Family Therapy for Child and Youth Mental Health: A Scoping Literature Review

Early intervention in childhood years is an important part of successful therapies for children and adolescents living with or at risk of mental illness. Family therapy acknowledges the role of family relationships, interactions, and family systems in child and youth mental health. To explore the effectiveness and delivery of family therapy in order to inform current family therapy practice in Australian public mental health services, a scoping literature review mapped key concepts of the past 11 years of family therapy research. Current gaps were noted within the following key concepts: family therapy settings and definitions, the influence of family factors on outcomes, transparency of intervention methods, and the training of family therapists. Further research could be undertaken to address current gaps in the literature, specifically: assessment and intervention processes; typical length of time for a series of family sessions; frequency of sessions; and theoretical foundations linked with most effective outcomes, as identified by clinicians, children, and their families. This research would provide a better understanding of best practice and evidence‐based family therapy practices that work for children and their families to inform family therapy practice in Australia and beyond. This scoping literature review identified that there is a noteworthy variation in the way brief family therapy is provided, both in terms of the duration and frequency of sessions, as well as the theoretical underpinnings employed. Further research is warranted to explore different service contexts and brief versions of family therapy delivery and the outcomes for the children and their families.     

Ergonomics and design in a ischial support proposal for the Medellin metro, Colombia

This project, developed by the Design Studies Research Group at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), presents a design proposal focused on human factors for ischial support for the stations of the Medellín Metro. An initial pilot scheme was developed on Platform 'A' of San Antonio - the most important transfer station. The methodology of the Ergonomics Research Division at UPB constituted the basis of the project. This methodology observes, analyses and draws conclusions of the conditions that optimize the User-Product-Context nexus, and in doing so defines design requirements which, in this proposal, centered on the needs of the users of the Medellín Metro. The Experimental Morphology Research Division provided technical support in the form of modelling, production and structural testing of the object. The proposal includes thematic units, themes and priority components for analysis and application in the design process. In addition, the project generates certain activities and moments that future designers can develop in a parallel manner, coherent with the vision of ergonomics. The methodology focused on the requirements of the users and took into account the existing space (the Metro System), thus establishing relationships of use that were coherent with the principles of ergonomics and design.     

La lógica de la acción colectiva: tres modelos de análisis de la participación política no institucional

Resumen

En el presente estudio se sometieron a prueba tres Modelos explicativos de la Participación Política No Institucional, el Modelo Actitudinal (que incluía Actitud y Norma Social—Fishbein y Ajzen), el Modelo Motivacional de Recursos (que incluía Motivo Selectivo, Social, y Colectivo—Klandermans) y el Modelo Psicosocial (que incluía recursos a diferentes niveles de análisis).

Tomando el Porcentaje de Varianza Explicada como un índice de poder explicativo, el Modelo Psicosocial fue el que mayor peso obtuvo. También se demostró un mayor peso explicativo del Modelo Motivacional de recursos sobre el Actitudinal.

Finalmente, de cara a la Explicación de la Lógica de la Acción Colectiva, se asume la importancia de la intencionalidad de los actores colectivos, pues la explicación causal no es suficiente. En otras palabras, se asume la necesidad de tomar en cuenta que las razones pueden ser causas del comportamiento.     

The Role of Housing Managers in the Implementation of Community Care

This article will outline the response of housing management to the implementation of community care policy in the North East. It will locate housing's role within the broader development of community care policy, and briefly review the reasons for housing's relatively late arrival as a key partner, alongside social services and health, in the planning and delivery of services. Using information gathered from interviews with housing professionals, part-time housing students, voluntary organizations, and workers within health and social services, it outlines and evaluates five main factors which appear to be affecting the successful integration of housing management into the process of planning and delivering community care services in the North East.     

