Nonviolent youth in a violent society: resilience and vulnerability in the country of Colombia

Despite the ample literature on crime and violence, little research has been done outside English-speaking developed countries. Colombia has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. In order to identify individual factors related to resilience and vulnerability for violence and offending behavior in Colombia, we explored the life histories of 46 young men from high-risk families and compared those who had committed an offense to those who did not (resilient). The findings show that resilient men (compared to offenders) in Colombia have been less exposed to serious life stress, perceive stronger support from their families, narrate their past histories with greater detail and affect, and perceive greater degrees of control and coherence in their lives. The results are consistent with the existing literature and are interpreted within the framework of attachment theory.     

Incorporating children's lives into a life course perspective on stress and mental health

Emerging themes in demography, developmental medicine, and psychiatry suggest that a comprehensive understanding of mental health across the life course requires that we incorporate the lives of children into our research. If we can learn more about the ways in which the stress process unfolds for children, we will gain important insights into the factors that influence initial set points of trajectories of mental health over the life course. This will simultaneously extend the scope of the stress process paradigm and elaborate the life course perspective on mental health. Incorporating children's lives into the sociology of mental health will also extend the intellectual influence of the discipline on sociomedical and biomedical research on mental illness. I contend that sociology's greatest promise in understanding trajectories of mental health across the life course lies in a systematic analysis of the social and social-psychological conditions of children, the stressful experiences that arise out of these conditions, and the processes that mediate and moderate the stress process in childhood. In this regard, there are three major issues that sociologists could begin to address: (1) the identification of structural and institutional factors that pattern children's exposure to stress; (2) the construction of a stress universe for children; and (3) the identification of key elements of the life course perspective that may set or alter trajectories of mental health in childhood and adolescence.     

Assembling life history narratives from quantitative longitudinal panel data: What’s the story for families using social work?

Abstract

Embedded within quantitative longitudinal panel or cohort studies is narrative potential that is arguably untapped but might enrich our understanding of individual and social lives across time. This paper discusses a methodology to assemble the life history narratives of families using social work by drawing on quantitative data from the British Household Panel Survey. It explores whether this person-centred approach helps us to understand the counter-intuitive results of a parallel multivariate analyses, which suggest that families using social work fare worse than similar others over time. Our findings are tentative, due to the experimental use of this narrative method and the limits of social work information in the data-set. Nonetheless, the life histories presented bring to light complexities, diversity and the non-linear pathways between families’ needs, support and outcomes that the aggregates obscure. We conclude that reconstructing families’ lives in this way, especially in the absence of complementary longitudinal qualitative data, affords the wider opportunity to interrogate and better understand the findings of quantitative longitudinal studies.     

Career Pathways into Retirement in the UK: Linking Older Women's Pasts to the Present

Understanding of how women's experiences in retirement are shaped by their pre‐retirement lives is limited. In this paper we utilize an innovative mix of measures to examine the link between career histories and expectations and experiences of retirement. Analysis of timeline data capturing the long working lives of a sample of older women identifies five different pathways into retirement. We explore these trajectories in detail to determine how they are shaped and their links to different outcomes in later life. The analysis shows how different career histories unfold and how they shape expectations and experiences of retirement. Long, professional career pathways leave women feeling enabled in retirement, women following more fragmented pathways are more constrained, and some trajectories, including pathways involving transitions into professional careers in later life, can leave older women financially and emotionally vulnerable in older age.     

Mental health assessment of infants in foster care

Infants placed in foster care are at high risk for emotional and behavioral problems. Assessment of their mental health must account for their often-adverse life experiences prior to placement and the involvement of multiple systems that shape their lives in lieu of parents' authority. This article presents practice guidelines for infant mental health evaluations with consideration of legal requirements and the unique issues conferred by foster care.     

Mental health of the oldest-old

As more individuals live past age 100, it is important for health professionals to better understand characteristics important to the mental health of the oldest-old in our society. Few studies have been conducted on mental health in this group, but current literature suggests these individuals are very resilient with respect to mental health and life satisfaction, despite their health disadvantages. In interviews in a variety of studies, participants talked of the importance of both inner and outer resources for empowerment. Greater understanding of mental health in aging can inform policy makers as they draft new legislation and programs to enhance quality of life for the oldest-old.     

The impact of husband’s job loss on partners’ mental health

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of job loss on family mental well-being. The negative income shock can affect the mental health status of the individual who directly experiences such displacement, as well as the psychological well-being of his partner; also, job loss may have a significantly detrimental effect on life satisfaction, self-esteem and on the individual’s perceived role in society. This analysis is based on a sample of married and cohabitating couples from the first 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. In order to correct for the possible endogeneity of job loss, data from employment histories is utilised and redundancies (different from dismissals) in declining industries are used as an indicator of exogenous job loss. Results show evidence that couples in which the husband experiences a job loss are more likely to experience poor mental health.     

