‘Compulsory sexuality’: a guide to healing?

The childhood sexual abuse recovery literature presents childhood sexual abuse as something with inevitable and devastating effects, which can be identified in the lives of adult women. These effects include a problematic relationship with issues relating to sex. This paper presents findings from an in‐depth study of sixteen women in Britain, which looked at women's engagement with the recovery literature aimed at adult victims of childhood sexual abuse and, in particular, that aspect of the literature which dealt with sex. The paper highlights some of the problematic assumptions that underlie much of this literature before examining how women engage with this literature. The findings suggest that women, including those who have no knowledge or memories of having been sexually abused as children, use the ideas promoted in this literature to reinterpret child and adult experiences within a narrative framework of childhood sexual abuse and construct themselves as victims of such abuse and, in doing so, ignore those external factors which may better explain or improve their adult lives.     

A new way of perceiving the pandemic: the findings from a participatory research process on young Africans' stories about HIV/AIDS

This paper presents the findings, shares the methodology and outlines the benefits of a multi‐country participatory research process on a unique data source: stories about HIV and AIDS written by young Africans. Between 1997 and 2005, more than 105,000 young people from 37 countries participated in competitions inviting them to think up storylines for short fiction films to educate their communities about HIV and AIDS as part of the ‘Scenarios from Africa’ communication process. The winning stories were selected by juries made up of: PLWH and other local specialists in prevention, treatment and care; former contest winners and other young people; and communication specialists, including the top African directors, who went on to transform the ideas into short films. In 2005, over 200 jurors selected 30 winners from the 22,894 stories submitted that year by 63,327 contest participants. After reading around 200 stories each and participating in the selection process, jurors compiled their observations and recommendations. The jurors' findings reveal notable persistent shortcomings in existing communication efforts and identify key emerging needs. In some areas, they show remarkable consistency across the continent. Jurors view this as a powerful needs assessment, networking and capacity building process that motivates action.     

Vulnerable youth,dialogic exchanges and resilience: Some preliminary findings from an exploratory study in East London

There has been little exploration in the literature of the dialogic exchanges among marginalized youth, including the kinds of associations they may have, if any, with resilience. Based on preliminary findings from an ethnographic study in East London, we explore some of the dialogic exchanges about resilience among ethnically diverse groups of vulnerable youth to suggest alternative ways in which it can be contextualized. Youth narratives are used as an analytical tool to unravel the ambiguities of the terms resilience and adversity and to illustrate ways in which the respondents' association and understanding of resilience and adversity can contextualize more effectively the covert processes they undergo as they navigate through personal and cultural adversities. What is their association with the concept of resilience? Do these connections (if any) influence the ways they contextualize and face their daily adversities? How and where can the voices of vulnerable youth be positioned in the health resilience literature?     

Student Reflections as Evidence of Interactive Clinical Reasoning Skills

A graduate level occupational therapy course in the experience of chronic illness is described for its unique method in helping students to broaden clinical reasoning skills. When students are faced with having to participate in a difficult situation with patients, they have the opportunity to discuss their own reactions, to understand better their own stressful experiences, and to more easily formulate questions for those who are chronically ill. Learning is facilitated through reading autopathographies; viewing videos of people dealing with illness, both sudden and gradual; participating in small group discussions, and writing reflective journals about the challenging community experience that is required of the course. The combination of methods serves to promote interactive clinical reasoning skills.     

Children's representations of relationships with mothers,teachers, and friends,and associations with social competence

This study describes the use of story stems in order to determine children's representations of relationships with mothers, teachers, and friends, and how these representations are related to mother- and teacher-rated social competence. Thirty preschool-aged children were administered the story stem tasks featuring three different interactional partners, which were then coded for quality of the portrayed relationship. Mothers and teachers were also asked to rate children's social competence. Findings suggest that children generally have similar, but not identical, working models of their relationships with mothers and teachers which are related to internal working models of their relationships with friends. Furthermore, elements of children's narratives about teachers and friends were related to teacher's ratings of children's social competence. Findings from this study demonstrate the dynamic and interactive nature of children's representations of relationships with their mothers, teachers, and friends.     

The family narratives of three siblings living in a ‘street situation’ since birth

ABSTRACT

The spontaneous narratives of three brothers, ages 5, 8, and 11, in response to a structured story stem task were analysed for representations of positive and negative family interactions. The children had lived their entire lives with no permanent home, and often on the streets, in the care of their mother. The story stem task presented brief scenarios of parent and family conflict and a child's need for comfort. Analyses revealed children's understanding of basic family role structures; yet, their narratives were also characterized by emotional detachment, limited parental engagement, and self-centredness. Implications for young children's coping with great adversity are discussed.     

Issues Encountered in a Qualitative Secondary Analysis of Help-Seeking in the Prodrome to Psychosis

Primary data are rarely used explicitly as a source of data outside of the original research purpose for which they were collected. As a result, qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) has been described as an "invisible enterprise" for which there is a "notable silence" amongst the qualitative research community. In this paper, we report on the methodological implications of conducting a secondary analysis of qualitative data focusing on parents' narratives of help-seeking activities in the prodrome to psychosis. We review the literature on QSA, highlighting the main characteristics of the approach, and discuss issues and challenges encountered in conducting a secondary analysis. We conclude with some thoughts on the implications for conducting a QSA in children's mental health services and research.     

Personal perspectives on patient and public involvement – stories about becoming and being an expert by experience

Patient and public involvement activities bring ‘lay participants’ and their accounts of lived experiences to the centre of health service development and delivery. For individuals, these accounts can provide an important resource, offering a sense of control and an opportunity to re-frame past events. Furthermore, as involvement activities and the use of personal accounts have become more prominent, it is timely to examine the involvement process from the perspective of the ‘lay participants’. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore how people become involved and how they construct the accounts of their lived experience. We analyse the stories of people with lived mental illness or caring experiences, who have become experts by experience (n = 13). We argue that becoming an expert by experience can help to re-contextualise past experiences and support the re-discovery of skills and expertise, leading experts by experience to construct both professionalised and politicised identities. The process has the potential to enforce narratives that portray illness experiences as motivators for social action and change. Additionally, we claim that the stories experts by experience share with health services and the public are not ‘lay accounts’ or ad hoc tales, but accounts constructed to serve specific purposes.     

To Hell and Back: Excessive Drug Use,Addiction, and the Process of Recovery in Mainstream Rock Autobiographies

Rock autobiographies have become increasingly popular since the 1990s. This article analyzes 31 mainstream rock autobiographies describing a wide variety of legal and illegal substances used and reckless behavior. Narrative analysis shows that books concentrate on recovering from addiction. The majority of writers have participated in some kind of treatment. Rock autobiographies use therapeutic vocabulary and borrow discursive elements from culturally familiar Alcoholics Anonymous texts recounting recovery stories. The analysis shows that drugs and alcohol are not associated with rebellion and authenticity as they once were in rock music. Surviving addiction has become a key theme of rock culture.