Children’s Disclosure of Sexual Abuse: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Research Exploring Barriers and Facilitators

This study evaluates and synthesizes qualitative evidence addressing factors affecting a child’s decision to disclose an experience of sexual abuse. Childhood sexual abuse is a devastating crime, with long-term negative impacts. Understanding the factors that affect a child’s decision to disclose is vital. Disclosure enables access to support and protection, both therapeutically and legally. A systematic review was conducted focusing on factors affecting a child’s decision to disclose an experience of sexual abuse. Seven studies were identified, quality appraisal undertaken, and meta-ethnography used to synthesize the studies. Six new super-ordinate themes were developed: Fear of what will happen; Others’ reactions: fear of disbelief; Emotions and impact of the abuse; An opportunity to tell; Concern for self and others; and Feelings toward the abuser. Themes indicated the importance of support, structure, and opportunity to facilitate disclosure and should be utilized by agencies to develop practices that facilitate disclosures.     

Women’s Experiences of Pornography: A Systematic Review of Research Using Qualitative Methods

Given the proliferation of pornography in personal, relational, and social realms, it is vital to understand women’s experiences of this accessible, stimulating, and versatile sexual material. We therefore conducted the first systematic review of research using qualitative methods published in English in peer-reviewed journals. Our search of five databases yielded 22 eligible articles. Thematic analysis of results revealed four broad themes: women encountering pornography, pornography and the self, pornography in the context of relationships, and making sense of pornography. Discussion of themes and subthemes included reflections on women’s explanations of intentional and unintentional encounters with pornography, conflicted perceptions of themselves in relation to female pornography actors, diverse perceived effects of pornography on intimate relationships, and tensions between women’s arousal to pornography and their values. It was evident that women’s experiences of pornography are complex and nuanced, often paradoxical, varying among and within individuals. Our synthesis of results and assessment of limitations suggest (a) that researchers need to define what they mean by pornography and specify any content used in their research and (b) that understanding would be enriched by research that is culturally contextualized and acknowledges public discourses about pornography.     

Lighting Effects on Older Adults’ Visual and Nonvisual Performance: A Systematic Review

Lighting plays an important role in daily life: It helps people perform daily activities independently and safely, and also benefits their health. This study assesses the research evidence of lighting’s impacts on older adults in four domains: (a) performance of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living; (b) circadian rhythm; (c) fall prevention and postural stability; and (d) sleep quality. A comprehensive review of lighting studies on older adults’ visual and nonvisual performance was conducted using a modified PRISMA systematic review process. For the first domain, some older adults had difficulty in using the toilet, preparing meals, and doing laundry under lower illuminance. For the second domain, brighter and bluish lighting improved older adults’ circadian rhythm. For the third domain, low-intensity LED lighting affixed on door frames can help older adults maintain postural stability and prevent falling during nighttime movement. Finally, some studies concluded that receiving outdoor daylight during exercise was beneficial to older adults’ sleep quality. This study provides several methodological, theoretical, and collaborative suggestions for developing a more conclusive evidence base for lighting standards and strategies for older adults.     

Social Workers’ Attitudes Toward Older Adults: A Review of the Literature

Ageist attitudes toward older adults have been recognized as barriers to recruiting and training competent social workers. This article provides a systematic review of the literature that focused on social workers’ and social work students’ attitudes toward older adults and working with older adults. The authors sought empirical studies that used an attitudinal measure of ageism with a social work sample, and a total of 20 articles met the criteria. Characteristics of the studies’ participants, methodology, instruments, and results were evaluated. This article discusses the findings and offers implications for future research.     

Chomsky’s Nativism: A Critical Review

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

Political Participation and Late-Life Learning: A Cross-Cultural Study of Older People’s Participation in Seniors’ Interest Organisations in Australia and Spain

Understanding what older people learn from their civic participation is of critical importance both for individuals and organisations. This link has been neglected in prior research, and the evidence across diverse cultural contexts is particularly limited. However, the political context of older people’s life experiences and participation is important in their participation. The intent of the present study is to explore the learnings experienced by older people through participation in seniors’ interest organisations, across Australia and Spain. Participants included 52 active members of political organisations focused on issues for older people. A questionnaire was used for data collection; participants’ responses to an open-ended question regarding what they have learnt from their participation in seniors’ interest organisations are analysed here. Participants’ answers were subjected to a multi-stage thematic analysis. Findings show three key themes relating to learnings about themselves, such as self-improvement or skills or knowledge; learnings about others, such as cooperation with others and understand that people have different views; and learning about society, such as inequality and the need to fight for injustice. The findings suggest some interesting similarities and differences across contexts, which appears to reflect the different political contexts of the two countries.     

