Empowerment, Identity and Participatory Research: using social action research to challenge isolation for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities

This paper considers the practice of empowerment within a social action approach, and the importance of an analysis of issues of identity, for an understanding of the experience of individuals and their communities. The discussion is grounded in the experience of conducting a research project on the 'needs of deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities', living in the London Borough of Merton. The theme of 'isolation' is taken as a focus for the discussion. It was identified by respondents to be of central importance to an understanding of their experience. The Social Model of Disability and the concept of Deaf Culture are used to explore the complex set of relationships that characterise the day-to-day reality for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities, and recommendations are made to assist researchers and service providers in developing a more empowering practice.     

Participatory action research with asylum seekers and refugees experiencing stigma and discrimination: the experience from Scotland

Using evidence from a participatory action research process with over 100 asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland, this study explores participants’ views on mental health problems, stigma and discrimination. The study found that migration can have adverse effects on mental health and well-being, due to racism and the asylum process, and this is worsened by stigma and discrimination. This stigma is influenced by both social and cultural causal factors, including fear, past trauma, isolation, racism and the stress of the asylum process coupled with negative cultural beliefs about mental health problems. The paper considers the international relevance of this approach and the value of a model grounded in principles of community development and grassroots action.     

Natural experiment methodology for research: a review of how different methods can support real-world research

In particular research domains, the randomized control trial (RCT) is considered to be the only means for obtaining reliable estimates of the true impact of an intervention. However, an RCT design would often not be considered ethical, politically feasible, or appropriate for evaluating the impact of many policy, programme, or structural changes common in public health research. As such, researchers must use alternative yet robust research methods for determining the impact of such interventions. The evaluation of natural experiments (i.e. an intervention not controlled or manipulated by researchers), using various experimental and non-experimental design options can provide an alternative to the RCT. The following review highlights (a) the importance of evaluating natural experiments; (b) design considerations associated with evaluating natural experiments; (c) methods for reducing bias in natural experimental studies; and (d) the potential benefits of targeted systems to enable natural experiments in emerging priority domains moving forward.     

An evaluation of the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM): Recidivism outcomes for maltreated youth involved in the juvenile justice system

This study examined youth recidivism (reoffending) outcomes of the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) in an urban county in a Midwestern state. Crossover youth are defined as maltreated youth who have engaged in delinquency. Decreased recidivism is one of the primary outcomes targeted by the CYPM. Previous internal, exploratory research on recidivism indicates positive outcomes for CYPM youth. In the current study, we used a quasi-experimental, post-test only design with independent historical and contemporaneous comparison samples. We linked state-level data from the State Court Information System with the Child Protection Administrative Data and the Automated Report Student System. Youth receiving CYPM services were less likely to recidivate than propensity score matched youth receiving “services as usual” even when controlling for location, time and other key covariates. Study limitations and implications are discussed.     

Place,power, and possibility: Remaking social work with children and youth

This article introduces the work of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and activists who critically examine the nature and boundaries of social work with children and youth. Their works explore the institutional and social spaces shaping young people's lives; deconstruct discourses, policies, and practices that shape meanings and experiences of childhood; and consider challenges for social work and possibilities for transformative action. In this essay the editors address the social construction of childhood; outline a framework for analysis informed by an understanding of the cultural politics of childhood; consider the relationship between neoliberal globalization and contemporary thought and practice regarding children and youth; and introduce cutting-edge scholarship addressing place, power, and possibility and the remaking of social work with children and youth.     

Education,socialization and community: Coping with marginal youth in rural frontier communities in Israel

This article is an enquiry into the social and cultural phenomenon of a group of youth at risk who live in community settlements in isolated rural areas. The aim of the article is to focus upon the ambivalent views these youths at risk have regarding the above communities which were collected in twelve in-depth interviews carried out with youth counsellors, social workers and members of the families of the youths at risk in the community settlements. In the process of analyzing the data the central themes concerning social exclusion versus inclusion as well as the difficulty of defining the boundaries of the community arose. This social arena exhibits how the phenomena of youth at risk at small communities, express the discussion of the legitimate non-conformist reality about new normative boundaries of the community resulting from these adolescents' social processes. We will show how different players simultaneously act in the community in the way they deal with the youth at risk (in non-formal education, teaching and care authorities, the community) and how each of them influences the formation of the definition of its boundaries in their decision to include and embrace or to exclude and ignore the marginal youth among them. In other words not only are different social forces not operating as a consensus by virtue of the struggle they are engaged in, they are even expressing social messages that deal with the formation of the local community in its broadest and narrowest sense.     

