Bangkok flooded: re(assembling) disaster mobility

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates mobility options and practices of irregular migrant workers and international urban refugees during the 2011 flood in Bangkok, Thailand. Contributing to debates on disaster mobility and climate change induced displacement, the paper explores how citizenship and racialized differences unfolded during the flood event and how such differences had (de)mobilising effects for specific subgroups of Bangkok’s irregular population. Drawing on the concepts of assemblage and affect the paper proposes to perceive of race as emergent within concrete interactions between bodies, rather than a pre-given social category or a purely discursive trope. From this perspective the body itself may become a repository to subvert or manipulate racialized perceptions. The paper argues that approaching race as an emerging assemblage helps to shed light both on the demobilising effects race had on people’s mobility as well as on the fleeting moments of generosity and care between people that proliferated alongside such demobilisations.     

Transgender Identities,Pressures, and Social Policy: A Study Carried Out in Spain

ABSTRACT

This article draws on a qualitative research project concerning the relationship between trans people’s mental health and wellbeing, pressures, social policy, and heteronormative gender norms in Spain. Drawing on interviews carried out with trans people from all regions and generations, we use an ecological framework to illustrate how a socially entrenched heteronormativity pressures trans people to comply with gender norms that impact negatively their mental health and wellbeing. The article argues that the legal changes in Spain are not enough in themselves to bring about social change, but, rather, Spanish social policy makers also need to challenge gender categorization and work toward transforming public discourses on gender issues if trans people are to gain full social recognition and equal social rights.     

城市老年人社会活动参与对其健康的影响--基于CHARLS 2011年数据

基于2011年“中国健康与养老追踪调查”全国基线调查数据,研究城市老年人社会活动参与对其健康的影响。研究结果发现社会活动参与对老年人日常生活活动能力、抑郁情绪均有显著影响。社会活动参与越多的老年人,在日常生活活动能力方面表现得越好;抑郁情绪也越少。可见,社会活动参与能有效改善老年人的健康水平。本文的研究结论支持了活动理论的观点,即老年人参与社会活动,可以增进他们的身体和心理健康水平。此外,本文还发现性别、年龄、婚姻状况、医疗保险、吸烟、喝酒等变量均对老年人健康有显著影响。     

Will boys’ mental health fare worse under a hotter climate in Australia?

A hotter climate is increasingly found to have negative effects on human health, yet the possible impact on children’s mental health is less understood. Our study explored this potential relationship using a national survey of children aged 6–11 across Australia, during the period 2008–2014 (n?=?14,096). It was hypothesised that the negative effects of hotter weather on children’s mental health can occur both directly (e.g. through heat impacts influencing hyperactivity and restlessness) and indirectly (e.g. through reduced participation in organised physical activities). Mediation analysis controlled for a range of other locational, gender, socio-economic and demographic influences. Results indicate that an increase in annual average daily maximum temperature worsened childhood mental health due to a direct and indirect effect through reduced participation in organised physical activities, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) total score, but the result is only significant for boys (albeit the magnitude of the effect was small). More specifically, temperature differences are driven through the SDQ mental health sub-scales of hyperactivity and peer problems. Gender disparities are also observed in terms of other environmental or locational influences having a significant impact on boys’ mental health, with no significant impact found for girls. Girls’ mental health is more likely influenced by family and individual socio-economic characteristics. There is also evidence of an increased impact of higher temperature on children’s mental health in poorer households, suggesting the need for more targeted children’s mental health policies.     

Maternal mental health in Australia and New Zealand: A review of longitudinal studies

AimThe aim of this paper is to describe the factors that impact on the mental health of Australian and New Zealand (NZ) women in the perinatal period (pregnancy and the year following birth), and to determine the impact of perinatal mental health on women's subsequent health by summarising findings from prospective longitudinal studies conducted in Australia and NZ.MethodsA systematic search was conducted using the databases, Scopus, Medline, PsychInfo and Health Source to identify prospective longitudinal studies focused on women's social and emotional health in the perinatal period. Forty-eight papers from eight longitudinal studies were included.ResultsThe proportion of women reporting depressive symptoms in the first year after birth was between 10 and 20% and this has remained stable over 25 years. The two strongest predictors for depression and anxiety were previous history of depression and poor partner relationship. Importantly, women's mood appears to be better in the first year after birth, when compared to pregnancy and five years later. Becoming a mother at a young age is by itself not a risk factor unless coupled with social disadvantage. Women report a high number of stressors in pregnancy and following birth and the rate of intimate partner violence reported is worryingly high.ConclusionMidwives have an important role in the identification, support and referral of women experiencing mental health problems. As many women do not seek help from mental health services, the potential for a known midwife to impact on women's mental health warrants further examination.     

