Enhancing the validity of foster care follow-up studies through multiple alumni location strategies

While family-based placement prevention services, family reunification programs, subsidized guardianship, and aggressive adoption programs are reducing the numbers of children spending long periods of time in substitute care, a significant number of America's children will come of age in foster care. Agencies and policymakers should use research and evaluation to assess the effectiveness of foster care in nurturing healthy adults and to explore ways to improve services. Outcome studies that have focused on locating and interviewing young or middle-aged adults emancipated from foster care have been hampered by modest response rates, limiting the field's ability to evaluate the efficacy of foster care programs. This article describes a set of strategies that were used to achieve higher response rates in two recent follow-up studies.     

Sensory approaches in inpatient psychiatric settings: innovative alternatives to seclusion & restraint

The national initiative to decrease the use of seclusion and restraint in psychiatric inpatient settings requires innovative methods to facilitate the processes of consumer self-organization, self-care, and positive change. Sensory-based approaches and multisensory rooms are valuable resources as cultures of care shift to become more responsive and collaborative. This article explores the importance and efficacy of trauma-informed approaches that are sensory supportive, address the individual needs of the person, and strengthen the therapeutic relationship.     

Development of the MyPlan Safety Decision App with Friends of College Women in Abusive Dating Relationships

Dating violence (DV) from an intimate partner/expartner is common on college campuses, but young college women are far more likely to disclose DV to a peer than to seek formal services. Therefore, our team developed a prototype smartphone application (app) aimed at DV survivors’ peers. Through focus groups/interviews, 31 college students who self-identified as friends of DV survivors reviewed and provided feedback on the app's usefulness, understandability, appropriateness, and comprehensiveness. These findings support the acceptability and usefulness of an app to support peers of DV survivors on campus and thereby also strengthen the safety net for DV survivors.     

The invisibility of disability for homeless youth

A largely unexplored complexity in the lives of youth who have experienced homeless is the presence of intellectual, developmental and/or learning disabilities. Although emerging research shows that youth with cognitive disabilities are more likely to become homeless and that rates of cognitive disabilities are higher among the homeless population than the population in general, exploring the intersection of disability and homelessness for youth has not been a priority. In this study, a critical disability and systems failure lens is brought to bear on the vulnerability of youth who experience this intersection. Based on interviews with key informants in the disability, homelessness, education, employment and child welfare sectors in three sites in Ontario, Canada, the invisibility of disability among homeless youth is brought to light. We explore the ways youth with a disability in the homelessness sector are made vulnerable, the insurmountable barriers to getting access to the requisite assessment for disability services and the siloed nature of the homelessness and disability service sectors. An argument is made that “working outside the box” to assist youth to navigate significant system disjunctures is insufficient.     

The impact of gender and disability on the economic well‐being of disabled women in the United Kingdom: A longitudinal study between 2009 and 2014

The present study examined the economic well‐being of disabled and nondisabled men and women in the United Kingdom. Using the 2009–2014 Life Opportunities Survey (N = 6,159 adults), the study is the first longitudinal study to empirically compare the economic well‐being of disabled women in contrast to disabled men and nondisabled men and women. Hierarchical linear modelling and hierarchical linear logistic modelling were used to estimate the longitudinal changes. Findings indicate that, overall, disabled women's economic well‐being improved significantly between 2009 and 2014 even after controlling for other demographic characteristics. However, the improvements were not substantial enough to significantly narrow the economic disparities between disabled women and disabled men and nondisabled men and women. Disabled women remained worse off than disabled men and nondisabled men and women in 2014 as they did in 2009. The findings indicate that intersectional discrimination against disabled women exist in the United Kingdom. Findings from this study provide empirical evidence to support policies that enhance the economic security of disabled women.     

Balancing caring and paid work in the UK: narrating ‘choices’ as first-time parents

Paid work is generally accepted as an important dimension of hegemonic masculinities and men's identities, which can become heightened when they become fathers. Changes in global economies together with educational shifts and other demographic patterns mean that paid work has become a significant feature of many women's lives too. Increasingly across Europe women who are mothers combine caring, domestic chores, and paid work. Using data from a qualitative longitudinal study on women's experiences of transition to first-time motherhood in the UK, this paper will explore how women narrate and reconcile their decisions either to return to paid work or not to, following the birth of their first child (Miller 2005). These findings are considered alongside a companion study on men's experiences of transition to first-time fatherhood (Miller 2011). The comparison shows that women articulate work and caring decisions in narratives which convey a sense of ‘guilt’, whilst the men are able to talk more freely – and acceptably – about ‘career progression’ and the importance of work to their identity and their new family. Even though recent research points to some changes in men's involvement in caring and women's increased activities in the work-place, particular aspects of these arrangements remain seemingly impervious to change.     

Professional School Counselors' Career Development Practices and Continuing Education Needs

This study explored the practices of professional school counselors in their delivery of career counseling. School counselors were found to spend significantly less time on career development than on personal–social and academic development. In addition, new professionals placed more priority on career counseling compared with their more experienced counterparts. Continuing education opportunities, future research directions, and implications for school counselors are presented.     

Establishing Concurrent Mands for Items and Mands for Information about Location in Children with Autism

This study replicated and extended the methodology used in Howlett et al. (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 943–947 2011) to bring the mands “Where’s (item)?” and “I want (item)” under appropriate antecedent control in two boys diagnosed with autism. Trials were alternated in which items were present, missing, and within view (but inaccessible) and missing and out of view. To program for generalization, fifteen items, multiple trainers, and multiple settings were used during teaching. For both participants, manding generalized to novel items, instructors, settings, and situations and maintained after 2 weeks following teaching. Results of the social validity assessment indicated that school staff found the procedures highly acceptable.     

Facilitating collaborative teacher learning: the role of “mindfulness” in video-based teacher professional development programs

In teacher professional development (PD), the component of collaborative participation among teachers is emphasized. Especially in video-based PD programs, the role of building up a teacher learning community and a trustful exchange among group members is important. Since general rules for productive collaboration do not exist at the beginning of a PD program, the role of a facilitator is pivotal for the successful development of a teacher learning community. In this paper, we present a new video-based PD program, the “Dialogic Video Cycle” (DVC), focusing on the improvement of classroom dialogue. In describing the DVC and the facilitation actions (“moves”), we highlight the role of the facilitator as mindful in providing teachers with new knowledge and with guiding the exchange among teachers about teaching practices and reflections. Results of a final evaluation of the program showed positive perceptions of the facilitation approach in the video-based PD program.     

Types of separation-individuation in relation to mothers and fathers among young people entering adulthood

This paper presents a study on emerging adults’ separation-individuation in relation to parents from a person-centred perspective. The participants, aged 18 through 28 years (N?=?2040, 73% female), offered self-reports on separation-individuation in relation to their mother and father separately. We used the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (Komidar, L., M. Zupan?i?, G. So?an, and M. Puklek Levpu??ek. 2014. “Development and construct validation of the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (ITEA).” Journal of Personality Assessment 96 (5): 503–514), specifically designed to tap individuation issues in emerging adulthood. Clustering procedures revealed four internally replicable and structurally consistent types across parents, representing the current relationship dynamics of parent – child relationships. The consistency analysis of cross-parent type membership suggested that about a half of the participants were assigned to the same type of separation-individuation in relation to their mother and father. We considered the individuated-related and the individuated-independent type as healthy separated-individuated yet distinct types, whereas the anxious and the dependent type reflected likely difficulties in separation-individuation. The type membership was significantly associated with the participants’ age, gender, and adult role transitions.