Similarities and Dissimilarities in Spouses’ Narratives of Miscarriage: A Dyadic Analysis of Communicated Narrative Sense-Making and Well-Being

Drawing upon communicated narrative sense-making (CNSM) theory, we explored how husbands and wives narratively make sense of their miscarriage and links to well-being. Specifically, we analyzed how the narrative theme, sequence, and similarity related to spouses’ perceived stress and relational satisfaction. Heterosexual married couples (n = 185; N = 370) who had experienced a miscarriage responded to online questionnaires in which they told the story of their pregnancy loss and completed measures of well-being. Seven miscarriage story themes emerged – hope lost, factual, time heals, helpful support, unhelpful support, cautiously optimistic, and guilt/shame. Findings demonstrated that husbands’ themes accounted for differences in their relational satisfaction, whereas wives’ themes accounted for differences in their perceived stress. Analyses on narrative similarity revealed couples with different themes reported higher relational satisfaction than those with similar themes. Further, those couples with the same narrative sequences (i.e., contaminated, redemptive, or ambivalent) reported less perceived stress than those with different narrative sequences. These findings suggest that storying miscarriage helps both husbands and wives process loss in unique ways.     

Neglected voices: Lessons from forensic investigation following neglect

In the field of child maltreatment research, it is known that child neglect is a relatively neglected phenomenon. The current study addresses children's perceptions of neglect and the importance of taking into account the processes that children undergo while providing their perceptions. This qualitative study used thematic analyses of forensic investigations of children with external evidence suggesting high probability of neglect. The aim of the study is to characterize the manner in which children narrate their experiences and perceptions following neglect and what lessons can be learned from these narratives. Forensic investigations were carried out with fifteen children, five girls and ten boys, aged seven to twelve years. All of the suspects were the children's biological parents, nine mothers and six fathers. The narrative analysis of the children's interviews generated five themes. These predominant themes represent the children's experiences regarding the maternal or paternal neglect: (1) Difficulties identifying neglect; (2) neglect revealed as the narrative of family life unfolds; (3) loyalty to parents; (4) collective view (siblings and me); and (5) prominent feelings (hope for the future, fear, and sadness). This study has implications to understanding children's testimonies in cases of neglect and for welfare practices. The inability of children to verbalize the neglect they underwent in the initial interview contributes to the understanding of the importance of allocating resources to families and community services and not only relying on report-response strategies.     

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.     

An approach of the moral disengagement through the moral content judgment

ABSTRACT

The goal of the present study was the best understanding of the development of mechanisms of moral disengagement. Participants were 281 athletes (males, n = 133, and females, n = 148) all involved in competitive sport (teams and individuals). Their ages ranged from 13 to 23 years (M = 15.01, SD = 2.29), while their experience ranged from 1 to15 years (M = 5.42, SD = 3.13). The participants filled out two questionnaires: the Moral Disengagement in Sport Scale (MDSS) and the Moral Content Judgment in Sport Questionnaire (MCJSQ). Results revealed significant differences in gender and a negative correlation between the three mechanisms of moral disengagement (advantageous comparison, non-responsibility, and attribution of blame) with age. Findings also revealed that the mechanisms of moral disengagement relationship with elements of moral content judgment was positive with egoistic utilitarianism/consequences and negative with fairness.     

Negotiating Personal Experience over the Lifetime: Narrative Elasticity as an Analytic Tool

Sociology and neighboring disciplines have produced different analytic tools to examine the dialogical relationship between individuals and society (“narrative work,” “identity work,” “moral career,” “moral breakdown”). However, the question of how individuals negotiate the interpretation of personal experience over their lifetimes in a changing cultural context remains unexplored. This article introduces narrative elasticity as a feature of narrative work and as a time‐sensitive analytic tool for conducting inquiries into processes of temporal retraction and expansion of what storytellers conceive as the normal order of significance. The application of this tool to the analysis of mature and elderly Chileans' life stories shows how cultural change occurs at the individual level, considers factors that motivate and inhibit processes of reinterpretation of personal experience, and identifies different levels at which it operates.     

