Search results

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how care professionals/providers construe, understand and make sense of the characteristics that are important when providing care to adults with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, based on their experiences of working within their roles within a residential care setting.

Care professionals and providers working at a community autism and intellectual disability service were interviewed to ascertain their experiences of working with this client group. The research design adopted a qualitative methodology using repertory grids.

Ten members of staff who agreed to participate formed the study’s sample.  This consisted of team leaders, support workers, one member of the executive management team and one clinical member of staff. Ten themes were identified for working effectively with people with autism and intellectual disabilities. These were: making autism-specific adaptations, approachable, reflective/self-aware, strong understanding of their residents/empathetic, benevolent, empowering, follows plans consistently, confident in ability to support residents with autism, resilient, respectful.

The paper discusses each of these ten themes above and how employers can aid in selecting individuals who may be more suited to working with this patient group.

A literature search demonstrated a lack of empirical research, especially qualitative research, on this topic.

For the 3.8 per cent of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) who have offended sexually, the main form of treatment is the group-based, cognitive-behavioural, adapted sex offender treatment programme (ASOTP) that focusses on challenging cognitive distortions condoning sex offending. The purpose of this paper is to provide an evaluation of how effective the ASOTP is at reducing ID sex offenders’ cognitive distortions.

Three databases were searched systematically: PsycINFO, MEDLINE and Web of Science. Six studies met the inclusion criteria, yielding 118 participants. Using a random-effects model, effect sizes were calculated using pre- and post-treatment scores on a measure of cognitive distortions. The standardised mean difference (SMD) was 1.77 (95 per cent CI: 1.06, 2.46), which was statistically significant (p<0.001) and “large”. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that this SMD was robust, and a check for publication bias revealed that it was unlikely that the “file drawer problem” confounded the meta-analysis.

These results indicated that the ASOTP can significantly reduce ID sex offenders’ cognitive distortions, regardless of treatment length, IQ level, language abilities, or offence type. Consistent with earlier reports, longer treatment resulted in the greatest reductions: the optimum treatment length was 24 months.

The ASOTP’s current evidence is comprised wholly of case and quasi-experimental studies, none of which employed control groups. This paper highlights how there is a dire need for high-quality experimental evaluation of the ASOTP.

Clinicians are advised to continue using the ASOTP as the main treatment for ID sex offenders until the effectiveness of the ASOTP is further examined using randomised controlled trials.

This is the first meta-analytic review of the effectiveness of the ASOTP.

There is growing literature on the application of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) with adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs). To draw upon the evidence-base from mainstream approaches, adapted interventions must remain true to their theoretical foundations and retain key components. The purpose of this paper was to establish the extent to which DBT has been adapted for adults with ID, and whether existing adapted protocols can still be considered DBT.

The theoretical underpinnings and key components of DBT were identified. Six DBT studies were critiqued according to these criteria.

In terms of content, only one intervention comprised all necessary elements. All of the remaining interventions included a skills group; two included individual therapy and another two included group consultation. None of the remaining interventions provided 24-h telephone support. Furthermore, none of the studies explicitly described using dialectical strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to critically examine the evidence-base for the use of DBT in ID, particularly its fidelity.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the culture in the logging industry in the East Kootenay/Columbia region in British Columbia, Canada, is changing as warm winters resulting from climate change drive expansion of a native tree-killing pest, the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae).

The paper is derived from historical records and 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted from July 2010 to May 2011.

This analysis found that the insect outbreaks are generating a heightened sense of economic and physical vulnerability in the logging industry, undermining previous assumptions of sufficiency and confidence.

This paper presents results from a study of a specific region, and caution should be used when comparing these results with similar phenomena in other contexts.

The forest industry is an important employer throughout the British Columbia interior; the cultural changes documented here indicate that climate change, manifested in insect outbreaks, is generating cultural dislocation that can have negative consequences beyond the immediate economic impacts.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of how an unanticipated consequence of climate change is driving adjustments in a subculture in a technologically advanced society.

To highlight the relative importance of service‐specific export performance drivers that help successful exporting.

A gap between the antecedents of manufacturing and service firms was identified via an extensive review on the export performance as well as services literature. Taking the resource‐based view and the contingency approach, a series of research propositions relating to the determinants of export performance among service firms are developed.

