“I Felt Like I Was Being Abused All Over Again”: How Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Make Sense of the Perinatal Period Through Their Narratives

ABSTRACT

Sequelae following child sexual abuse pervade the lives of adult survivors, significantly impacting on pregnancy and childbirth. Symptoms of this distress are recognized, but meanings for women are less understood. This research aimed to examine the meaning for women themselves of the impact of child sexual abuse on experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. Taking a critical feminist perspective, three open-ended interviews with three survivors enabled women’s narratives of pregnancy and childbirth to be heard, explored the structure of these narratives, including how experiences were connected, and identified key themes and how selves and others were positioned. Women themselves contributed to the analysis of their own narratives. The different struggles of each woman occurred within three domains of experience: identity, embodiment, and parenting. They were underpinned by a fluctuation between empowerment and disempowerment. These findings, although based on detailed analysis of the experiences of only three women, dovetail with, integrate, and extend the existent literature, offering a framework for understanding the complexity of meaning making for women. Further research might develop this. The framework may facilitate clinicians’ understandings of what it is like for some women having children who have experienced child sexual abuse.     

Organization–Public Relationships and Crisis Response Strategies: Impact on Attribution of Responsibility

The study examines how relationships with an organization and crisis response strategy affect attribution of crisis responsibility. Participants were exposed to 1 of 4 different crisis response strategies, manipulated through news articles. The study measured perceptions of the organization–public relationship, and after exposure to 1 of the 4 news articles, attribution of crisis responsibility. People with a positive relationship with the organization were less likely to place blame for the crisis on the organization regardless of crisis response strategy. The study provides evidence that maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders may be more important that individual crisis strategies.     

Abortion,Partial-Birth Abortion,and Adolescent Access to Abortion: An Overview for Social Workers

Although the U.S Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in 1973, intense controversy over access, legality, and morality has persisted ever since that landmark decision. National opinion data collected from 1975 to 2007 show that a majority of Americans support a woman's right to an abortion, but this right is increasingly under attack, and recent proposed changes to abortion access are not in line with how most Americans feel. This paper considers public opinion trends in the sharply divided arenas of abortion, partial-birth abortion, and adolescents' rights to access abortion with a critical eye to social work practice. We explore several opportunities for social workers to advocate for clients, including legislative advocacy, reform through litigation, social action, and social policy analysis.     

Modeling Adoption Attitudes: Recalled Maternal Warmth,Affection for Children,and Parenting Motivation

We tested a model for predicting adoption attitudes: that remembered parental warmth is associated with more positive attitudes toward adoption and that this relationship is mediated by motivation to parent and liking of children. One hundred and eighty-seven university students participated in the study. Controlling for participant gender and adoption experience, the model was supported for maternal warmth, but not for paternal warmth. Specifically, the relationship between recalled maternal warmth and more positive attitudes toward adoption was mediated positively by liking of children and negatively by motivation to parent. The results implicate both childhood experiences and contemporary motives and preferences in adoption attitudes.     

The value of event history techniques for understanding social processes: Modelling women's employment behaviour after motherhood

Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the longitudinal data available to social scientists, and this has been accompanied by the development of concepts and tools which allow for a rigorous approach to empirical research. However, there is still an appreciable gap between the methodological innovations within the field of applied statistics and the everyday practice of the majority of social scientists. The aim of this paper is therefore to demonstrate some of the advantages of using event history data to underpin our understanding of social processes. In particular, the paper explores the benefits of using SABRE (Software for the analysis of binary recurrent events, developed at the University of Lancaster) as a tool for carrying out event history analysis. The specific advantage of this software is that it allows the researcher to focus on duration effects or temporal dependencies in the social process under investigation. The substantive focus of the paper is the way in which women manage to combine paid employment with motherhood. Analyses are based on data from women's life histories, collected as part of the fifth sweep of the National Child Development Survey carried out in 1991. Within this paper, the primary focus is on the conceptual issues raised by modelling event history data; statistical terminology and notation has been kept to a minimum.     

User satisfaction and user experiences with Access Grid as a medium for social science research: a research note

Access Grid (AG) is a state-of-the-art video conferencing system that operates over computer networks such as the Internet. In the research sphere it has principally been used to conduct meetings of natural scientists in large international collaborations, such as physicists collaborating over the Large Hadron Collider. Social scientists have recently begun exploring the use of AG to conduct ‘virtual fieldwork' where researchers carry out interviews or moderate group discussions involving participants at remote sites. There have also been experiments in using AG to deliver social research methods training and to facilitate meetings between social researchers and government researchers who are collaborating on research projects. This article provides a quantitative analysis of the experiences of a sample of participants in such AG sessions. It finds a high degree of satisfaction with the technical affordances of the medium, and identifies differences in perspective according to whether a session is research-oriented or has a ‘real world' purpose.     

Long‐term continuous clients and their needs: a New Zealand analysis

National New Zealand data (2002) indicate that 27% of gambling clients remain in treatment for longer than 12 months. This research retrospectively analysed data from long‐term continuous, re‐admitted and brief therapy clients. The data were obtained from a national database and were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated that relevant differences between long‐term continuous and other clients occurred in ethnicity and clinic location. The latter was confounded by the number of clinics versus clients. The average age of long‐term continuous clients was 43 years; 5–6 years older than other clients; however, this marginally failed to reach a level of statistical significance. The results led to the proposal of two alternative models of therapy for clients with gambling problems: (a) a six‐session capsule model and (b) an inductive, open‐ended model (with regular review component). Further research is required to test the efficacy of these models.     

Non-Stop Against Apartheid: Practicing Solidarity Outside the South African Embassy

From April 1986 to February 1990, the supporters of the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group [City Group] maintained a Non-Stop Picket outside the South African Embassy in London calling for the release of Nelson Mandela. Whilst the Non-Stop Picket was one of the most visible expressions of British anti-apartheid activism at the time, the Picket was never endorsed by the national Anti-Apartheid Movement. Positioned on the pavement directly outside South Africa House, the Picket was strategically placed to draw attention to apartheid and bring pressure to bear on the regime's representatives and allies in the UK. The Embassy repeatedly brought pressure on the British Government to ban the protest, and for nearly two months in 1987 (6th May–2nd July), the Picket was removed from outside the Embassy by the Metropolitan Police. During this period, the Picket relocated to the steps of nearby St Martin-in-the-Fields Church and activists repeatedly risked arrest to break the police ban and defend their right to protest outside the Embassy.     

The feasibility of caseload midwifery in rural Australia: A literature review

BackgroundCaseload midwifery is a continuity of care(r) model being implemented in an increasing number of Australian maternity settings. Question for review: is caseload midwifery a feasible model for introducing into the rural Australian context?MethodIntegrative literature review.FindingsFour main categories were identified and these include the evidence for caseload midwifery; applicability to the rural context; experiences of registered and student midwives and implementation of caseload midwifery models.ConclusionThere is evidence to support caseload midwifery and its implementation in the rural setting. However, literature to date is limited by small participant size and possible selection bias. Further research, including rural midwives’ expectations and experience of caseload midwifery may lead to improved sustainability of midwifery care for rural Australian women.