Negotiating motherhood as a refugee: experiences of loss,love, survival and pain in the context of forced migration

The mental health of refugees has been an increasingly researched area, but has been criticised for having an individualised and symptom-focused approach to understanding the experience of forced migration. This paper attempts to respond to calls to address this culturally limited and incomplete way of conceptualising responses to experiences of persecution and terror bound up within global hegemony and power inequalities. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to analyse semi-structured interviews undertaken with six refugee mothers, with the aim of exploring how participants made sense of, and created meaning around parenting and family life in the UK. Three main themes emerged from the data analysis (a) loss as a constant companion to parenting; (b) a shifting view of the self as a mother; and (c) taking the good with the bad in family life. Methodological limitations, as well as implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.     

Masculine Ideology,Sexual Communication,and Sexual Self‐Efficacy Among Parenting Adolescent Couples

This study examined the relationship between traditional masculine role norms (status, toughness, anti‐femininity) and psychosocial mechanisms of sexual risk (sexual communication, sexual self‐efficacy) among young, low‐income, and minority parenting couples. Between 2007 and 2011, 296 pregnant adolescent females and their male partners were recruited from urban obstetrics clinics in Connecticut. Data regarding participants' beliefs in masculine role norms, frequency of general sex communication and sexual risk communication, and sexual self‐efficacy were collected via computer‐assisted self‐interviews. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were used to test for actor effects (whether a person's masculine role norms at baseline influence the person's own psychosocial variables at 6‐month follow‐up) and partner effects (whether a partner's masculine role norms at baseline influence an actor's psychosocial variables at 6‐month follow‐up). Results revealed that higher actor status norms were significantly associated with more sexual self‐efficacy, higher actor toughness norms were associated with less sexual self‐efficacy, and higher actor anti‐femininity norms were significantly associated with less general sex communication, sexual risk communication, and sexual self‐efficacy. No partner effects were found. These results indicate a need for redefining masculine role norms through family centered approaches in pregnant or parenting adolescent couples to increase sexual communication and sexual self‐efficacy. Further research is needed to understand partner effects in the context of a relationship and on subsequent sexual risk behavior.     

‘It’s silly these doors don’t open’: a six-year-old girl emerges from a chronic state of emotional withdrawal

This clinical paper explores the way in which the first two years of a long-term psychotherapy helped six-year-old Anna to lessen her retreat into a chronic withdrawn emotional state. Over the course of the first year she would occasionally pick up the fridge from the doll’s house and try to open the doors, but because the fridge was actually a block of wood the doors could not open. In treatment, this inquiry came to represent the difficulties of engaging and making contact with a baby who found it very hard to feed. The author describes how, as Anna entered into a therapeutic relationship, it slowly became clear that there was an inner world jam-packed with persecutory anxieties and a family history of unmourned loss and trauma. Through fear Anna slammed the doors to her mind – to knowing herself – and by not feeding, Anna starved herself of opportunities for mental growth. It took some time for her to state, “it’s silly these doors don’t open, they should”. In the discussion of this clinical material the author draws on the work of Francis Tustin, Alessandra Piontelli and Marguerite Reid to consider the link between intergenerational and prenatal trauma and subsequent emotional disturbance in the child.     

父母的心理控制与儿童心理社会功能的关系

心理控制是一种侵入式教养,它是指父母使用引发儿童的内疚感、爱的撤回等方式侵入儿童思想和情感的教养行为,这种消极的、侵入式教养导致儿童产生诸多心理社会功能失调。跨文化研究发现,我国文化背景下父母的心理控制水平更高。社会环境、父母的人格和儿童的行为等因素都对父母的心理控制水平产生影响。父母的心理控制会对儿童的行为问题、自主性等一系列的心理社会功能产生消极影响。未来研究应立足中国特色文化,深入探讨儿童多重看护条件、儿童自身易感性等因素对心理控制效应的影响。     

残障儿童家庭教育环境研究

对上海市２８６名残障儿童家长进行问卷调查,了解残障儿童家庭教育环境。结果发现：核心家庭占绝大多数;残障儿童家长学历层次和经济收入较低;家长普遍认为家庭教育很有必要,但对自己在家庭教育中的作用认识不充分;大多数家长除了与教师有较好的交流合作外,在与家庭其他成员、其他残障儿童家长以及邻居的交流合作均不理想。     

大学生职业选择和职业价值观的调查研究

本研究通过对天津地区七所高校663名在校大学生的理想职业和“现实职业”进行问卷调查,得出以下结论:(1)大学生的理想职业与“现实职业”之间有着很大的不同,但他们在选择理想职业和“现实职业”时所用的标准却有很高的一致性.(2)“高级职员”既是大学生理想中的首选职业,又是现实中的首选职业.(3)“收入”、“充分发挥能力”、“职业中的自主程度”成为大学生择业时的主要标准.(4)大学生的理想职业和“现实职业”与其所在的学校、所学的专业科类、性别、是否临近毕业等因素都有一定的关系.     

Euclid: Strategic alternative assessment matrix

The vast amount of information that must be considered to solve inherently ill‐structured and complex strategic problems creates a need for tools to help decision makers (DMs) recognize the complexity of this process and develop a rational model for strategy evaluation. Over the last several decades, a philosophy and a body of intuitive and analytical methods have been developed to assist DMs in the evaluation of strategic alternatives. However, the intuitive methods lack a structured framework for the systematic evaluation of strategic alternatives while the analytical methods are not intended to capture intuitive preferences. Euclid is a simple and yet sophisticated multiobjective value analysis model that attempts to uncover some of the complexities inherent in the evaluation of strategic alternatives. The proposed model uses a series of intuitive and analytical methods including environmental scanning, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), subjective probabilities, and the theory of displaced ideal, to plot strategic alternatives on a matrix based on their Euclidean distance from the ideal alternative. Euclid is further compared to the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) in a real world application. The information provided by the users shows that Euclid can significantly enhance decision quality and the DM's confidence. Euclid is not intended to replace the DMs, rather, it provides a systematic approach to support, supplement, and ensure the internal consistency of their judgments through a series of logically sound techniques. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Divorce mediation: the impact of mediation on the psychological well‐being of children and parents

This study evaluated levels of psychological distress experienced by children (aged 4–16) and parents at the beginning of and one month after mediation for child‐related disputes. In contrast to previous research, this study employed both child‐ and parent‐reports of child outcome. Mediation was associated with reductions in child‐reported, though not parent‐reported, child psychological distress and with reductions in parent‐reports of their own psychological distress. The negotiation of successful agreements in mediation was not related to improved psychological well‐being of family members. The difficulties encountered (i.e. small numbers, low response rate) render the results tentative. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effectiveness of Two Positive Career Counseling Modules for Working Parents in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of 2 positive career counseling modules—the strength‐centered career counseling (SCC) module and the goal‐oriented career counseling module—for working parents in Taiwan (23 men and 28 women). The study used an experimental design, and the instruments were the Personal Growth Initiative Scale, Job Satisfaction Inventory, and Career Self‐Efficacy Scale. A within‐subjects analysis of variance indicated that both modules were effective in personal growth initiative and career self‐efficacy, and SCC particularly had continuous effects on both of them. Advanced versions for the 2 modules and implications for future practice are discussed.