Background:Effective promotion of exclusive breast-feeding (EBF) is needed to improve child nutrition and survival.Objective:We explored barriers and facilitators to EBF in rural Tanzania and asses...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0379572119841961

Barriers and Opportunities for Improved Exclusive Breast-Feeding Practices in Tanzania: Household Trials With Mothers and Fathers

Contemporary parenting has witnessed a multitude of adaptations over the past decade across various cultural settings. Adolescent attachment patterns with parents have been explored in varying cultural contexts. These attachment patterns have been extensively studied in the light of adolescence as a turbulent phase of development. This chapter offers a systematic review of the cultural factors influencing parenting, with a theoretical analysis specific to adolescents within the Indian context. Based on the exploration of these cultural influences on parenting, the chapter further explores the relevance of mindfulness-based approaches within the Indian culture, with an applicability of a model of mindful parenting specifically with adolescents in India. The conceptualization of mindfulness-based approaches stems from both Eastern and Western cultures, which have significant influences on parenting of adolescents. The components of mindful parenting have shown applicability within the dynamic context of parental-adolescent attachment patterns, especially considering the culture-specific concept of interdependence in a collectivistic culture like India. Such findings have potential implications for the formulation of parenting strategies toward the future of adolescent mental health in the country.

/pdf/parenting-adolescents-in-india-a-cultural-perspective-3tkmf6coxv.pdf

Parenting Adolescents in India: A Cultural Perspective

A recent initiative known as the International Investigation of Parental Burnout, sought to study the prevalence of parental burnout in over 40 countries globally using the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) instrument. Four countries investigated here provide a first insight into parental burnout in Africa, based on a pooled dataset of 738 parents (48.8% mothers) sampled from Burundi (n = 187; 25.3%), Cameroon (n = 208; 28.2%), Rwanda (n = 240; 32.5%), and Togo (n = 103; 14%). As a first step, we tested the content validity of the PBA that was developed and validated in Western countries. Second, we tested the relations between the PBA and several sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, and level of education. The results provide evidence that the concept of parental burnout makes sense for African parents, and that the PBA can be considered as a psychometrically sound instrument to measure it. However, the results also point to the need for further exploration of the nature of parental burnout in Africa. As in previous studies, low correlations between parental burnout and the sociodemographic characteristics were found. Finally, the current results suggest the existence of parenting subcultures across the four participating countries that would be interesting to document.

Parenting and parental burnout in Africa

Exploring first-time mothers’ perceptions of their pregnancy, maternity leave and post-partum return to work in Gauteng, South Africa

.................................................................................................................................................. ii Dedication .............................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ iv List of tables .......................................................................................................................................... xii List of figures ........................................................................................................................................ xii CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ................................................................................. 1 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Motivation for this study ............................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research problem .......................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Key research questions ................................................................................................................. 3 1.5 Research objectives ....................................................................................................................... 3 1.6 Preview of methodology ............................................................................................................... 4 1.7 Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................. 6 1.7.1. Agency .................................................................................................................................. 6 1.7.2. Consequentialism .................................................................................................................. 7 1.7.3 A Theory of Responsibility .................................................................................................... 8 1.8 Significance of the study ............................................................................................................... 9 1.9 Structure of the study .................................................................................................................. 10 1.10 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................ 13 2.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 13 2.1 Agency ........................................................................................................................................ 13 2.1.1 Agency definition ................................................................................................................. 13 2.1.2. Types of agency .................................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2.1 Individual agency .......................................................................................................... 14 2.1.2.2 Agency and structure .................................................................................................... 15 2.1.3 Argument for agency theory ................................................................................................ 20 2.1.4 The critique of agency/structure .......................................................................................... 21 2.1.5 How agency will be used to guide this research .................................................................. 23 2.2 Consequentialism ........................................................................................................................ 24 2.2.1 Definition of consequentialism ............................................................................................ 24

Virtual ontology, moral responsibility and agency : the ethical implications of mobile communication technology use on parenting style in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Parenting requires interpersonal skills and makes emotional demands (Santrock, 2006). According to Santrock, most parents learn parenting practices from their own parents some they accept and some they discard. The author argues that when parenting methods are passed on from one generation to the next, both desirable and undesirable practices are perpetuated. These practices may be cultural values which have been passed on from one parent to another.

