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How does providing financial, practical and emotional support to young adult children impact upon their parents’ present-day lives and future plans?
Get PDFFamily financial support of young adults has occupied growing scholarly attention over recent years yet remains disconnected from literature addressing the intensification of parenting, which focuses primarily on children. In this article we seek to connect these bodies of literature in order to consider how providing financial and practical support to young adult children affects their parents’ lives and future plans. We present the findings of an interview-based study with 30 parents of young adult children living in Australia. Firstly, we consider patterns of support that our participants provided to their children, finding that financial and practical support was extensive across our sample. Secondly, we consider how supporting young adult children affects parents’ lives, finding that our participants were reluctant to discuss the negative effects that supporting their children may have on them in the present. In relation to the future, the majority of our participants anticipated providing financial support to their children and had factored doing so into their retirement planning. Drawing together these findings, we argue that the parenting of young adult children represents a continuation of aspects of intensive parenting commonly associated with childhood and adolescence and conclude by highlighting some areas for future research
“What are you going to do with that?” Music students’ perceptions of the value(s) of their degree
Get PDFThe terms “Mickey Mouse”; “low-value”; and “rip-off” have all featured in UK media headlines such as Forbes (Morrison, 2023), The Telegraph (Corfe, 2024) and Evening Standard (Cockerell, 2024) to refer to the Arts subjects, which according to the Office for Students’ (OfS) consultation paper, are not ‘strategic priorities’ (OfS, 2021). Following the rapid expansion of higher education in the UK in the 1990s whereby ‘market mechanisms’ were introduced by Conservative governments at the time, the focus has been on producing a highly skilled labour force with the Dearing Report (1997) ensuring that employability be placed on the policy agenda. To reduce the risk of graduate un/under-employment, OfS proposed to slash funding to the Arts subjects by 50% to thus reduce the number of students enrolling on courses that supposedly provide low economic returns for both society and the individual. The value of higher education in the arts and humanities, has long been a subject of debate among educators, students, and policymakers. In recent years, with the rising costs of tuition and the emphasis on graduate employability, this question has become even more pressing, particularly regarding music degrees. Music graduates follow a diverse range of career paths both inside and outside of music and this dissertation seeks to explore and understand the perspective of those who choose to invest in a music degree despite the stereotypes and criticisms the subject has faced. In many societies, the arts are simultaneously praised in terms of culture yet often put into doubt surrounding practicality. For music students, this dichotomy presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities as they must navigate the rigorous demands of their discipline in addition to the social perceptions and economic realities that are attached to this field of study [Continues in file.
Quantifying digital habits
Get PDFDigital habits remain poorly quantified despite ever-present concerns regarding problematic social media use. Through a mixed-methods study of 6,816 participants and 12,899 app-specific responses across six major platforms, we compare self-reported habit measures (via the Self-Reported Habit Index) with longitudinal behavioural tracking data collected over a 6 week period. Our analysis reveals three key insights: First, app usage shows strong habitual patterns (Facebook: mean SRHI = 4.88), exceeding established benchmarks for health-related habits like smoking. Second, we find weak correlations (r=0.28-0.32) between SRHI scores and actual usage metrics, exposing significant discrepancies in self-assessment accuracy. Third, machine learning demonstrates that simple behavioural history (sessions/hours) predicts future usage at least 64% more effectively than SRHI measures. These results challenge the predictive validity of self-report instruments in digital habit research and suggest observational data offers superior predictive power. Our findings have immediate implications for intervention design, platform accountability, and the methodological evolution of habit research in computational social science
Mixing methods: How listening to researchers, healthcare workers, and community members can improve the design of studies testing medical innovations for Neglected Tropical Diseases
Get PDFCarys Evans - Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsych): Together in isolation: How self, relationships and community protect rural young people from suicide; Psychologists' perception of systems, power, therapeutic engagement and hope in Forensic Services; Coping with stoicism: Understanding mental health in rural communities
