1,721,085 research outputs found
An exploration of sexual harassment among Irish adolescents: Experience and understanding
No full textThere is a dearth of research relating to Irish adolescents’ experiences of sexual harassment RNCI (2014). The aim of this research study is to explore and give voice to Irish adolescents’ experiences and understanding of sexual harassment with their peer communities while giving consideration to the responses that may be required to address adolescent sexual harassment. Having considered various theoretical schools and approaches employed to understand adolescent development, Hall’s (1983) framework was employed to consider the biological, cognitive and psychosocial transitions occurring during this time. Erickson’s (1968) fifth stage of psychosocial theory was selected to discuss the challenges associated with identity development in order to navigate its implications for adolescents’ life trajectories.
Sexual harassment, and its existence within a continuum of behaviours (Moffitt et al., 1993) is expanded upon as well as the contribution of social norms and gender inequality in the continuance of adolescent sexual harassment. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory is utilized as a method to explore both the bi-directional and interconnected issues that contribute to adolescent sexual harassment at each level of their ecological system. The role parents, peer groups, school, bullying, social media are discussed along with the issues that exist within each of these systems.
Employing thematic analysis, the findings from this study are based upon utilizing mixed methods of data collection, comprising (n=599) quantitative questionnaires completed by adolescent participants in addition to a qualitative section comprised of (n=93) adolescent and (n=21) youth worker interviews. A combination of descriptive statistical and inferential analyses was used to analyse the quantitative data within this study. The study found that Irish adolescents are experiencing high levels of sexual harassment. Social norms and gender inequality are two major contributing factors, along with a lack of adequate RSE within educational settings. Additionally, there are few supports available to those who have experienced sexual harassment. Based on these findings, an ecological framework for understanding and responding to adolescent sexual harassment has been developed. It is intended that this framework can be employed by academics, policy makers and at a practice level to understand and implement strategies in response to the key issues outlined within this research study
An exploration of early intervention for preschool children with additional needs in the family support context
No full textEarly intervention for young children with additional needs is an important area of policy and practice in the Irish context. While there is strong evidence suggesting the importance of early intervention for this cohort, there remains a dearth in Irish social science research exploring the role of Family Support (FS) in early intervention for young children with additional needs. This research therefore aims to explore early intervention happening ‘early in a child’s life’ with preschool children with additional needs in the FS context. An Ecological System Theory (Bronfenbrenner 1979; Bronfenbrenner and Morris 2006) provides a basis for this study with an emphasis on examining interactions between different levels of the system from micro-meso to exo macro as well as chronosystems. It is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with parents and teachers, and the Mosaic Approach (Clark, 2005) to capture the views of children with additional needs attending a Family Resource Centre (FRC) preschool. Characterizing as a flexible design (Robson, 2007), it also used the Family Star Early Years (Outcome Star, 2018), an international used scale with parents. The research took place in six different settings in five FRCs, the largest community-based FS programme in Ireland. It used Thematic (Brown and Clarke, 2006) and descriptive analysis (Robson, 2010), and case vignettes (Stokes and Schmidt, 2012) to highlight participants’ experiences and views. Findings indicate that meaningful interactions are essential for children with additional needs in relation to both their immediate environment (micro-meso) and the wider organisational and policy context (exo-macro). At the micro-meso level, meaningful interactions such as inclusion, social interactions, being outdoors and ‘being there’ for the child seemed to be the most significant. In addition, bidirectional meaningful interactions from the micro-meso to the wider exo macro environments, based on reciprocal communications and trustful relationships in this dynamic structure across different levels, were found to be fundamental to facilitate early intervention at a young age. Overall, this study finds that a FRC preschool (a preschool based in, and part of a Family Resource Centre) is a primary Family Support intervention, because of its role in supporting children with additional needs and their parents, improving overall well-being. This study presents an ecological framework of early intervention for children with additional needs in the FS Support context that contributes to the knowledge and understanding of meaningful interactions and its inter-relations across different levels of the child’s ecology. It also makes recommendations for service providers and policymakers based on the research findings, such as the coexistence of FS and early intervention
A relational approach to assessing and enhancing parenting capacity: building better futures