Women and homelessness,a complex multidimensional issue: findings from a scoping review

Homelessness is an increasingly prevalent issue worldwide. Women represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population and have differing needs to men. These differences need to be considered by service providers and other stakeholders working with homeless women. A scoping review was conducted to address the question “What is known about issues relating to homeless women in the existing literature?” PubMed, PsycInfo, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science were searched up until March 2018 with no date limits. The final sample of articles included in this scoping study was 232 from which six themes were extracted: (1) pathways into homelessness, (2) trauma, victimization and adverse childhood experiences, (3) mental and physical health issues, (4) barriers to accessing treatment and experiences with service providers, (5) social support and life satisfaction and (6) strengths, hopes and leaving homelessness. This review suggests a strengths-based approach to addressing women’s homelessness. This approach emphasizes people’s self-determination and strengths and views clients as resilient to problems they encounter in their lives. Future research and service provision should take into account the complexities in the lives of homeless women and recognize the autonomy of women to move out of homelessness.     

Life History and the Critique of American Sociological Practice

This paper is a contribution to the uses of life histories and the dialogue regarding the "standards" for their use. Through a meta-analysis of life histories in the United States since the publication of the Polish Peasant , we develop a typology to critically evaluate their methodological/theoretical practices in sociology. We find a broad range of uses of life histories in the areas of substantive focus, analysis, relationship of oral history and the subject, relationship of oral/life history to other materials, purpose of the research, and relationship of oral/life history to other phenomena. We conclude that life history methods have not had the transformative effect on sociology that they have had in other disciplines. By and large, the actual production of life histories continues to be a historical, to be characterized by abstract empiricism, to extinguish subjects, and to ignore the link between biography and history.     

The elementary-school functioning of children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities: A mixed methods inquiry

This mixed methods inquiry examined the school functioning of elementary school-aged children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. Quantitative analyses of linked social service and education administrative data bases of 10,394 children in Minnesota with maltreatment histories indicated that 32% were eligible for special education services. Of those children with maltreatment histories and identified disabilities, 73% had mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. The most frequent primary disabilities categories were specific learning disabilities (33%) and emotional/behavioral disabilities (27%). Children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities scored significantly below children with maltreatment histories and no identified disabilities on standardized assessments of math and reading, and this gap increased with grade level for math. Qualitative interviews with 22 child welfare professionals and 15 educators suggested why some children with maltreatment histories, especially those with mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities, struggle in school. Risks to school functioning included children's and families' multiple unmet basic and mental health needs which can mask or overshadow children's mild disabilities; poor cross systems collaboration between child welfare, education and mental health systems; and inadequate funding, especially for mental health services. Protective factors included child engagement in school, parent engagement with child welfare services and a professional culture of cross-systems collaboration. Implications are discussed for holistic child, family and system-level interventions.     

Tales of Hidden Lives: a critical examination of life history research with people who have learning difficulties

This paper explores the use of life history research with people who have learning difficulties. [1] A number of strengths and weaknesses associated with the life history as a method of imparting life experiences are examined. Particular emphasis is given to the dilemmas that researchers may face in explicating the life histories of informants labelled as having learning difficulties. With reference to literature on narrative-based research and by drawing upon my own research experiences, I will argue that life histories reaffirm the personal in social theorising, whilst providing a methodology in which individual and social worlds may be drawn together. In addition, eliciting life histories may promote a vivid sense of the research process, thus demystifying the often over technical and jargonised nature of social scientific study. On the down-side, I will suggest that images of the 'imaginative researcher' and 'articulate informant' portrayed in much life history literature, threaten to stifle researchers' concerns with the inclusion of people with learning difficulties. Furthermore, I will draw attention to dilemmas that arise in making links between an individual's life history and social theory. Finally, problems relating to issues of bias and power are explored. In research involving people with learning difficulties, it is concluded that life histories cogently expose the experiences of people so-labelled and therefore deserve further usage albeit with critical assessment.     

Measurement for a human science

This paper argues a number of points about measurement in the sociology of mental health: (1) measurement is critical, (2) measures should represent and assess elements of human experience, taking measure of life as people feel it, sense it, and understand it, and (3) social scientists should create a human science, producing information for the people it studies so that they can better understand and control their own lives. We argue that a human science is best achieved with the use of indexes, not diagnoses, to measure mental health. We present a brief history of diagnostic instruments and detail how a diagnosis is made. We show how use of diagnoses to measure mental health discounts much human suffering. They dichotomize the true range of feelings and emotions into crude either/or distinctions that do not reflect the reality of people's lives, and they often exclude suffering such as that due to loss or illness that does not meet medical model preconceptions about mental disorder. Using diagnoses to measure mental health presents a reified image of hidden disease knowable and manageable only by trained professionals--beyond the capacity of the suffering individuals to understand and control.     

