Giving,Saving, Spending: What Would Children Do with £1 Million?

This article explores children's responses to a single question: ‘If someone gave you £1 million today, what would you do with it?’ Although such an exploration might seem trivial, we argue that their responses provide important insights into children's values and priorities. One‐third intend to spend it all, one quarter to save it. But the largest group claim that they would give all or some of the money away. Their responses highlight the divergent ways in which children use money to foster particular forms of social relations and social standing. Against the prevalent discourse of consumer society, the dominant theme of giving may indicate that the individualism of neoliberalism is less pervasive than is often feared, but also suggest that further research is needed into the social contexts and processes which encourage children to be ‘givers’, ‘savers’ or ‘spenders’.     

Predictors of father‐son communication about sexuality

Examining the factors that influence adolescents’ sexual behaviors is crucial for understanding why they often engage in risky sexual behaviors. Using social cognitive theory, we examined predictors of father‐son communication about sexuality. Fathers (N = 155) of adolescent sons completed a survey measuring 12 variables, including self‐efficacy and outcome expectations. We found that (a) son's pubertal development, father's sex‐based values, father's education, father's communication with his father, outcome expectations, and general communication accounted for 36% of the variance in information sharing communication and (b) son's pubertal development, outcome expectations, general communication, and father‐son contact accounted for 20% of the variance in values sharing communication. Study findings can aid professionals in designing guidelines and programs to promote father‐son general communication and sex‐based communication.     

Supervision in the helping professions a practical approach

Abstract

This article is based on an ethnographic study undertaken to explore whether eight people diagnosed with terminal cancer and their families drew on aspects of their cultural identities to make sense of their journey towards death, and if so, how. Ethnographic methods were supplemented by semistructured interviews. Most participants received medical treatments until close to death and invested much effort, time, and hope in these. Consequently, they made little sense of their palliative referrals. Instead, they accommodated the biomedical cultures of treatment-oriented services, thus delaying their own and their family's preparation for death. Only three participants appeared well prepared one month prior to death. An ecological perspective helped to explain the systemic factors involved in this prioritisation. The authors make recommendations for greater involvement of social workers in palliative care, and for more attention to supporting dying people and their families to make culturally meaningful decisions in the journey toward death.     

Exploring the relationship between our learning,E-learning and HRD: E-Learn 2005 conference report

Abstract

This report provides a personal reflection on the E-Learn Conference held in Vancouver, Canada, in October 2005. First, I provide a brief review of previous conference reports and then share my experiences of this particular conference, focusing on technical, social, pedagogical and cultural aspects.     

Predictors of children's understandings of death: age, cognitive ability, death experience and maternal communicative competence

A child's age, cognitive ability, and exposure to death in the environment have been documented as major factors affecting the formation of a mature death concept. The present study investigated the relationships between these three factors (age, cognitive ability, and death experience) and children's understandings of death, as well as the relationship between mothers' communicative competence and children's understandings of death. Thirty-seven children (ages 48-96 months) completed three cognitive tasks and answered four dichotomous questions about death. Their mothers (N = 37) responded in writing to 16 questions about death that children are likely to ask. Results showed significant relationships between age and understanding, between seriation ability and understanding, and between death experience and understanding. There was no statistically significant relationship between maternal response competence and children's understandings of death. Implications are discussed.     

Body Talk: Some Thoughts On Anorexia

In this paper, I will attempt to address questions about the dynamics of anorexia within family relationships, the ways in which anorexic thinking encapsulates itself in the mind, and how it can leave both the therapist and the family feeling ‘starved out’. I will also address some organisational issues, in the ways the therapeutic agency can come to mirror the anorexic dilemma. How does the metaphor of ‘growing’ and ‘growing up’ join with the anorexic crisis? I will discuss the cases of both a boy and a girl with anorexia, in order to think about the dynamic differences in the ‘becoming of a man’ and the ‘becoming of a woman’.     

Predictors of supplementation for breastfed babies in a Baby-Friendly hospital

Problem

Supplementation of breastfed babies is common during the hospital stay.

The education of children in care and children in need: Who falls behind and when?

We seek to explain the development of the educational gap between children in “out‐of‐home care” (CLA), children deemed in social need (CIN), and other pupils. A cohort of 642,805 pupils aged 16 in 2013 was used to chart the educational progress of the full cohort, the CLA (n = 6,236), the CIN in 2012 or 2013 but not CLA (n = 20,384), and a sample individually matched with the CLA (n = 11,084). At age 7, attainment of the CLA and CIN was approximately 1 standard deviation lower than the cohort average and predicted attainment at 16. At this point, the persistent “CIN” (those with earlier and persistent needs) had the lowest attainment relative to others, and this declined further during secondary school. Those entering care before or during primary school had very low attainment at age 7, but their relative attainment did not decline. Attainment of CLA and CIN at age 16 likely reflects early environment, special educational needs, and poor relationships with secondary school. Policy, research, and intervention should focus on CIN as well as CLA, do so before entry to care, and take account of the onset of, and probable reasons for, educational difficulties.