Search results

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a service evaluation of a training initiative in participatory practice with children and young people (CYP) for early help (EH) professionals. The training was based on the Lundy model of child participation.

A questionnaire-based survey was undertaken of staff completing the training. Within the sample of professionals surveyed, various work contexts were represented.

Reported benefits arising from the training included increased understanding of the utility of the tenets of the Lundy model, as well as changes in practice with CYP. Barriers and issues encountered in seeking to work in a participatory way were identified in relation to time for relationship-building, resources and interprofessional and interagency working.

The evaluation findings provide insight into ways training in participatory practice with CYP is experienced by EH professionals. The role of networks of practitioner champions in influencing participatory practice is also addressed, as well as the interface between participatory and relationship-based practice.

This paper aims to examine the role of bullying victimization in predicting psychopathology, encompassing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risk of developing prodromal psychosis and emotional and behavioural problems, among in-school Nigerian adolescents.

A total of 351 junior secondary students (n = 173 males, 178 females; age range: 9–17 years) were recruited from five randomly selected public secondary schools in Nigeria. Students completed a variety of self-report measures, including a socio-demographic questionnaire, the prodromal questionnaire – brief version, the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) and the multidimensional peer victimization scale. They were also interviewed using the PTSD module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Kid Version.

Although bullying victimization was not found to predict the presence of PTSD, it predicted the risk of developing prodromal psychosis. All SDQ subscales also held significant positive associations with bullying victimization. This indicates that higher levels of victimization are associated with increased behavioural and emotional difficulties among adolescents.

The study findings add support to whole system approaches involving relevant stakeholders in health, education, social and criminal justice sectors via protective policies to address the problems of bullying in schools.

The study contributes to evidence demonstrating a need for improved understanding regarding the role of exposure to bullying victimization in predicting various forms of psychopathology. Furthermore, there is specifically a need for research with this focus in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Nigerian education system.

Working mothers experienced dramatic changes to their daily routines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many began to work from home as they simultaneously tried to balance work demands with tending to their children. The purpose of the current study was to examine working mothers’ experiences during the pandemic.

In order to examine working mothers’ experiences of telework during the pandemic, we conducted a focus group study. 45 working mothers participated, and they answered questions about their experiences.

Three themes emerged from the focus groups: (1) motivation shifts amongst working mothers; (2) difficulty balancing roles as mother and employee; and (3) workplace expectations and support. Many mothers reported that their overall motivation as employees had decreased and that they experienced difficulty in fully attending to their work and their child(ren)’s needs. As mothers navigated the stress of working during the pandemic, they reported varying levels of workplace support and many credited working with other parents as a primary contributor to feeling supported.

The findings from the current study add to the growing body of literature documenting the dark side of teleworking for mothers who struggled immensely with work–life balance. This study builds on past research by allowing mothers to share their experiences in their own words and offering suggestions for how organizations can support mothers in navigating these ongoing challenges as teleworking continues to remain prevalent. The narratives collected hold important implications for practices and policies to best support the needs of mothers as they continue to work and care for their children within the home.

In educational settings, intersectional factors such as neurodiversity, structural inequalities and social isolation have resulted in additional complexity in meeting young people’s mental health needs. The specific phenomenon of voice-hearing can be linked to these complexities and stigma has been shown to further marginalise young people following disclosure. Educational staff report a lack of confidence and specialist training in this area. This chapter outlines the current understanding around the experience of voice-hearing and identifies examples of good practice by considering the lived experiences of individuals that have made a disclosure of this nature in school. Barriers to disclosure and what was helpful about the experience are discussed. Developing a trauma-informed ethos and compassion-focussed principles are highlighted as whole-setting approaches to support and benefit both young people with these presentations and education staff. Recommendations of relevant organisations and training initiatives in schools are provided with guidance on developing and implementing best practices.

In this chapter, the authors argue that technology can be advantageous to children and young people’s mental health. The authors argue that social media platforms can foster social connection, social support and access to important information to support mental health. The authors also highlight the risks, particularly the research which links technology to mental ill-health. The authors argue that the digital curriculum in schools should develop young people’s knowledge of digital literacy, digital citizenship and digital resilience. Finally, the authors explore the potential role that technological applications (apps) can play in supporting children and young people’s mental health. The authors argue that although research is in its infancy, some studies have produced promising results.

Despite a surge of writing on sport in the islands of the Pacific, contemporary scholarship has remained tightly focused on those sports (men) most visible on the global stage today. Other games and sports, other players and other times have yet to receive the same attention. This chapter represents an initial effort to redress some of these omissions by exploring the past and present of cricket in the region. While cricket was the first successful ludic import to the Pacific, the game owes its significance there to more than mere longevity. Introduced by British ‘agents of empire’ in the long 19th century, cricket was – in the hands of Islanders – transformed into distinctive local forms such as Trobriand cricket and Samoan kirikiti. Explaining and theorising these changes to the game's method and meaning, I argue, provides a framework for understanding other indigenous and indigenised sporting practices in the region and beyond. A focus on cricket also enables us to interrogate sport's significance in the daily lives of not only elite male athletes but also a more diverse cast of Islanders – most notably women and girls. In these and other ways, the example of cricket demonstrates the value of looking back to historicise sport's significance and beyond the ‘usual sporting suspects’. By looking back and beyond, we can move towards a broader and deeper perspective of sporting cultures in the region.

