Career Assessment and Counseling for STEM: A Critical Review

Career counselors must continually enhance their knowledge and skills to assist clients contemplating careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Therefore, the authors review STEM disciplines and theory‐driven strategies for assisting diverse individuals to explore, enter, and persist in STEM careers. Appropriate use of career assessments can contribute greatly to this effort. To identify available measures for STEM‐focused domains and constructs, the authors conducted a journal content analysis of stand‐alone STEM‐related career assessments from 1983 to 2016, identifying 39 articles with 153 measures. Notable results included the emergence of social cognitive theory and social cognitive career theory as prevailing frameworks for instrument development, a wide variety of disciplines and journals represented, an underrepresentation of minority samples, and untapped potential for cross‐discipline and researcher–practitioner collaboration. Useful strategies and resources for counselors and recommendations for enhancing career assessments and interventions are addressed.     

Discursive psychology as a method of analysis for the study of couple and family therapy

The field of couple and family therapy has benefitted from evidence generated from qualitative approaches. Evidence developed from approaches relying on language and social interaction using naturally occurring recordings of real‐world practice has the benefit of facilitating practice‐based recommendations and informing practice. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of one approach to discourse analysis, Discursive Psychology (DP), demonstrating how a social constructionist framework and focus on discourse can provide an important contribution to the field of therapy. To illustrate the methodological decision‐making process for researchers and/or practitioners who utilize DP, we draw upon a video‐recorded therapeutic session involving Tom Andersen. To conclude, we make recommendations for practitioners using DP to explore and examine therapeutic practice.     

Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Parental Depression on Preschool Children's Socioemotional Functioning

The present study describes the depressive symptomatology of 393 parents of prekindergarten children and assesses ethnic differences in the depression scores of these parents and their differential consequences for children's social competence. Data are drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) classroom study, a national, longitudinal study examining the quality and outcomes of prekindergarten programs operated in schools or under the direction of state and local educational agencies, and the supplemental NCEDL familial and social environments study. Analyses indicated that Latino parents were more likely than African‐American and White parents to be depressed. However, as reported by both parents and teachers, behavioral outcomes for African‐American children of parents with elevated depressive symptomatology were worse than children of their Latino and White counterparts. Interactions between ethnicity and depressive symptomatology emerged in the parent‐child relationship, with African‐American parents with elevated depressive symptoms reporting significantly greater levels of conflict in the parent–child relationship than their non‐depressed counterparts. African‐American parents with elevated depression scores were also less likely to be in marital relationships than their non‐depressed counterparts. Among African‐American families, parent–child conflict served as a mediator of the effects of parental depression on child outcomes. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Roadmap to recovery: Reporting on a research taskforce supporting Indigenous responses to COVID‐19 in Australia

In April 2020 a Group of Eight Taskforce was convened, consisting of over 100 researchers, to provide independent, research‐based recommendations to the Commonwealth Government on a “Roadmap to Recovery” from COVID‐19. The report covered issues ranging from pandemic control and relaxation of social distancing measures, to well‐being and special considerations for vulnerable populations. Our work focused on the critical needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; this paper presents an overview of our recommendations to the Roadmap report. In addressing the global challenges posed by pandemics for citizens around the world, Indigenous people are recognised as highly vulnerable. At the time of writing Australia's First Nations Peoples have been largely spared from COVID‐19 in comparison to other Indigenous populations globally. Our recommendations emphasise self‐determination and equitable needs‐based funding to support Indigenous communities to recover from COVID‐19, addressing persistent overcrowded housing, and a focus on workforce, especially for regional and remote communities. These latter two issues have been highlighted as major issues of risk for Indigenous communities in Australia It remains to be seen how governments across Australia take up these recommendations to support Indigenous peoples' health and healing journey through yet another, potentially catastrophic, health crisis.     

Sexual Identity Formation of Women Who Love Women: A Contextual View Point

Nonheterosexuals experience oppression and discrimination that affect personal development on all levels. An increased awareness of sexual identity development could create more inclusive sexual identity models, better understanding for counselor educators, and better training for counselors on issues of sexual identity. The purpose of this study was to identify the life experiences that influence sexual identity in women who love women. This study required that participants attach meaning to sexual identity formation. From the data collected, four themes emerged: I was just different, information seeking, view of self as a woman within the context of culture, and contextual relationships. Findings of this study did not support a stage model of sexual identity development. Instead, this study supported the view that sexual identity is fluid and strongly related to relationships with peer groups.     

Conversations for Connection: An Outcome Assessment of the Hold‐Me‐Tight Relationship‐Education Program,and Recommendations for Improving Future Research Methodology in Relationship Education

The Hold Me Tight (HMT) program is a new approach to relationship education based on Emotionally‐Focused Therapy (Johnson, 2004), an evidence‐based approach to couple therapy. In this exploratory longitudinal research, we examined individual growth in relationship satisfaction and trust for partners in 95 couples in 16 HMT groups across four occasions of measurement: Baseline, Pre‐Program, Post‐Program and at either 3‐ or 6‐month Follow‐Up. We found that relationship satisfaction and trust increased during program participation, and declined during follow‐up. We believe our findings provide support for the short‐term effectiveness of the HMT program, and suggest a longer period of program delivery may result in improved retention of gains. Finally, we present recommendations for improving the design of future longitudinal research in relationship education.     

Editing hip-hop within youth work activities: an actor-network theory analysis

Debates concerning hip-hop have tended to centre on controversy. For example, critics of hip-hop have focused on its association with bads such as violence, misogyny and drug use, gangsta culture, and the vandalism associated with graffiti art, while hip-hop’s defenders have celebrated the enactment of goods such as youth expression and empowerment. Increasingly, practitioners and educators have sought to mobilise particular forms or activities of hip-hop in order to draw on the potential of hip-hop in youth work. This article draws on an ethnographic study that explored how hip-hop activities were produced across a range of youth work sites in Christchurch, New Zealand. Using Actor-Network Theory (ANT) the study traced how hip-hop controversies were negotiated within youth work sites of practice, illustrating the collective editing work that was undertaken in order to handle these controversies (bads). The ANT approach to consider what is sometimes referred to as the ‘mess’ of social reality [Law 2004, 230 After Method: Mess in Social Science Research. New York: Routledge] was well suited to the study’s goal of understanding the complexities involved in using and assembling hip-hop in youth work contexts. This paper provides ‘snapshots’ of the study’s findings, to reveal the collective work in the editing of hip-hop music to avoid hip-hop bads.     

Multiracial Americans: Racial Identity Choices and Implications for the Collection of Race Data

In 2010, approximately nine million Americans self‐identified with more than one race on the U.S. Census – a 32 percent increase since 2000. In this paper, I review the growing body of research on this population, with a particular focus on identifying and describing factors important in shaping their racial identities. Factors explored include: social norms regarding racial classification, socioeconomic status, racial composition of one’s neighborhood and community, region, socialization by family, age, cohort, genealogical locus of multiracial ancestry, nativity, and phenotype. I discuss the broader implications of findings to‐date, with a particular focus on the ongoing scholarly discourse regarding the collection of race data in the United States.