Conceptual Framework for Integrating Holistic Perspectives and Approaches to Problems of Safe Motherhood

ABSTRACT

This article provides a conceptual framework for incorporating the array of variables defined in maternal health research in order to explicate their influence on problems of safe motherhood. Focusing an overview of the articles in this collection, in addition to strategies and policies needed from practitioners' perspectives and finding from case studies, research findings from a variety of countries are provided. Factors influencing positive outcomes such as age of mother, skilled attendants at delivery, and prenatal care are considered. The importance of the political and economic structure and stability of the country which plays an important role is discussed.     

Challenges of Safe Motherhood: Program and Policy Recommendations

ABSTRACT

This article synthesizes the major findings from research and case studies on safe motherhood and focuses on best practices and changes in public policy. Many factors that negatively influence safe motherhood can be ameliorated—and have been in numerous societies through education, access to resources, public–private partnerships, and grassroots efforts. A model identifying the interrelationship of variable is provided. Policy recommendations are discussed.     

“They Always Ask What I'm Doing and Who I'm Talking to”: Parental Mediation of Adolescent Interactive Technology Use

Burgeoning technology provides instant access to information and communication. Responsible adults are concerned about the material accessed by adolescent technology users. From an ecological system's lens, using a mixed-methods design, the current study identified adolescent and parent perceptions of parental mediation of adolescent interactive technology use (i.e., cell phones, Internet). Eighty adolescents (16–18 years of age) and their parents (n = 113) participated in the study that identified generational differences in perceptions of parental mediation, techniques for mediating interactive technology (i.e., monitoring data and usage, active mediation, rules, restriction), and adolescent perceptions of the process of parental mediation. We used the results to propose principles for parental mediation of adolescent interactive technology use and provide directions for future research.     

Perceptions of Parental Intimate Relationships and Their Affects on the Experience of Romantic Relationship Development Among African American Emerging Adults

The quality of romantic relationships that parents maintain has an impact on their children. Emerging adult children base their relationships on similar values and/or opposing beliefs of their parental romantic relationships. This phenomenological study aimed to identify how African American emerging adults experience their parental romantic relationships and how they find meaning in the romantic relationships of their parents. Results suggest that African American emerging adults develop both positive and negative perceptions about romantic relationships from their parents’ relationships, which affect the way these adults perceive, develop, and maintain their own romantic unions. African American emerging adults also find meaning in their parental couple relationships as they share similar experiences in their relationship quality, mate choice, and/or personal or mate characteristics and personality traits as their parents.     

Practice Learning and the Development of Students as Critical Practitioners—Some Findings from Research

This article reports some findings from an ESRC‐funded research project which has been examining the development of criticality in undergraduate students, taking social work and modern languages as contrasting disciplines. This twin‐track study aims to develop the conceptualisation of ‘criticality’ in the context of empirical research. This article examines the development of criticality in final year social work students, where the practice learning experience is predominant. The analysis is framed by the project's developing theoretical conceptualisation of criticality.     

Analyzing the Impact of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital on Economic Well-Being: Results from Canada's General Social Survey

In this study we analyze nationally representative data from Canada's General Social Survey to investigate how various indicators of bonding and bridging social capital are associated with economic well-being and how the magnitude of their associations compare with each other. Our findings suggest that several dimensions of bonding social capital, including knowing neighbors well enough to ask favors of them and providing assistance to others, are positively associated with economic well-being. The study's indicators of bridging social capital were also linked to increases in the participants’ economic well-being. When comparing the associations of bonding and bridging social capital we ascertained that bridging social capital in the form of group membership, including Internet group membership and participation in groups, had a more robust association than any of the indicators of bonding social capital. We consider the implications of the study's findings in light of a technologically-advanced yet volatile economy.     

Military Veterans Sharing First‐Person Stories of War and Homecoming: A Pathway to Social Engagement,Personal Healing,and Public Understanding of Veterans' Issues

What power, meaning and value may exist within a soldier's first‐person war story? Former Marine captain Tyler Boudreau, quoted below, suggests that constructing a personal narrative of the traumas of war and homecoming, then “asking questions” of the story, can provide a veteran with a “chart.” If this is so, can that chart help one along the road to healing from those traumas, especially when that story is shared with others? Could there be dangerous turns or pitfalls on the journey? How can a public sharing of narratives of wartime experiences help audiences to better respond to those veterans and families who must cope with a difficult transition from the battlefield to home? What guidelines can be used effectively to train and prepare storytellers for their role? In this collaborative article, strengthened by the clinical wisdom of various consulting clinicians, we examine these questions through the lenses of two programs that provide veterans opportunities to share their war stories publicly. They include the Veterans Education Project (VEP) and the “100 Faces of War Experience” project (100 Faces).     

Secure Body Attachment and the Prevention of Eating Disorders: A Case Application

Drawing on attachment theory, the author explores the particular physical presence of the body as a significant aspect of the attachment relationship between two people, most notably between two females (the mother and the daughter). Recognizing the nature of one’s body attachment as a protective and a risk factor provides a greater understanding of the potential for resilience, as well as the presence of vulnerability in relationship to one’s body. Through a case application, the author argues that without a model of secure attachment to the body, a female is more likely to develop an attachment to cultural ideals as an extension of primary relationships and at the expense of her own body, moving her from exposure to action in the form of an eating disorder.     

How Living Wage Legislation Affects U.S. Poverty Rates

I investigate how living wage legislation affects poverty. I find evidence that living wage ordinances modestly reduce poverty rates where such ordinances are enacted. However, there is no evidence that state minimum wage laws do so. The difference in the impacts of the two types of legislation conceivably stems from a difference in the party responsible for bearing the burden of the cost.