📄 Category

social_science

1815 papers

📄 social_science

Rarefied Ethnoecology: Mushroom Knowledge Erosion and the Limits of Digital Foraging Repopularisation in Selected Sites of the Italian Alps and the Former German Democratic Republic

Despite a contemporary revival in wild mushroom foraging driven by digital tools and renewed interest, this study of sites in the Italian Alps and former East Germany reveals a paradoxical "knowledge rarefaction" where deep, place-based ecological understanding is eroding due to generational discontinuity and rural depopulation, suggesting that information-based learning cannot fully replace the situated expertise developed through long-term human-forest engagement.

Andrea Pieroni, Irfan Ullah, Mousaab Alrhmoun2026-07-20
📄 social_science

Computational History and Heritage: New Enquiries Through Synthesis

This paper argues that computational methods, including modeling, simulation, and machine learning, are essential for synthesizing vast multidimensional datasets to transcend traditional historical analysis, thereby enabling scholars to systematically reconstruct past environments, test hypotheses, and explore complex socio-cultural dynamics to unlock a more holistic narrative of human history.

Eugene Ch'ng, Simon See, Ka Chun Cheung, Ping Shu Ho2026-07-20
📄 social_science

Teachers' Artificial Intelligence Anxiety and Psychological Well-Being: The Sequential Mediating Roles of AI Self-Efficacy and Attitudes Toward AI

This study reveals that teachers' AI anxiety negatively impacts their psychological well-being not directly, but through a sequential mediation process where anxiety lowers AI self-efficacy, which in turn fosters negative attitudes toward AI, ultimately diminishing well-being within the framework of the Job Demands–Resources model.

Burak Aydın, Yeşim Saruhan, Uğur Saruhan2026-07-20
📄 social_science

Explaining the experiences of education development center specialists about the designed performance excellence award

This qualitative study explores the experiences of education development center specialists with a designed performance excellence award, revealing key themes regarding its effectiveness as a guiding framework and the necessary operational and structural components to foster a dynamic, data-driven organizational environment.

Mansoureh Taghavinia, Hoorieh Mohammadi, Marzieh Dashti Rahmatabadi, Omefarveh Ebrahimi2026-07-20
📄 social_science

How Do Faculty Come to Identify with Voluntary Interdisciplinary Teaching- Scholarship Communities? An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study

This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study of a Chinese medical university reveals that faculty identification with voluntary interdisciplinary teaching-scholarship communities is a dynamic process driven by academic belonging, practical rewards, and emotional connections, which are facilitated by supportive organizational conditions but constrained by power asymmetries and resource scarcity.

Leyuan Xiang, Shengjun Yu, Tingli Zhang2026-07-17
📄 social_science

Collective well-being and the role of the public sector: a complex nexus between innovation and inequality

Through a mixed-methods analysis of 176 initiatives, this paper identifies three distinct patterns of AI adoption in Italian public administration—centralized internal learning, citizen-facing communication, and internal analysis—and demonstrates how their varying degrees of organizational embeddedness influence decision-making autonomy, impact, and governance.

Bruna BRUNO2026-07-17
📄 social_science

The Mediating Role of Maladaptive Perfectionism in the Association Between Problematic Instagram Use and Suicidal Ideation Among Medical Students

This study of 362 medical students reveals that maladaptive perfectionism partially mediates the relationship between problematic Instagram use and suicidal ideation, indicating that excessive Instagram use increases suicide risk both directly and by fostering perfectionistic tendencies.

Amir Hosein Mohaghegh, Saeid Sharifi Rahnemo, Safura Yaghmaei2026-07-17
📄 social_science

The Association Between Diary Writing and Mental Well-Being Among Lebanese Young Adults: Evidence From a High-Adversity Context

This cross-sectional study of 385 English-speaking Lebanese young adults found no significant association between diary writing and mental well-being, suggesting that the positive effects of personal writing observed in Western contexts may not apply within this high-adversity Middle Eastern setting.

Clara Stephan, Sylvie Amadouny, Nadine Zalaket2026-07-17
📄 social_science

Christian Nationalism and Anticipated Costs of Addressing White Privilege as Predictors of Prototypicality Threat and Opposition to Racial Reparative Policies among White Americans

This study of 222 White Americans finds that opposition to racial reparative policies and feelings of prototypicality threat are primarily driven by anticipated costs of addressing White privilege and Christian nationalist beliefs, particularly among White men, rather than by demographic characteristics alone.

Marlena Debreaux, Sheretta Butler-Barnes, Dominique Tunzi, Eleanor Seaton, Pamela Martin, Seanna Leath, Mykah Doolin2026-07-17
📄 social_science

Navigating the First Racial Encounter: Qualitative Insights and Systemic Interventions for White Mothers and their Biracial Children

This qualitative phenomenological study of 24 interviews with Black-White biracial adults and their White mothers reveals that communication gaps and reactive rather than proactive racial socialization often hinder children's identity development and mental well-being, underscoring the need for clinicians to address these systemic factors in their practice.

Nicole S. McKinney Nicole S. McKinney, Maureen P. Davey Maureen P. Davey, Roberta Waite Roberta Waite2026-07-17