No full textSystematic Review of the Literature (SRL) Together in isolation: How self, relationships and community protect rural young people from suicidePurpose: Suicide among adolescents is a significant public health concern, particularly in rural areas where access to support is limited. This systematic review aimed to identify protective factors that mitigate suicide risk among young people in rural communities, with attention to how these factors operate across ecological levels. Methods: Peer-reviewed empirical studies were included, these were published in English, focused on protective factors against suicidality among young people under 25 years from ‘WEIRD’ countries. Databases included PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, EMBASE, CINAHL and Medline, with the last search conducted in February 2025. Quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Results were synthesised using narrative synthesis. Results: Twelve studies met inclusion criteria (qualitative: n = 2; quantitative: n = 10). Protective factors included self-esteem, emotion regulation, interpersonal relationships and support, as well as cultural and community connectedness. These factors operated across individual, relational and cultural domains, with identity emerging as a central, cross-cutting theme. Discussion: The findings highlight dynamic interplays between personal strengths, supportive relationships and cultural belonging mitigating suicide risk. Drawing on ecological and social identity theories, the review suggests that identity is co-constructed through interactions across multiple systems and serves as a foundation for psychological wellbeing. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies and the impact of strength-based approaches within rural communities. Implications and Contribution: This review underscores the multifaceted nature of suicide prevention in rural youth. Strengthening identity through self-esteem, emotion regulation, social support and cultural engagement may be key to reducing suicidality in this population. Service Improvement Project (SIP) Psychologists' perception of systems, power, therapeutic engagement and hope in Forensic Services.Background: Psychologists working in forensic settings navigate complex power dynamics shaped by systemic, professional and socio-political pressures. These dynamics can heighten feelings of powerlessness among Forensic Service Users (FSUs), impacting therapeutic engagement and recovery. Understanding the role of power and hope is critical for improving mental health support within these settings. Design: This qualitative study explored psychologists’ perceptions of systemic power in Thames Valley Forensic Services. Six one-to-one interviews were conducted and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Analysis and Results: Five main themes and fourteen subthemes were identified: Systemic Power, Negative Impact of Power, Therapeutic Engagement, Mitigation of Power and Perspectives on Empowerment. Findings illustrate the pervasive impact of power on both FSU’s and staff, potentially contributing to disempowerment, learned helplessness and moral injury respectively. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of recognising and addressing power dynamics to enhance therapeutic engagement and support recovery in forensic services. Recommendations for service improvements and areas for future research are discussed. Theory-Driven Research Project (TDRP) Coping with stoicism: Understanding mental health in rural communitiesObjectives: Mental health challenges are disproportionately prevalent among UK farmers, yet the psychological mechanisms driving this disparity remain poorly understood. Rural areas face unique challenges compared to urban communities: limited access to services, inadequate transportation, social isolation and cultural beliefs inhibiting help-seeking. Design & Method: This mixed-methods, cross-sectional study explored the role of stoic beliefs and coping styles in shaping mental health outcomes within rural populations, using the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping as a theoretical framework. Analysis and Results: Data were collected from two occupational groups (farmers and teachers) via an online survey. There were no significant differences in mental health scores between the groups; therefore, data were combined for the main analyses. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that higher stoicism and greater use of avoidant coping were significantly associated with poorer mental health, with medium and large effect sizes, respectively. Mediation analysis indicated that avoidant coping may account for the relationship between stoicism and mental health. The mediation model explained over 50% of the variance in mental health scores, representing a large effect size. These findings highlight the potential role of avoidant coping as a mechanism through which stoic beliefs are linked to mental health outcomes. Conclusions: Findings emphasise the importance of addressing avoidant-coping strategies in interventions targeting mental health in rural populations. They also highlight a need for context-sensitive mental health interventions focusing on adaptive coping to improve rural populations' wellbeing
Virtual fibring of manifolds and groups
No full textThe topic of this survey is the phenomenon of fibring over the circle for manifolds, and its group-theoretic twin, algebraic fibring. We will discuss the state of the art, and explain briefly some of the ideas behind the more recent developments, focusing on RFRS groups and manifolds with such fundamental groups. Then we will move on to a more speculative part, where many conjectures about fibring in higher dimensions will be given. The conjectures vary in their level of plausibility, but even the boldest of them might share the fate of Thurston’s Virtually Fibred Conjecture, about which Thurston famously said: “This dubious-sounding question seems to have a definite chance for a positive answer”
Who gets the guns? How democratic values and security threats affect American attitudes toward military aid
