Resilience, an Evolving Concept: A Review of Literature Relevant to Aboriginal Research

Resilience has been most frequently defined as positive adaptation despite adversity. Over the past 40 years, resilience research has gone through several stages. From an initial focus on the invulnerable or invincible child, psychologists began to recognize that much of what seems to promote resilience originates outside of the individual. This led to a search for resilience factors at the individual, family, community - and, most recently, cultural - levels. In addition to the effects that community and culture have on resilience in individuals, there is growing interest in resilience as a feature of entire communities and cultural groups. Contemporary researchers have found that resilience factors vary in different risk contexts and this has contributed to the notion that resilience is a process. In order to characterize the resilience process in a particular context, it is necessary to identify and measure the risk involved and, in this regard, perceived discrimination and historical trauma are part of the context in many Aboriginal communities. Researchers also seek to understand how particular protective factors interact with risk factors and with other protective factors to support relative resistance. For this purpose they have developed resilience models of three main types: "compensatory," "protective," and "challenge" models. Two additional concepts are resilient reintegration, in which a confrontation with adversity leads individuals to a new level of growth, and the notion endorsed by some Aboriginal educators that resilience is an innate quality that needs only to be properly awakened.The review suggests five areas for future research with an emphasis on youth: 1) studies to improve understanding of what makes some Aboriginal youth respond positively to risk and adversity and others not; 2) case studies providing empirical confirmation of the theory of resilient reintegration among Aboriginal youth; 3) more comparative studies on the role of culture as a resource for resilience; 4) studies to improve understanding of how Aboriginal youth, especially urban youth, who do not live in self-governed communities with strong cultural continuity can be helped to become, or remain, resilient; and 5) greater involvement of Aboriginal researchers who can bring a nonlinear world view to resilience research.     

Resilience and Indigenous Spirituality: A Literature Review

Indigenous spirituality is a more complex phenomenon than the term spirituality alone, as generally understood, implies. Spirituality is closely bound up with culture and ways of living in Indigenous communities and requires a more holistic or comprehensive research approach. Two conceptual frameworks could help to orient Indigenous resilience research. One is the enculturation framework. Enculturation refers to the degree of integration within a culture, which can be protective in social behaviour, academic achievement, alcohol abuse and cessation, substance abuse, externalizing behaviours, and depressive symptoms. Instruments for measuring enculturation generally have three components: traditional activities, cultural identification, and traditional spirituality. A second conceptual framework is cultural spiritual orientation which distinguishes between cultural spiritual orientations and tribal spiritual beliefs. Enculturation and cultural orientations are protective against alcohol abuse, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts. New tools are emerging for measuring the multidimensional nature of culturally rooted spirituality in Indigenous communities, tools that are context-specific and often the product of collaborative design processes. As the ability of researchers to measure these complex processes advances and Indigenous communities take increasing charge of their own research, it should become easier to design interventions that take advantage of the cultural/spiritual dimension of Indigenous traditions to promote individual, family, and community resilience.     

A Social Capital Approach to Identifying Correlates of Perceived Social Support Among Homeless Youth

Background

The ability of homeless youth to accumulate resources through their personal relationships with others (i.e. social capital) is often associated with improved outcomes across multiple domains. Despite growing evidence documenting the heterogeneity of homeless youths’ relationships, many youth still experience adversities or lack access to resources. Thus, a more comprehensive investigation of homeless youths’ sources of social capital and the factors associated with these networks is needed.

Objective

This current study aimed: (1) to delineate the composition of social support networks of homeless youth and (2) to identify salient correlates of these different sources of social support.

Methods

A sample of 1046 youth, ages 13–24, were recruited from three homeless youth drop-in-centers. Youth completed a computerized self-administered survey and a social network interview. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine whether youths’ homelessness backgrounds, victimization experiences, and risky behaviors were associated with different emotional and instrumental forms of social capital.

Results

Overall rates of homeless youths’ social support from all sources were low. Rates of emotional support were greater than instrumental support, with youth with histories of physical abuse, street victimization, and foster care reporting more emotional support from some sources. Street victimized youth were significantly more likely to report having emotional and instrumental support from all sources of capital.

Conclusion

Findings suggest the need for careful consideration of youths’ support systems when providing services to homeless youth. Specifically, it may be important to assess the common supports utilized by youth in order to maximize youths’ social networks.