The experiences of “aging” among formerly homeless adults with chronic mental illness: A qualitative study

Little is known about the life course of older adults with serious mental illness who have also been homeless. Using 44 life history interviews with 25 study participants ages 40 to 62, this study used case study and thematic analysis to examine the lived experience of such individuals as they enter their mid- and later-life years. Participants, whose lives were marred by early-onset substance abuse, symptoms of mental illness and a descent into homelessness, spoke of an awareness of aging and premature mortality. Major themes that emerged were: (1) reflecting on losses, (2) growing older and wiser, (3) struggling with normality, (4) having space and time to reevaluate, and (5) awareness of the future and “time left.” Life histories which focus on the person-in-context and their subjective experiences provide a viable research method to further the understanding of one of the most underserved and hardest-to-reach populations.     

Social Enterprise in Mental Health: An Overview

ABSTRACT

This article provides an overview of the models and concepts of social enterprise utilized for and by people with serious mental illness histories. Although social enterprise in mental health is not new, the naming of it as social enterprise and the attention these efforts have garnered is new. This article will provide a brief history of social enterprise in formal social services; review some conceptual issues and differences between social enterprise in Europe and North America—the two major current centers of its activity; and conclude with some observations of the ways in which mental health social enterprises are developing.     

Mental Health Law: Innovations in Education and Representation

What do we know about the lives of people with learning difficulties? What do we know about the lives of people who have used mental health services? People require legal representation to obtain access to the basics of life. Legal representation for people with mental disabilities or learning difficulties also provides a forum for client empowerment. Legal representation has historically been dominated by professionals trained in traditional methods. A mental health law clinic, based upon consumer objectives, provides an opportunity to apply critical legal theory to the practice of law. Legal and citizen advocacy are combined to provide maximum participation in obtaining results. In this article, the author traces the development of a mental health law clinic by documenting the value of clinical legal education and the necessity of commitment to consumer-centred representation.     

Are case management services associated with increased utilization of adolescent mental health treatment?

Retention in treatment is one of the strongest predictors of positive mental health outcomes. Adolescents, however, are particularly challenging to retain in mental health treatment. Concurrent case management services may offer one strategy for retaining youth in mental health treatment as it aims to reduce barriers to services, coordinate multiple services, and establish a consistent relationship between each client and a single contact person. This study combines three extant data sources from the state of Kansas to examine whether youths' participation in case management is associated with increased utilization of individual and group mental health treatment, controlling for client satisfaction, severity of mental health symptoms, and demographic factors. Linear regression results indicate that participation in case management services predicts increased utilization of both individual and group mental health treatment. Case management may be a useful tool for retaining adolescent clients in mental health services. Practical implications for community mental health service delivery are discussed.     

Life insurance, the medical examination and cultural values

This paper is concerned with the commodification of the risk of death which occurred with the development of life insurance and with the role of the medical examination in making life insurance a viable commodity. Using British and Australian data, it shows how the medical profession and the medical examination were crucial to nineteenth century life insurance institutions in the calculation of the value of human lives. Life insurance institutions combined a developing ideology of health with the knowledge of health statistics and applied both for a developing institutional finance market. The calculation and preservation of the value of individual human lives by the pooling of risks on selected lives is the service which life insurance sells and which underpins finance capital. The knowledge developed from health and morbidity statistics was a process both of social surveillance and of market-oriented monitoring for economic risk-reduction. At the level of the individual the necessity for life insurance was the dissolution of traditional community and familial support as industrial capitalism developed.     

Depression among the homeless

Very little is known about one of the most common mental health problems facing the homeless: high levels of depressive symptomatology. This paper explains variation in the prevalence of depressive symptoms (CES-D) for a random sample of 150 shelter- and street-based homeless persons in the Birmingham metropolitan area. Fifty-nine percent of the sample show the signs of "probable clinical caseness"; yet there is significant variation in the level of symptomatology. A modified version of the social resources model explains 31 percent of the variation in CES-D scores. Although psychological resources play an important role in the distress outcome, as predicted, social supports are found to have limited impact on depression. Life circumstances have significant direct effects on depression. Persons with previous histories of mental illness and with extensive life event histories are more susceptible to distress. Younger persons, the chronically homeless, the street-based homeless, the sick, and the less educated are also more likely to experience depression. This study suggests the importance of understanding homelessness both as a psychological condition and as a complex set of life circumstances and physical deprivations.     

Do male and female gamblers have the same burden of adversity over their life course?

The objective of this research is to investigate gender difference and the burden of adversity during the life course of people who develop gambling problems. A sample of 86 adult participants met the criteria for at-risk problem gambling over the last 5 years. Data were obtained from informants during semi-structured face-to-face interviews, using SCID I and II, SOGS, Module K and a recount of life trajectories methodology. The results showed a high level of adversity throughout the life trajectories of the men and women studied. The results indicated that the major load of mental health disorders, the presence of anxiety disorders and co-morbid mental health disorders are more significant among women. Results also indicated a significant presence of violence in the lives of both men and women during early childhood and adolescence. During adulthood, women are more likely to be victims of intimate partner or marital violence whereas men tended to cumulate difficulties in social fields and especially in their professional lives. This significant burden of adversity creates a number of difficulties which makes it complicated to isolate gambling activities. Clinicians might have difficulty detecting female gamblers during consultation, especially when they present with co-morbid mental health disorders and violence issues.