Trajectories of positive youth development and promotive factors among adolescents during the transition to high school in China

Within the framework of positive youth development (PYD) and life course theory, this study was designed to examine patterns of PYD and promotive factors over the first semester of Chinese high school with a sample of 480 students (boys, 43.96%). The growth mixture model identified four trajectories of PYD, labeled high start–fast decreasing, high start–low decreasing, low start–low increasing, and mid–persistent. Results also showed that membership in a PYD trajectory is significantly related to three promotive factors: parental involvement, teacher involvement, and intentional self-regulation. These findings have important theoretical and practical insights for a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of positive development in adolescents following the critical period surrounding the transition to high school.     

Physical and social barriers to social relationships: voices of rural disabled women in the USA

Through exploring the lived experiences of disabled women, this study investigates how physical and social barriers affect their social relationships. In‐depth tape‐recorded interviews investigating a variety of social and interpersonal issues were conducted with 24 women with physical or visual impairments who lived in a rural region of the midwestern USA. Using content analysis, the researchers examined interview data for common themes and patterns relating to social relationships. The findings indicate that physical barriers, related to the physical environment and personal physicality, along with social barriers, involving preconceptions of others about impairment and restrictions in personal networks, hamper the initiation and maintenance of social relationships. Further, the experiences of this group of disabled women corresponded most closely with the premises of a social relational understanding of disability.     

From multiple barriers to a co-prosperity society: the development of a legal system for disabled people in China

Abstract

The legal system for disabled people has progressed significantly since China’s government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 10 years ago. The newly released ‘New Progress in the Legal Protection of Human Rights in China’ has attracted widespread attention because it advocates that the protection of human rights for disabled people should be reflected not only in legislative and judicial aspects but also in administrative sectors and international affairs. This article explains that the legal system involving dozens of laws and decrees in China aims to break through multiple barriers experienced by disabled persons and is beneficial to building a co-prosperity society in China. With the vigorous development of the international disability rights movement, ways to seize domestic and international opportunities to build a disabled-friendly social atmosphere deserve additional research.     

The Therapist's Imagination of Self in Relation to Clients: Beginning Ideas on the Flexibility of Empathic Imagination

The therapist's capacity to imagine is one specific part of the endeavour of empathy which lies at the heart of the processes of the therapeutic relationship. This article offers beginning ideas about the significance of therapist's imagination of self in relation to her/his clients in the task of trying to understand their experience. In seeking to ‘understand’ the experience of others, the therapist is able to move between an imagination of sameness/identification with the client/s, and an imagination of difference/‘foreignness’. The family therapy orientation of curiosity and ‘not‐knowing’ relies on the imagination of self as different to our clients; more traditional understandings of empathic connection rely more heavily on the imagination of sameness/identification with clients. This article argues that flexibility in the therapist's use of self in moving between these positions allows an expanded capacity for therapeutic connectedness. These ideas have special valence in the practice territories of impasse and intercultural therapy.     

‘Nobody wants to sound like a provinciano’: The recession of unstressed vowel devoicing in the Spanish of Cusco,Perú1

This study documents changes in the prevalence and evaluation of unstressed vowel devoicing, a salient characteristic of Andean Spanish, in the city of Cusco, Perú following an earthquake in 1950. This event brought city residents into contact with other dialects of Spanish that lack vowel devoicing and also intensified their exposure to the Quechua‐accented Spanish of rural migrants, or provincianos, which is characterized by this pronunciation. Results of an attitude‐perception study indicate that younger Cusqueñans are aware of devoicing and identify it primarily with the speech of provincianos rather than the Spanish of their city. However, acoustic analysis of interviews conducted with Cusqueñans and provincianos shows that, while the pronunciation is receding from Cusco Spanish, many city natives actually exhibit rates of devoicing similar to those of rural migrants. Cusqueñans’ nearly exclusive association of devoicing with provincianos is attributed to local ideology, including negative attitudes toward rural Andean identity. La presente investigación describe cambios en Ia incidencia y evaluación del ensordecimiento de las vocales átonas, una peculiaridad notable del español andino en Cusco, Perú, durante las décadas posteriores al terremoto que devastó Ia ciudad en 1950. Debido a este acontecimiento, los cusqueños aumentaron su contacto con otros dialectos del español que no exhiben el ensordecimiento vocálico así como con el español de los inmigrantes de zonas rurales, o provincianos, que se caracteriza por este fenómeno fonético. Los resultados de un estudio de actitudes indican que los cusqueños jóvenes son conscientes del ensordecimiento vocálico y lo identifican con el acento de los provincianos pero no lo relacionan con el habla de su propia ciudad. Sin embargo, según el análisis acústico de las entrevistas realizadas a cusqueños y a provincianos, muchos residentes de Ia ciudad siguen empleando esta pronunciación con básicamente Ia misma frecuencia que los provincianos. La asociación del ensordecimiento vocálico con los provincianos, casi exclusiva por parte de los cusqueños jóvenes, es atribuida a actitudes negativas hacia Ia identidad rural andina. [Spanish]     

向服务经济转型背景下的城市社会二元化趋势及其应对思路——以北京为例

主要表现为阶层和空间分割与极化的二元化现象,正在成为以信息化为主要标志的产业结构快速升级的城市中,社会演变的主要趋势之一。这种情况积累了较多的社会问题,是后工业社会城市面临的主要社会难题之一。对北京的分析表明,其近年来产业结构高级化过程中的社会变化轨迹表现出了明显的二元化趋势,本文还就此提出了有针对性的应对思路。