Multimodal identity texts as mediational spaces in researching Ph.D. students’ critical teacher-researcher Selves

This paper analyses how two Ph.D. students used multimodal identity texts (MMITs) to document their research journeys as they engaged in their doctoral studies. Drawing on qualitative data collected from multiple pre-service teacher preparation programmes in Chile and Sri Lanka, two bi-national researchers (a Colombian-Canadian and a Sri Lankan-Canadian) use MMITs to document the complexities surrounding conducting research in contexts where they were neither ‘complete insiders’ nor ‘complete outsiders’. The two researchers’ identity texts provide a mediational space for them to document the multiple, yet shifting identities they enacted, assumed and were assigned during their prolonged research journeys. The study reveals how the process of constructing and maintaining identity texts, as well as conducting constant critical conversations allows the authors to scaffold their learning processes while reflecting on their emerging professional identities.     

Where is the British national press?1

Although globalization has highlighted the danger of conflating state, society and nation, sociologists remain insufficiently alert to such banal nationalism. Newspapers offer a strong test case of the extent of diversity in the construction of state, national and social boundaries, since Billig and Anderson have argued they comprise a special case where their orientation to an audience simultaneously located in a state, society and nation allows them to reproduce a sense of national identity. However, despite the commonsense obviousness of the term, it proves remarkably difficult to define what the 'British national press' might comprise. Circulation density of titles varies substantially across different parts of the UK and editorial copy is altered to address diverse 'national' readerships. 'British' newspapers also circulate in other states, especially the Republic of Ireland. After reviewing how newspapers might be defined as 'national' and/or 'British', we conclude that both Anderson and Billig over-estimate the congruence, relevance and obviousness of state, society and national boundaries. If the conceptualization of such boundaries is problematic in the case of the press, it follows that it must be still more so for most other objects of sociological analysis, including that of 'society' itself.     

The Impact of Poverty on Children and Young People’s Use of Services

This article describes a qualitative study exploring the impact of poverty on children’s access to and use of services, which took a comparative approach to gather the views of children from more and less affluent households. Findings suggest affordability and related factors including limited mobility constrained service use for less affluent children, resulting in cumulative missed opportunities. However, extended family, friends and agencies facilitated service access, mitigating the impact of poverty on service use to some extent. Research implications include the importance of listening to and taking account of the views of children from lower income families in service planning.     

Becoming independent: political participation and youth transitions in the Scottish referendum

Sociological debates on youth engagement with electoral politics play out against a backdrop of supposed ‘decline’ in civic participation (e.g. Putnam 2000 , Norris, 2011 ), in turn contextualized by theories of individualization in ‘late’ or ‘reflexive’ modernity (Beck, Giddens). However, the enfranchisement of 16 and 17 year olds in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum catalysed remarkably high levels of voter turnout among this youngest group, and was accompanied by apparently ongoing political engagement. We explored this engagement among a strategic sample of young ‘Yes’ voters, in the immediate aftermath of this exceptional political event. Analysis of qualitative interview data generated an unanticipated finding; that interviewees narrated their political engagement biographically, articulated their referendum participation reflexively, and located their new political ideas, allegiances and actions in the context of their own transitions to ‘independent’ adulthood. This inspired us to rethink young people's political engagement in relation to youth transitions. Doing so enables a synthesis of divergent strands in the sociology of youth, and offers new insights into the combinations of ‘personal’ agentic and ‘political’ structural factors involved in young people's politicization.     

Experiences of Younger Siblings of Young Men in Prison

Whilst the detrimental effects of forced separation through incarceration have been explored in the context of parent–child relationships, little is known about the social and psychological impact of having a sibling in custody. The present research was carried out in order to develop a better understanding of the needs and experiences of children who have a sibling in prison and is based on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the accounts of eight young people (age 9–17, mean = 13 years) with an older brother in custody. The interviews revealed a series of themes, including the emotional response to a sibling being taken into custody, a reluctance to disclose information to teachers and peers, and perceptions of own behaviour in the light of the sibling's experiences of the criminal justice system. Findings are discussed in relation to policy implications and recommendations for those working with young people, and suggestions are made for future research directions.