The university as developmental space – a case for thinking differently?

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a sizeable increase in young people approaching University Counselling and Well-being Services for support in managing mental health difficulties with one research project suggesting an increase of demand upwards of 33%. Support is necessarily often targeted at those who present most ‘at risk’, but this ignores the potential positive impact that universities can have on promoting mental health for future generations, not least given that nearly half of all young people in the UK participate in Higher Education. Drawing on a case study of one UK undergraduate student, this paper will explore themes common to university students such as difficulties in transitioning from home, defensive-bonding in relationships and low self-esteem. The paper argues the need for universities and colleges to provide ongoing support for students who are ‘just about managing’ in order to enable them to flourish, both emotionally and academically.     

新建地方本科高校应用型转型的政策演进与发展启示

新建地方本科高校应用型转型是我国高等教育发展史上具有里程碑式的突破。深入剖析应用型转型的内涵,分析新建 地方本科高校所具有的“双重身份”——高等教育与职业教育,并从地方高校教育管理者的角度探讨如何用足用好中央省市的 高校应用型转型政策。     

刍议新建本科院校青年教师综合素质的提升

随着新建本科院校教师数量的快速增加,教师年龄结构凸显年轻化的趋势。青年教师的综合素质直接关系到新建本科院校的健康持续发展以及教育教学质量。培养青年教师的综合素质,应从营造良好的教书育人环境人手,切实完善青年教师的师德建设,进一步增强青年教师的教学科研能力。     

Helping Out the Kids: Expectations About Parental Support in Young Adulthood

This paper examines the expectations of very young adults (age 18) and their mothers about financial support that parents might provide under a variety of situations common in young adulthood. Using representative data from women and one of their children, we examine differences in expectations between mothers and children and model variation in these expectations. We find that a lower proportion of mothers expect to provide support than their children expect them to, with particularly large gaps between mothers and sons. Further, there are substantial differences in support priorities. Many mothers would support only a married child and others only an unmarried one; similarly, some mothers would support only an unmarried child at home, whereas many others would only support a child away. Although some of these differences reflect differences in resources, most suggest disagreements and confusion about Americans' family values.     

Men's and Women's Pathways to Adulthood and Their Adolescent Precursors

This study compared men's and women's pathways to adulthood by examining how role transitions in education, work, marriage, and parenthood intersect and form developmental pathways from ages 18-30. The study investigated how sociodemographic factors and adolescent experiences were associated with these pathways. We used latent class analysis to analyze longitudinal data from a gender-balanced panel of 808 contemporary young adults. We found three similar latent pathways for both genders, but men and women differed in the timing of marriage and when they began to live with children and the likelihood of combining both roles. The present study points to the continued, though differential, relevance of marriage and family in the transition to adulthood for men and women.     

Life Course Stage in Young Adulthood and Intergenerational Congruence in Family Attitudes

We investigated how intergenerational congruence in family‐related attitudes depends on life course stage in young adulthood. Recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study were used; the present sample included 2,041 dyads of young adults and their parents. Findings are discussed in terms of the elasticity in intergenerational attitude congruence in response to young adults' life course transitions. Our results suggest that intergenerational congruence in attitudes about partnership (e.g., marriage, cohabitation, divorce, women's and men's family roles) decreases after young adults have left the parental home and increases when young adults enter parenthood. Congruence concerning intergenerational obligations was not related to young adults' life course stage.     

‘Coming Out Tales’: Adult Sons and Daughters' Feelings About Their Gay Father's Sexual Identity

Coming out to their children is a dilemma that concerns many gay, bisexual, and lesbian parents with children from previous heterosexual relationships. How children found out about having a father who identified himself as gay, and their feelings about their father's sexual identity, were explored through qualitative analysis of semi‐structured interviews with 36 sons and daughters (aged 19 to 36 years) whose gay fathers participated in the Gay & Bisexual Parenting Survey (Barrett and Tasker, 2001). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed that awareness of their father's sexual identity was often left unspoken for various reasons, and that acceptance came about through gradual understanding as well as direct discussion. Interview data indicated the complexity of the relationship between the young adult's personal acceptance of their father's gay identity and their consideration of social context when deciding how open to be to others about their father's sexual identity. This research has varied implications for therapeutic work with gay and bisexual fathers coming out to their children from previous heterosexual relationships.     

Growing up with a sibling with dwarfism: perceptions of adult non‐dwarf siblings

Despite the fact that society seems to have become more tolerant towards human diversity, skeletal dysplasia still carries some extent of stigmatization and negative stereotyping. There seems to be a lack of knowledge regarding psychosocial factors associated with skeletal dysplasia, specifically as it relates to interpersonal relationships. Since the negative attention directed at individuals with dwarfism may also have an impact on family members and family relationships, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore adult non‐dwarf siblings' experiences of growing up with siblings with a skeletal dysplasia. Thematic analyses of semi‐structured interviews with four adult non‐dwarf siblings confirmed both negative and positive effects. These effects were evident in childhood and continued into adulthood. For the adults who took part in this study, the positive effects seemed to be more profound.     

Readiness for independent living of youth in residential childcare: A comparative study

Transition to adulthood is an accelerated and early process for care leavers that requires intensive preparation, training and support from child welfare services. This study aimed to explore the perceived readiness for independent living of a group of care-experienced young people preparing for leaving care in Spain and to compare it with the perceptions of their peers from the general population. A sample of 508 youth (50% women) aged 14–21 (M = 16.67; SD = 1.72) took part, of whom 279 were care experienced and 229 belonged to the general population in Spain. Participants' independent living skills, personal autonomy, self-efficacy and sociodemographic characteristics were assessed through an online survey using standardized instruments. Care-experienced young people displayed higher levels of life skills and autonomy in self-care, daily living at home and employment domains, but not related to making daily arrangements in their community. However, their educational level and self-efficacy levels were lower than in the comparison group. Work experience stood out as a significant predictor of care-experienced young people's life skills level. These findings support the importance of assessing life skills as an outcome of leaving care preparation services and providing care-experienced young people with real-life experiences to develop their life skills.