     

Computer-Assisted Education for Dietetics Students: A Review of Literature and Selected Software

Current technology gives us the opportunity to integrate interactive media into nutrition education. In this review, we illustrate how computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and computer-assisted learning (CAL) can be used to complement formal instruction for general didactic curriculum requirements and to meet the new American Dietetic Association Standards of Education for Foundation Knowledge and Skills for Entry-Level Dietitians. To facilitate this review, we selected software from 276 currently available software packages listed by the Food and Nutrition Information Center at the National Agriculture Library in Beltsville, MD. Selection was based on range of function, cost, and compatibility with educational objectives. This review is intended to be a useful resource for educators on available software for CAI and CAL. Nutrition educators have the challenge to prepare students to function in a health care system that demands more and more technological literacy. The key to this involves greater exposure to technology and the development of effective software.     

Intersection of Health, Immigration, and Youth: A Systematic Literature Review

The goal of this literature review is to provide a critical overview of existing research on the health of immigrant youth within the last decade. Although the review focuses primarily on Canada, the findings have implications for public health planning, policy, and settlement/immigration services in other immigrant-receiving countries. The main objectives are: (i) to locate relevant literature written in the past 10 years (January 1998–January 2008); (ii) to undertake a critical review of retrieved studies; (iii) to highlight gaps in the current state of our knowledge and make recommendations for future research directions. The review focuses on the influence of migration experience on health of youth.     

A Scoping Review of Empirical Asexuality Research in Social Science Literature

Archives of Sexual Behavior - Research on asexuality as a part of the experience of human sexuality has increased over the last two decades. However, there has not yet been a systematic review of...     

A Critical Review of Social Resilience Properties and Pathways in Disaster Management

Resilience as a concept is multi-faceted with complex dimensions.In a disaster context,there is lack of consistency in conceptualizing social resilience.This re...     

Culturally Grounded Prevention for Minority Youth Populations: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Contemporary prevention science has focused on the application of cultural adaptations of evidence-based prevention programs for minority youth populations. Far less is known about culturally grounded methods that are intended to organically develop prevention programs within specific populations and communities. This article systematically reviews recent literature on culturally grounded interventions used to prevent health disparities in ethnic minority youth populations. In this review, we assessed 31 peer-reviewed articles published in 2003 or later that fit inclusionary criteria pertaining to the development and evaluation of culturally grounded prevention programs. The evaluated studies indicated different approaches toward cultural grounding, as well as specific populations, geographic regions, and health issues that have been targeted. Specifically, the findings indicated that most of the studies focused on the development and evaluation of culturally grounded HIV/STI and substance abuse prevention programs for Mexican–American, African American, and American Indian/Alaska Native youth residing in the South or Southwestern US. These studies largely relied on community-based participatory or qualitative research methods to develop programs from the “ground up.” This review has implications for the development of future culturally grounded and culturally adapted prevention programs targeting underserved minority youth populations and geographic regions. Specifically, it identifies populations and regions where culturally grounded prevention efforts are underdeveloped or non-existent, providing some scientific direction for the future development of these types of programs.     

Youth Mentoring and Resilience: Implications for Practice

Despite findings indicating the importance of non-parental adults in the lives of youth, there is little research on these relationships, including those that occur in the context of youth mentoring. Compounding this problem is a positive slant taken towards youth mentoring in the media, often unsubstantiated by empirical evidence. This article outlines the research on youth mentoring by focusing on comprehensive literature reviews and evaluations of factors that influence the effectiveness and closeness of mentoring relationships. Review articles come to different conclusions about mentoring, in part because of differential emphasis on particular research findings. Further research indicates the importance of relationship duration and structure, as well as mentor skills, on youth outcomes. Implications for youth mentoring practices, including utilizing empirically-based mentor training, program implementation and evaluation of services, reducing volunteer attrition, and connecting youth mentoring with other services, are discussed.     

Measurement of Social Norms Affecting Modern Contraceptive Use: A Literature Review

As a critical building block to developing social norms interventions to support healthy family planning and other reproductive health behaviors, we conducted a literature review to identify and evaluate social norm measures related to modern contraceptive use. Of 174 articles reviewed in full, only 17 studies met our criteria for inclusion. Across these articles, no single measure of norms was used in more than one study; failure to specify the boundaries of who was engaging in and influencing the behaviors of interest contributed to the variation. Most of the studies relied on cross‐sectional data, only included condom use as their contraceptive use outcome, used individual‐ or interpersonal‐level behavior change theories rather than social‐level theories, and assumed a reference group, all of which limit the quality of the norm measures. We make several recommendations to bring greater consistency and comparability to social norm measures.     

