A qualitative investigation of risk and protective factors for interpersonal violence in adults on the autism spectrum

Abstract

Individuals on the autism spectrum are at an increased risk of experiencing violence. This study sought to understand the opinions of adults on the spectrum regarding potential risk and protective factors for interpersonal violence. Twenty-two adults (12 men; 18 to 53 years of age) participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed. The results of the qualitative analysis identified individual and contextual risk and protective factors. Protective themes focused on individual needs (awareness of the self and the environment, interpersonal knowledge/skills, skill building strategies) and supportive contexts (benefits of a trusted person, advocates, fostering acceptance and inclusion). There is a need for strategies to decrease the vulnerability to, and the impact of, interpersonal violence. Individuals on the spectrum have the capacity to provide important information regarding safety promotion and risk factors for interpersonal violence, and their expertise should play a role in guiding efforts that promote safety.     

Women’s experiences of,and attitudes to,maternity education across the perinatal period in Victoria,Australia: A mixed-methods approach

Background

While the provision of maternity education across the perinatal period can increase the confidence and self-efficacy in childbearing women, there is still thought to be a lack of effective educational resources for parenthood. This study, conducted in Victoria, Australia, investigated women’s experiences of, and attitudes to education communicated in maternity service provision.

Youth Agency, Sport, and the Public Sphere in Kenya

In many African countries, youths' participation in the public sphere is still limited despite the creation of legal instruments such as the African Youth Charter and myriad youth-centered national policies. Across the continent, marginalized youths face various constraints in accessing the public sphere. This article examines how one voluntary sports association, the Mathare Youth Sports Association, uses sports as an alternative public sphere to engage with government actors and the community on social justice issues.     

Caregiving role affects family relationships of African American grandmothers as new mothers again: a phenomenological perspective

Currently, African American grandmothers are becoming caregivers to grandchildren whose parents, for various reasons, are not providing them with adequate care. Replacing their adult children, as parents, while continuing to mother them along with caring for grandchildren are essential components of this complex situation. A part of the findings from this qualitative study of the experience of grandmother caregivers indicated that family relations are affected with their grandchildren, the parents of their grandchildren, and their other adult children. Implications for culturally sensitive, family-centered clinical practice and future research are discussed.     

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Abstract

Cardiac patients frequently experience anxiety and depression as major responses to a life-threatening event. Well-timed intervention by the social worker can assist in alleviating these responses and enhance psychological well-being by the use of counselling and other therapeutic techniques. Two case-studies are presented illustrating the range of work undertaken in a comprehensive approach to working with patients in both the acute and rehabilitation phases of cardiac crisis.     

Drittmittel als Performanzindikator der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Resources within and between higher education and research institutions are increasingly allocated according to scientific performance. Evaluation exercises and the measurement of research performance take on a new role in this context. Third party research income is a performance indicator which is rather easy to measure and is used in most of the new performance-based evaluation procedures. This paper sets out to scrutinize the meaning and validity of third party research income. We studied research teams from three different research fields with a mixed quantitative / qualitative approach. The focus is on the causal relations between institutional / input indicators, third party research income as another input indicator, and a variety of output indicators of scientific production. An important result is that third party money has a positive effect on performance only below a certain and discipline-specific threshold. Further analysis shows that output performance is to a great extent field-specific. The context conditions for scientific production differ greatly, so that comparative performance assessments are only valid within homogeneous research fields. Another important result is that output performance is multidimensional and cannot be measured by bibliometric indicators only. These findings have implications for the rationality of the evaluation assessment exercises as well as for the funding decisions of science foundations, ministries of science and — increasingly, the heads of universities and departments. These topics are discussed in the last chapter as well as the implications for further research.