'Tell me in your own words': disabling barriers and social exclusion in young persons

This article summarizes two research studies carried out in the University of Cantabria and the University of Sevilla with young persons at risk of social exclusion (underprivileged socio-economic groups, ethnic/cultural minorities and disabled people). We uphold the need to study exclusion as a socially constructed process, which allows us to discuss barriers to social participation (following the social model of disability) while ruling out the essentialist and psychological explanations of inequality and social oppression. We aim to know the barriers young persons have encountered in social and school participation through their own words. We have used several biographical/narrative techniques which have an emancipating interest. Such techniques allow us to learn from the discourses of the young women or men that participated in the research and to discover the fundamental milestones that have shaped their excluded identities.     

Love and Alcohol: Performance in the Fiction and Life of Writer-Singer Nataliia Medvedeva

Abstract

The multifaceted Russian author, singer, and actress Nataliia Medvedeva’s (1958–2003) creative output was synonymous with performance. Her image became iconic in worldwide popular culture as the carefree, smiling young woman on the cover of the New Wave rock group “The Cars”’s eponymous 1978 album. Then Medvedeva was twenty years old and had been living in the United States for about three years; she returned to Russia in 1994 after nineteen years abroad, mainly in the US and France, and died at the age of forty-four, possibly of a fatal mixture of alcohol and tranquilizers. By the time of her death, Medvedeva—author, poet, journalist, singer, musician, model, and designer—was, and remains, an enigmatic yet colourful figure of the Russian émigré and post-Soviet literary, music, and cultural scenes.

From an early age in Leningrad, she showed an aptitude for constructing performance and (re)presenting herself. This article suggests that Medvedeva used her early autobiographical writing as a method of thinking through her ideas and beliefs about the nature of performance, especially as it related to perceptions of the sexual, sexuality, and shocking-ness, as well as to the relationship between the audience and herself, indeed, between society and the self. To support my thesis, I focus, in particular, on her autobiographical novel Liubov’ s alkogolem [Drunk Love, 1987?, 1995, 2001], as well as foundational ideas from the field of performance studies.     

The role of social relationships in the association between adolescents' depressive symptoms and academic achievement

While research has established that depression interferes with academic achievement, less is understood about the processes by which social relationships may buffer the relationship between depression and academic outcomes. In this study we examined the role of positive relationships in the school, family and peer contexts in the association between depressive symptoms and academic achievement among 894 adolescents aged 12–17 years living in Santiago, Chile. Depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of academic achievement; parental monitoring, school belonging, positive mother relationships, and having academically inclined peers moderated this relationship, though some interactions differed by sex and age. Implications for promoting the academic success of adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms are discussed.     

Family Members' Reports of Abuse in Michigan Nursing Homes

The objective of this article is to describe abuse and neglect of adults age 65 and older in Michigan nursing homes, as reported by members of their families. Using list-assisted random-digit dialing, data on abuse and neglect for a 12-month period were collected from individuals who had a relative age 65 or older in a Michigan nursing home. Of the nursing home residents represented in this analysis, the majority were female, Caucasian, and widowed. Neglect and caretaking mistreatment were the most frequent types of abuse reported. Comparison of these data with data from the National Ombudsman Reporting System suggests that family members constitute a sensitive source of data on abuse in nursing homes.     

Dialogic literary gatherings and out‐of‐home child care: Creation of new meanings through classic literature

Research on out‐of‐home child care has revealed that foster care programmes focused on educational attainment and reading have the potential to improve the academic outcomes of children in care. However, no studies have examined which elements of these programmes positively benefit children's emotional well‐being. This article presents evidence of the positive effects of implementing a successful educational action, dialogic literary gatherings, in a children's residential care institution. A qualitative study using a communicative‐oriented methodology was conducted and involved five participant observations and eight daily life stories with children in out‐of‐home care in Catalonia (Spain). The children's reflections demonstrated that reading classic books, such as Dickens' Oliver Twist, deeply influenced their feelings and self‐conceptions and created new and exciting meaning in their lives.     

“No End or Return”: Thematics of Impasse

This article explores therapeutic impasse through the dual lens of relational theory and infant research. Particular attention is paid to the role that enactment, rupture and repair, and nonverbal communication play in impasse dynamics. Defined broadly—as any time a therapist and patient feel stuck—impasse is conceptualized as an expectable, even inevitable, component of the treatment relationship. The implications for navigating impasses are considered through a clinical vignette developed as a case composite to ensure confidentiality.