Social Work Intervention Research With Adult Cancer Patients: A Literature Review and Reflection on Knowledge-Building for Practice

The results of a literature review of social work intervention research with adult cancer patients found only a small number of studies conducted by social work researchers. The findings of the review are presented followed by a reflective discussion on the nature of knowledge-building and research knowledge for practice. Knowledge building is considered as a continuous, negotiated process within communities of practice focused on psychosocial perspectives that draw on a range of knowledge sources. Epistemology, worldviews and research orientations are considered along with the values and stance of social work, all of which create the domain of the practice-researcher.     

The Emerging Social Science Literature on Health Technology Assessment: A Narrative Review

BackgroundSocial scientists have paid increasing attention to health technology assessment (HTA). This paper provides an overview of existing social scientific literature on HTA, with a focus on sociology and political science and their subfields.MethodsNarrative review of key pieces in English.ResultsThree broad themes recur in the emerging social science literature on HTA: the drivers of the establishment and concrete institutional designs of HTA bodies; the effects of institutionalized HTA on pricing and reimbursement systems and the broader society; and the social and political influences on HTA decisions.ConclusionSocial scientists bring a focus on institutions and social actors involved in HTA, using primarily small-N research designs and qualitative methods. They provide valuable critical perspectives on HTA, at times challenging its otherwise unquestioned assumptions. However, they often leave aside questions important to the HTA practitioner community, including the role of culture and values. Closer collaboration could be beneficial to tackle new relevant questions pertaining to HTA.     

Resilience in Environmental Risk and Impact Assessment: Concepts and Measurement

Different resilience concepts have different assumptions about system dynamics, which has implications for resilience-based environmental risk and impact assessment. Engineering resilience (recovery) dominates in the risk assessment literature but this definition does not account for the possibility of ecosystems to exist in multiple regimes. In this paper we discuss resilience concepts and quantification methods. Specifically, we discuss when a system fails to show engineering resilience after disturbances, indicating a shift to a potentially undesired regime. We show quantification methods that can assess the stability of this new regime to inform managers about possibilities to transform the system to a more desired regime. We point out the usefulness of an adaptive inference, modelling and management approach that is based on reiterative testing of hypothesis. This process facilitates learning about, and reduces uncertainty arising from risk and impact.     

医院效率研究文献综述

目的了解医院效率研究进展，为政策制定提供参考。方法以“医院”“效率”为检索词，对2015年1月-2021年10月医院效率相关研究进行文献检索。通过全文阅读，对研究内容、方法、指标和结果进行总结。结果医院效率研究的主要内容为综合效率、纯技术效率和规模效率；研究方法以数据包络分析法、随机前沿分析法为主；研究指标以医院内部指标为主。结论现有医院效率研究存在指标选择与表述不规范，多局限于理论研究，缺少对医院外部因素的研究等问题，建议对医院效率研究进行规范化管理。     

Rebuilding from Resilience: Research Framework for a Randomized Controlled Trial of Community-led Interventions to Prevent Domestic Violence in Aboriginal Communities

This research framework, which competed successfully in the 2008 CIHR open operating grants competition, focuses on protocols to measure the impact of community-led interventions to reduce domestic violence in Aboriginal communities. The project develops and tests tools and procedures for a randomized controlled trial of prevention of family violence. Women's shelters mainly deal with victims of domestic violence, and the framework also addresses other types of domestic violence (male and female children, elderly, and disabled). The partner shelters are in Aboriginal communities across Canada, on and off reserve, in most provinces and territories. The baseline study applies a questionnaire developed by the shelters. Testing the stepped wedge design in an Aboriginal context, shelters randomized themselves to two waves of intervention, half the shelters receiving the resources for the first wave. A repeat survey after two years will measure the difference between first wave and second wave, after which the resources will shift to the second wave. At least two Aboriginal researchers will complete their doctoral studies in the project. The steering committee of 12 shelter directors guides the project and ensures ethical standards related to their populations. Each participating community and the University of Ottawa reviewed and passed the proposal.