Between love and behaviour management: the psychodynamic reflective milieu at the Mulberry Bush School

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a qualitative research study of the Mulberry Bush School (MBS), a therapeutic residential primary school caring for children with severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The article notes the challenges of working with children who have experienced traumatic relationship breakdown, and reviews ideas and practices developed at MBS to support the children’s development. There is a discussion of the research study’s methodology and main findings. The researchers argue that the therapeutic milieu at MBS maintains a creative tension between a secure, playful context and one where emotional disorder and disturbance are not suppressed. The study describes how a particular psychodynamic model of reflective practice has been successfully instituted at MBS to create a ‘staff therapeutic milieu’ supporting the group living and group learning through which therapy principally occurs. The article closes with comments on the applicability of this model to residential child care practice generally.     

Do Iconic Hand Gestures Really Contribute to the Communication of Semantic Information in a Face-to-Face Context?

Previous research has shown that iconic gestures are effective at communicating semantic information, particularly about the size and relative position of objects. However, the conclusions of these experiments have been somewhat limited by the fact that the methodology has typically involved presenting gesture–speech samples on video rather than in an actual face-to-face context. Because these different viewing conditions can impact on addressees’ behavior and perception, and therefore potentially impact on the amount of information they receive from gestures, the present study compares the communicative effectiveness of iconic gestures when viewed in a face-to-face context compared to when viewed on video. The results are quite striking in that gestures seemed at least as effective, and in some cases even more effective at communicating position and size information when they occurred in the face-to-face condition compared to video.     

UNIVERSAL VERSUS ECONOMICALLY POLARIZED CHANGE IN AGE AT FIRST BIRTH: A FRENCH-BRITISH COMPARISON

France and the United Kingdom represent two contrasting institutional models for the integration of employment and motherhood, respectively the 'universalistic' regime type that offers subsidized child-care and maternity-leave benefits to women at all income levels, and the 'means-testing' regime type that mainly offers income-tested benefits for single mothers. Using the two countries as comparative case studies, we develop and test the hypothesis that the socio-economic gradient of fertility timing has become increasingly mediated by family policy. We hypothesize and find increasing polarization in age at first birth by pre-childbearing occupation between the 1980s and 1990s in the U.K. but not in France. Early first childbearing persisted in the U.K. only among women in low-skill occupations, while shifts towards increasingly late first births occurred in clerical/secretarial occupations and above. Increases in age at first birth occurred across all occupations in France, but this was still much earlier on average than for all but low-skill British mothers.     

Assisted living, elderly women and sense of self: communicating the impact of reduction of long-standing activities

Through the use of in-depth interviews this study examines elderly women's communication about transitioning to assisted living and personal sense of self. A combination of communication and aging theory and socio historical factors aid in understanding the communication elderly women use to describe themselves within the context of life events prior to and after becoming an assisted living resident. Findings reveal that decrease in long-standing feminine sphere (traditionally female household) tasks due to the transition to assisted living is the major factor leading to the inability to communicate the sense of self. Inability to adjust and accept the downsizing of feminine sphere activities leads to several mental, physical and social implications.     

The importance of delayed cord clamping for Aboriginal babies: a life-enhancing advantage

Third stage management has typically focused on women and postpartum haemorrhage. Clamping and cutting the umbilical cord following the birth of the baby has continued to be a routine part of this focus. Active versus physiological management of third stage is generally accepted as an evidence-based plan for women to avoid excessive blood loss. Other considerations around this decision are rarely considered, including the baby's perspective. This paper provides a review of the literature regarding timing of clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord and related issues, and discusses the consequences for babies and in particular *Aboriginal babies. Iron stores in babies are improved (among other important advantages) if the cord is left to stop pulsating for 3 min before being clamped. Such a simple measure of patience and informed practice can make a long lasting difference to a baby's health and for Aboriginal babies this advantage can be critical in the short and the long term for their development and wellbeing. To achieve much needed reductions in infancy anaemia and essential increases in infant survival, delayed cord clamping and cutting is recommended for all Aboriginal babies.     

Dynamic relationships between children’s higher‐order regulation and lower‐order reactivity predict development of attention problems

Dual‐process theories contend that interplay between higher‐order (i.e., regulatory) and lower‐order (i.e., reactive) systems influences the development of attention in early childhood. We therefore investigated interactions between an aspect of children's top‐down self‐regulation (i.e., effortful control; EC) and positive reactivity (indexed by observed positive affectivity; PA) and negative reactivity (indicated by cortisol stress reactivity and observed fear) in predicting children's early attention problems. We found that observed EC at the age of three predicted lower attention problems 2 years later, controlling for attention problems at baseline. Importantly, the predictive effect of EC was more pronounced for children higher in cortisol stress reactivity at the age of three; this pattern was not found for observed PA or fear. Findings align with dual‐process developmental theories that emphasize the dynamics between regulatory and reactive processes in shaping child development. Our study provides the first evidence supporting dual‐process interactions in the domain of attention problems and has implications for identifying early risk markers and informing early prevention programs for children at greater risk for attention problems.     

Historic and Contemporary Influences on HIV Advocacy in Vietnam

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - HIV civil society advocacy in Vietnam is shaped by a unique fusion of historic and contemporary influences,...