Summary information

Study title

Living Conditions of Social Assistance Recipients and Social Work 1996

Creator

Ritakallio, Veli-Matti (University of Turku. Department of Social Policy)

Study number / PID

FSD1321 (FSD)

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1321 (URN)

10.60686/t-fsd1321 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Individual datasets

Individual datasets that do not belong to any series.

Abstract

The survey charted the living conditions, life experiences and client relationship of social assistance recipients and social work. First, the respondents were asked to assess their childhood and childhood home, for example, who had looked after them the most and whether there had been serious conflicts or drinking problems in the family. The respondents were asked how many times they had moved during their lifetime and why. They were also asked to state different illnesses that reduced their working capacity and ailments they had suffered from in the past twelve months. Household's use of different health services in the past six months was surveyed. The study also charted the respondents' accommodation (e.g. type, tenure, standard of equipment, number of rooms). Present main activity, length of and reason for unemployment were examined. Possession of consumer durables (e.g. mobile phone, video cassette recorder, washing machine, computer and newspaper subscription) was examined. The respondents were asked whether their financial circumstances regularly prevented them from using public transport and health services, buying convenience goods, nutritious food, etc. Their voting behaviour in the last parliamentary elections was also charted. The respondents rated their family ties and friendships and analysed events that had happened to them in the previous twelve months. They evaluated their standard of living and satisfaction with their situation in life at the time of the survey. Finally, the respondents' views on being social service clients were probed by asking, for example, what their first visit to social services office had been like, whether they wanted to discuss matters other than financial circumstances during their appointments and how social services could be improved. The respondents were presented with a set of attitudinal statements about, for example, over-indebtedness and income support. Social workers completed information about the client...
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Methodology

Data collection period

15/04/1996 - 15/05/1996

Country

Finland

Time dimension

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Analysis unit

Individual
Household

Universe

Social assistance recipients in Finland at the time of the survey

Sampling procedure

Probability: Simple random

Kind of data

Quantitative

Data collection mode

Face-to-face interview

Access

Publisher

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Publication year

2004

Terms of data access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Related publications

  • Ritakallio, Veli-Matti (1997). Toimeentulotukiasiakkaat ja sosiaalityö. Teoksessa: "Tehdä itsensä tarpeettomaksi?": sosiaalityö 1990-luvulla (toim. Riitta Viialainen & Maisa Maaniittu), 67-83. Helsinki: Stakes. Sosiaali- ja terveysalan tutkimus- ja kehittämiskeskus, Raportteja; 213.