Showing papers in "Health Sociology Review in 2014"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that older life is no longer a stable coherent part of the life course; its future is fragmented by the competing narratives of the third age (opportunity) and the fourth age (threat).
Abstract: Once exceptional, a long life is now an everyday expectation for many citizens of the prosperous nations. The consequence of this transformation in life expectancy however has led to a set of contradictory responses, representing threats as much as opportunities. Old age is no longer a stable coherent part of the life course; its future is fragmented by the competing narratives of the third age (opportunity) and the fourth age (threat). While there is a tendency to frame this distinction primarily through the lens of socio-demography and/or 'stages of life,' this paper proposes an alternative model. This model argues that later life is now represented through two different, though not unrelated, paradigms. The first frames the third age as a network of cultural fields dominated by rising consumerism and changing social relationships, while the second frames the fourth age as a negatively developed social imaginary of 'real old age.' The central features of this imaginary, we suggest, are frailty, abjection and the 'othering' of the self. This paper elaborates this theorising of the fourth age, briefly outlining each of these three features before considering in more detail the nature of othering and its consequences for those affected by this particular imaginary.
98 citations
TL;DR: Examining the place of social capital and community development in the provision of end of life care at home, particularly in the Australian context, finds community capacity to provide support to those dying at home and their carers enhanced.
Abstract: The care of a person living at home near the end of their life is predominantly provided by family carers with the support of health services such as palliative care. In addition, informal caring networks also contribute at times to the support provided to the dying person and their carer. In this way, these networks can promote social capital in the communities from which they are drawn. This social approach to end of life care enhances community capacity to provide support to those dying at home and their carers. This article examines relevant published literature to explore the conceptual foundations of informal caring networks, examining the place of social capital and community development in the provision of end of life care at home, particularly in the Australian context.
49 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use Foucault's theory of genealogy to understand how midwifery knowledge came to be subjugated by a dominant medical discourse, particularly through the process of hospitalising birth.
Abstract: Choice and control for birthing women have recently come under the global spotlight as a human rights issue, and are likely to remain so while midwives are being targetted for providing home birth care. While focussing on these issues appears to further widen the dichotomy between medicine and midwifery, understanding how this divide is maintained is necessary if we are to move beyond it. This article, utilising Foucault’s theory of genealogy, recapitulates how midwifery knowledge came to be subjugated by a dominant medical discourse, particularly through the process of hospitalising birth. The submission of the Australian Medical Association to a government enquiry into maternity services is then examined to illustrate how discourse is perpetuated, and how medicine still configures itself as the dominant birth discourse in Australia. The importance of focussing on midwifery specific knowledge, using the notion of embodiment, is put forward.
45 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical analysis of "ageing-in-place" policy through the lens of "sandwich generation" carers of people with dementia is presented, where the authors argue that these carers are located at the interstices of powerful discourses such as 'individualisation' and 'care' and explore how the everyday practice of care is negotiated within these spaces.
Abstract: The success of 'ageing-in-place' aged care policy in Australia relies heavily on the unpaid work of informal carers. While there is a wealth of research regarding informal carers more generally, we know relatively little about the experiences of the 'sandwich generation': Adult children (mainly daughters) who provide care for a parent while often juggling paid work and the care of their own children or grandchildren. In this paper I undertake a critical analysis of 'ageing-in-place' policy through the lens of 'sandwich generation' carers of people with dementia. Drawing from a composite case study, I argue that these carers are located at the interstices of powerful discourses such as 'individualisation' and 'care' and explore how the everyday practice of care is negotiated within these spaces. Inhabiting these spaces can be costly for carers and we need to consider how policies can better support intergenerational carers if 'ageing-in-place' is to be sustainable.
32 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the iconography of social distancing implicated in the discourses of quarantine and risk control in public health, and the tension between scientific and popular media readings of the contours of acceptable public health models for managing particular pandemics.
Abstract: Management of a pandemic engages multiple sites where previously settled or uncontroversial understandings may be transformed by global and domestic forces. This article examines the iconography of social distancing implicated in the discourses of ‘quarantine’ and ‘risk control’ in public health, and the tension between scientific and popular media readings of the contours of acceptable public health models for managing particular pandemics. The role of culture in shaping and reshaping borders at an operational level is explored as a basis for explaining the apparent paradoxes in the way historic and contemporary pandemics are actually managed, and the different ways particular pandemics are framed. The article argues that a rational-scientific approach to pandemic management is insufficient and that a more nuanced socio-political blend of science, culture and public perceptions offers a more substantial basis for public health policy.