How Do Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Experience Formally Delivered Talking Therapy? A Systematic Review

This systematic review explored how adult survivors of child sexual abuse experienced nonspecific and trauma-focused talking therapies. Following extensive systematic searches of academic databases, 23 qualitative empirical studies were chosen for review. Using a line-by-line thematic synthesis, four analytical themes developed. These themes were: The Therapeutic Process as a Means for Forming Connections, which discusses therapeutic relationships; Developing a Sense of Self Through the Therapeutic Processes, which identifies stages of developmental recovery; Therapeutic Lights and Black Holes in the Shadows of child sexual abuse, which reflects on how a history of child sexual abuse influenced experiences of therapy; and Healing or Harrowing: Connecting With Others and First-time Experiences, which explores what was helpful, hindering, and new throughout the therapeutic journey. Findings related to participants developing new options for interpersonal relationships through the experience of authentic trust and the experiential learning of control and choice. Recommendations are discussed in relation to developing therapeutic practice and future research.     

Older People’s Motivations to Engage in Political Organizations: Evidence from a Catalan Study

This study explored the motivations of Catalan older people to engage in political organizations. The sample consisted of 192 people aged 65 and over who were active members of three types of political organizations: neighborhood associations, political parties/trade unions, and single-issue organizations. Their answers to an open-ended question were content analyzed, and a series of Chi-square tests were run to assess the association of the resulting categories with the type of organization in which participants were active. The results show that the motives for engaging in political organizations were mainly focused on introducing changes in the community, although the scope of the changes desired tended to vary. While some participants expressed idealistic motivations, others stated that they become involved in order to stand up for a cause in which they believed. One in six participants was motivated by self-interest, either related to personal growth or to self-protective needs. Motives for participating were related to the type of organization in which participants were active, suggesting that organizations should consider the influence of their own particular context and characteristics in developing recruitment and retention strategies.     

Review essay: on Mamdani’s mode of thought

This essay tracks the formation of a global intellectual, perhaps the only one, whose work moves across Africa, America and Asia. Mahmood Mamdani has been a central figure engaging in explaining the most controversial issues such as refugees, popular versus state nationalism, mass killings (Rowanda), settler versus native, colonial citizenship and its governed subject, September 11, the Dafur movement (and its self-indulgence), Imperial Human Rights, decolonizing university and knowledge production (the US as the first and never decololinzed), settler colonialism, etc. Fearless and thoroughly grounded, Mamdani’s mode of thought is to historicize the conditions of the existence of the problematics in question with a theorization emerging out of the analyses. As a whole, Mamdani’s political practices as educator and public intellectual and the body of brilliant work have been inspirational. The essay is written as an introduction to Decolonizing the World: A Mahmood Mamdani Reader, a collection of his selected work, to open the channel of interaction between Asia and Africa.     

Perceived Stepparent–Child Relationship Quality: A Systematic Review of Stepchildren's Perspectives

Stepfamily scholars have emphasized the importance of including stepchildren in the analysis and discussion of stepfamily life. This systematic review synthesized recent research examining predictors/correlates of stepparent–child relationship quality from the viewpoint of stepchildren in the United States. Five bibliographic databases were searched, resulting in 631 potentially relevant studies for review. Manual searches of three prominent family studies journals were also conducted. Screening and eligibility assessment based on a priori inclusion criteria yielded a final sample of 23 studies, including published studies and reports found in the “gray” literature. Significant predictors/correlates associated with stepchildren's perceptions of stepparent–child relationship quality were grouped into the following conceptual domains: individual characteristics, family characteristics, features of (step)parent–child interactions, and stepcouple dynamics. Limitations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.     

Young People’s Reactions Change Elderly People’s Generativity and Narratives: The Effects of Intergenerational Interaction on the Elderly

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the young listener’s reaction on the development of generativity and narratives of elderly people. Thirty-four males between the ages of 60 and 82 participated in this experiment in which the listener generations (young/elderly) and listener reactions (empathic/neutral) were controlled. The participants shared and taught their wisdom gained from their past experiences through narratives. Results showed that many elderly people spoke about “lessons from experiences of failure” when there was an empathic reaction from young people, and such narratives were promoted by an increase of generativity. These results suggested the impact of the younger people’s reaction on the elderly people’s psychological development and behavior.     

