First Nations parenting and child reunification: Identifying strengths,barriers, and community needs within the child welfare system

First Nations communities are seeking to improve current service delivery models and create alternative evidence‐based strategies. A First Nations child welfare organization has prioritized further understanding of reunification and parenting, including identification of successes and barriers to reunification, and service needs within communities. These priorities were addressed with a community‐based participatory research model and guided by a Research Advisory. Results were analysed using a blend of grounded theory and thematic analysis techniques. Participants indicated that placing children with extended family or within home communities facilitate best child outcomes. These reunifications could be increased by promoting parental and community capacity. Successes identified within communities included available supports, such as those that increased empowerment and community capacity. Identified barriers within communities were the lack of culturally appropriate services, hesitancy to obtain available support due to fears of child welfare intervention, and mental health difficulties of community member.     

Dispositional Affect and Career Barriers: The Moderating Roles of Gender and Coping

This study examined whether gender and coping efficacy for career barriers moderated the relationship between both positive and negative dispositional affect and perceptions of career barriers. The sample included 294 undergraduate students (195 women, 99 men) from a large, midwestern university. Gender and coping efficacy did not moderate the relationship between negative dispositional affect and perceptions of career barriers. Coping efficacy for career barriers did moderate the relationship between positive dispositional affect and perceptions of career barriers for both women and men in different directions. When investigating women separately, the results revealed a weakening of the negative beta weight between positive affect and perception of career barriers as coping scores increased. An opposite effect was found for men; there was a reduction of the positive beta weight between positive affect and perception of career barriers as coping scores increased. Interventions to address perceptions of career barriers based on gender and dispositional affect are discussed.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

This quarter's column features a report from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference, held March 25–28, 2015, in Portland, OR; a couple of reports from the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL) Conference, held May 18–20 in Terre Haute, IN; one report from NASIG, held May 27–30 in Washington, DC; and several reports from the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held June 25–30 in San Francisco, CA. Topics discussed range from scholarly publishing, copyright and authors’ rights—including as they relate to zines—privacy and analytics, and linked data.     

Exhibiting Inclusion: An Examination of Race,Ethnicity, and Museum Participation

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Museum visitors are not reflective of the diversity present in communities around the nation. In this study, we...     

Factors associated with exercise participation in adults with arthritis

Most people with arthritis are not regularly active. Understanding what factors influence exercise is essential for designing programs to increase participation. The objective of this study was to examine the correlates of exercise in people with arthritis. Using a cross-sectional design, sociodemographic, health-related, and psychosocial variables were collected from community-dwelling individuals with arthritis (N = 141). Associations with exercise level were examined with bivariate statistics (ANOVAs, chi-squares) and logistic-regression analyses. Exercisers were less likely than nonexercisers and insufficiently active people to report that arthritis negatively affected their physical and social functioning, and they reported more positive affect and greater self-efficacy (p < .05). Exercisers also reported less pain than nonexercisers (p < .05). In multiple logistic-regression analyses, self-efficacy and physical limitations remained independent predictors of exercise. The results suggest the need to target exercise self-efficacy when designing exercise interventions. Results also suggest the need to tailor exercise programs to individuals' physical limitations.     

‘It's rewarding because I get the love’: Grandparents raising grandchildren with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder

The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of grandparents raising their grandchildren with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Specifically, we sought to identify how caregivers make meaning of their experience, what challenges are faced by grandparents while raising a second generation and what positive experiences are encountered. Ten grandparents raising a child with FASD in Ontario, Canada, participated in semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the interviews to determine reoccurring themes. Three main themes were identified: (i) challenges when raising a grandchild with FASD, including kinship adoption struggles and intergenerational issues; (ii) worries about the future, including financial planning and health concerns; and (iii) rewards, such as shifts in priorities and the opportunity to raise a second generation. Grandparents raising their grandchildren with FASD face challenges and thus require specific supports so that they may adequately provide a safe and nurturing home environment for children with often challenging learning and social needs.     

Occupational aspirations and ethnic school segregation: social contagion effects among native German and immigrant youths

In this study, I broaden the perspective on young immigrants’ aspirations by looking at their social embeddedness in the host society in terms of their institutionally predefined ties to school peers. In particular, I investigate the relationship between the aspirations of immigrant and native youths with special regard to the social mechanisms that may underlie peer influences. My analyses are based on multilevel data on ninth graders from the German National Educational Panel Study. The results show that a high ratio of immigrants in schools positively influences the aspirations of both immigrant and native German youths by way of school climate. However, the same context has different effects on different groups of origin. For those of Turkish descent, ‘ethnic schools’ are of twofold significance: first, the aspiration gap between Turks and native Germans decreases with increasing segregation, an effect that may be attributable to less perceived discriminatory experiences in school. Second, Turkish young people's stronger adaptation to the climate in ethnically segregated schools reinforces the protective effect of ethnic segregation and, additionally, lowers the aspirations of these youths. That is, immigrants’ stronger orientation towards their in-group seems to contribute to a buffer against discrimination.