27 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative study was conducted to explore how "photovoice" and participant-produced photographs can be used to think critically about pregnant embodiment and body image in its multiple and often contradictory meanings.
Abstract: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore how ‘photovoice’ and participant-produced photographs can be used to think critically about pregnant embodiment. Twelve pregnant women in Hobart, Australia were given digital cameras and interviewed four times (three times during pregnancy and once postpartum) about photos that were taken to represent their experiences of pregnancy. This article examines narratives and photographs related to pregnant embodiment and body image in its multiple and often contradictory meanings. Two key themes that will be discussed include: (1) feeling anxiety surrounding the appearance of slenderness/normalised beauty throughout pregnancy; and (2) attempting to gain control of the body through photographs. Findings reveal important information for maternal health practitioners regarding how women negotiate a changed embodiment over time and how they might be supported during this period.
26 citations
TL;DR: The findings suggest that the illness experience of chronic renal failure is an on-going struggle to attain a sense of control and it is only through taking into account the context of patients experience of illness that clinicians/nurses can meaningfully draw on all aspects of evidence to reach integrated clinical judgement.
Abstract: This study examines experiences of living with chronic illness for haemodialysis patients. In order to Understand these experiences the paper takes an existential-phenomenological approach. Interviews of seven participants (five males, two females) were collected in a haemodialysis clinic. Based upon the participants experiences three core themes emerged: (1) the challenges of living with chronic renal failure; (2) body changes and embodiment; (3) their illness experience and social relationships. The findings suggest that the illness experience of chronic renal failure is an on-going struggle to attain a sense of control. We suggest that where a sense of control is limited this can create a sense of powerlessness. Further, the illness experience was not solely restricted to the individual, but also affected wider social relationships. It is only through taking into account the context of patients experience of illness that clinicians/nurses can meaningfully draw on all aspects of evidence to reac...
26 citations
TL;DR: In-depth interviews with those living with HIV in later life (aged 50 and over), as well as those working with them, are drawn on to uncover how these various actors understand the nature and consequences of this new phenomenon, and whether their understandings and approaches vary according to the individual’s connection to it.
Abstract: The ageing of the HIV population is unfolding within the context of a politicised history of medical care, medical breakthroughs changing HIV from a fatal to a chronic illness, and a long-standing treatment partnership between medical professionals and HIV patients. This article draws on in-depth interviews with those living with HIV in later life (aged 50 and over), as well as those working with them, to uncover how these various actors understand the nature and consequences of this new phenomenon, and whether their understandings and approaches vary according to the individual's connection to it. All informants described the interaction between ageing and HIV as complex and incompletely understood, and accounted for their own uncertainties about this interplay as due to a global knowledge gap produced by the novelty of ageing with HIV. In these data, working in the area of, or being personally affected by, ageing with HIV emerged as ‘experiments in living', with those variously involved in the phenomenon forced to take tentative, exploratory steps while navigating ‘uncharted territory'. Yet, the poorly-understood nature of the ageing/HIV interplay was framed differently, with clinicians and scientists constructing it as a temporary gap in technical knowledge (a scientific puzzle), and non-medical stakeholders and older people living with HIV describing it as an anxiety-provoking source of chronic uncertainty permeating daily life. These differences and similarities can help us to reformulate what medical sociology has often constructed as a static ‘gulf' between the clinical and the life worlds as, instead, gravitational pulls towards clinical and experiential dimensions of chronic illness as it unfolds in later life.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the Australian instance of a significant international problem: Intergenerational solidarity and the willingness of younger generations to support the future care of older people, using data from the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes.
Abstract: This paper sets out to explore the Australian instance of a significant international problem: Intergenerational solidarity and the willingness of younger generations to support the future care of older people. It draws on Bengston's intergenerational solidarity theory, in particular his conception of normative solidarity relative to filial obligations, to analyse data from the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes. This data demonstrates evidence of intergenerational solidarity at the policy level and a need for a continued role for government in the provision of residential care, insurance schemes, and the payment of income to full time and occasional carers. At the family level there is less support for the role of adult children in the payment of formal care or the provision of informal care. There is also a significant difference between men and women concerning the direct provision of informal care to ageing parents. Suggestions for future research are highlighted.
