the biomedical model, which emphasizes health status and disease. However, research show that the presence of illness should not be equated with “unsuccessful“ aging. A medicalized view of aging ignored other important aspects of aging, such as social, spiritual and psychological. The primarily biomedical definitions should be enlarged to encompass “biopsychosocial” definitions. The purpose of this work is to review the successful aging concepts and models reflecting multidimensional approach within social work perspective. Research suggests that successful aging is a multidimensional construct ensuring a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of aging.

Nowadays when women not only take care of the house, but also actively participate in career development the ability to reconcile work and family commitments has become perhaps the most difficult task. Purpose. The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and work and family interactions (both types and directions), the impact of social support upon the relationship is also taken into account. Methods. The study included 154 subjects: 100 women and 54 men, living in Kaunas city (Lithuania) and working in a service sector. All of the respondents are married or living with a partner. Workfamily interaction is assessed using the work-family interaction scale (SWING, Geurts et al, 2005). Job satisfaction was assessed according by E. Spector’s (1994) Job Satisfaction Survey. The perceived social support is assessed by the Social Support Behaviors (SS-B) Scale (Vaux, Riedel, Steward, 1987). Results and conclusions. The study found that higher overall job satisfaction was associated with a reduced work-family conflict and increased positive work-family interaction. The results also showed that the greater satisfaction of supervision, contingent rewards, coworkers, nature of work and communication was associated with lower negative work-family interaction. Increased positive workfamily interaction is associated with satisfaction of pay, promotion, supervision, contingent rewards and the nature of work. Meanwhile, negative family- work interaction negatively correlated with satisfaction with the nature of work and communication while positive work-family interaction positively correlated with satisfaction with contingent rewards and the nature of work. Overall job satisfaction is revealed by reduced negative work-family interaction and increased positive work-family interaction. Research in this area should be expanded. [...]

Introduction. In most research studies, health is analysed from the unidimensional perspective, e.g. medical studies are usually based on the biomedical model, which posits that health is an absence of illness, and that illness is caused by abnormality within the body. In this model, mental phenomena are not important, an individual has no or little responsibility on one’s health, and the treatment of a disease in most cases is passive (Wade, Halligan, 2004). The WHO (1948) definition of health suggests that health is not only the absence of illness, but also a good subjective and social state, i.e. health is a multidimensional, biopsychosocial construct. Therefore, alongside the analysis of the biological aspects of health, there is also a need to study the relationship between psychosocial aspects (resources) of health and health behaviour. The aim of the study is to explore the links between different emotional (feelings of depression, sadness, anxiety, happiness), cognitive (beliefs that other people are helpful, supportive, trustful) and social (religiousness, meeting with friends, participation in social activities, possibilities to discuss private, intimate questions) health resources and their relation to health behaviour (eating fruits, vegetables, smoking status, number of cigarettes, alcohol use frequency, amount of alcohol consumed on workdays and weekends, physical activity) in a representative sample of Lithuanian males and females. Research methods and participants. Single-item questions generated by experts from the European Social Survey round 7 were used to assess the emotional, cognitive and social health resources and health behaviour. The research sample (n=1865) was drawn from the general population in Lithuania (40.2 percent of males and 59.8 percent of females). The mean age of participants was 49.59 (SD=18.29). The youngest participant was 15 years old and the oldest one was 92. Participants were interviewed in 2014. [...]

Background and purpose. Successful aging has been one of the most popular concepts in the gerontological literature over the last few years. At present, there is no universally accepted definition of what the term “successful aging” means, and which factors are associated with it. This study aimed to assess the role of psychological and social factors in self-rated successful aging in older adults. Methods. 396 older adults participated in this study. The mean age of the respondents was 67,1 ± 5,8 (age range 60–84). Data was collected using Self-Rated Successful Aging Scale (Gwee et al., 2014); Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (Topolski et al., 2006); Scale of Activity and Psychological Well-Being in Older People (Warr et al., 2004); A Short Scale for Measuring Social Support in the Elderly (Kempen, Eijk, 1995); Geriatric Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Dunn, 2008); The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Griffin, 1985); Subjective Age Identity Scale (Hubley, 2014). Results. Older adults characterized as more subjective successful agers had a significantly higher level of social and physical activity, social support, life satisfaction, happiness, spirituality, satisfaction with the living standards, younger subjective age identity and better self-rated health. Better self-rated health, younger subjective age identity, higher level of life satisfaction, intellectual social activity and learning, better subjective eating habits, higher number of grandchildren and having a job were the best independent predictive factors of self-rated successful aging. Conclusions. The best predictive factors (social) of self-rated successful aging were higher level of intellectual social activity and learning, having a job and higher number of grandchildren; the best predictive factors (psychological) of self-rated successful aging were higher level of life satisfaction, younger subjective age identity, better self-rated health and eating habits.

The article shares the experience gained while preparing the methods of identification and validation of the psychologist‘s competencies acquired by non-formal and informal learning. The authors discuss the stages of the competence evaluation process, the validity of evaluation methods as well as the evaluation criteria of the form and the content of the presented model employed for the assessment of the psychologist’s competencies acquired by non-formal and informal learning.

Straipsnyje analizuojamos dvasingumo ir sveikatai palankios gyvensenos sąsajos suaugusiojo amžiuje. Tyrime da-lyvavo 400 lietuvių (168 (42 proc.) vyrai ir 232 (58 proc.) moterys) nuo 18 iki 89 metų amžiaus (amžiaus vidurkis – 40,6±17,9). Vertinant sveikatai palankią gyvenseną taikytas 5 faktorių sveikatingumo klausimynas (5F-WEL). Dvasingumas vertintas kasdienės dvasinės patirties skale (DSES). Rezultatai parodė, kad amžius ir lytis buvo reikš-mingai susiję su dvasingumu – vyresnio amžiaus ir moteriškosios lyties tiriamieji nurodė patiriantys daugiau įvai-rių dvasingumo apraiškų kasdieniame gyvenime nei jaunesnio amžiaus ir vyriškosios lyties asmenys. Įvertinus dvasingumo ir sveikatai palankios gyvensenos sąsają nustatyta, jog dvasingumas buvo reikšmingai susijęs su svei-katai palankia gyvensena atsižvelgiant į lyties, amžiaus ir išsilavinimo veiksnius.