Cognitive appraisals in young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background: A number of cognitive appraisals have been identified as important in the manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in adults. There have, however, been few attempts to explore these cognitive appraisals in clinical groups of young people. Method: This study compared young people aged between 11 and 18 years with OCD (N ¼ 28), young people with other types of anxiety disorders (N ¼ 28) and a non-clinical group (N ¼ 62) on three questionnaire measures of cognitive appraisals. These were inflated responsibility (Responsibility Attitude Scale; Salkovskis et al., 2000), thought–action fusion – likelihood other (Thought–Action Fusion Scale; Shafran, Thordarson & Rachman, 1996) and perfectionism (Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; Frost, Marten, Luhart & Rosenblate, 1990). Results: The young people with OCD had significantly higher scores on inflated responsibility, thought–action fusion – (likelihood other), and one aspect of perfectionism, concern over mistakes, than the other groups. In addition, inflated responsibility independently predicted OCD symptom severity. Conclusions: The results generally support a downward extension of the cognitive appraisals held by adults with OCD to young people with the disorder. Some of the results, however, raise issues about potential developmental shifts in cognitive appraisals. The findings are discussed in relation to implications for the cognitive model of OCD and cognitive behavioural therapy for young people with OCD. Keywords: Cognitive models, inflated responsibility, obsessive-compulsive disorder, perfectionism, thought–action fusion. Abbreviations: ADIS-C: Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children; ADIS-P: Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Parents; E/RP: Exposure/Response Prevention; LOI-CV: Leyton Obsessional Inventory – Child Version; MPS: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; RAS: Responsibility Attitude Scale; TAF-LO: Thought–Action Fusion – (Likelihood Other).

Education and development in Brazil, 1995-2000

Includes bibliography

Critical discourses on resilience: exploring alternatives strategies used by young people at-risk

The concept of resilience is often situated in a dominant discourse that reflects medical and developmentalist epistemology, in Western models, with the ideology of white people, and middle class hegemonic norms. Behavior that falls outside of the normal, or what is socially acceptable, is associated with riskiness and tacitly if not explicitly labeled as pathological, and then, not resilient. However, the context of social injustice of many young people at-risk can have drastic effects on them. When we offer institutions such as schools that do not understand their needs, they may refuse our services and some of them may engage in antisocial activities, since they are looking for personal validation, pathways to recognize themselves, and places and organizations that contribute to the building of their social identity. This paper analyses how the denial of support and resources for the wellbeing of young people can lead them to situations that are socially unacceptable, such as sexual exploitation and drug trafficking. The main argument is that these activities, in the absence of conventional mechanisms, may bring some benefit to the subjects. Benefits may be in material conditions, though strongly marked by issues of social inequality; or subjective, in gaining relationships with people outside the normative places and institutions for young people. Unconventional circumstances produce unconventional attitudes that are expressed in alternative forms of resilience.

Cultural and Educational Society of Muslims "Narodna Uzdanica" /"National Hope"/ 1923-1941

Ibrahim Kemura. The Muslim Cultural-Educational Society Narodna uzdanica from 1923/4 to 1941 One of the features of the cultural history of the Bosniacs between the two world wars (1918-1941) was a cultural and educational society named Narodna uzdanica, which was a significant institutional and cultural-intellectual centre of the Bosniac people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Narodna uzdanica expressed the aspirations and needs of the Bosniac citizens who were its main support and axis and was aimed at fulfilling their interests. This was reflected in an ideological-cultural orientation towards the West and the adoption of positive western achievements while at the same time stressing its Slavic origins and individuality, the education of young people and the formation of a European-type civic intelligentsia, adaptation to life in capitalist society, the development of modern trade and crafts, the emancipation of women, and cultural education based on European values. Thus conceived, the programme enjoyed the support of a wider circle of members, the reading public and the cultural consumers of those particular elements such as education and economic prosperity which it sought to achieve. The political involvement of Narodna uzdanica and its use as a platform for the leading Bosniac political party Jugoslovenska muslimanska organizacija (JMO - Yugoslav Muslim Organisation) which had founded the society, played a significant role in the socio-political life and development of Bosniacs. The opposition to the ruling regime, often expressed through close cooperation with similar Croat organisations and through the pro-Croat attitude of some of the society's leading figures, offered both the regime and Narodna uzdanica's political adversaries grounds for describing it as separatist and Croat and served as a pretext for repressive measures to hinder its normal operations. This research proved these accusations to be groundless, showing that the pro-Croat orientation was primarily political and cultural and that throughout its existence Narodna uzdanica was active in the cultural and educational renaissance of Bosniacs, helping to strengthen their national identity.

