Use of domestic craft for meaning-making post-disaster

Much of the post-disaster research has focused on the vulnerability of affected populations and deleterious effects of such events on mental health, living conditions and employment. Little scholarly consideration has been given to investigating the resourceful activities of everyday living that occupants of disaster-ridden locations use to strengthen coping and aid recovery. This article reports on research conducted after the Christchurch 2010–2011 earthquakes aimed at capturing how people have used crafting as a means of connecting with others and aiding recovery. Using participant voices from five focus group and nine individual interviews, findings from this research show how Cantabrians used the activity of crafting to bring people together, generating a form of healing and recovery. Incorporating symbolism, expressions of compassion and restoring broken materials within their crafting helped participants generate strong and positive responses to a traumatic series of events. The benefits of these crafting efforts were realised on both individual and community levels, signalling the importance of creativity in disaster response work. While reference to domestic crafting has been largely absent from earlier research on disaster recovery we demonstrate how this medium has been powerful in enabling individuals to forge their own recovery after the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.     

Friendship Groups,Personal Motivation,and Gender in Relation to High School Students' STEM Career Interest

Friendship group characteristics, motivation, and gender were investigated in relation to adolescents' science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career interest. The sample was comprised of 468 high school students (M = 16 years, range = 13–18) from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Participants rated their friendship group's support of STEM as well as their personal motivation in science. They separately rated the friendship group's support of English and personal motivation in English. Other predictors included friendship group characteristics (importance, gender composition) and background variables such as gender. Group support of STEM (but not English) and science motivation (but not English motivation) predicted STEM career interest. Group characteristics and participant gender moderated the effects. Findings suggest social identities and self‐concepts may shape youths' STEM career choices.     

Service User/Survivor Involvement in Mental Health Training and Education: Overcoming the Barriers

This article discusses 10 barriers to the involvement of service users/survivors in learning and teaching about mental health in higher education, suggesting ways of overcoming each. The paper is addressed to mental health trainers and educators, some of whom will be mental health service users/survivors. We have not looked at the involvement of carers/relatives in learning and teaching here. They also clearly have an important role to play and some of what we have written will have relevance to their involvement.     

Development and Initial Validation of the Symptoms and Assets Screening Scale

Abstract

Objective: To develop and test a screening measure of mental health symptoms and well-being in college students, the Symptoms and Assets Screening Scale (SASS). Participants: Participants were 758 college students at 2 universities in the Northwest sampled between October 2009 and April 2011. Methods: Participants completed the SASS, as well as measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, substance problems, and eating problems in 1 session. A subset of participants (n = 259) completed the SASS 1 to 2 weeks later to allow an examination of test–retest stability. Results: The SASS demonstrated good reliability and validity and appears to assess similar constructs as well-established measures in college students. Fifty-nine percent of the sample reported having problems with their thoughts, behaviors, or emotions, whereas only 9.7% reported currently receiving treatment. Conclusions: The SASS is a brief instrument that has the potential to effectively screen for the most prevalent mental health problems in college students.     

Drinking patterns and attitudes about alcohol among New Zealand adolescents

ABSTRACT

Questionnaires about alcohol use were administered to consenting Year 10 students at 10 secondary schools located in regions of Southland, Otago and Hawkes Bay (n?=?579) to examine drinking patterns and attitudes about alcohol of 14–15-year-olds. The average age of first drink was 12.6 years, two years younger than previously reported, with no difference in age of first drink for different socioeconomic statuses or ethnicities. Fifty-four per cent self-reported having consumed alcohol, and 23% had done so at least once within the last four weeks, with 13% reported regularly drinking more than five drinks in one session. While almost half of the 14–15-year-olds in this study reported never drinking alcohol, 75 individuals reported regular binge drinking. This was more common for students in lower socioeconomic schools; almost a third of students in the lowest socioeconomic group reported drinking five or more drinks every time they drink. There may be benefits of alcohol education resources for children as young as 12 years.