Children and youth who enter the care system have lower educational outcomes and university participation rates than their peers. This study aims to understand trend exceptions by examining the background of care-experienced undergraduates attending a research-intensive university in Canada.

Informed by social affordance theory, this study examined the presence of four indicators of stability (home, household occupants, school and legal status) during participants’ final three years of secondary education. Care-experienced undergraduates (N = 30) completed an online questionnaire. Associations between stability indicators, child welfare involvement in the final year of high school, educational outcomes and routes into higher education were analysed.

Stability across three to four indicators was experienced by 40% of participants, while 47% reported changes across three to four indicators. Only 20% had a change of school as compared to 47%–60% for other indicators. During their final year of high school, 73% of participants were supported by the child welfare system, with 50% being supported via a support program specifically for 16- to 18-year-olds. Stability scores were significantly lower for this latter subgroup compared to those who spent time in foster or group care and those who did not receive child welfare support during the final year of high school. Ninety percent of participants graduated from high school, 67% with the grades required to attend university. Three trajectories into undergraduate study were identified but could not be predicted using regression models.

This paper focuses on what has supported progression into a research-intensive university for care-experienced young adults and highlights the role of support programs for 16- to 18-year-olds.

Greener on the Outside for Prisons (GOOP) is a therapeutic horticulture programme targeting the high levels of complex health and social care needs in prisons in England. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to unprecedented disruption in prisons in England. This paper examines the experiences of prisoners both during and post-lockdowns in four prisons, to understand the effects of participation in GOOP on health and wellbeing after the disruption of restrictions, and identify implications for developing this programme further.

The paper is based on original qualitative data gathered from in-depth narrative-based interviews and focus groups with prisoners and staff in four English prisons. Audio data was transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis, drawing from a realist-informed lens.

Thematic analysis revealed five key themes: reimagining the GOOP context; increasing empathy between participants; building sense of coherence; reconnecting with nature and a joined-up connection with provider services. The main arguments centre on horticulture in prisons remaining under-utilised as a means of promoting good health and wellbeing, although there is enthusiasm from staff to provide green spaces for the most vulnerable prisoners and develop a range of mechanisms to connect people in prison with nature.

This paper focuses on new knowledge arising from an unprecedented situation in English prisons, from key stakeholders on the frontline of garden activities. Accounts demonstrate the extent of the health and wellbeing benefits of participation in such activities in this challenging environment, which has implications for practice for prisons more widely.

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings, company press releases and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In June 2020, former Pinterest employees made public charges of gender and racial discrimination. Despite changes implemented by the company, several Pinterest shareholders filed derivative lawsuits charging the company with breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets, abuse of control and violating federal securities laws. The case provides an overview of the company’s management, board and stock structures, as well as information on the shareholders who sued the company and their concerns. The case raises substantial questions about management’s and board member’s responsibilities in corporate governance, illustrates how stock structures can be used to impede governance and suggests ways to evaluate activist shareholders.

This case is appropriate for graduate, advanced undergraduate or executive education courses in strategy, corporate governance or strategic human resources that discuss corporate governance, fiduciary responsibilities, designing workplace culture or management responses to shareholders. Instructors can apply two sets of theories and frameworks to this case: theories of corporate governance and Hirschman’s (1970) exit, voice or loyalty framework in the context of shareholder activism.

This paper aims to appraise the effectiveness of gender quotas in breaking the glass ceiling for women on boards (WoBs) in companies that are legally obliged to comply with quotas (listed companies and state-owned companies, LP) and in those that are not (unlisted companies and nonstate-owned companies, NLNP). Furthermore, it investigates the glass cliff phenomenon, according to which women are more likely to be appointed to apical positions in underperforming companies.

A balanced panel data of the top 116 Italian companies by total assets, which are present in both 2010 and 2017, is used for estimating ANOVA tests across sectors and fixed-effects panel regression models.

WoBs significantly increased in both the LP and the NLNP companies, and this increase was greater in the financial sector. Furthermore, the relationship between the percentage of WoBs and firm performance is not linear but depends on the financial corporate health. Specifically, the situation in which a woman ascends to a leadership position in challenging circumstances where the risk of failure is high (glass cliff phenomenon) is only present in companies with the lowest performance in the sample, in other words, when negative values of Roe and negative or zero values of Roa occur together.

These findings have relevant policy implications that encourage the adoption of gender quotas even in specific top positions, such as CEO or president, as this could lead to a “double spillover effect” both vertically, that is, in other job positions, and horizontally, toward other companies not targeted by quotas. Practical interventions to support women in glass cliff positions, on the other hand, relate to the extent of supervisor mentoring and support to prevent women from leaving director roles and strengthen their chances for career advancement.

The authors explore the ability of gender quotas to break through the glass ceiling in companies that are not legally obliged to do so, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, the glass cliff phenomenon in the Italian context.