Little is known about how social work supervisors can be equipped and supported. A qualitative evaluation of a supervision of supervisory practice (SOSp) training programme with nine supervisors with 2 years of experience was done. Benefits for the supervisors were the application of knowledge and skills that improved the supervisory practice, and the opportunity to receive feedback. However, lack of time was a major obstacle for quality supervision. Supervisees reported experiencing a more collaborative supervision and an increase in confidence and perception of competence in case management. This exploratory study highlights the importance of developing competencies in the education and support functions of supervision.

In most countries around the world, social workers assist financially vulnerable people, but they often do so with little or no training in finance. This article examines the development and pilot testing of a financial curriculum to be used in social work education and training in Singapore. Feedback from social workers informed development of the curriculum, which is practical and capability-based. The study covers two phases: first curriculum development, then pilot testing. Focus group methods are used to analyse the process and effectiveness of curriculum development and the initial training outcomes.

Scholars speak of waves of Indian mobilities outwards from the Indian subcontinent over time. There is overwhelming historical, archaeological and numismatic evidence of the early presence of Hindu and Buddhist elements — art, sculpture and architecture, music, dance, drama and literature, political and social institutions and religious traditions — outside the Indian subcontinent in regions and cultures, known post-World War II, as Southeast Asia. In the latter region, posts which served as halting stations for ships plying trade and maritime routes were located at the neck of the Malay Peninsula which facilitated mercantile and trading activities in the region. Singapore was placed firmly in regional maritime and commercial histories of these times…

Understanding when people are likely to feel ambivalent is important, as ambivalence is associated with key attitude outcomes, such as attitude-behavior consistency. Interestingly, the presence of conflicting positive and negative reactions (objective ambivalence) is weakly related to feeling conflicted (subjective ambivalence). We tested a novel situation that can influence the correspondence between objective and subjective ambivalence: whether a message and a recipient’s topic match in affective versus cognitive orientation. When a person encounters a message with an affective or cognitive match to the topic, conflicting reactions may be more accessible, increasing feelings of ambivalence. Across five studies, greater objective–subjective ambivalence correspondence occurred with an affective–cognitive match between message and topic orientation. Studies 4 and 5 also demonstrated that this primarily occurred when the message was counterattitudinal. This work contributes to the literature explaining the gap between measures of objective and subjective ambivalence as well as how messages can influence attitude strength properties.

This chapter examines four contemporary texts from the Global South―India, Singapore and the Philippines―that are themed around the making and eating of food, exemplifying the diverse cultural connotations that are linked to the idea of nourishment and how these varied cultures contribute to or challenge ideas that revolve around the cooking, eating and even wasting of food. These Asian fictions explore how history, memory and food are interwoven into the fabric of people’s everyday experiences. They mediate and narrativize the varied metaphors and metonymies that surround food. In the analysis of these diverse representations, the author teases out ideas about food and their connections to cultural, and sometimes religious, perceptions to arrive at interesting insights about food in three distinct nations and cultures of Asia.

Objectives
Although the association between widowhood and mortality is well established, the impact of widowhood on mortality could differ by social support, gender, and widowhood duration. We studied the association between widowhood and mortality among older Chinese adults in Singapore and analyzed how social support, gender, and widowhood duration may modify this association.

Methods
We used data from 15,858 participants aged 61–96 years from the third follow-up of the population-based Singapore Chinese Health Study in 2014–2016. Mortality data were obtained through linkage with the national death registry through 31st December 2018, and social support was measured with the Duke Social Support Scale. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between widowhood and mortality risk.

Results
Compared with those married, widowed adults had a higher mortality risk (HR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.01–1.38), and this risk was higher for those who were either recently widowed (10 years; HR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.07–1.54). Among men, those recently widowed had the highest mortality risk (HR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.06–2.13), whereas, among women, those long-term widowed had the highest mortality risk (HR = 1.26, 95% CI = 0.99–1.60). In the analysis stratified by social support, widowhood was associated with mortality among those with low social support (HR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.05–1.54), but not among those with high social support (HR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.76–1.33).

Discussion
Widowhood was associated with increased mortality risk, particularly among recently widowed men and long-term widowed women. Having adequate social support could attenuate the adverse effects of widowhood among older adults.

