Using Panel Data to Understand the Dynamics of Human Behavior in Response to Flooding

Insights into the dynamics of human behavior in response to flooding are urgently needed for the development of effective integrated flood risk management strategies, and for integrating human behavior in flood risk modeling. However, our understanding of the dynamics of risk perceptions, attitudes, individual recovery processes, as well as adaptive (i.e., risk reducing) intention and behavior are currently limited because of the predominant use of cross-sectional surveys in the flood risk domain. Here, we present the results from one of the first panel surveys in the flood risk domain covering a relatively long period of time (i.e., four years after a damaging event), three survey waves, and a wide range of topics relevant to the role of citizens in integrated flood risk management. The panel data, consisting of 227 individuals affected by the 2013 flood in Germany, were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to utilize the unique temporal dimension of the data set. Results show that attitudes, such as the respondents’ perceived responsibility within flood risk management, remain fairly stable over time. Changes are observed partly for risk perceptions and mainly for individual recovery and intentions to undertake risk-reducing measures. LCGA reveal heterogeneous recovery and adaptation trajectories that need to be taken into account in policies supporting individual recovery and stimulating societal preparedness. More panel studies in the flood risk domain are needed to gain better insights into the dynamics of individual recovery, risk-reducing behavior, and associated risk and protective factors.     

Understanding Why Religious Involvement's Relationship With Education Varies by Social Class

Religiosity's impact on adolescent educational outcomes has been widely documented in the sociology of religion literature. Building upon King's conceptual framework of ideological, social, and transcendent resources that are made available to youth through religious participation, we use qualitative and quantitative data from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) to explore how the associations between religious involvement and educational outcomes may vary among lower and higher socioeconomic status youth. Our findings indicate significant positive effects of transcendent and ideological resources on educational outcomes, especially among youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, but limited influence of social resources through youth's religious participation.     

“Thank You for Including Us!” – Introducing a Community‐Based Collaborative Approach to Translating Clinic Materials

When working with clients in another language, having culturally relevant and properly translated clinic materials is vital to effective clinical practice. Not having them presents a barrier for bilingual therapists and their clients. This paper reviews common translation methods and introduces a multi‐level, community‐based approach for translating clinic materials for non‐English speaking clients. Informed by decolonizing practices, this five‐tier method includes members from the target community as cultural brokers to verify the accuracy and nuances of language for their cultural group, as well as a constant comparative method to ensure methodological rigor in the process of inclusion. We present community member's feedback and recommendations, as well as discuss advantages and challenges of using this collaborative culturally responsive translation method.     

Open Dialogue: Frequently Asked Questions

Open Dialogue is an approach to working with people and their families experiencing psychosocial distress. Interest in Open Dialogue in Australia has been growing recently, raising questions about its adaption and implementation to local contexts. This article is an attempt to answer some of the frequently asked questions we have encountered in training and discussions about Open Dialogue. We attempt to provide responses to questions of how Open Dialogue is different to what is done already, how it fits with current approaches, how you know if you are doing it, whether it is passive or just about doing reflections, issues about including the social network, and concerns about the evidence base. This article aims to present a variety of viewpoints in relation to these questions and to hopefully further discussions on how Open Dialogue can be implemented and adapted to Australian health care and social care contexts.     

Thinking Through Affect and Psychoanalysis: Introducing Papers from the Conference “Worldings,Tensions, Futures”

This is an introduction to the panel of papers collected from the affect theory conference “Worldings, Tensions, Futures,” comprising the stream focusing on psychoanalysis, affect and time.     

The disorganized family: institutions,practices and normativity

This paper considers the value of a normative account of the relationship between agents and institutions for contemporary efforts to explain ever more complex and disorganized forms of social life. The character of social institutions, as they relate to practices, agents and norms, is explored through an engagement with the common claim that family life has been de‐institutionalized. The paper argues that a normative rather than empirical definition of institutions avoids a false distinction between institutions and practices. Drawing on ideas of social freedom and creative action from critical theory, the changes in family life are explained not as an effect of de‐institutionalization, but as a shift from an organized to a disorganized institutional type. This is understood as a response to changes in the wider normative structure, as a norm of individual freedom has undermined the legitimacy of the organized patriarchal nuclear family, with gender ascribed roles and associated duties. Contemporary motherhood is drawn on to illustrate the value of analysing the dynamic interactions between institutions, roles and practices for capturing both the complexity and the patterned quality of social experience.