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The COVID-19 outbreak has had great psychological and social impacts, not just on the marginalized population but on the general population as well (Wang et al. 2020). Changing life circumstances and daily routines, job losses, an uncertain existence, etc. make people’s lives more difficult. The COVID-19 outbreak is likely to have a notable impact on student life as well, as the latter have had to face many challenges (Sahu 2020) such as studying via e-learning methods, online exams, possibly losing their jobs, and financial problems (such as paying tuition fees). International students have moved back to their homeland or live in an isolated way in student hostels, maintaining social distance far away from their families and close friends. So far, only a few studies have been carried out to analyze how COVID-19 has affected students’ lives (Sahu 2020, Wenjun et al. 2020, Wong et al. 2007). Four Hungarian universities – Corvinus University of Budapest,8 the University of Debrecen, the University of Miskolc, and the University of Szeged – participated in the COVID-19 International Student Well-Being Study (C19 ISWS) (Van de Velde et al. 2020, Buffel et al. forthcoming), organized and conducted by the University of Amsterdam (UA) to examine the effects of COVID-19 on student life, involving 27 countries. The research objectives (RO) are the following (Van de Velde et al. 2020:1-2.): RO 1: Assess how the living conditions (physical and socioeconomic status) and workload of higher education students changed during the COVID-19 outbreak. RO 2: Assess how changes in living conditions and workload are related to stress levels among higher education students during the COVID-19 outbreak. RO 3: Assess how changes in living conditions, workload, and stress levels relate to well-being, mental health, and health behavior among higher education students during the COVID-19 outbreak. RO 4: Assess how the associations described in RO 3 are mediated by stressors (fear of infection, boredom, frustration, inadequate information, etc.), social support, and COVID-19-related knowledge during the pandemic outbreak. RO 5: Assess the variation in well-being and mental health among university students across participating universities and countries. RO 5: Assess how the cross-university and cross-country variation in wellbeing and mental health in higher education students may be related to varying (a) university-level, and (2) national policy contexts.

This paper analyses the expansion and crisis of the foreign-currency (FX) loan market and responding mortgage rescue programs in Hungary, assessing changes in the housing regime. We argue that the existing, malformed housing regime has not changed significantly and remains vulnerable to similar events. During the economic growth of the 2000s, mortgage based growth seemed feasible for both institutional actors and individuals; a shared narrative emerged. As FX loans became unaffordable after 2008, conflicting interests in placing blame and paying for losses lead to the fragmentation of this narrative. We argue that the coping strategies and broader behaviour of the participants reinforced the disproportionate elements of the housing regime. After 2015, housing policies again rely on economic stabilisation, now subsidised by the EU, incentivizing market solutions for private home ownership and disregarding the experiences of the past decades.

In our study, we have examined the housing mobility patterns of Hungarian integration groups – defined on the basis of the Centre for Social Sciences’ 2015 Social Integration Survey – based on a segment of the housing paths, i.e. the characteristics of current and previous housing. As a starting point, we present the main determinants of housing mobility, then some relevant characteristics of the Hungarian housing system. Using the data of the Centre’s 2015 Social Integration Survey, we explore the connection between social integration and the typical patterns of the housing path segments. Our results, in harmony with the life cycle theory of housing mobility, confirm the decisive role of demographic factors, especially age and marital status. At the same time the results suggest that, in addition to the socio-demographic variables, social position has an impact on housing paths, including mobility within the rental sector and the prospects of exit to the homeownership sector. Groups in radically divergent social positions follow different housing paths: while the rental sector typically does not appear in the housing path of people belonging to the ’well-connected, politically active’ social integration group, the proportion of people moving within the rental sector is above average among individuals in the ’nonintegrated excluded’ and ’poorly integrated’ social integration groups.

The relationship between urban planning and tourism consumption is presented through one of the most attractive and popular districts of Budapest (District VII). Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and has a population of 1.7 million inhabitants making it one of the largest metropolitan regions in Central Eastern Europe. Budapest is typical of many other post-socialist cities in that its urban development process has followed a somewhat different trajectory from many Western European cities until recently, for example the relatively slow rate of gentrification in the post-socialist years. The paper will focus in particular on one central district of the city (VII) which currently contains a high concentration of hospitality and entertainment facilities (especially ‘ruin pubs’) and attracts a large numbers of tourists. The planning and development history of the district will be explained, including many controversies and conflicts which have arisen over the years. In addition to analysing the ...

Emerging evidence has shown that a sustainable mode of farming contributes to the sustainability of societies. However, agricultural modernization and land concentration have resulted in a decreasing role of agriculture in rural societies everywhere in Europe and also in Hungary. Governmental funds and agendas increasingly focus on the regeneration of rural areas with a special interest in the new generations of farmers. This paper analyses a small wine region in Hungary to explore the perceptions and activities of young farmers regarding sustainability. The paper is based on qualitative sociological research, including 20 semi-structured interviews with wine producers and other key actors of rural development in the region. The analysis focuses on generational change both in wine producer farms and in the wine region. How do farmers approach sustainability, and how does the concept of sustainability contribute to family wine production? How can generational change affect farming approaches and activities, especially changes toward a more sustainable way of farming? Our results show that rural regeneration can be understood not only as a generational renewal, it also includes endogenous development processes and new approaches targeting a more sustainable rural milieu.

Introduction: Parental health literacy is an important factor of pediatric health. Although it is thorougly studied in other countries, neither proper definition, nor adequate tool for its measurement exists in Hungarian. Aim: The aim of this work was to define the dimensions of parental health literacy and to introduce a questionnaire for its measurement. Method: Opinions of parents, pediatric nurses and pediatricians on parental health literacy were used to establish the definition and basic components. Based on these and previously standardized tests a new questionnaire was developed. Results: Four dimensions of parental health literacy were formulated such as knowledge, functional literacy, self-confidence and motivation. The new questionnaire assesses all four dimension through eight topics. Conclusions: This is the first culturally adapted definition and test of parental health literacy in Hungarian. With its application the efficacy of both primary care services and health education may be improved and the correlation between parental health literacy and pediatric health may be properly studied. Orv. Hetil., 2015, 156(42), 1715–1718.