17 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how Indigenous women who receive intercultural healthcare programs manage to develop cooperation networks, get involved in community affairs and improve their reproductive healthcare, focusing on the case of the Bolivian intercultural health program "EXTENSA" and analyzes how this program is successful at activating greater community participation in health prevention and improving the reproductive healthcare of the Indigenous women.
Abstract: This article examines how Indigenous women who receive intercultural healthcare programs manage to develop cooperation networks, get involved in community affairs and improve their reproductive healthcare. It concentrates on the case of the Bolivian intercultural health program ‘EXTENSA’ and analyzes how this program is successful at activating greater community participation in health prevention and improving the reproductive healthcare of the Indigenous women who live in the Department of Beni, Bolivia. Through an ethnographic analysis, it argues that community participation and healthy behaviors are the result of tapping into bonding social capital and fostering women’s empowerment. The analysis shows that the program gives women community leaders and women networks members (who predate EXTENSA) access to different types of resources, allowing women to transform their community assets into sources of collective empowerment.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine assumptions that surround the way that aged care and assistance is conceptualised and discussed and consider the problematic sociological foundations of this critique - the failure to incorporate an understanding of the body into much sociological theory and the significance that the conceptualisation has for understanding the need for personal assistance in advanced old age.
Abstract: This paper examines assumptions that surround the way that aged care and assistance is conceptualised and discussed. Problems with the concept of care became apparent with the critique of care theory by the disability movement in the 1980s and continue to this day. Debates arose initially between those who sought to identify care as a gender-based duty that serves to burden those who take responsibility for it, and those who reject the concept as a form of socially constructed dependency. The paper considers the problematic sociological foundations of this critique - the failure to incorporate an understanding of the body into much sociological theory and the significance that the conceptualisation has for understanding the need for personal assistance in advanced old age. While the disability critique of care is firmly grounded in a sociological analysis, it overemphasises the social construction of social relations and ignores the visceral reality of the body. Longevity care, in contrast, needs to explicitly acknowledge that ageing is an embodied and physical process that generates a need for care. The conclusions are tested against recent Australian data and research on care needs and preferences amongst older people.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined workforce utilization in continuing care as a key component of effective service delivery and used a case study design with three continuing care facilities in Alberta, Canada.
Abstract: The recent commitment to investment in continuing care services demands a sound grasp of workforce utilization in continuing care facilities. This article examines workforce utilization in continuing care as a key component of effective service delivery. We used a case study design with three continuing care facilities in Alberta, Canada. Data were collected over one year through interviews, group discussions and observations. The data revealed workforce issues around staff mix, responsibilities and role clarity that negatively affect staff and residents. Using an ecological framework, we developed 'upstream' workforce strategies targeting barriers that can be influenced by the three facilities. Limited research exists on how regulated and unregulated healthcare providers are organized and deployed in different continuing care environments. In our sociological analysis of workforce utilization at three continuing care facilities, we illuminated the relations between staff and the contextual elements surrounding them.
TL;DR: A multifaceted approach – not only concerned with the reduction of symptoms – shifts focus beyond the ‘disease’ state and a single point of disruption, drawing attention to the use of ‘health maintenance actions’ to facilitate a proactive response to illness management.
Abstract: Whilst ‘biographical disruption’ remains important for explaining how people rebuild biography following the onset of chronic illness, it does not self-evidently explain the problem of managing a fluctuating chronic condition such as non-specific low back pain. Chronic illness rarely leads to long-term improvement; the trajectory is not always linear, and sudden or gradual improvements alongside deterioration are commonly experienced. In the case of low back pain, self-management often involves utilisation of non-pharmaceutical approaches, personal resources for accommodating pain and disability, as well as managing symptoms with clinical treatments to relieve pain. Such a multifaceted approach – not only concerned with the reduction of symptoms – shifts focus beyond the ‘disease’ state and a single point of disruption, drawing attention to the use of ‘health maintenance actions’ to facilitate a proactive response to illness management. We propose this new approach as an alternative way of understanding the experience of patients with fluctuating health conditions such as low back pain.
TL;DR: By establishing connections between tobacco, alcohol and obesity, this article foregrounds the possibility that the health-orientated marketing of beer and soft drinks could be legislated against in the same way as the health of tobacco products.