This paper suggests that traditional export performance models, developed for and tested with manufacturing firms, cannot be assumed to apply equally well in service settings. Further, service specific export theory needs to adopt a contingency approach which in turn provides insightful and value‐added research for academics and practitioners in the services exporting sector.

The paper provides recognition of the relative importance of the different export performance and value drivers; value propositions can be more effectively designed in order to gain competitive advantage.

Families conduct their affairs through processes that are built upon those of previous generations and also social capacities such as culture, class, oppression and poverty. The media has played a part in stereotyping the lower classes through their portrayal on the television programmes such as Benefits Street and Jeremy Kyle and tabloid newspaper stories. This chapter is a case study of two families who are at the opposing ends of the social scale, the Horrobin/Carter and Aldridge families. The two families were chosen due to them being linked by marriage in the younger generation. Through the use of genograms, we explore how the families differ in their attitudes towards relationships within their individual families, and also how they relate to each other as separate family groups. Despite the many differences, there are also a number of key similarities, particularly regarding the key females in the families, in terms of family background and snobbery. We also show that there is little family loyalty in the more privileged family and a power differential between the two families (oppressors vs. oppressed) in terms of the crimes committed.

This paper seeks to review and explore the relatively neglected notion of the adjustment of expatriate families to living abroad with the aim of developing a new model that can be used for future research.

The paper draws on the few studies of the topic that have been carried out, but widens the search to include evidence from the related adjustment and family stress literature to create a new model of the process. Using the ideas of stressors, strains and hassles, capabilities, and shared meanings, the paper examines the situation of the expatriate family and explores how families can adjust to life in another country.

By adopting a salutogenic approach and incorporating insights from these other literatures, the paper shows that family adaptation is a complex and many‐faceted process. It is a process that greater awareness on the part of the family and the organization can improve.

With the help of the model of family adjustment the paper points to systematic gaps in studies on expatriate families and outlines a consequent research agenda.

Awareness is a crucial element in adjustment. The paper shows that awareness by the family can alleviate problems, and that organizations employing members of the family can assist in the adjustment process for the family.

The contribution of the paper comes in its attempt to encompass what is known about expatriate family adaptation directly with a wider view of family adjustment. This provides both a practical framework for future research and some practical implications.

Industry platforms can alter relations among exchange partners in such a way that the industry structure is changed. The focus of much industry platform research has been on how platform creation and leadership offers advantages to the most central firms, but platforms can also be advantageous for small specialist firms that compete with the most central firms. We examine book publishing as an example of an industry in which the central players – large publishing firms – are losing power to self-publishing authors because the distributor Amazon has a powerful platform for customers to communicate independently, and the non-publishing platform Twitter also serves as a medium for readers to discuss and review books. Our empirical analysis is based on downloaded sales statistics for Amazon Ebooks, matched with Amazon reviews of the same books and tweets that refer to the book or the author. We analyze how Ebook sales are a function of publisher, Amazon reviews, and tweets, and we are able to assess the importance of each factor in the sale of book titles. The main finding is that Amazon reviews are powerful drivers of book sales, and have greater effect on the sales of books that are not backed by publishers. Twitter also affects book sales, but less strongly than Amazon reviews.

This study compared different types of full-time caregiver (e.g., children, older adults, COVID-19 patients) and subgroups (e.g., disability, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation) in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic for potentially meaningful distinctions.

Data from the 9,854 full-time caregivers identified in Phase 3.2 (July 21–October 11, 2021) of the US Census Household Pulse Survey (HPS) were analyzed in this study using multinomial logistic regression to examine relationships between caregiver types, marginalized subgroups, generation, and vaccination status.

The prevalence of caregiving was low, but the type of full-time caregiving performed varied by demographic group (i.e., disability, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, generation, and vaccination status). The relative risk of being a COVID-19 caregiver remained significant for being a member of each of the marginalized groups examined after all adjustments.

To date, the HPS has not been analyzed to predict the type of full-time informal caregiving performed during the COVID-19 pandemic or their characteristics. Research limitations of this analysis include the cross-sectional, experimental dataset employed, as well as some variable measurement issues.

Prior informal caregiver research has often focused on the experiences of those caring for older adults or children with special healthcare needs. It may be instructive to learn whether and how informal caregivers excluded from paid employment during infectious disease outbreaks vary in meaningful ways from those engaged in other full-time caregiving. Because COVID-19 magnified equity concerns, examining demographic differences may also facilitate customization of pathways to post-caregiving workforce integration.