Children's involvement in their parents' divorce: implications for practice

The paper reports findings from a research study that explored children's experience of divorce. It shows that children experience parental divorce as a crisis in their lives but that they are able to mobilise internal and external resources to regain a new point of balance. In doing so, children demonstrate the degree to which they are active and competent participants in the process of family dissolution. The implications of the data are then considered in relation to engaging with children involved in divorce and in relation to some of the cultural presumptions that might militate against hearing what they have to say about their experiences. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Process for Incorporating Comparative Risk into Environmental Policymaking in Louisiana

The goal of Louisiana's 1990–1991 comparative risk project, also called the Louisiana Environmental Action Plan (LEAP), was to incorporate risk assessment into state environmental planning and policymaking. Scientists, government officials, and citizens were brought together to estimate the relative risk to human health, natural resources, and quality of life posed by 33 selected environmental issues. The issues were then ranked according to their relative estimated risks. It was hoped that this ranking of "comparative risks" would enable state policymakers to target the most important environmental problems and allocate scarce public resources more rationally and efficiently. As a result of the project, the governor issued an Executive Order forming a permanent Public Advisory Committee to continue this type of comparative risk assessment in Louisiana.     

A sea change on the island continent: frameworks for risk assessment,prevention and intervention in child health in Australia

This article overviews prevention and early intervention approaches focusing specifically on their relevance to the health of children and young people in Australia. Australian public health has a sound track record although concealed within the aggregate profile are a number of sub-populations with poorer health indicators. Recognition of this has increased efforts to improve the health of children and young people especially in exploring the impact of social environments within the communities where children are raised. This paper examines emerging research in this area drawing out key lessons and learning from Australian experience in the field of early intervention and prevention in community settings.     

African urban life: Components of satisfaction in Sierra Leone

This comparative study finds relatively high satisfaction with the quality of life in three Sierra Leonean towns, but there are notable differences between men and women and between the towns in which domains support this satisfaction. The standard of living achieved, and the job and income which make it possible, are the most important factors in satisfaction with the quality of urban life, but the limits on women's mobility are indicated by the greater emphasis they place on housing and neighborhood. Dissatisfaction among the relatively advantaged, with their own position and with the country's progress in development, reflects the political disaffection of some members of this group.     

Housing Conditions of Nuclear and Extended Households in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Area

Arrivals of new immigrants into the south Florida area have put increased pressure on housing markets and fostered renewed efforts to provide more affordable housing. Many view household extension largely as a response to the lack of a sufficient amount of affordable housing. This paper examines the nature, proportion and housing condition of nuclear and extended households in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. The study also investigates how the incidence and housing situation of extended households has changed during the period from 1986 to 1990. This study illustrates that extended families in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area are not uniformly worse off than nuclear families, given ethnicity and income level. While the area's housing problems require attention, some of that attention should be focused on removing institutional barriers to household extension and to providing broader housing choices for minority ethnic groups.     

Opportunities for woman-initiated HIV prevention methods among female sex workers in southern China

Rapid changes in China over the past two decades have led to significant problems associated with population migration and changing social attitudes, including a growing sex industry and concurrent increases in STIs and HIV. This article reports results of an exploratory study of microbicide acceptability and readiness and current HIV prevention efforts among female sex workers in two rural and one urban town in Hainan and Guangxi Provinces in southern China. The study focused on these women's knowledge and cultural understandings of options for protecting themselves from exposure to STIs and HIV, and the potential viability and acceptability of woman-initiated prevention methods. We report on ethnographic elicitation interviews conducted with women working within informal sex-work establishments (hotels, massage and beauty parlors, roadside restaurants, boarding houses). We discuss implications of these findings for further promotion of woman-initiated prevention methods such as microbicides and female condoms among female sex workers in China.     

Women and Their Work on Australian Farms

Traditional definitions of farm work have been narrow and commodity-based, allowing the efforts of women to be discounted because they have not been viewed as directly contributing to production. This paper examines the structural gender arrangements that operate to render farm women powerless and to discount their contributions. Data are presented on the extent of women's economic contribution on Australian farms.     

Time to listen: strategies to improve hospital-based postnatal care

BACKGROUND: In Australia and internationally, women report high levels of dissatisfaction with hospital-based postnatal care. AIM: To design and implement strategies to improve hospital-based postnatal care at a Sydney metropolitan hospital. METHOD: This was an Action Research study. In Phase One, midwives considered the literature and participated in group discussions and interviews to determine their perceptions of postnatal care and the factors that facilitate or hinder the provision of quality care. In Phase Two, midwives participated in 12 working group meetings to design strategies to improve care. RESULTS: Several important principles of postnatal care were described, including building a relationship with women, meeting their individual needs, being flexible in approach and providing continuity of care. 'Listening to women', 'being there,' and 'normalising experiences and expectations' were believed to be critical to achieving these principles. A key strategy 'One to One Time' was designed to provide women with an uninterrupted period of time each day with a midwife who was available to listen to their needs and concerns and discuss issues related to their health and that of their baby. CONCLUSION: Midwives designed and implemented strategies that they believed would improve in-hospital postnatal care.