A phenomenological exploration of parenting after birth trauma: Mothers perceptions of the first year

ProblemWhile perinatal mental health issues are considered to have an impact on a mother’s parenting capacity, there is limited research exploring mothers’ perceptions of their relationship with their child following traumatic birth experiences and how these might affect their parenting capacity.BackgroundBirth trauma is a well-recognised phenomenon which may result in ongoing physical and perinatal mental health difficulties for women. This may impact on their attachment to their children, their parenting capabilities, and their self-identity as mothers.AimsTo explore maternal self-perceptions of bonding with their infants and parenting experiences following birth trauma.MethodsIn-depth interviews with ten mothers were undertaken using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology.FindingsWomen who experienced birth trauma often described disconnection to their infants and lacking confidence in their parental decision making. Many perceived themselves as being ‘not good enough’ mothers. For some women the trauma resulted in memory gaps of the immediate post-partum period which they found distressing, or physical recovery was so overwhelming that it impacted their capabilities to parent the way they had imagined they would. Some women developed health anxiety which resulted in an isolating experience of early parenthood.ConclusionsWomen who have suffered birth trauma may be at risk of increased fear and anxiety around their child’s health and their parenting abilities. Some women may experience this as feeling a lower emotional attachment to their infant. Women who experience birth trauma should be offered support during early parenting. Mother-Infant relationships often improve after the first year.     

Great Expectations: The Unintended Consequences of Educational Choices

Human capital is invariably found to be an important explanatory variable of various proxies for well being (WB), i.e. income, happiness, job and life satisfaction, and health status. Nevertheless, to date few systematic efforts have been made to explain its various interconnected functions. The U-shaped age-SWB relation found in many empirical studies suggests that investigating the pattern of different measures of WB over people’s life cycles may reveal important information and provide useful insights into the principal mechanisms that connect human capital and WB. In this paper, I explore data drawn from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) conducted by the Bank of Italy, which is a rich source of information on people’s socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, educational and skill mismatches in the workplace, and various measures of WB such as income, happiness, job satisfaction, and health status. I adopt a novel approach based on the idea that one should look at the overall contribution of education to well being within people’s life-cycles. The tentative explanations of my empirical findings are: (a) more educated people and people with vocational educations experience wide mismatches in their aspirations and expectations early in their adult lives; (b) these mismatches are largely confined to the labour market; and (c) the curvature of the U-shaped age-happiness relationship depends on the level and type of education. The suggested interpretation of these results is that education affects both people’s expectations and the way they react to unfulfilled aspirations.     

Forum 3: amphibious architecture beyond the levee

ABSTRACT

According to many critical theorists, the Anthropocene signals the necessity for a critical framework rooted in complex systems entanglement, antihumanism, and diminished possibilities. Exemplary of this approach, Bruno Latour argues that the Anthropocene equals the end of human mobility in the sense of movement from one’s given conditions to a ‘better’ or somehow improved world. Instead, humans must understand that they are ‘earthbound.’ While critical theorists like Latour proclaim ‘our’ unpreparedness for terrestrial existence, counseling diminished expectations and diminished mobility – for many outside of academia’s hallowed halls, the Anthropocene and its ‘back loop’ possibilities look very different. Exploring the use of amphibious architecture in the working-class fishing community of Old River Landing, Louisiana, in contrast to Latour and other Anthropocene thinkers, I argue that such experiments are a testament to how diverse people operate; without transcendents and in ways quite different from models forwarded by critical theorists or resilience experts. Rather than a life enchained to the earth or resilience conceived as riding it out among the ruins, Old River Landing like many other back loop experiments offers a story of people who love the part of earth they inhabit, and a mobility and adaptability critical theorists argue is no longer possible. Rather than accepting or celebrating entanglement in the given order of things as is – flooding = moving = dependence – such experiments entail a way of inhabiting the Earth founded in confident flight as much as gravity, offering a view of another kind of mobility in and on Earth.     

Existential aspects as an inevitable part of salutogenesis in maternity care – A discussion paper

BackgroundPoor mental health is considered a major health challenge globally, not least for young people, who will form families within forthcoming years. Research related to childbirth and parenthood transition has focused on how to promote good mental health by preventing mental illness.AimWe discuss how a salutogenetic approach to mental health in parenthood transition is beneficial, and specifically how the component of meaningfulness in Sense of Coherence (SoC), could be investigated to optimize good mental health during parenthood transition.DiscussionIn more recent understandings of meaningfulness, ideas from existential philosophy and psychology have been included. We discuss how, from an existential psychological perspective, open and explorative questioning of life conditions and dilemmas may help to regain one’s footing and get in touch with one’s driving force – meaningfulness. Such questioning implies that someone, a professional or a friend, actively and relationally helps explore existential aspects of life.ConclusionWe believe that investigating and asking research questions pointing at optimizing a salutogenetic perspective, specifically focusing on the component of meaningfulness and its embedded existential aspects of life, could lead to new knowledge on how to promote good mental health in maternity care.     