How young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experience mental health: Some insights for mental health nurses

This article reports on part of a study that looked at the mental health of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) young people. The research sought to learn from CALD young people, carers, and service providers experiences relevant to the mental health of this group of young people. The ultimate goal was to gain insights that would inform government policy, service providers, ethnic communities and most importantly the young people themselves. To this end, qualitative interviews were undertaken with 123 CALD young people, 41 carers and 14 mental health service providers in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Only one aspect of the study will be dealt with here, namely the views of the young CALD participants, which included risk factors, coping strategies and recommendations about how they could be supported in their struggle to maintain mental health. One of the most important findings of the study relates to the resilience of these young people and an insight into the strategies that they used to cope. The efforts of these young people to assist us in our attempts to understand their situation deserve to be rewarded by improvements in the care that we provide. To this end this article sets out to inform mental health nurses of the results of the study so that they will be in a position to better understand the needs and strengths of their CALD clients and be in a better position to work effectively with them.

Listening to young people's voices: Youth sports leaders' advice on facilitating participation in sport

This article reports on a study that accepts the proposal that we listento the voices of young people in relation to sport and physical recreation.The study sought the advice of young sports leaders on what can be done to facilitate young people’s involvement in sport. The study used group interviews (Nominal Group Technique) with over 600 14–18-year-olds toelicit responses to a single question, ‘What can be done to help young people participate in sport?’ This article focuses on young people’s views on issues to do with climate and conditions. We argue that, while their advice offers support for some current initiatives in youth sport, it also provides new insights and challenges and suggests a reordering of existing priorities for youth sport and leisure provision.

Starting out: Quality of working life of young workers in the retail and hospitality industries in Australia

In the 1990s workers in Australia were increasingly subjected to negative work pressures. Irregular work patterns, work intensification, and the transformation of the notion of career, often in the name of ‘flexibility’, were increasingly common. This period was also characterised by scant regard for the quality of working life of young people in entry-level employment, which is often portrayed as a transition stage prior to their admission into the full-time core workforce. This paper explores the experiences of twenty-two young people at the beginning of their careers, in the hospitality and retail industries, with reference to three quality of working life (QWL) elements: hours flexibility, work-life balance and career potential. Qualitative evidence reveals a variety of experiences but, on balance, suggests a negative quality of working life and limited commitment to their current industry. In conclusion, the paper suggests that these industries must pay more attention to QWL issues in order to attract and retain quality staff.

Medicines optimisation for young people with juvenile arthritis and other long-term conditions:system-level barriers to engagement

