What changes in ‘parenting’ approaches occur over the course of adolescent foster care placements?

An overview of the parenting skills and strategies utilized by foster carers looking after adolescents was given in an earlier paper. This paper focuses specifically on the relationship between the behaviour of fostered adolescents and the quality of parenting provided by the carer. In particular, the paper considers the consequences of situations in which fostered young people have a detrimental impact on other children within the foster family, as this was an especially difficult situation for foster carers to manage. Similarly, foster carers appeared to find it difficult to maintain good parenting skills with young people who were at risk due to their own sexual behaviour although, conversely, caring for a young person whose sexual behaviour put others at risk was connected with improved parenting. The quality of parenting provided by the foster carers was also influenced by the level of stress they were experiencing, with increased levels of stress leading to poorer parenting of the fostered adolescent.     

Parent and Child Cognitive Representations of Social Situations and Children's Social Competence

The current study examines the relations among parent and child social information processing components and their links to children's social competence. Ninety‐seven kindergarten children and their mothers and fathers responded to open‐ended vignettes that involved conflict with a peer. Goals and strategies for both parents and children were assessed. Results show that there is some consistency between parents and children in the types of goals and strategies that are provided. Further, fathers’ and children's goals and strategies were related to children's social competence but only limited support for children's cognitions as a mediator between parental cognitions and peer competence was found. The implications for the role of social information processing in the development of children's social competence are noted.     

‘I was bored so…’: motivational accounts of participation in an online emo group

We examine members' spontaneous accounts for joining and participating in an online emo forum. The Internet and social networking sites are central features of contemporary youth cultures; the analysis of interaction on emo forums can thus provide a way of appreciating emo as a ‘Community in Practice’. We analyse popular discussion threads collected from a key emo website, using membership categorisation and conversation analysis. In these threads, members introduce themselves and account for joining and posting pictures in response to a prior request to do so. Analysis shows that newbies establish their emo attributes and hence entitlement to participate while dismissing emo-related motivation for joining the forum, claiming instead a desire to relieve boredom. Participants similarly accounted for posting photos of themselves and for producing fan pics as due to boredom. We show how claiming to be bored allows members to engage with the group while negotiating potentially problematic inferences that attend subcultural membership. We conclude that our approach provides a useful methodology for furthering our understanding of an important aspect of contemporary youth subcultures.     

Developing intercultural communication skills through intergroup interaction

The call to internationalise the curriculum has become firmly ensconced in Australian educational discourse and university mission statements. Yet, scholars in this area agree that there are few concrete examples of how educators actually set about internationalising the curriculum in a tangible and easily replicable way. This paper adopts a definition of internationalisation of the curriculum which takes into account the experiential aspects of the process of becoming an intercultural communicator. The goal of internationalising the curriculum responds to the recognition that students need to develop a degree of intercultural competence in order to function efficiently in an increasingly globalised environment. Both international and local students need to be partners in this process, and the cultural diversity of contemporary universities in the west is an ideal setting to foster the ability to mediate across cultures. In this paper, we explore some practical ways in which key issues in intercultural communication can be implemented into university curricula through programmes that promote interaction across groups.

La llamada a internacionalizar el currículo se encuentra firmemente afianzada en el discurso académico y en las declaraciones de las universidades australianas. Sin embargo, estudios en esta área convienen que hay pocos ejemplos concretos que indiquen cómo los educadores pueden internacionalizar el currículo de una manera tangible y fácilmente replicable. Este artículo adopta una definición de la internacionalización del currículo que considera los aspectos experienciales en el desarrollo del proceso de comunicación intercultural. La meta de internacionalizar el currículo responde al reconocimiento de que los estudiantes necesitan desarrollar un grado de capacidad intercultural para desempeñarse eficientemente en un ambiente cada vez más global. Tanto los estudiantes internacionales como los locales necesitan colaborar en este proceso. La diversidad cultural que caracteriza a las universidades contemporáneas en occidente hace de éstas un ámbito ideal para fomentar la capacidad de mediar entre culturas. En este artículo exploramos algunos programas prácticos que pueden ser implementados en currículos universitarios para promover la interacción entre grupos.     

The dwelling space of postnatal care

BackgroundThis paper considers the dwelling space of postnatal care, how being-there feels for the woman going through the experience of matrescence. The research takes a hermeneutic approach and draws on philosophical notions from Heidegger. Question: ‘What is the nature of the dwelling space of valued postnatal care?’.MethodsAppropriate ethics approval was gained. Participants were midwives, nurses, women, and other relevant stakeholders. There were 4 focus groups involving 11 participants and 19 individual interviews. Data collection was conducted over a one week period by a team of three researchers. An interview schedule had been organised by the administrator at the Centre. Participants chose whether to come to the centre to be interviewed, or be interviewed in their own homes. Most interviews were an hour. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed, with the participant's permission. Data was analysed through a hermeneutic process set in the context of related literature.FindingsWhen women are invited into a dwelling space that strengthens them they feel ‘mothered’: being listened to, have their needs anticipated, and are cared for in a loving manner. In such a way they grow confidence. A child health nurse reported the difference such care made to on-going mothering at home.Implications for practiceAll women deserve a dwelling space in their early days of matrescence. Small birthing centres perhaps achieve such care and ambience more easily than large institutional units. Nevertheless, wherever the place, practices need to be enabled that foster the spirit of dwelling.