Abstract: Focussing on the male consumer, this article illustrates the links between the health-orientated marketing of filtered cigarettes, light beer and low calorie soft drinks. In so doing, this article speaks to two specific contemporary issues. In the first instance it speaks to contemporary attempts to understand tobacco, alcohol and obesity as similar kinds of health concerns. Furthermore, by establishing these connections (between tobacco, alcohol and obesity) this article foregrounds the possibility that the health-orientated marketing of beer and soft drinks could be legislated against in the same way as the health-orientated marketing of tobacco products.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed data from Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, a cross-sectional and nationally representative survey of Canada's population, to assess the impact of three dimensions of social capital on self-rated health.
Abstract: In this study we analyze data from Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey, a cross-sectional and nationally representative survey of Canada’s population, to assess the impact of three dimensions of social capital on self-rated health. We measure these dimensions, which consist of social networks and social support, civic participation and social participation, with a comprehensive set of 5 indicators. To avoid reverse causality due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, we employ an instrumental variable simultaneous equations bivariate probit regression model. Our findings indicate that all of the tested dimensions of social capital have a positive and significant impact on self-rated health. These findings suggest that social capital plays an important role in enhancing the health of Canada’s population. Endogeneity was detected in all of our estimations. Consequently, this study also has important methodological implications in that we demonstrate that relying solely on naive estimations...
TL;DR: This paper used an ego-centered network approach to explain class differences in perceptions of social support adequacy and mental health outcomes (i.e., distress) across class strata, and found that working/lower-class individuals report being embedded in lower-ranging network structures than their affluent middle-class counterparts.
Abstract: This study extends prior social support research by using an ego-centered network approach to explain class differences in perceptions of social support adequacy and, in turn, mental health outcomes (i.e., distress) across class strata. Data come from a 2003 study by the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricane at Louisiana State University. Independent samples t-tests and ordinary least squares regression analyses reveal differences in network capital, perceptions of social support adequacy, and levels of distress across social class. We find that working/lower-class individuals report being embedded in lower-ranging network structures than their affluent middle-class counterparts. Furthermore, for working/lower-class individuals, lower-ranging network structures positively affect perceptions of social support adequacy. We also find that although greater perceptions of social support adequacy reduce psychological distress, there are variations in class in how perceptions of soci...
TL;DR: Analysis of social inequality in children’s health in Bolivia following the election of Evo Morales suggests that aspects of health that are easier to implement such as immunization are more accessible to public policy than are more complex health problems like malnutrition and high child mortality.
Abstract: Objectives: This paper examines social inequality in children’s health following the election of Evo Morales. Bolivia is marked by dramatic socioeconomic, ethnic and geographic inequality in children’s health. The Morales government initiated several public health reforms designed to provide more equal access to public health services. Methods: Analysis was conducted using Bolivia Demographic and Health Survey data from 2003 to 2008. Results: The analysis shows some improvements in children’s health. However, inequality in access to doctors, child mortality and child nutritional status did not diminish. In contrast, inequalities in immunization declined dramatically. Conclusions: Results suggest that aspects of health that are easier to implement such as immunization are more accessible to public policy than are more complex health problems like malnutrition and high child mortality.
TL;DR: This article found that self-injury occurs and, in their sample, is linked not only to age and length of homelessness, but also to experiences of childhood trauma, and women who have engaged in selfinjuring behaviors were also found to have experienced three or more significant stressors over their life course.
Abstract: The goal of this article is to address three research questions that are important for understanding selfinjuring behaviors among homeless women: (1) Do homeless women self-injure? (2) If so, do the correlates of self-injuring behavior among homeless women in our self-injuring group differ in type from stressors experienced by homeless women who do not self-injure? (3) Do women who have engaged in self-injuring experience a greater number of significantly stressful events than those who do not? To answer these questions, we draw on data from the 55 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted in Manchester and Liverpool, UK. What our research demonstrates is that self-injury occurs and, in our sample, is linked not only to age and length of homelessness, but also to experiences of childhood trauma. Women in our sample who have engaged in self-injuring behaviors were also found to have experienced three or more significant stressors over their life course.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined alternative forms of empowerment in everyday practices, such as creating predictability, learning how to hide incontinence products, confronting the incontinent body in encounters with others, and sharing experiential knowledge on all these matters with peers.