Exploring wellbeing and agency among urban youth through photovoice

This study elicited adolescent perspectives of wellbeing and agency using photovoice, a method that employs co-creation of meaning and knowledge around pictorial images. Participants (n = 12) were Baltimore City high school students in the 9th–11th grades, and diverse in terms of gender and race. Participants used cameras to photograph images that expressed wellbeing and agency. They then discussed, in focus groups, how their pictures reflected those constructs and their relationship to decision-making and academic success. Students highlighted different facets of individual and community wellbeing, as well as where and how wellbeing is fostered in their family, school, and neighborhood environments. Respondents differentiated between good and bad agency. They noted the power of agency as the power to change things, and the obligation that such power carries for themselves and the adults around them. Woven through both domains was respondents' future orientation; many of their observations were derived from the perceived impact on their own and others' academic and life trajectories. This research contributes to the wellbeing and agency research literature by adding the perspectives of urban adolescent youth. Findings also inform the development of more participatory community school-based interventions to foster wellbeing and agency among adolescents.     

The ethics of urban and epic Russian fantasy

Moral paradigms are fundamental to most works of fantasy fiction. Two moral standpoints dominate recent Russian fantasy fiction and film: individualism and collectivism. Individualism believes in the superior value of personal experience, whereas collectivism prioritizes the benefit to the group. This article contrasts Sergei Luk'ianenko’s novella “Destiny” (Svoia sud'ba) with Timur Bekmambetov’s film adaptation Night Watch (Nochnoi dozor) to demonstrate that the moral paradigms of individualism and collectivism can be tied respectively to urban and epic subgenres of fantasy fiction. The author demonstrates that an inclination toward individualism in the urban “Destiny” and toward collectivism in the epic Night Watch leads to contrasting representations of alterity in the works. Individualist and collectivist orientations affect how the works comment on the human tendency to discriminate between oneself and others. The author uses examples from “Destiny” and Night Watch to argue that the narrative strategies associated with urban fantasy promote inclusive paradigms of alterity, whereas those associated with epic fantasy tend to advance confrontational mentalities.     

Narratives of suffering among older Jewish women

This paper analyzes what 30 elderly Jewish women said about suffering. Their views must be understood in the larger context of Jewish culture in America. A fundamental question here concerns the degree to which the Holocaust, the ultimate in suffering for Jews, is used as a personal comparison for the suffering of these women. Relatively few mentioned the Holocaust in their personal narrative of suffering. Nevertheless, the Holocaust was always a silent presence in these narratives. Our data analysis found seven themes in the in the interview material about suffering. These are: (1) a general lack of direct reference to the Holocaust as the exemplar of personal suffering; (2) a focus on the need to survive; (3) the pervasiveness of disease-related pain and discomfort; (4); miserable life experiences; (5) reviewing life and encountering the end of life; (6) discrimination; and (7) suffering as a cultural construct.Most people experience suffering at some point in their lives. Some may outlive their suffering, but most never forget it. While suffering at any one time may be intense, some people may grow away from this experience, particularly when their minds are set on other things. Narratives of suffering can become important personal testimonies and, for Jews, collective testimony. Accessing narratives of suffering through interviewing or conversation brings such experiences to the surface, painful as they might be. Yet each retelling of such a story represents a victory of sorts, as the teller says, “I am still here.”In this paper we examine narratives of suffering among 30 elderly American Jewish women age 80 and above. Nearly all were born in the United States, but were the first or second generation to be born here. While the emphasis on Americanism and becoming an American was quite strong among these immigrant generations and their children, a symbolic connection to the old country was still maintained through cultural praxis.     

Voices from the stories untold: Lesbian,gay, bisexual,trans, and queer college students' experiences with campus climate

ABSTRACT

Twelve self-identified college students within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) spectrum were interviewed on campus climate perceptions and their experiences of discrimination and isolation at their university. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes from the data. This process resulted in the emergence of three themes, identified as discrimination, isolation, and avoidance. The most salient experiences of discrimination and isolation reported by participants came from within LGBTQ organizations or from lesbian or gay male individuals that participants sought out for social support. LGBTQ intra-community discrimination was considered to be particularly damaging to participants' sense of belonging and involvement within the LGBTQ community. Discrimination and isolation from straight-identified organizations or individuals was reported mostly in the context of fraternities/sororities and religious organizations. Furthermore, actions by members of these latter groups caused participants to avoid these groups out of expectations of negative interactions. These results inform empirical research to bring awareness to acts of discrimination that continue to take place within the university toward LGBTQ students. Specific implications for social work practice with LGBTQ college students and future research on diverse LGBTQ populations and resources are discussed.     