Negotiating Solidarity: Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and the ‘NGO-ization’ of Postcolonial Narrative

This essay examines the relationship between transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and postcolonial disasters as represented in literature. After the 1990s expansion of humanitarian organizations, a wide array of NGO-related literature emerges, including depictions of aid workers in fiction as well as humanitarian-authored narratives. While these texts contain a capacity for self-critique typically lacking in transnational NGO campaign materials, they remain mired in a ‘bureaucratic imagination’, sequestered from supposed beneficiaries. Alongside this literary development is an increasing pressure on postcolonial fiction to align with narrowly defined NGO missions, or what might be called an ‘NGO-ization of postcolonial narrative’. This essay interprets Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People as a vociferous refutation of such humanitarian pressure. Sinha stages the interaction between subaltern survivor and humanitarian benefactor not in terms of heroic salvation or radical rejection but as a conditional and negotiated solidarity. Disaster thus creates an opportunity to reimagine the subaltern-humanitarian relationship.     

‘The Older I Get,the Colder I Get’—Older People’s Perspectives on Coping in Cold Homes

Abstract

An average of 26,560 UK excess winter deaths occur in people 65+ years old each winter, of which 30% are attributed to cold homes. Cold homes are known to exacerbate health problems prevalent in the 65+ demographic. Through conducting interviews in homes occupied by 65+-year-olds known to be achieving less than the World Health Organization (WHO) minimum recommended temperature (18ºC), this article highlights their struggles in maintaining health and managing their homes, with instances of extreme and potentially dangerous methods to achieve thermal comfort identified. Fairer energy provision, better targeted financial aid, and improved support networks are necessary to alleviate current problems.     

Mead’s Analysis of Social Conflict: A Radical Interactionist’s Critique

Because Mead entered the pantheon of classic sociological thinkers much later than Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, sociologists have unsurprisingly devoted much more critical attention to their ideas than his. Perhaps, nowhere is the lack of this attention on their part more glaring than in his explanation of social conflict. Mead views the emergence and resolution of conflict as taking place within the social act, in which either individuals or groups may be the acting units, and attitudes, roles, significant symbols, and attitudinal assumption operate as the common, key components. As far as the emergence of conflict is concerned, he accounts for it on the basis of insufficient differentiation of roles, non-meritorious allocation of roles, and adoption of self-centered attitudes on the part of the participants during their construction of a social act. As far as the resolution of conflict is concerned, he predictably explains it on the basis of their expansion of role differentiation, distribution of roles on basis of merit, and the adoption of other-centered attitudes. Despite that Mead’s explanation of the resolution and emergence of conflict is relatively consistent and offers many profound insights, it suffers from several irresolvable problems. All these various problems can be traced back to his decision to rest his explanation on his much cherished principle of “sociality,” rather than domination, and thereby, ultimately, his rejection of a radical interactionist’s perspective. Thus, it is now long overdue for sociologists to consider the merits of a new, more radical interactionism as a replacement for his much older and more conventional counterpart, symbolic interactionism.     

Empirical Application of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior to Interventions for Children with Autism: A Review

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Sundberg and Michael (2011) reviewed the contributions of Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior to the treatment of language delays in children with autism...     

Turkish School Counselors’ Experiences of Reporting Child Sexual Abuse: A Brief Report

This article reports results from a qualitative study conducted with a purposive sample of 25 Turkish school counselors who reported child sexual abuse. Participants were asked to identify resources they consulted, describe how they felt, and identify sources of support and barriers in the reporting process. The laws (68%) were the most consulted resource, while negative feelings (84%) were cited the most. The most cited sources of support were colleagues, lawyers, and school principals (20% each), while school principals also ranked first as barriers (44%), followed by incest victims’ families (32%). Participants predominantly desired safety and security of the reporter ensured (48%). Implications for a more functional child protection system and a reporter-friendly legal system in Turkey are discussed.     

Wanting to Be Seen: Young People’s Experiences of Performative Making Out

People engage in sexual behavior for many reasons, some of which require an audience (e.g., arousing onlookers, making someone jealous). In this study, we investigated the prevalence, motivations, and outcomes of young people’s experiences with performative making out—making out with someone and wanting others to see. Of the 155 female and 194 male college students who completed the online questionnaire, 32% of the women and 37% of the men reported having done this, often before entering college. Significantly more women than men reported same-sex performative experiences. We used thematic analysis to identify themes in the qualitative data. Participants’ motivations included enhancing their image, causing jealousy or envy, demonstrating a relationship, sexually arousing men, and participating in fun and games. Men reported that their reputations were enhanced more often than damaged; women reported the opposite pattern. These results provide insights into the functions of sexual behavior as a means of communication and highlight gender differences consistent with problematic cultural belief systems such as “slut shaming,” victim blaming, and sexual double standards.