A comparison of outcomes for children and youth in foster and residential group care across agencies

Working collaboratively with two state associations and their member (nonprofit) agencies providing out-of-home care to children and youth, University researchers conducted a multi-site project to examine whether there were any differences in individual child-level outcomes between children placed in residential group care and those placed in foster. The study employed a quasi-experimental repeated measures design, with data collected at a minimum of two intervals (at intake and 3-month follow-up) and at subsequent intervals of 6 and 12 months for children remaining in care. Samples for analyses were drawn from 1082 youth in either residential group care (n = 903) or foster care (n = 179), in one of 37 agency sites across two southeastern states, who participated in a broader evaluation project. The average ages of participating youth in residential and foster care were 13.97 (SD = 2.43) and 13.65 (SD = 2.73), respectively. Based on his or her score on the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) at intake, each participant was also assigned to the low functioning group (n = 526; 53.1%), the borderline group (n = 232; 23.4%), or the high functioning group (n = 232; 23.4%). Analyses confirmed that youth in foster care tended to have higher levels of general functioning at baseline than did youth placed in group care. However, the degree to which youth progressed in care on measures of general functioning and mental and behavioral health problems did not differ based on placement setting; youth in residential group care settings progressed at the same rate as youth in community-based settings, regardless of their level of functioning at intake. The only exception to this pattern was in regard to anxiety; there was an observable, but non-significant trend of youth in foster care reporting decreases in anxiety levels, while those in group care reported increased anxiety.     

Asking for Change: Feasibility,acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a manualized photovoice intervention with youth experiencing homelessness

Photovoice is a participatory action research method that empowers participants to photograph their everyday lives as a means of documenting and advocating for their needs; it has rarely been utilized with young people experiencing homelessness. The current study examined the feasibility, accessibility, and preliminary outcomes associated with participation in Asking for Change, a manualized Photovoice intervention, among youth (ages 18–21) staying in a homeless shelter (N = 22). Multiple sources of data, including field observation, standardized pre-post measures, and qualitative exit interviews were collected across two cohorts of Asking for Change. Results suggest the intervention was feasible and highly acceptable to many young people, created new opportunities to connect with young people, and, among those surveyed pre and post intervention (n = 9), was associated with improvements in communication skills, social connectedness, resiliency, and well-being. This article discusses the challenges and benefits inherent in doing this work and outlines a robust research agenda to move this knowledge base forward.     

Sexual health behaviors and outcomes among current and former foster youth: A review of the literature

This review examines literature related to pregnancy, sexual health outcomes, and sexual risk behaviors for foster youth and youth who are aging/have aged out of foster care. Using the search terms foster youth, aging out, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, sexually transmitted infections, sexual risk, sexual behavior, and sexual health, 26,376 sources were initially identified. After removing duplicate sources and those that did not meet inclusion criteria and adding others identified through the references of identified sources, 53 sources were included in the review. Outcome measures were grouped into broad categories of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and risky sexual behaviors, with each having several subparts. Implications for social work practice and policy are presented and directions for future research are highlighted.     

Trajectories of discrimination among Chinese American youth: Variation,predictors, and outcomes

Using 3 waves of longitudinal data from 444 Chinese American adolescents (M_age = 13.04 at Wave 1, 54% identified as women), the current study explored if there was variation in discrimination trajectories from early to late adolescence and whether contextual and individual factors predicted trajectories as well as if trajectories were associated with academic achievement and mental health. Three distinct discrimination trajectories were identified: low-increasing, moderate-stable, and high-decreasing. The results also revealed that neighborhood Chinese concentration and adolescents' acculturation predicted discrimination trajectories. Different trajectories were also associated with depressive symptoms; adolescents in the high-decreasing trajectory reported higher levels of depressive symptoms in late adolescence than in the other two trajectories. The findings highlight the heterogeneity in Chinese American adolescents' discrimination experience.     

Beyond the rhetoric: strategies for implementing culturally effective practice with children,families, and communities

Culturally effective practice remains elusive within child welfare agencies. Recognizing the hierarchical nature of becoming culturally competent, this article presents specific strategies that enhance cultural effectiveness at the individual, interprofessional, middle management, and upper management levels. The approaches evolve from a five-stage model of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Becoming culturally competent requires a clear assessment of where the individual practitioner and agency are on the change continuum. The article also explores barriers to culturally competent practice, with a focus on multilevel strategies that work within child welfare agencies.     