Trauma and Mental Health in South Africa

Prior to the first democratic elections, South Africa had experienced severe political violence. In this paper, we describe the effects of this violence on mental health, concentrating mainly on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and its symptoms, including reliving aspects of the trauma, avoiding situations which remind one of the experience, and heightened irritability. As part of a nationwide survey on health inequalities covering 4000 South African households, questions were put to 3870 respondents aged 16 to 64 years on their mental health status, feelings of powerlessness, exposure to violence and other traumatic situations, symptoms of PTSD and access to health care for these symptoms. Weighted survey results indicate that approximately five million adults (23% of the population aged 16 to 64 years) had been exposed to one or more violent events, for example, being attacked, participating in violence and witnessing one's home being burnt. Just under four-fifths (78%) of those who had experienced at least one traumatic event had one or more symptoms of PTSD. This syndrome was found to be related to feelings of powerlessness, anxiety and depression and fair or poor self-ratings of emotional well-being. The authors concluded that healing the people of South Africa involves revealing the full extent of political violence that was committed during the apartheid era, confronting the effects of this violence, and establishing both professional and community structures to deal with it on a large scale, for example, the training of lay people to give counselling.     

Gender Minority Stress: A Critical Review

ABSTRACT

Past studies that compare cisgender to transgender (or trans) and gender diverse people have found a higher prevalence of mental health problems among the latter groups. This article uses Testa’s gender minority stress framework, which is an expansion of minority stress theory, to assess minority stressors that are specific to the experiences of trans and gender diverse people. The concept of cisnormativity, an ideology that positions cisgender identities as a norm, is used in relation to the gender minority stress framework to describe the marginalizing nature of social environments for trans and gender diverse people. This article provides a critical review that integrates and expands on past theoretical perspectives on gender minority stressors and protective factors. Specifically, this article demonstrates the relevance of cultural and ethnic backgrounds to complement the application of intersectionality in research on health disparities experienced by trans and gender diverse people.     

Transforming mental health services to address gender disparities in depression risk factors

ABSTRACT

Depression in older women is a significant and growing problem. Women who experience life stressors across the life span are at higher risk for developing depression than their male counterparts. Research has focused primarily on identifying and reducing the symptoms of depression for the general aging population, disregarding gender-specific differences in the foundational causes of depression. This article examines how women’s unique experiences influence the development of depression and highlights how the current mental health system could better meet older women’s needs by moving from a gender-neutral model to one that emphasizes women’s experiences.     

Women’s mental health during pregnancy: A participatory qualitative study

Background/objectives

British public health and academic policy and guidance promotes service user involvement in health care and research, however collaborative research remains underrepresented in literature relating to pregnant women’s mental health. The aim of this participatory research was to explore mothers’ and professionals’ perspectives on the factors that influence pregnant women’s mental health.

Cultures of Aspiration and Poverty? Aspirational Inequalities in Northeast and Southern Thailand

The paper provides micro-level evidence of rising inequality in Thailand, using data from an intensive study of seven communities in Northeast and Southern Thailand. This inequality affects participants’ material and subjective wellbeing, their aspirations, and the extent to which they feel these are realised. The paper argues that adaptation, expressed as reduced aspirations, could explain why the effect of material poverty on people’s satisfaction with their lives is small. The reduction in attainment of aspirations linked to socio-economic status suggests that a small, but constant group of people are being excluded from a shift in the societal consensus over what constitutes a good life.     

流动儿童精神健康状况分析

与以往主要关注家庭因素、基本人口特征的流动儿童精神健康研究不同,本研究将分析视野扩展到社会经济地位、社会支持和个体抗逆力。数据表明,流动儿童的精神健康差于非流动儿童,社会经济地位、家庭支持和个体抗逆力均对其产生影响,其他社会支持的影响不显著。流动儿童由于面临着社会经济地位和家庭流动方面的"双重劣势",单纯提升个体抗逆力不足以改变其精神健康不良的事实。因此,一方面努力提升流动儿童的个体抗逆力,充分发挥其面对逆境的主体性;另一方面,在宏观层面上不断地瓦解产生"双重劣势"的制度基础。通过两方面的共同作用能改善流动儿童的精神健康状况。     

Unlikely hikers? Activism,Instagram, and the queer mobilities of fat hikers,women hiking alone,and hikers of colour