Embodied Faith: Agency and Obedience among Face-veiled University Students in Indonesia

This article analyses the life experiences of face-veiled university students and their involvement in the Salafi Islamic revivalist movement in Indonesia. Studies on Salafi groups in Indonesia have often neglected the face-veiling practices of women, who are the main female constituents of the groups. Focusing on women's adoption of the cadar (face-veil) and their religious transformation, this article demonstrates how veiling shapes women's formation as religious subjects. Drawing on the life experiences of young women in several groups, this article shows that fulfilling religious obligation is the women's main priority. Their life experiences and the process of negotiating wearing the cadar reveal their struggle to reconstruct their religious identity and their capacity for exercising a specific type of religious agency.     

Adopted children and young people's views on their life storybooks: The role of narrative in the formation of identities

This paper reports interviews conducted with twenty children and young people adopted from the care system in England, exploring their experiences and views of their life storybooks and examines the role of life storybooks as a form of narrative that contributes to identity development. Despite being a widely used intervention in direct social work practice in England and enshrined as a requirement in law for all looked after children placed for adoption there is little known about how children experience their life storybooks. The data revealed three core themes related to the child's story, identity and communicative openness. These themes provide insights from the children about the levels of honesty in the narrative conveyed, concerns about gaps in their biographies, the importance of treasured material possessions alongside their book, their adoptive identity and the importance of different levels of openness in discussions about their adoptive status. There are a number of important practice implications outlined, as well as an identified need for more research on this topic.     

A scoping study of moral injury: Identifying directions for social work research

This paper presents a scoping study of moral injury that identified directions for social work research. “Moral injury” refers to lasting psychological, spiritual and social harm caused by one's own or others' actions in a high stakes situation that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations. A “scoping study” is a type of systematic review and knowledge synthesis useful when considering complex, emerging areas of research. Results revealed an increasing interest in moral injury over the past five years primarily in psychology/psychiatry. The majority of published articles are conceptual. Empirical studies aim to better understand the experience of moral injury, qualitatively; and develop and evaluate instruments to assess moral injury, quantitatively. Most empirical studies of moral injury involve US war veterans with little attention to moral injury in other groups, sociocultural contexts, or at different times in development. Failure to address issues of moral injury in social work may leave vulnerable clients struggling with issues of guilt, shame, moral confusion, and an absence of meaning that may persist for years and create obstacles to positive change. In addition, social workers may experience moral injury as they witness morally injurious behavior of others and of systems. If unaddressed, such injuries may diminish effectiveness, or lead to burn out. Social workers need relevant research to understand the extent to which moral injury affects them and their clients, and how to identify and address it.     

On reflexivity and the conduct of the self in everyday life: reflections on Bourdieu and Archer

This article provides a critique of the concept of reflexivity in social theory today and argues against the tendency to define agency exclusively in terms of reflexivity. Margaret Archer, in particular, is highlighted as a key proponent of this thesis. Archer argues that late modernity is characterized by reflexivity but, in our view, this position neglects the impact of more enduring aspects of agency, such as the routinization of social life and the role of the taken‐for‐granted. These concepts were pivotal to Bourdieu and Giddens' theorization of everyday life and action and to Foucault's understanding of technologies of the self. We offer Bourdieu's habitus as a more nuanced approach to theorizing agency, and provide an alternative account of reflexivity. Whilst accepting that reflexivity is a core aspect of agency, we argue that it operates to a backdrop of the routinization of social life and operates from within and not outside of habitus. We highlight the role of the breach in reflexivity, suggesting that it opens up a critical window for agents to initiate change. The article suggests caution in over‐ascribing reflexivity to agency, instead arguing that achieving reflexivity and change is a difficult and fraught process, which has emotional and moral consequences. The effect of this is that people often prefer the status quo, rather than to risk change and uncertainty.     

Young people's narratives of depression

This article reports on findings from a study, which aimed to gain insight into young people's depression as a part of their life course by analysing written accounts of 81 young Finnish people who self-identified as having been depressed. The participants’ accounts were seen as reflecting both their actual life and their narrative interpretations of it in relation to the prevailing normative conceptions regarding youth. The accounts can be grouped into four main story types. The story type referred to as growing up on a sidetrack depicts depression as having its origins in childhood adversities that hinder the realisation of normative goals. Falling off the track depicts how a young person's life can be derailed as a result of experiences that cause or exacerbate depression. In the story missing the track, depression is intertwined with one's experience of failure in meeting normative expectations, whereas the story questioning the track features the problematisation of such expectations. The results underscore the importance of tackling different adverse conditions in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood in a timely fashion, as well as the importance of therapy, counselling and guidance, which help young people to manage difficulties and depression in their life.     