Get PDFThe United States gives substantial aid to the militaries of autocratic governments. US officials claim these aid relationships are necessary to manage security threats, but others contest them as antithetical to US values of democracy and human rights. How do these competing concerns shape Americans' attitudes toward military aid? Through an experiment implemented on three surveys, I document a strong preference for aiding democracies that outweighs the effect of security threats. However, the robustness of this preference is affected by foreign policy orientation, with internationalists less likely to prioritize democratic values when security threats are present. Descriptive survey questions explore this pattern further, showing how internationalists who support military aid the most tend to be strong but fickle proponents of democratic values in US foreign policy. The article extends research on attitudes toward foreign aid and illustrates an important limitation to the influence of democracy on Americans' foreign policy preferences
The Intricacies of Computational Electrochemistry
Get PDFComputational electrochemistry is hardanybody who has ever tried will know. We argue that the reasons for its complexity lie not only in the multiscale nature of electrochemical processes but also in the rapid, ongoing method development in the field. This has resulted in a lack of clear guidelines and many open discussions in the community. These issues were also the topic of a recent Lorentz Center workshop, the key take-away messages of which are highlighted in this Perspective. In particular, we discuss why the choice between constant potential and constant charge simulations is less trivial than it may seem, why interpreting electrochemical reaction free energy diagrams can be challenging, why the Poisson-Nernst-Planck equation is not all there is, and why we desperately need more benchmarking in the field
Long-term psychological effects of COVID-19-related quarantine: an observational study of three cohorts in Norway and Iceland
Get PDFBackground: Longitudinal assessments of psychological effects related to length and recency of quarantine experience in general populations are of importance. We aim to investigate if recency and duration of quarantine exposures during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with mental health, across subgroups. Methods: We included three prospective cohorts from Iceland and Norway with data on quarantine and symptoms of depression and anxiety from March 2020 to March 2022. We calculated prevalence ratios (PR) of probable depression and anxiety in relation to quarantine exposure, and performed longitudinal analyses in a subpopulation with repeated assessments to test the potential change in mental health burden due to quarantine over time while controlling for current quarantine status and other covariates. Results: In total, 105,344 and 94,435 individuals were included in the analysis of probable depression and anxiety, respectively, with 18.2% and 40.0% reporting quarantine exposure before the most recent assessment of corresponding mental health symptoms. Overall, quarantine exposure was associated with probable depression (PR 1.19 [95% CI: 0.99–1.42]) and anxiety (PR 1.21 [1.08–1.36]). Compared to individuals without quarantine, being exposed to quarantine for 0–2, 2–4, or > 4 weeks was associated with incrementally higher prevalence of probable depression (PR 1.15 [0.93–1.43]; 1.34 [1.06–1.68]; 1.72 [1.35–2.18], respectively) and probable anxiety (PR 1.12 [1.01–1.23]; 1.28 [1.14–1.45]; 1.76 [1.56–1.98]) in a step-wise manner; those who were quarantined within the last 2 weeks, last 2–4 weeks, or earlier showed a higher prevalence of probable depression in a dose–response manner (PR 1.62 [1.32–1.99], 1.32 [1.07–1.63], and 1.23 [1.06–1.43], respectively). The prevalence of probable anxiety did not appear to differ by the recency of quarantine. The longitudinal analyses (mean follow-up: 20.5 months) confirmed significantly higher prevalence of probable depression but only among those who were quarantined for > 4 weeks (PR 1.61 [1.30–2.00]), and of probable anxiety among those quarantined 2–4 weeks (PR 1.29 [1.14–1.45]) and > 4 weeks (PR 1.56 [1.34–1.82]). Conclusions: This study underscores the importance of monitoring mental well-being of populations recently quarantined, particularly those quarantined for prolonged periods. Greater emphasis should be placed on the detrimental psychological effects in the risk-cost–benefit analysis of quarantine as a mitigation strategy in future pandemics
Enhancing social science research on cyberbullying through human machine collaboration
Get PDFCyberbullying (CB) has emerged as a growing concern among adolescents, with nearly 10% of European children affected monthly and almost half experiencing it at least once. Unlike traditional bullying, CB thrives in digital environments where anonymity and impunity are prevalent. Despite its increasing prevalence, understanding the causal mechanisms behind CB remains challenging due to the limitations of conventional statistical methods, which often rely on correlations and are prone to spurious associations. In this paper, we introduce a novel human–machine consensus framework for causal discovery, aimed at supporting social scientists in unraveling the complex dynamics of CB. We leverage recent advances in data-driven causal inference, particularly the use of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), to identify and interpret causal relationships from observational data. Our approach integrates automatic causal discovery algorithms with expert knowledge, addressing the limitations of both purely algorithmic and purely expert-driven methods, and allows for the creation of a model ensemble estimation of the causal effects. To enhance interpretability and usability, we advocate for the use of Probabilistic Graphical Causal Models (PGCMs), or Bayesian Networks, which combine probabilistic reasoning with graphical representation. This hybrid methodology not only mitigates cognitive biases and inconsistencies in expert input but also fosters transparency and critical reflection in model construction. Cyberbullying serves as a compelling case study where ethical constraints preclude experimental designs, highlighting the value of interpretable, expert-informed causal models for guiding policy and intervention strategies