/pdf/parenting-and-culture-evidence-from-some-african-communities-28jx95ytbn.pdf

Parenting and Culture – Evidence from Some African Communities

We propose Rhythmic Relating for autism: a system of supports for friends, therapists, parents, and educators; a system which aims to augment bidirectional communication and complement existing therapeutic approaches. We begin by summarizing the developmental significance of social timing and the social-motor-synchrony challenges observed in early autism. Meta-analyses conclude the early primacy of such challenges, yet cite the lack of focused therapies. We identify core relational parameters in support of social-motor-synchrony and systematize these using the communicative musicality constructs: pulse; quality; and narrative. Rhythmic Relating aims to augment the clarity, contiguity, and pulse-beat of spontaneous behavior by recruiting rhythmic supports (cues, accents, turbulence) and relatable vitality; facilitating the predictive flow and just-ahead-in-time planning needed for good-enough social timing. From here, we describe possibilities for playful therapeutic interaction, small-step co-regulation, and layered sensorimotor integration. Lastly, we include several clinical case examples demonstrating the use of Rhythmic Relating within four different therapeutic approaches (Dance Movement Therapy, Improvisational Music Therapy, Play Therapy, and Musical Interaction Therapy). These clinical case examples are introduced here and several more are included in the Supplementary Material (Examples of Rhythmic Relating in Practice). A suite of pilot intervention studies is proposed to assess the efficacy of combining Rhythmic Relating with different therapeutic approaches in playful work with individuals with autism. Further experimental hypotheses are outlined, designed to clarify the significance of certain key features of the Rhythmic Relating approach.

/pdf/rhythmic-relating-bidirectional-support-for-social-timing-in-2uccexwn.pdf

Rhythmic Relating: Bidirectional Support for Social Timing in Autism Therapies

Online counseling is gradually finding its way into therapy in universities in Ghana. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 accompanied by uncertainties and the fears of physical contact signaled a consideration of complete acceptability of online counseling, in addition to face-to-face counseling. Nonetheless, the level of counselors, counselor educators and counselor trainees' knowledge, attitude, and usage of online counseling in Ghanaian universities is unclear. Thus, this study used an explanatory sequential mixed-method design to assess the perception of sampled respondents' and participants' viewpoints on online counseling available at a public university. Amid findings that counselors, counselor educators and counselor trainees have little awareness of online counseling and share a generally negative attitude towards it, the study concluded that online counseling is a highly unexplored option available on the university campus. Suggestions for augmented online counseling opportunities to assist students to resolve their difficulties on the university campus were also made. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Online Counseling: Perceptions of Counselors, Counselor Educators and Trainees

Digitizing counselling practice: A study of student values and challenges associated with traditional face-to-face counselling and e-counselling modes

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many aspects of higher education students’ lives. The COVID-19 has influenced their cognitive abilities regarding schoolwork, balancing their lives, and maintaining academic success using mindfulness awareness and academic resilience as productive strategies. Therefore, this study examined Ghanaian students’ mindfulness and academic resilience amid the pandemic with a descriptive quantitative design survey. Data for the study were collected with adapted versions of the mindfulness and academic resilience scales. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential procedures. The study revealed that students were mindful about themselves in the pandemic, and their level of academic resilience was high. In addition, the study found no statistically significant differences in mean scores of mindfulness between male and female students and their academic levels, but statistically significant differences existed in mean scores of academic resilience and their academic levels. In this regard, the study concludes that students were mindful and resilient about activities they do during the pandemic. Therefore, higher learning institution management and faculty need to devote time in advocating for and training of students about mindfulness and resilience, as well as providing them with the best strategies for their application. 

http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperDownload.aspx?paperID=125982

Patricia Mawusi Amos

Papers

Parenting and Culture – Evidence from Some African Communities

Rhythmic Relating: Bidirectional Support for Social Timing in Autism Therapies

Online Counseling: Perceptions of Counselors, Counselor Educators and Trainees

Digitizing counselling practice: A study of student values and challenges associated with traditional face-to-face counselling and e-counselling modes

An Examination of Mindfulness and Academic Resilience among Higher Education Students amidst COVID-19 Pandemic in Ghana