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates a nascent, primarily online community of so-called ‘unlikely hikers’, united in the premise that hiking is good for everyone’s mental and physical health and that diversity can and should extend to outdoor spaces including national parks. However, the ways in which hikers have hitherto been represented in outdoors media, advertising, and wider social imaginaries present potent barriers to participation. The paper traces the discursive origins and positioned ideologies of ‘the outdoors’ in former British settler colonies, particularly the USA, showing how national parks maintain legacies of frontier colonialism and default understandings of legitimate outdoorspeople as necessarily White, able-bodied, straight, and male. These legacies are then traced through four years of online ethnographic data (2015–2018), comprising multimedia narratives of fat hikers, solo women hikers including lesbian women, and hikers of colour as they relate their outdoor experiences on Instagram and related podcasts, blogs, and magazine articles. The discussion is theorized using Holman Jones and Harris’s notion of queering and Urry’s mobilities paradigm, and ‘queer mobilities’ is proposed as part of an activism and amplification aimed at queering the trail both within and beyond academic spaces.     

A Matter of Utility? Rationalising Cycling,Cycling Rationalities

Abstract

This paper discusses how dominant policy paradigms promote a ‘utility’ model of transport, prioritising the destruction of distance and the minimisation of time spent travelling. It suggests that within low-cycling countries, this framing has reinforced the policy marginalisation of cycling, which is cast as having problematic associations with leisure and pleasure. Hence, while the multiple benefits of cycling might seem to mandate policy support, these benefits (including health and equity impacts) seem tainted by association with cycling’s non-transport connotations. The paper analyses interview data from the ESRC Cycling Cultures project to explore how cyclists and cycling stakeholders negotiate the landscape of ‘utility cycling’. It examines how people appeal to a ‘utility narrative’, while often simultaneously appealing to considerations that apparently contradict it. Conclusions for cycling and broader transport policy are drawn.     

A narrative review of studies addressing the clinical effectiveness of perinatal depression screening programs

BackgroundClinical practice guidelines recommend that women be screened for depression as a routine component of maternity care however there is ongoing debate about the benefits of depression screening programs in this context.AimThis narrative review identifies and describes the clinical effectiveness of perinatal depression screening programs in relation to one or more of the following interrelated domains: referral for additional mental health support or treatment; engagement with mental health support or treatment options; and, maternal mental health or parenting outcomes.MethodsEnglish-language studies, published up to July 2017, were identified and their methodological quality was assessed. RCTs and non-RCTs were included.ResultsOverall, the majority of the fourteen studies identified showed that participation in a perinatal depression screening program increases referral rates and service use, and is associated with more optimal emotional health outcomes. One of four available studies demonstrated an improvement in parenting outcomes as a result of participation in an integrated postnatal depression screening program.ConclusionThis small but important body of work is integral to the continuing debate over the merits of screening for depression in the perinatal period. Current evidence favours the overall benefits of perinatal depression screening programs across the three focus areas of this review. Future research should consider a woman’s broader psychosocial context and should address the economic as well as clinical outcomes of these programs. Rigorous evaluation of emerging digital approaches to perinatal depression screening is also required.     

Media Representation of Tongxinglian in China: A Case Study of the People’s Daily

Over the past few decades, the worldwide lesbian and gay movements have diversified and increased their rights claims. The achievement of gay rights claims in society is the result of an interplay among various social factors and forces. Media is one of most influential players in building homosexual images and promoting mutual understanding. Chinese homosexuals were not treated as criminals or mental illness patients anymore in 1997 and 2001, respectively, after decriminalization and depathologization. Thus this article aims to explore how homosexuals were portrayed in the official media of China, particularly the People’s Daily, to illustrate the changing perception of homosexuals in China’s political and social spheres. It argues that representation of homosexuals in the People’s Daily changed gradually from a negative perception to a more positive one with less discrimination and prejudice as shown by the article’s quantitative and qualitative results.     

Steering Towards Happiness in The Netherlands

As in many other countries, the economic crisis is being felt in the Netherlands. Is that a good moment for a government to develop a policy to increase happiness? Is it actually possible to raise the level of happiness in the Netherlands? The Dutch are after all already happy, and the objective quality of life in the Netherlands is also high, so there would seem to be little scope for making them even happier. It is also questionable whether the government should be playing the role of a ‘happiness machine’, which seeks to promote individual happiness, or whether it would do better to act as a ‘misfortune mitigator’ which seeks to minimise the negative elements in people’s lives. In this article we attempt to answer these questions on the basis of Dutch initiatives designed to promote happiness in the areas of municipal policy, welfare, health care, work and education. We come to the conclusion that happiness policy is already deeply embedded in Dutch society. The Dutch government is indeed a happiness machine. It could act rather more as a misfortune mitigator, given the gains to be made at the bottom of the ‘happiness ladder’, in particular. Mental resilience emerges in all initiatives as an important factor in increasing happiness. Programmes to boost mental resilience can be started as early as primary school.