Abstract: Many people throughout the world live with incontinence; however, they infrequently make themselves heard. In the current discourse regarding patient empowerment, this poses a dilemma as empowerment is usually believed to emerge from an individual or collective voice. A common response is that the existing taboo needs to be confronted. However, the metabolic functions of the body are a private affair for most people and ‘coming out’ as being incontinent is not necessarily empowering. Hence, solely focusing on the breaking of taboos to improve empowerment will not suffice. On the basis of nine biographic interviews with Dutch people with incontinence, we examine alternative forms of empowerment in everyday practices. Three strategies are detected: creating predictability; learning how to hide incontinence products; and confronting the incontinent body in encounters with others. Above all, it appears that sharing experiential knowledge on all these matters with peers can lead to more promising forms of empo...
TL;DR: The objective is to present and to discuss the results of a qualitative study on French professionals’ representations and theoretical perspectives with regards to evidencebased parenting programs, which demonstrate three ways to conceive parenting support.
Abstract: In the last few years, various international public health organizations such as the World Health Organization or the European Commission have recommended the worldwide dissemination of evidence-based mental health prevention programs. This public health ideal, relying on new scientific disciplines, is at the origin of multiple con- troversies in a number of countries. This article contributes to bring a reflection on the ways political experts, researchers and practitioners have integrated these new preventive strategies. More precisely, the objective is to present and to discuss the results of a qualitative study on French professionals' representations and theoretical perspectives with regards to evidence- based parenting programs. Results are based on ethnographical inquiries in French public health institutions and on 12 semi-structured interviews with professionals. The results demonstrate three ways to conceive parenting support, themselves attached to distinct anthropological, socio-political and interventional models.
TL;DR: The proportion of people aged over 60 years is increasing faster than any other age group in almost every country, and the proportion between 2000 and 2050 will double or increase from 605 million to 2 billion.
Abstract: Population ageing is an historically unprecedented global phenomenon The (World Health Organization [WHO], 2013) reports that, in almost every country, the proportion of people aged over 60 years is increasing faster than any other age group It predicts that between 2000 and 2050 this proportion of the world's population will double from about 11 to 22% or, in absolute terms, increase from 605 million to 2 billion (WHO, 2013) The ageing of populations around the world is clearly a cause for celebration Longevity reflects human success in instituting effective public health measures, dealing with killer childhood diseases, significantly reducing maternal mortality, and producing the means of effective fertility control Yet, many people around the world are not advantaged by this progress: they do not expect to make old bones Such groups as Indigenous populations, people with disabilities and those with serious mental illnesses lag behind others in terms of health status and propensity for long life It is estimated that Indigenous Australians, for example, have a life expectancy at birth of 594 years for males, and 648 years for females, some 16-17 years less than the overall Australian population (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2013)
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the social implications of an ill or deformed child and the role of narrative in addressing social demands and the problems faced by parents in infant intensive care contexts, arguing that theorising the infant within a relational framework allows agency to be attributed to the infant and parents while also recognising the importance of the intimate social world and interactional context that it is expressed within.
Abstract: The relationship of parents and infants is ruptured at birth in the context of urgent issues such as congenital heart defects. The infants referred to in 10 semi-structured interviews had undergone cardiac surgery in a children's hospital in Australia and were participating in a new programme known as Heart Beads instigated by the cardiac ward nurses. Within the biomedical context infants are often alienated from their parents and treated as isolated bodies. The paper discusses the social implications of an ill or deformed child and the role of narrative in addressing social demands and the problems faced by parents in infant intensive care contexts. It is argued that theorising the infant within a relational framework allows agency to be attributed to the infant and parents while also recognising the importance of the intimate social world and interactional context that it is expressed within. The paper draws on Nick Crossley's relational sociology to highlight the importance of the relational embodiment that encompasses infants within a social world preceding them and enveloping them. The narrative is developed by parents in order to facilitate the social expression and integration of their child and thus plays a particularly social role in the context of infant surgery, rather than serving to adjust the individual to new circumstances. Exploring the role of narrative in this social relational sense is important for bringing the mother and the family back into the context and survival of the infant both physically and socially.
TL;DR: The authors report the results of a study of experiences of Victorian State school teachers undergoing the Victorian WorkCover Authority's stress claim process, and argue for reform for less bureaucratic and less hierarchically intimidating processes, facilitating experiences that are less marginalising, dehumanising and more efficacious for injured teachers.