To explore the views of pharmacy and rheumatology stakeholders about system-related barriers to medicines optimisation activities with young people with long-term conditions. A three-phase consensus-building study comprising (1) focus groups with community and hospital pharmacists; (2) semi-structured telephone interviews with lay and professional adolescent rheumatology stakeholders and pharmacy policymakers, and (3) multidisciplinary discussion groups with community and hospital pharmacists and rheumatology staff. Qualitative verbatim transcripts from phases 1 and 2 were subjected to framework analysis. Themes from phase 1 underpinned a briefing for phase 2 interviewees. Themes from phases 1 and 2 generated elements of good pharmacy practice and current/future pharmacy roles for ranking in phase 3. Results from phase 3 prioritisation and ranking exercises were captured on self-completion data collection forms, entered into an Excel spreadsheet and subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. Institutional ethical approval was given by Aston University Health and Life Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Four focus groups were conducted with 18 pharmacists across England, Scotland and Wales (7 hospital, 10 community and 1 community/public health). Fifteen stakeholders took part in telephone interviews (3 pharmacist commissioners; 2 pharmacist policymakers; 2 pharmacy staff members (1 community and 1 hospital); 4 rheumatologists; 1 specialist nurse, and 3 lay juvenile arthritis advocates). Twenty-five participants took part in three discussion groups in adolescent rheumatology centres across England and Scotland (9 community pharmacists; 4 hospital pharmacists; 6 rheumatologists; 5 specialist nurses, and 1 physiotherapist). In all phases of the study, system-level issues were acknowledged as barriers to more engagement with young people and families. Community pharmacists in the focus groups reported that opportunities for engaging with young people were low if parents collected prescriptions alone, which was agreed by other stakeholders. Moreover, institutional/company prescription collection policies – an activity largely disallowed for a young person under 16 without an accompanying parent - were identified by hospital and community pharmacists as barriers to open discussion and engagement. Few community pharmacists reported using Medicines Use Review (England/Wales) or Chronic Medication Service (Scotland) as a medicines optimisation activity with young people; many were unsure about consent procedures. Despite these limitations, rheumatology stakeholders ranked highly the potential of pharmacists empowering young people with general health care skills, such as repeat prescription ordering. The pharmacy profession lacks vision for its role in the care of young people with long-term conditions. Pharmacists and rheumatology stakeholders identified system-level barriers to more engagement with young people who take medicines regularly. We acknowledge that the modest number of participants may have had a specific interest and thus bias for the topic, but this underscores their frank admission of the challenges. Professional guidance and policy, practice frameworks and institutional/company policies must promote flexibility for pharmacy staff to recognise and empower young people who are able to give consent and take responsibility for medicines activities. This will increase mutual confidence and trust, and foster pharmacy’s role in teaching general health care skills. In this way, pharmacists will be able to build long-term relationships with young people and families.

Positive narratives: the stories young people with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) tell about their futures

This research drew on positive psychology in order to offer an optimistic way of conceptualising the lives of young people who are often described as having ‘SEBD’ (Social, emotional, behaviour difficulties), now SEMH (Social, emotional, mental health) in the new SEND Code of Practice (2014). Positive psychology places emphasis on: the future, strengths, resources and potential, and suggests that negative experiences can build positive qualities. A life path tool was used in order to hear the stories that eight young people tell about themselves in the future. Narrative Oriented Inquiry (NOI) was used to analyse the themes of potential and growth in their stories. The young people in this research identified a range of strengths and resources in their lives that they had built as a result of earlier negative experiences. Their stories reveal their hopes and aspirations for the future. By giving these young people the opportunity to tell their stories this research permitted them to focus on where they were going, rather than where they had been.

How Do Young People Talk About Relationships?

Interpersonal relationships are important for young people’s social, emotional and mental wellbeing. Educational Psychologists in their work with children, young people and families play a role in promoting the social, emotional and mental wellbeing of young people. A review of previous literature suggested that young people’s voice is missing from much of the research about relationships. This research is positioned within an ontological perspective of social constructionism. It aimed to explore ways in which a group of Year 8 students used their language to talk about relationships; what meaning they drew from them, who they have relationships with and what is important about them. 13 Year 8 students participated in the study and their views were explored using semi-structured interviews. Data gathered was then scrutinised using a discourse analysis technique. Three broad discourses were drawn upon by participants: ‘Social Contract’, ‘Interpersonal Aspects’ and ‘Relationship Diversity’. Within each of these there were smaller sub-discourses and interpretive repertoires drawn upon by participants to convey action and function within their talk. Participants considered relationships as very important, though they rejected the notion of a single construct of relationships, choosing instead to draw upon relationships with different people as different types of relationship. Friendship was the primary type of relationship which young people spoke about, however, they often constructed their discourse to undermine the importance of these friendships. The research findings were incorporated within the wider literature and relevant links have been drawn between the study and psychological theories. Implications for the work of Educational Psychologists were also discussed, in terms of utilising relationships for interventions and supporting those working with young people to consider young people’s views and meaning making about relationships.

Environmental Education Experience with Students from One Costa Rican Rural School

This article describes a teaching experience developed in Environmental Education in a Costa Rican rural school with students from ninth year, characterized by the dynamics of a workshop in which stresses the participation in the construction of initiatives to address environmental problems detected by the youth in their communities. The article aims to contribute to the construction of a pedagogical model of self-management training and education of young people in environmental sectors, tourism and agriculture, in the conviction that education constitutes a vital alternative for understanding and solving environmental problems.