Inclusive education services for children and youth with disabilities: Values,roles and challenges of school leaders

Implementing inclusive education requires significant changes to values, systems, and practices. Hong Kong began to implement the inclusive education policy on the basis of voluntary participation in 1997. The government later launched a school partnership scheme, under which schools with proficient practices in whole-school approach to inclusive education were invited to serve as resource schools to support other schools. Data on what has led school leaders to join the reform under the policy of voluntary participation and how they tackle problems during implementation cannot be located. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study is to uncover the reasons for school leaders' decision to participate in and what they did to facilitate the school wide effort to practice inclusive education, as well as challenges encountered. Key findings included Christianity and Confucianism as the prime reasons for practicing inclusive education, partnership with teachers and a shared vision as the key to successful implementation, and a competitive education system together with inadequate resources and teacher training as the main challenges. Recommendations consist of incorporating value development and building relationships with stakeholders in principal training programs, integrating knowledge and skills for inclusive education into the pre- and in-service teacher training programs, and appropriating resources with increased stability and autonomy.     

Child abuse,child protection and disabled children: a review of recent research

This paper reports the results of a scoping study that reviewed research about child abuse, child protection and disabled children published in academic journals between 1996 and 2009. The review was conducted using a five stage method for scoping studies. Several studies have revealed a strong association between disability and child maltreatment, indicating that disabled children are significantly more likely to experience abuse than their non‐disabled peers. Those with particular impairments are at increased risk. There is evidence that the interaction of age, gender and/or socio‐cultural factors with impairment results in different patterns of abuse to those found among non‐disabled children although the reasons for this require further examination. It appears that therapeutic services and criminal justice systems often fail to take account of disabled children's needs and heightened vulnerability. In Britain, little is known about what happens to disabled children who have been abused and how well safeguarding services address their needs. Very few studies have sought disabled children's own accounts of abuse or safeguarding. Considerable development is required, at both policy and practice level, to ensure that disabled children's right to protection is upheld. The paper concludes by identifying a number of aspects of the topic requiring further investigation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Participatory video: toward a method,advocacy and voice (MAV) framework

Using the new conceptual framework of participatory visual media as method, advocacy and voice (MAV), the author explores an action research study using an exemplar in which advocates from the disability community created and distributed a series of videos about love and sexuality as a critical human rights issue in the disability community. The author proposes that conceptualizing these three areas as overlapping, rather than being mutually exclusive, offers an integrated way of understanding collaborative media practices that are community-based and action-oriented. Methodological, practical and ethical considerations are also addressed regarding collaborative-based research that involves public distribution.     

(Not) talking about sex: youth, identity and sexuality

Young people remain inhibited in their exploration of sexuality not only by heterosexual morality and gendered power relations but also by their transitional status, yet the age dimension of youth and sexuality has been relatively neglected in recent research. This paper examines a number of social constraints on young people's opportunities for talk and discussion about sex, with reference to their experiences of sex education and services in sexual health. Based on interviews with 147 young women and young men and a separate survey of 400 clinic users, it emphasises the limited social acceptance of teenage sexuality and the forms of its regulation, which are both normative and relational. Attention to social relations with adults also shows how questions of sexual citizenship are closely connected to wider issues of social equality.     

Precarious leisure: (re)imagining youth,transitions and temporality

ABSTRACT

The precarity of young people’s transitions to work has been a longstanding focus in youth studies. As Furlong and others have demonstrated, processes of social, political and economic restructuring have led to a pronounced instability for young people entering the labour market. While the notion of labour market precarity has gained attention, the ‘contamination’ of precarity into other spheres of life such as leisure has been less developed. This article seeks to extend these debates through interrogation of the concept of ‘leisure precarity’. Drawing on a qualitative study of youth leisure in Glasgow, it argues that temporal anxieties have reframed young people’s experiences and understandings of leisure such that young people have come to fear ‘empty’ or unproductive time. The pressures of juggling work and study, or looking for work, meant that most participants in our research had limited time free for leisure, and temporal rhythms became fragmented between past, present and future. The paper argues that these multiple and contradictory leisure dispositions reveal new forms of individualisation and uncertainty, as well as traditional patterns of inequality, thereby bringing youth transitions into dialogue with the study of precarity in the twenty-first century.     

School outcomes for homeless children: differences among sheltered,doubled-up,and poor,housed children

Some definitions of child homelessness include the category of children who are doubled-up with others due to loss of housing or economic hardship, while others do not. Are doubled-up children more like children in shelters or children who are poor but housed? A quasi-experimental comparison group design was used to test empirically for differences in school mobility, school attendance, and reading and mathematics achievement among three groups of sheltered, doubled-up, and poor, housed children, respectively, with each group containing 49 students. Sheltered students were found to have significantly higher levels of school mobility and significantly lower rates of school attendance than students in the other two groups. An elaboration of the continuum of risk model is proposed to differentiate experiences of sheltered and doubled-up students. Recommendations are made for policy responses as well as future research.