Research on time poverty is nascent, and has focused more on unpaid household production and gender differences. Using survey data of 1,620 workers aged 21 to 38 in Singapore, we found that work-based time poverty affects the psychological well-being of young workers. First, factor analysis of time-related work quality indices led to a work-based time poverty measure along two dimensions: (i) long and late working hours, and (ii) nonstandard and uncontrollable working hours. Then, through a structural equation model, we found that individuals in low-wage work are more time poor in terms of nonstandard and uncontrollable hours. These hours worsen work-to-family conflict and together, they mediate the relationship between low wage and two psychological well-being outcomes: generalised anxiety disorder and self-efficacy. Our findings have implications on low-wage young workers’ ability to invest time in their families and on training. They suggest the need to work with policymakers and employers to address workplace time poverty challenges that are beyond what young workers themselves can control.

Lying is a prevalent and normative behavior in young children. Conceptually, it is strongly linked with children’s theory-of-mind development. However, empirical studies show that the link between children’s lying and theory-of-mind is heterogeneous. This study examined whether parental control and parental warmth moderate the link between children’s lying and theory-of-mind understanding. Three- to six-year-old Singaporean children (N = 116, Mage = 59 months, 59 male, 81.0% Chinese) participated in the temptation resistance paradigm, in which they were asked to guess the identity of a toy but instructed not to peek at it when left alone. Parental control and parental warmth were assessed via a parent–child interactive game. Results showed that the relation between children’s maintenance of their initial lie and general theory-of-mind understanding was moderated by parental warmth. Specifically, there was a negative relation between children’s lying and theory-of-mind for dyads with high parental warmth, but a positive relation between children’s lying and theory-of-mind for dyads with low parental warmth. Overall, the findings suggest that children’s lying behavior is the outcome of a complex interaction between cognitive and social factors.

Trajectories of perceived economic hardship are related to clinical levels of mental health issues in mothers and children from low-income families. Cross-sectionally, family hardiness has been found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between stressors and mental health severity. Recent advances in family resilience theory highlight the importance of considering trajectories of family resilience. Trajectories of family hardiness and their moderating effect on the relationship between trajectories of perceived economic hardship and symptoms of depression and anxiety in low-income mothers and children were investigated in 511 mother–child dyads in Singapore. Three trajectories of family hardiness were delineated, namely the high stable, low rapidly increasing and moderate increasing group. The trajectories of family hardiness were found to moderate the relationship between trajectories of perceived economic hardship and symptoms of mental health in low-income mothers and children. The same moderation effect was not found when perceived economic hardship and family hardiness were investigated cross-sectionally. These findings highlight the importance of considering the family’s trajectory of hardiness over time when working with low-income families. In addition, given that different trajectories of family hardiness were protective for different aspects of mental health, further studies to understand these relations are necessary.

To help solve the diabetes problem in Singapore, we developed humorous and fearful public service announcements (PSAs) based on popular Internet memes and investigated how the emotions derived from PSAs affect Singaporean millennials’ perceptions of PSAs’ effectiveness. In total, 416 people participated in the study through a Singaporean online survey company. Multivariable linear regression methods with SPSS were used to examine our hypotheses and research questions. According to the results, message manipulation significantly increased participants’ perceived emotion (i.e. perceived humor and fear). Moreover, the results showed that perceived humor and fear were positively associated with perceived PSA effectiveness in both models, testing the humor effect and fear effect separately. As per the moderation analysis, the association between the perceived emotion (i.e. humor and fear) and the perceived PSA effectiveness is likely to increase when attitudes toward the organization are less positive. Moreover, the association between perceived fear and perceived PSA effectiveness is likely to increase when participants’ involvement with memes is low. Our findings highlight important theoretical and practical implications for future studies investigating the effectiveness of Internet meme-based PSA messages regarding serious health issues.

This retrospective qualitative study aimed to examine the influences of bereaved family caregivers' perception of good death for their dying spouse or parent on their caregiving experiences. A purposive sample of 15 participants were recruited from a hospice and their narratives were analyzed. Using the interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, five key components of a perceived good death that intermixed well-established Western attributes with deeply rooted Asian values were identified and meanings ascribed to their caregiving experiences were based on that. These findings suggested implications for practice on the entire service continuum from palliative and end-of-life care to bereavement services.

Public opinion on new technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), is influenced by media coverage. However, it remains unclear as to what extent seeking news and information about AI on legacy media as opposed to social media can shape trust in AI. A cross-national survey conducted across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and India investigated the impact of information seeking behaviour on trust in AI, as well as the moderating role of concern about misinformation online. Results indicate a positive relationship exists between seeking AI information on social media and trust across all countries. However, for traditional media, this association was only present in Singapore. When considering misinformation, a positive moderation effect was found for social media in Singapore and India, whereas a negative effect was observed for traditional media in Singapore. These findings have implications for the adoption of novel technologies and highlight the importance of understanding the role of media in shaping public trust.