In favour of online counselling?

Abstract

A ‘surf on the net’ reveals that internationally, many organisations are providing a range of counselling services online including counselling via email, interactive ‘chat rooms’ and teleconferencing. Online counselling appears to be offered primarily as a ‘fee for service’ and many online practitioners work in the area of mental health. In Australia, KIDS Help Line offers ‘free’ counselling for young people using both email and chat rooms. Meanwhile, other organisations/professional groups are struggling to come to terms with this new form of service delivery. This paper begins with a brief explanation of where Relationships Australia (Queensland) is placed in terms of online counselling followed by some of the advantages and disadvantages of online counselling based on a literature search. Concluding statements lean towards favouring online counselling as it offers a new form of intervention that may suit many clients and organisations. The term ‘online’ counselling refers herein to e.counselling or email counselling     

The time use of teenagers

This paper uses American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data to describe the time use of teenagers ages 15–17, with a focus on activities that may affect teenagers’ well-being such as sleep, eating, schoolwork, and selected leisure activities. We find that teenagers with an employed mother spend less time on homework and computers, are less likely to eat with parents, but spend more time in supervised activities. Teenagers with a single mother spend more time in paid work, are less likely to eat dinner with their parent, and spend more time in unsupervised activities, but they also get more sleep. Adolescents with more educated mothers spend more time studying and on the computer, less time watching television, and are more likely to eat dinner with parents. Family income correlates positively with teenagers’ paid work, homework, computer use, and the likelihood of eating with parents, but is negatively associated with sleep. Family size is positively related to time spent in caregiving activities, sleep, and eating with parents, but is associated with less computer use.     

Workplace Policy and Environment,Family Role Quality,and Positive Family-to-Work Spillover

We used role theory to direct our analysis of the association between family-friendly policies, workplace environment, family role quality, and positive spillover from family to work. Taking data from 104 dual-earner couples with children living in Utah, we examined the influence of both partners’ access to family-friendly policies, both partners’ workplace environments, and the family role quality reported by the couple. We found that family role quality was significantly associated with positive family-to-work spillover for men and women. In addition, women’s own workplace culture and the ability of women’s partners to leave work to care for children were associated with women’s positive family-to-work spillover. These findings were viewed through the lens of gender theory and traditionally structured institutions and roles.     

PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AND WORK‐TO‐LIFE CONFLICT AMONG WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

Following scholarship that highlights the importance of negative workplace relationships in predicting conflict between work and nonwork domains, this study examines whether perceptions of sex, race, and age discrimination are related to work‐to‐life conflict using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 2,335). The potential moderating role of workplace social support, including coworker support and supervisor support, is also examined. All three forms of perceived discrimination are associated with higher levels of work‐to‐life conflict even when workplace social support is controlled for. The findings indicate limited support for the moderating role of workplace social support.     

Decentering intensive mothering: More fully accounting for race and class in motherhood norms

In 1996 Sharon Hays published The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood describing the ideology of intensive mothering calling upon mothers to engage in a time-intensive, expensive, and expert-informed style of mothering. In this article, I describe the historical circumstances giving rise to intensive mothering and how structural and historical realities diverge across race and class. I argue that enactments of motherhood are varied, forming a mosaic of motherhood enactments informed by mothers' social locations, including their positions in racialized and classed hierarchies. Mothers operating from marginalized locations innovate and resist intensive mothering, while also being judged by these norms, despite often lacking the resources to meet them. Privileged, primarily White mothers, have been able to harness their resources to achieve intensive mothering and redefine what constitutes good mothering to match the style of mothering they practice. Among some privileged, predominantly White mothers, I contend an even more intense version of intensive mothering is being practiced, with some moving beyond being “expert informed” to positioning themselves as the experts who possess specialized knowledge superior to that of medical and educational experts. All told, I argue that mothering enactments are more diverse than is often portrayed by the concept of intensive mothering.     

A Content Analysis of Sexual Consent and Refusal Communication in Mainstream Films

Young adults have limited access to comprehensive sex education. As such, they may seek sexuality information through such alternative sources, such as mass media. Previous research suggests that media, including films and television shows, can influence sexual behaviors and attitudes. Because sexual consent communication is important to sexual experiences, the purpose of this study was to assess how sexual consent and refusal communication were depicted in films. We also examined contextual factors that influence consent and refusal communication, such as gender, relationship status, location, and types of sexual behaviors. Four researchers analyzed popular mainstream films (N = 50) from 2013 based on a codebook developed inductively and deductively. The most common consent and refusal communication cues were nonverbal or implicit. The majority of scenes portrayed consent immediately before sexual activity. We also conducted chi-squared analyses to assess differences in consent and refusal communication based on gender and relationship status. There were no gender differences in the portrayal of consent cues; however, characters in established relationships used nonverbal cues more often than those in novel relationships. Mass media can normalize behaviors, and our results suggest that films may further normalize nonverbal or implicit consent cues.     

Evaluating the effects of canine urine on urban soil microbial communities

Due to extensive areas of impermeable surfaces, combined sewer overflow (CSO) is currently a major problem in urban areas across the United States. In CSO systems, sewage can travel through underground pipes to be decontaminated in treatment facilities, or it can combine with stormwater after a precipitation event and discharge into local waterways. Many cities are implementing green infrastructure installations, which use vegetation and bioactive soil microbial communities to enhance soil water-holding capacity, thereby minimizing CSO events. Understanding the factors that structure soil microbial communities in green infrastructure will facilitate more effective management of these engineered ecosystems; however, few studies to date have evaluated ecological patterns and processes of microbes in the urban environment. Nitrogen loading is known to be a major factor structuring fungi and bacteria in non-urban soils, and since cities also contain large populations of canines, N-rich urine deposition is a potential factor that could be important for structuring soil microbes in ground-level green infrastructure installations. Our study investigated the effects of canine urine on the urban soil microbial communities in a greenhouse experiment by treating Liriope muscari, a common plant found in New York City green infrastructure, with different concentrations of canine urine for 4 weeks in an experimental setting. We found that urine application significantly decreased total soil microbial biomass and microbial richness, and increased water runoff volume. These findings indicate that canine urine may have negative consequences for soil water-holding capacity and nutrient cycling in urban green infrastructure installations by directly decreasing the abundance and richness of soil microbial communities.