My Stomach Fell Through the Floor: The Moment of Not-Knowing What to Do

Youth workers routinely experience moments in their professional practice with young people when, despite their experience and training, they are simply at a loss for what to do, how to respond, and how to be helpful to the youth. These experiences of not-knowing are seldom shared with other youth workers, which contributes to a climate of shame and humiliation. Professional supervision seldom attends to how youth workers experience these moments and their personal and vocational costs. This study presents a phenomenological investigation of how youth workers experience moments of not knowing what to do, identifies five central themes of the experience, and makes recommendations for improved youth work practice and supervision. This chapter presents the research question and its significance to the field of American youth work.     

“My Kids,They Safe.”: Lived Experiences of Parents Receiving Child Neglect Allegations

Abstract

This study aims to explore parents’ lived experiences of receiving child neglect allegations and how they make sense of these experiences. The sample consists of parents who participated in a family preservation program following allegations of child neglect. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The findings suggest that parents resist neglect allegations, both by denial and minimization, partly due to their lack of clear understanding of what constitutes child neglect. Further, parents in this study tended to be reactive to meanings ascribed to the label of child neglect rather than the allegations per se. They seemed to experience internal conflict between their positive evaluations of their own parenting and what their neglect allegations might imply about their parenting. Parents also experienced emotional distress, such as concern about social stigma and fear of losing their parental rights, as they tried to make sense of their current situations. Suggested implications for practice include exploring parents’ subjective understanding of their allegations and considering their unique familial and sociocultural contexts from the outset of their involvement with child protective services (CPS) in order to build a collaborative working alliance.     

Asset Ownership and Future Orientation of Youth and Their Parents: Evidence From Ghana

Although future orientation influences a variety of desirable behaviors, few studies have examined the relationship between economic resources and future orientation. In this study, we investigated whether and how asset ownership influences future orientation. We analyzed survey data collected from 3,007 Ghanaian youth and their parents. We used factor analysis to determine the psychometric qualities of our instruments, and propensity score analysis to examine the relationship between asset ownership and future orientation. Results suggest that asset ownership influences future orientation of youth and their parents. However, the direction of the relationship depends on the type of asset. Ownership of household possessions, including televisions contributes to higher levels of future orientation, but livestock ownership has a negative effect on future orientation. We discuss implications for future research, as well as programs for youth and their families.     

Television in Indian Adolescents' Lives: A Member of the Family

To understand the effects of TV on youth, it is important to know the context in which they view it. This paper reports findings from an Experience Sampling study of 100 urban, middle-class Indian families to elucidate the context of use for this group. Mothers, fathers, and 8th graders carried alarm watches for 1 week and provided 13,674 reports on their activities and subjective states at random times across waking hours when signalled. TV viewing occupied 10.9% of these adolescents' time (about 12 h per week). Ninety percent of this viewing occurred at home, with majority of it, 73%, done with other family members, including 7% with grandparents, uncles, or aunts. This indicates that TV viewing for these youth is typically a family activity, occurring in a context in which parents' supervision and influence is likely. Adolescents' rates of viewing were correlated with mothers' rates of viewing, with rates for both higher when mothers were unemployed. Adolescents' TV rates were also correlated with fathers' rates and with fathers' type of employment. During TV viewing, adolescents reported lower than average challenge, worry, and paying attention, and higher than average choice, calm, and relaxation. As a whole, the findings indicate that the TV viewing of middle-class Indian youth is typically a relaxed antidote to the stresses of the day that they share with their families.     

Natural Mentors in the Lives of African American Adolescent Mothers: Tracking Relationships Over Time

In this study, we focused on the academic attainment of African American adolescents as they made the transition from pregnancy or recent delivery to 2 years postpartum. We examined the duration, characteristics, and effects of relationships that endured over 2 years postpartum, and the role of adolescents' mentor versus maternal support. Compared to participants who did not identify mentors at either time point, participants whose mentor relationships endured over the course of the 2-year study were more likely to have remained in school or graduated. Subsequent analyses revealed that long-term mentor relationships were characterized by weekly and, in many instances, daily interactions. Additionally, participants in long-term mentor relationships reported deriving more emotional support from their mentors than from their mothers, were more satisfied with mentor support, and indicated that this support was more important to them than maternal support.     

Sex,Power and Ontology: Exploring the Performativity of Hormones

This paper contributes to the recent discussions about new materialism. It has been claimed that feminists should bring biology and the physiology of bodies into their analyses. Here, however, an ontological question is asked about these objects of study. The paper focuses on sex hormones. In feminist studies, the “sexing” of the so-called sex hormones is questioned (Fausto-Sterling 2000), and in the spirit of new materialism they are also rethought as provocations and global fluids that question any previously perceived constancy of individual bodies (Birke 2003; Roberts 2007). This paper draws upon these previous studies in order to propose a posthumanist performative approach to sex hormones, and continues by arguing for a further radicalization of their ontology. Karen Barad's notion of indeterminacy—meaning that the nature of an “entity” can be determined only within a specific research apparatus—is utilized. This paper thus explores whether sex hormones can, in some apparatuses, “enact” not only chemical processes, but also material-discursive processes, even affects.     

Sex Positive: Feminism,Queer Theory,and the Politics of Transgression

From the feminist ‘sex wars’ of the 1980s to the queer theory and politics of the 1990s, debates about the politics of sexuality have been at the forefront of contemporary theoretical, social, and political demands. This article seeks to intervene in these debates by challenging the terms through which they have been defined. Investigating the importance of ‘sex positivity’ and transgression as conceptual features of feminist and queer discourses, this essay calls for a new focus on the political and material effects of pro-sexuality.