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.

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.

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.

The article analyzes the grandchildren's values through interaction with their grandparent's experience, focusing on communication between generations. Developmental psychologists argue that socially and psychologically safe family environment is the basis for personal development (South, Krueger, Johnson, Iacono, 2008). In Lithuania, studies on peculiarities of grandparents' and grandchildren' relationship are very rare, therefore, we focused on grandchildren, who are approaching adulthood and communication experience with their grandparents might affect the value system of grandchildren. The aim of the study was to highlight grandchildren's values, which are revealed through communicating with grandparents. The qualitative study involved twelve 11–12 form students who were interviewed by the authors using a semi-structured interview. Grandchildren's values were analyzed according to M. Rokeach (1973) values system and within generation solidarity model. Content analysis demonstrated that grandchildren, through communication with their grandparents, had gained broad experience and rich system of values. These values include associational solidarity (telling the truth, honesty, openness, honesty, trust, sociability, gaiety), consensual solidarity (wisdom, freedom of compliance), normative solidarity (psychological and physical well-being, spiritual peace, work, education, life goals, diligence, responsibility), functional solidarity (help, advice, care, kindness, caring for other people's well-being) ir affectual solidarity (family, love, respect, understanding, support, persistence). In the future research it is advisable to study representatives of other generations (parents, grandparents) in order to expand the knowledge of value transition between them.

Participatory action research is a quite new approach to research in Lithuania. The aim of an article was to disscuss the potential and challenges of participatory action research while implementing it in Lithuanian organizations. The qualitative approach was chosen for the study using the method of Focus groups. 20 researchers from social and biomedicine sciences from six institutions of High education in Lithuania participated in the study. The results of the study showed that participatory action reasearch is seen as an approach with many possibilities because of a wide range of used methods, constant interactions with research participants and the lenght of the research process. Researchers value the possibility to access organization at the begining, during research process and evaluate the effectiveness of the changes after the process. The research challenges are associated with the competence of a researcher including his/her sensitivity during process, ability to involve active participation of organization members in the ongoing process by creating safe and trusting environment. Some specific challenges associated with Lithuanian organizations are organizations‘ tiredness of researches and lack of faith of the benefits of researches because of some previous experiences.

Business sector in developed countries faces financial losses related to health problems of their employees. These expenses are related to economic as well as to human losses. Therefore it is important to enhance employee well-being in order to prevent these problems. Traditional understanding of health mostly stresses the problem solving strategy, thus neglecting the search of factors, strengthening both the individual and the organization well-being. Compared to other EU countries, a subjective happiness level in Lithuania is rather low, therefore, a thorough study of positive psychological and social factors, encouraging personality development applicable to an organizational setting, creates a new impulse for the search of a harmonious combination of the person and the organization. Having this in mind the project aiming at developing a comprehensive model of the employee and the workplace well-being, based on biopsychosocial understanding of health and promoting positive healthrelated factors in an organization, was initiated. The object of the study is positive psychosocial factors affecting the employee and the workplace well-being. The present article presents a generalised view on the benefits of the employee and his workplace well-being interventions based on a thorough analysis of research literature of foreign and Lithuanian scientists. The authors introduce an Integrated Theoretical Model of Employee Well-being and Positive Work Environment. The model was formed based on the literature analysis. Publications for the analysis were collected from databases using keywords such as ‘organization’, ‘well-being’, ‘wellness’. The model is based on the biopsychosocial understanding of health including the interplay of healthrelated biological, social and psychological factors, as well as emphasizing promotion of the health-affecting positive psychosocial factors. [...]