No full textThis chapter will draw on practitioner evaluations of the Building Better Futures framework for assessing and enhancing parenting capacity when children are in need of support or protection. We review the participatory relational, strengths-focused principles that underpin the framework, which, distinctively, aims to help social workers to both assess and enhance parenting capacity by promoting parental engagement, growth and change. We give an overview of the key principles and features of the BBF framework and summarise our process for the iterative refinement and evaluation of the framework in real-world child welfare social work practice.We present social workers’ evaluations of using the framework and discuss its potential to facilitate a relational approach to parenting capacity assessment in child safeguarding and family support practice via:Relationship-based practice: promoting parental engagement and enabling empathic understanding of parents.Strengths-focused approach: enabling parental insight as a catalyst for change.Enhancing parenting with a focus on child well-being: holistic assessments leading to targeted support while enabling social workers and parents to remain child focused.Equipping practitioners: structured assessment facilitating purposeful engagement and a cultural shift towards relational, strengths-focused practice.<br/
A relational approach to assessing and enhancing parenting capacity: building better futures
No full textThis chapter will draw on practitioner evaluations of the Building Better Futures framework for assessing and enhancing parenting capacity when children are in need of support or protection. We review the participatory relational, strengths-focused principles that underpin the framework, which, distinctively, aims to help social workers to both assess and enhance parenting capacity by promoting parental engagement, growth and change. We give an overview of the key principles and features of the BBF framework and summarise our process for the iterative refinement and evaluation of the framework in real-world child welfare social work practice.We present social workers’ evaluations of using the framework and discuss its potential to facilitate a relational approach to parenting capacity assessment in child safeguarding and family support practice via:Relationship-based practice: promoting parental engagement and enabling empathic understanding of parents.Strengths-focused approach: enabling parental insight as a catalyst for change.Enhancing parenting with a focus on child well-being: holistic assessments leading to targeted support while enabling social workers and parents to remain child focused.Equipping practitioners: structured assessment facilitating purposeful engagement and a cultural shift towards relational, strengths-focused practice.<br/
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Motherhood, mothering and the Irish prison system
No full textWhile there have been some recent reflections on the Irish experience of supporting mothers facing adversity, there remains a dearth in research exposing the voices of vulnerable and marginalised mothers. This is undoubtedly the case for incarcerated mothers in Ireland. While there has been some recent scholarly and advocacy attention regarding imprisoned women, which by default recognises the challenges faced by imprisoned mothers and their children, this well-intentioned discourse is often based on outdated, estimated or international research. Moreover, it is frequently without the involvement of the mothers themselves nor does it place the maternal voice as central to the journey through the various criminal and social justice systems. Finally, Ireland’s unique catholic history, its representation of Irish motherhood and its distinct child welfare system has not been examined in conjunction with the current formal prison system. Considering this, the aim of this research is to explore the experience of motherhood and mothering for imprisonment mothers in Ireland and in doing so to give visibility to their children and support systems. This study is theoretically situated within the interdisciplinary school of motherhood scholarship and is informed by convict criminology and matricentric feminist social work theories and methodologies. A mixed-method approach was applied which included aspects of participatory research; the primary phase collected profiling data on imprisoned mothers and their children, and the second phase gave voice to the experience of motherhood and mothering for imprisoned mothers in Ireland. Key findings indicated that incarcerated mothers in Ireland lead complex lives, often charred by extensive trauma and substance dependency all which have impacted on their maternal experience and practice. The experience of motherhood is a not lineal or a progressive journey, it is often disrupted and dependent on presenting challenges at a given moment in time. Separation, loss and sustained relationships run as concurrent maternal experiences, and the confined experience of imprisonment fosters painful reflections on mothering yet equally provokes maternal transitions and personal progression. All mothering and non-mothering imprisoned mothers held and managed maternal emotions and their identity as mothers remained central to their sense of selves and post release plans. The involvement of formal and informal supports was extensive, however the overall lack of collaboration between systems, particularly social work and family support services and the Irish prison system, during imprisonment was disconcerting, presenting most often a lost opportunity to harness and support positive change and future mother-child relationships. A primary recommendation from the research is that the criminal and social justice systems should work collaboratively. Moreover, that practice and training across such state systems ought to be trauma-informed if we are to be serious about addressing the intergenerational nature of trauma, substance misuse, offending and institutionalisation experienced by this group of mothers and their children.2019-04-1
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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