Abstract: This paper reports the results of a study of experiences of Victorian State school teachers undergoing the Victorian WorkCover Authority’s stress claim process. The claimants reported experiencing the process as alienating and disempowering. The injured teachers found the claims process overly procedural and impersonal. The study evidences perceptions of a power and resource imbalance from the claimants’ viewpoint. These imbalances rendered navigation of claims processes problematic. This paper argues for reform for less bureaucratic and less hierarchically intimidating processes, facilitating experiences that are less marginalising, dehumanising and more efficacious for injured teachers.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effect of the division of household chores and financial contributions on the mental health of couples, and found that in one-and-a-half-earner households, women's employment has a negative effect on their partner's depression level.
Abstract: Studies that focus on the effects of both the division of household chores and of financial contributions on the mental health of couples are scarce. This paper expands on previous research by paying attention to the variation of this relationship among three types of households: Male breadwinner, one-and-a-half-earner and dual-earner. Using paired data from the 10th wave of the Panel Study of Belgian Households, collected in 2001, we perform separate linear regressions for men (N = 1054) and women (N = 1054). The results suggest that in one-and-a-half-earner households, women's employment has a negative effect on their partner's depression level and that in dual-earner households, the effect of women's employment is only negative if men are not the major breadwinner. Crossover effects of depression between partners seem to mediate part of the aforementioned associations.
TL;DR: It is suggested that, in order to adapt public health and prevention policies, decision makers will have to rely on professionals’ background and on the field reality, as well as the epistemological, sociological and ethical problems raised by public prevention in mental health.
Abstract: In France, the last decade has been marked by an extensive development of public interventions in the field of mental health. The political investment in mental health has been the object of a public debate in which prevention was perceived by professional opinion leaders as a mean for politics to implement social control policies. However, it seems that the vigor of these condemnations has jeopardized the opportunity to initiate a debate on the ethical, sociological and epistemological foundations of prevention in mental health. Aim and method: EPIONE study was set up to meet the need for psychosocial research to evaluate the social representations of prevention in mental health professionals in charge of prevention, within the French context. Using one open-ended question ('What do you think about prevention in mental health?'), representations from 616 professionals were analyzed through a computer-assisted process (Alceste software) and according to Denise Jodelet and Serge Moscovici models of social representations. Results: Results pointed out an important discrepancy between the political discourse and the social representations of professionals, who understand the field of prevention as intimately related to curative practices. Professionals do not seem concerned by preventive 'top-down' policies, which they perceive as technocrats' issues. Finally, only a third of the total responses was related to the criticisms addressed to prevention, suggesting that mistrust toward prevention was not as developed among field professionals as it might seem when reading the most visible critical publications. Conclusion: We suggest that, in order to adapt public health and prevention policies, decision makers will have to rely on professionals' background and on the field reality, as well as the epistemological, sociological and ethical problems raised by public prevention in mental health.
TL;DR: Using the stress process model with a sample of 475 Louisiana newlyweds, this paper explored whether a more legally rigorous form of marriage (covenant marriage) substantially reduces depressive symptom disparities between Black and White spouses.
Abstract: Using the stress process model with a sample of 475 Louisiana newlyweds, this research explores whether a more legally rigorous form of marriage (covenant marriage) substantially reduces depressive symptom disparities between Black and White spouses. Results suggest that Black and White wives share similar depressive symptom levels in the first few months of their marriage. Black husbands have higher levels of depression than White husbands. Life stressors substantially mediate the race gap in depressive symptoms for husbands, while buffers have little effect. After controlling for stressors, buffers and demographic measures, covenant marriage seems to buffer wives against depressive symptoms, though only weakly. For husbands, covenant marriage has no effect and does not reduce the race gap in depression. Thus, while covenant marriage may either select on wives with better mental health or buffer against depressive symptoms for some wives, covenant marriage does not have advantages for husbands, a...
TL;DR: The objective is to present and to discuss the results of a qualitative study concerning French professionals’ representations and theoretical perspectives with regards to evidence-based parenting programs.
Abstract: Since a few years, various international public health organizations recommend the worldwide dissemination of evidence-based mental health prevention programs. T his public health ideal, relying on new scientific disciplines, is at the origin of multiple controversies in a number of countries. This article contributes to bring a reflection on the ways in which political experts, researchers and practitioners have integrated these new preventive strategies. More precisely, t he objective is to present and to discuss the results of a qualitative study concerning French professionals’ representations and theoretical perspectives with regards to evidence-based parenting programs. For that matter, v arious ethnographical inquiries and semi-structured interviews were realized. The results demonstrate three ways to conceive parenting support, themselves attached to distinct anthropological, socio-political and interventional models.