Perceived Professional Gains of Master's Level Students Following a Person‐of‐the‐Therapist Training Program: A Retrospective Content Analysis

The Person‐of‐the‐Therapist Training (POTT) is a program designed to facilitate clinicians' ability to consciously and purposefully use themselves at the moment of contact with their clients in order to connect, assess, and intervene effectively. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 54 master's‐level students who were enrolled in an accredited marriage and family therapy program in the United States and examined their perceived professional gains following a 9‐month POTT course. Content analysis of trainees' reflections which they wrote at the end of the training revealed 6 primary themes: (a) increased awareness, (b) emotions, (c) improved clinical work, (d) humanity and woundedness, (e) meta‐awareness, and (f) factors that contributed to the learning process. Findings suggest that key outcomes of this training curriculum are congruent with its stated goals. Clinical and training recommendations are additionally provided. Video Abstract     

Coping with trauma in domestic migrant worker narratives: Linguistic,emotional and psychological perspectives

Trauma can be defined as an event that goes beyond ordinary modes of experience and linguistic representation. It represents a break not just with a particular form of representation but with the possibility of representation at all. Drawing on a large corpus of domestic migrant worker narratives, the article analyses trauma narratives in which migrant women share their experiences while working for abusive employers. The stories deal with unspeakable suffering and humiliation, and the article attempts to outline the narrative structures that characterise trauma storytelling: broken narratives with voids in the narrative flow. It also analyses the emotional component of trauma narratives focusing on crying, which is seen as an authentication of feeling and meaning. Finally, the article considers how the women make sense of their traumatic experiences, and how peer support becomes essential in the narrators' attempts to rewrite their life stories from victimhood to survival and beyond.     

Persistence and desistance in heavy cannabis use: the role of identity,agency, and life events

Many cannabis users ‘mature out’ of their drug use, and factors of cannabis use cessation have been identified. However, very little in-depth knowledge is available about the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. Criminological studies have gained interesting insights in desistance from crime, yet these perspectives are rarely used in drug research. This qualitative, three-year longitudinal study explored the processes involved in desistance from frequent cannabis use for young adults. Using a narrative approach, desisters (frequent users who successfully quit their cannabis use) and persisters (frequent users with a persistent desire and unsuccessful attempts to quit) were compared. In the course of the study, desisters mainly exhibited increasing agency and goal setting, established strategies to achieve these goals, and could envision another self. Desistance was generally induced by life events that became turning points. Persisters experienced largely similar events, but lacked goals and strategies and held external factors responsible for their life course and failed quit attempts. Identity change is at the core of desistance from frequent cannabis use, and the meaning-giving to life events and experiences is essential. Agency is a necessary ingredient for desistance, develops over time and through action, and leads to a new drug-free identity with desistance in turn increasing agency.     

“I'm Still Fighting for the Two of Us”: How Partners of UK Veterans Construct Their Experience of Living with Combat‐Related Trauma

There has been little qualitative research into the experiences of UK partners of veterans with PTSD. This study therefore aimed to explore how partners constructed their experiences of living with the condition. Fifteen female partners of male UK veterans were recruited and interviewed. Using a social constructionist thematic analysis, five themes were constructed: the women's need to subdue own emotional and behavioral responses; dilemmas about whether the veteran was unwell or ‘bad’; attempts at negotiating multiple roles; challenging the narrative of veterans as heroes; and the relational struggle with the transition to nonmilitary life. This study highlighted the importance of considering the veteran as existing within a relational and cultural context, and the need to include partners in therapeutic interventions.     

Stakeholder Perspectives on Children's Mental Health Needs and Supports in Six Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC) are faced with disproportionately high levels of unmet child mental health needs. This study explored through interviews the perspectives of 17 inter‐agency service stakeholders from Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Rwanda and Turkey on existing supports and challenges. Four themes emerged on the holistic nature of children's mental health needs linked with disadvantage; limited resources and skilled workforce; stigma; and strategies for future implementation, including awareness, parental engagement, skills‐based programmes and cultural adaptation. Stakeholder input is essential in conceptualising, developing and evaluating culturally appropriate interventions for vulnerable children in LMIC.