Residential Concentration Among Immigrants in Oslo

On the basis of register data, this article outlines the development ofresidential concentrations among immigrants in Oslo from the early 1970suntil 1996.
It is argued that a phase characterized by concentrated immigrant housing inthe inner city was superseded by a phase of dispersal which, in turn, was replaced by a period of new concentration. Western and non-Western immigrants live in different parts of the city and the degree of residential concentration varies according to the national background of the immigrants.
Between 1988 and 1993 there was a net flux of non-Western immigrantsfrom the inner city east to the old and new suburban dormitory towns on theoutskirts of the city. This is interpreted as a tendency over time to conformto mainstream Norwegian residential patterns.
The relevance of the term "ghetto" as a designation of areas in Oslo characterized by a high proportion of immigrants is refuted.
Empirical evidence supports the notion that economic resources is the mostimportant factor in creating and maintaining immigrant residential concentrations in the inner city east, while cultural phenomena also appear to play a major causal role.     

Emergent Intraverbal and Reverse Intraverbal Behavior Following Listener Training in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

We evaluated whether intraverbal and reverse intraverbal behavior emerged following listener training in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Six participants were each taught three sets of three “when?” questions in listener training. A multiple baseline design across behaviors (stimulus sets) was used to assess the effects of listener training. Results showed that intraverbal behavior emerged following listener training for five out of six participants. One participant received additional listener training and intraverbal training before intraverbal behavior emerged. Furthermore, reverse intraverbal responding occurred across all three sets of questions for three of the six participants. Establishing listener behavior may be a pathway for emergent intraverbal and reverse intraverbal responding in children with ASD. Future research could examine what skill repertoire may facilitate such transfer.     

Grammatical constructions in typical developing children: effects of explicit reinforcement, automatic reinforcement and parity

This study replicated and extended Wright (2006) and Whitehurst, Ironsmith, and Goldfein (1974) by examining whether preschool aged children would increase their use of passive grammatical voice rather than using the more age-appropriate active grammatical construction when the former was modeled by an adult. Results showed that 5 of the 6 participants began using the passive voice after this verbal behavior had been modeled. For 3 of the participants, this change was large. The change occurred even though the adult model explicitly rewarded the participant with praise and stickers for using the active voice, while providing no praise or stickers for using the passive form that was modeled. For 1 participant, the modeling procedure had no effect on use of the passive voice. These results indicate a strong automatic reinforcement effect of achieving parity with the grammatical structures used by adults, compared to the effects of explicit reinforcement by the adult. This might help to explain why children acquire grammatical structures prevalent in their language community apparently without explicit instruction.     

Shared decision making from the service users’ perspective: A narrative study from community mental health centers in northern Norway

This article aims to contribute to the understanding of shared decision making as an important aspect of user involvement in mental health care from the perspectives of service users. A thematic analysis of interviews with 25 individual service users in three different community mental health centers in Norway identified different understandings of shared decision making. Shared decision making was identified as essential in four contexts: 1) during admission, 2) in individualized treatment, 3) in different treatment contexts, and 4) in user-professional relationships. We consider shared decision making to be intertwined with treatment from the service user perspective.     

Power in the production of spaces transformed by rural tourism

The article critiques Halfacree's conceptualisation of rural space for masking the workings of power within ‘black boxes’ such as structural coherence and trial by space. One consequence is that rural change's social activities and also their social and personal consequences are cloaked, thereby rendering the localised fault lines of rurality analytically out of reach. Halfacree's conceptualisation is developed further by attaching a conceptual extension comprising three hubs: an immaterial hub, a material hub, and a personal hub. This is done as an attempt to give Halfacree's tool for deconstructing the social production of rural space analytical sensitivity to the actors engaged in the processes implied by social production. In order to demonstrate the analytical potential of the extended Halfacree approach, the conceptual model is applied to a case study: data from two communities undergoing rapid change, as they shifted from being dominated by primary industry to becoming tourism destinations.     

Organizational factors and child participation in decision‐making: differences between two child welfare organizations

Children in residential care tend to be less content with the quality of care arrangements and participation opportunities compared to children in foster care. This study explored possible differences in social workers' views about child participation and service quality. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test if any differences may be explained by collaboration between professionals' and social workers' work engagement. We found that social workers from residential care services seem more prudent in letting children participate in case planning compared to social workers planning for foster care. Social workers' judgements of service quality were also highly affected by their organizational affiliation, but personal factors such as work engagement may also play a part. The differences we found regarding social workers' attitudes towards participation and their rating of service quality are associated with organizational culture. Understanding how organizations shape social workers' decisions to include or exclude children in care planning may help gain a more comprehensive understanding of what is needed to take the participation agenda forward.     

Participation and health – a research review of child participation in planning and decision‐making

Effective child participation in child protection proceedings has proved difficult to achieve in Norway. Although participation is in principle accepted as a human right and something of benefit to children, when children's health is at stake there is a tendency to view participation in decision‐making processes by children as potentially disruptive to their well‐being. The purpose of this study is to review the research evidence for effects, positive or negative, of participation on health outcomes for children in care. A scoping review of major health and social work research databases was undertaken. Searches in five databases yielded 1830 studies of which 21 were finally included in this review. Studies were included if a relationship between health and participation was evident from the data presented, even if this was not the main objective in the study at hand. We conclude that when participation is successful, it may have beneficial side effects. Chief among these are that participation may improve children's safety, increase the success of care arrangements and increase feelings of well‐being for children involved. Evidence for long‐term effects of successful or failed participation attempts on subsequent health outcomes is however largely absent.