Widening participation in university learning

This paper reports how one Australian university and the Queensland Department of Education and Training (DET) are working together to increase the number of school students from low socio-economic backgrounds enrolling in undergraduate university degrees. This innovative program involves university lecturers and school teachers working together in the delivery and assessment of four Bachelor of Education units (or subjects) to a cohort of Year eleven and twelve students at a secondary school. Focus group interviews collected data from 26 students, 7 parents, 4 school and 3 university staff to assess the effectiveness of the program. All stakeholders viewed the program as a highly valuable opportunity to experience university learning with 31 high school graduating students being made offers to enter full-time university in the 2010 and 2011. This positive result has particular significance in the current drive in Australia and elsewhere to increase the participation in higher education of young people from under-represented groups.

The International Film and Television School in Cuba : for a stronger media culture in the global south

A little-known facet of Cuban internationalism is the Cuba shares in the education of young people who want to help build a stronger media culture that represents voices from the global South. Cuba was instrumental in the establishment and operation of the International Film and Television School at San Antonio de los Baños. The Cuban government provided the location and buildings for the school, and among the range of international media professionals who teach the students are selected Cuban professors from the Institute of the Arts, based n Havana. The International Film and Television School is supported by funding from Spain and other countries, and by the willingness of international media professionals to teach short courses for little more than an honorarium. Cuba used to provide full scholarships for student from the South to study a two-year course in film or television, but now charges fees for its three-year diploma course.

(Re)imagining the world : children's literature's response to changing times

(Re)Imagining the world: Children’s Literature’s Response to Changing Times considers how writers of fiction for children imagine ‘the world’, not one universal world, but different worlds: imaginary, strange, familiar, even monstrous worlds. The chapters in this collection discuss how fiction for children engages with some of the changes brought about by new technologies, information literacy, consumerism, migration, politics, different family structures, cosmopolitanism, and new and old monsters. They also invite us to think about how memory shapes our understanding of the past, and how fiction engages our emotions, our capacity to empathize, our desire to discover, and what the future may hold. The contributors bring different perspectives from education, postcolonial studies, literary criticism, cultural studies, childhood studies, postmodernism, and the social sciences. With a wide coverage of texts from different countries, and scholarly and lively discussions, this collection is itself a testament to the power of the human imagination and the significance of children’s literature in the education of young people.

A noção de competência na política pública de educação de jovens e adultos da rede municipal de Betim: avanço e ou retrocesso na formação humana

O objetivo central desta pesquisa é investigar qual concepção formativa está incorporada na noção de competência que passou a ser disseminada, através das reformas educacionais, e se esta significa avanço ou retrocesso no processo de formação humana. Procurou-se compreender o contexto das mudanças sócio-econômicas e políticas que motivaram a elaboração e implementação das reformas educacionais uma vez que estas se apresentam como justificativas para a adoção da noção de competências. Buscou-se identificar qual ou quais concepções teórico-filosóficas e sócio-pedagógicas fundamentam a noção de competência e a qual interesse vincula-se. Procurou-se perceber o alcance e os limites da política pública de Educação de Jovens e Adultos desenvolvida na Rede Municipal de Betim, que implementou um Currículo por Competência. Para realizar esse objetivo fizemos uma leitura crítica da bibliografia que trata do tema e dos documentos oficiais que apresentam a proposta municipal. Pela análise desenvolvida concluímos que num contexto de crise estrutural do capitalismo a noção de competência torna-se adequada aos interesses de reprodução do capital, pois se ancora em teorias psicológicas que possuem uma concepção individualista e a-histórica do ser e concebem que a aquisição do conhecimento ocorre no sentido de sua adaptação ao meio. Constatamos que na experiência municipal o Currículo por Competências visava substituir os conhecimentos socialmente acumulados. Assim, acreditamos que uma educação que secundariza o conhecimento científico da realidade social leva a que o processo educativo escolar fique no limite do senso comum e significa um retrocesso. Percebemos ainda que a política pública municipal depara-se com vários dilemas e desafios postos a esta modalidade educacional em sua trajetória nacional e que não conseguiu ultrapassar os limites impostos pela reforma educacional. Entre estas a pouca consistência teórica em sustentar o que seja a EJA e qual concepção pedagógica a adotar; a descontinuidade político-administrativa em sua condução; a falta de financiamento e o desenvolvimento de parcerias, entre outras, o que traz sérias conseqüências ao processo formativo tanto dos educadores como dos educandos.