WE WANT MORE – WE ARE MORE

Impressed with the current migration in Europe and the connected socio-political and civil-societal challenges, we examine the question which contribution group-dynamic learning forms and its paradigms can raise awareness for a shared created future. Group dynamics understands itself as a place of practical philosophy, as intervention per se, where collectives can emancipate and participation should become alive. The origin of this idea is the examination with the unknown, the differences and the linked questioning of subjective truths, feelings and convictions. The connection between individual as well as collective self-enlightenment processes and the competence extension dealing with personal, cultural, moral, social etc. boundaries.We focus on the emotional effects (uncertainty and fear as a side effect of migration) as well as the theoretical background of the unknown and discuss the sense and the possibilities of participative-designed intervention forms of knowledge creation. Taking into account that several issues of collaboration for a shared future cannot be solved without the people concerned, we examine why we are “more”, why we want “more” and from what we will need “more”.     

The capacity to parent: A self psychological approach to parent—child psychotherapy

Clinicians who work with dysfunctional parent-child relationships face the dilemma of evaluating and effectively treating the psychopathology of parenting, which is often elusive and difficult to extrapolate from behavioral reports or social statistics alone. Fundamental concepts of the self psychological theory of development, particularly empathy and the self-selfobject matrix, are especially useful for elucidating the complexities of parenting because they explain the psychological components of the interaction as well as its intrapsychic significance. These concepts will be applied to the process of parent-child psychotherapy. A case is presented to illustrate the explanatory advantages of a self psychological conceptualization.This work was conducted while both authors were employed as CoDirectors, Infant Development Project at the Juvenile Protective Association, Chicago, Illinois.The Infant Development Project is funded by a grant from the Kate Maremont foundation, Chicago, Illinois.     

Exploring e-Mental Health Preferences of Generation Y

E-Mental Health services could substantially increase the capacity of the mental health care system. This article explores youth consumer preferences for online interventions targeting depression and anxiety. Twenty-three participants who had experienced suicidal ideation and either depression or anxiety and completed one qualitative interview were included. Interviews were topically guided to cover themes of e-Mental Health service preferences around online help-seeking behavior, appearance, content, privacy, and support. We found that youth positively received the idea of, and appreciated the need for, e-Mental Health services. Noted preferences for services were those that are simple to use, interactive, and include support through an online community.     

Exploring college students’ sexual and reproductive health literacy

Abstract

Objective: To assess college students’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) literacy experiences, specific to contraception use and STI prevention. Participants: In Spring 2015, participants (n?=?43) from a large institution participated in six focus groups (two male and four females groups). Methods: Focus groups were guided by the health literacy domains (access; understand; appraise; apply); data were analyzed in MaxQDA using the constant comparative method. Results: The Internet was the most commonly accessed source for SRH information. Participants discussed facilitators (eg, use of visuals) and barriers (eg, medical jargon) to understanding information; and personal lifestyle, advice from family/friends, symptoms, and sexual partners as appraisal factors. Participants applied information by communicating with friends/providers and seeking healthcare. However, findings were not linear nor mutually exclusive, representing the interaction of health literacy skills. Conclusion: Findings suggest that a patient-centered intervention capitalizing on technology and trusted individuals (providers/peer educators) may facilitate college students’ SRH literacy.     

Toward integrating research on parent–child emotion talk and linguistic theory: A spotlight on parents’ (in)direct communication

Parent–child discussions about emotion are a key socialization influence on children’s socio‐emotional development. Extant research on parent–child discussions about emotion largely focuses on three main types of discourse content: parental elaboration, parental use of emotion labels and explanations, and parental emotion coaching. A new direction involves distinguishing between parents’ direct and indirect communication of discourse content. This distinction may be vital when considering the role of children’s communicative competence in their developing socio‐emotional competence. We integrate literature on (in)direct communication, a concept prominent in linguistics, and emotion socialization. We argue that parental indirect communication can teach children communicative competence in the context of emotion talk. We discuss literature from the developmental and linguistic fields on parents’ teaching of communicative skills, as well as potential cognitive, relational, and emotional functions of indirectness, with communication and its socialization embedded within cultural context. Finally, we suggest new research directions examining the role of parental indirect communication in children’s socio‐emotional development. By integrating developmental and linguistic literatures, we provide a novel approach to the study of parental emotion socialization through parent–child discourse.     

Policy mandates and re-election among single issue parties

Recent studies point to dramatic ‘mandate switches’ by elected politicians, while others suggest higher levels of mandate loyalty. Yet, two of the oldest party systems in Latin America, Colombia and Venezuela, have not been extensively examined. Legislative activity across single issue parties is examined to determine whether they are able to stay focused and consistent with the party's policy goals. The analysis identifies the importance of stated policy goals, which are likely to provide long-term electoral benefits, and nomination procedures as important determinants of legislative action among single issue parties. The results shed a new light on parties in Latin America by suggesting that parties are capable of acting in accordance with their stated single-issue platforms.     

Exploring the validity of electronic newspaper databases

Do electronic newspaper databases contain all of the stories that appear in the print edition? And does this depend on the database used? To explore these questions, we collected print copies of newspapers from cities across the USA and Canada. We compared coverage of two topics in these newspapers with the coverage obtained from keyword searches in three electronic newspaper databases. We conclude that the stories obtained through electronic searches are consistent across databases but can vary from the print source. Importantly, national and international coverage is more likely to be missing than local or statewide/provincial coverage.