Beyond Trauma: Pathways to Resilience

Childhood trauma is a prevalent issue in communities around the world. One way to help our communities is to identify pathways in which individuals become resilient despite childhood adversity. This information can be used to develop intervention and prevention programs that help create resilient communities.
This presentation will examine factors which have helped individuals who have experienced childhood trauma become successful adults. Data will be examined from extensive interviews with individuals from the Flagstaff, Arizona (United States) community. All participants are adults who have experienced childhood trauma and self-identified as successful in adulthood. Examples of trauma include childhood abuse, parental incarceration, and other challenges within the family. Examples of success include owning a business, being drug and alcohol-free, or becoming a first-generation college graduate.
Interviews consist of questions about the participants’ childhood experiences and factors they believe led them to become successful in adulthood. Using grounded theory methodologies, common themes will be identified and discussed in the presentation. The goal of this study is to find common experiences that contribute to resilience and thriving in order to inform community intervention and prevention programs.

Community college for local senior citizens: The meaning of the learning experience

Meiji Gakuin University and Minato Ward in Tokyo jointly have operated the Challenge Community College (CCC) for more than ten years in order to cultivate the leadership for local elder people after their retirement. More than 600 senior citizens have graduated from CCC one year course. The second author has involved in establishing and managing the CCC programs as a representative and educator. The present research revealed the impact of their learning experience by analyzing .essays written by those graduates by using text mining. The experiences of CCC were meaningful for the participants to lead positive ways of life and enriched life stories after their retirement. The ongoing study is to discover the voices of the graduates’ meaning of life in the process of co-productive data collecting and discussion between the psychologists and the graduates.

'Taking the Wheels Off': Young People With Cognitive Impairment in Out-Of-Home Care

Children with cognitive impairment in out-of-home care (OOHC) are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Little attention has been given to the connection between those with cognitive impairment who also have a care background and how these combined factors are linked to their criminal behaviour. A qualitative study utilising semi-structured interviews with 11 senior strategic officers and service providers to this cohort was conducted with the aim of investigating the views of these professionals and gaining insight into factors contributing to the criminalisation of children with cognitive impairment in OOHC. Five themes were identified using thematic analysis, suggesting that the primary areas of concern are: (a) increased vulnerability, (b) lack of belonging and security, (c) challenges with identification, (d) steering to the criminal justice system and (e) lack of support. The findings of this research have important implications for current policy and practice across education, OOHC, criminal justice and community settings in order to prevent the pathway of criminalisation for this vulnerable population.

The experience of homeless young adults who aged out of foster care

Adolescents aging out of foster care have shown difficulties transitioning into adulthood. Recent literature suggests that approximately half of the individuals who experience homelessness have also been placed in foster care at least once in their life. Research has shown that these individuals face many struggles, for example, finding employment or graduating high school. This raises questions regarding the preparation towards independent living of youth leaving care. The foster care system is mandated to offer services to help youth transition into adult life. However, previous literature has stated a lack of these services. The purpose of this study was to: 1) identify the different services implemented in the foster care system to better help transition into adulthood; 2) understand how these services were perceived by youth leaving foster care and 3) explore how these services responded to their needs. Twelve homeless young adults who aged out of foster care were recruited at an emergency shelter facility and interviewed individually. Preliminary results suggest services focused mainly on finding employment and housing. Overall, continued support offered after the age of majority seems necessary in order to improve the transition into adulthood and prevent homelessness.

Reimagining the other: arts active methods with youth and child care workers

In an uncertain, changing, complex world obsessed with needing to know, professional development programs that encourage not knowing are not common place.
This presentation will visually explore findings from doctoral research that examined a professional development experiential workshop program that uses arts focused, active methods to understand how participants experience core dramatherapy processes and how arts methods influence youth care workers. The findings suggest that through participation in the program most participants reported new understandings of themselves, the young people they work with, and their professional practice.

Sense of community during the transition to adulthood

This ongoing research project examines the factors associated with psychological and social well-being during the transition to adulthood (TTA), including sense of community (SOC) and the use of social network sites (SNSs). The expansion of communication technologies has disrupted our ways of interacting with one another while it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish social spaces that are exclusively online from those offline. In line with the scientific community's growing interest in the psychosocial impacts of the use of SNSs, this project involves two studies. The first aims to explore the relationship between SOC, sense of loneliness and social well-being. The second study aims to determine the best predictors of SOC among factors relating to emerging adults' personal social network, i.e. the use of SNSs, perceived social support and the presence of a mentor. This ignite presentation will be the occasion to present preliminary results from a sample of emerging adults, and to discuss the implications of SOC and the use of SNSs in understanding spaces of relations during TTA.

An exploratory study on adult recognition of adultism in Japan

Adultism was defined as “when adults think that they are better than young people and can control them”. Adultism was a concept proposed in the adolescence psychology field as a concept to discuss abuse of power that adults give to children. The purpose of this study was to explore how Japanese adults classified as martyrdom and interdependent evaluate scenarios involving adultism that have been discussed in the Western. A quarter-sampling was conducted from a research panel of 30-69 years old owned by the research company, and a total of 400 people (50 people in each age) were sampled, including 200 people involved in community activities and 200 people not involved in local activities. A WEB survey was conducted for these survey subjects. The correlation coefficients between the evaluation for three scenarios including adultism and the local activity variables were calculated. As a result, positive correlations were obtained between five evaluation aspects for three scenarios including adultism and the number of affiliated organizations in the community, administrative interest, administrative satisfaction, administrative efficacy, community attachment, and neighborhood communication. From these results, it was interpreted that people who were more active in community activities showed positive evaluations even in scenarios involving adultism.

Return to pre-modern?－ A field case of alternative therapy for mental illness

This study is on the action study by author between 2015/7 and 2016/7. In order to take my father who suffered from long-term mental illness and the side effects of psychoactive drug to try alternative therapy, we went to the Luming Zen center (hereinafter referred to as "Luming") in Luye, Taitung, Taiwan in July, 2014. He went through a hard time and successfully overcame drug dependence until this day. The author entered this field in the following year and conducted anthropological field research as family member, apprentice, production manager and researcher in order to record the practice of alternative therapy and the carrying capacity for social marginal groups. This is an open residence without access restriction. Residents are comprised of drug addicts, ex-offenders, mental illnesses patients and homeless. Luming does not only provide shelter but also tries to transform the socially marginal members with "Wu" medical (similar to Chinese medicine) and Zen-farming’s anti-modern lifestyle. The author believes that in Taiwan, which is dominated by empirical medicine, Luming can practice alternative transformation in addition to the abbot's unique life experience. In terms of social conditions, it is based on the triple boundary made up with these three elements: geographical marginality, drug rehabilitation and the Buddhist view of life and death.

Profile of violent male youth offenders differentiated by types of crimes perpetrated

The purpose of this study was to determine whether offender socio demographic characteristics differ in accordance with the type of violent crime committed. There are substantial gaps in knowledge relating to perpetrators of youth violent crime and the types of crimes they commit. Studies have focused mainly on the victims of violent crime and fewer studies, especially within the South African context, have focused on the perpetrators of youth violent crime. This study looks at socio-demographic factors such as educational attainment, employment status, living arrangements, type of neighbourhood the offender grew up or resides in, gang affiliations, substance abuse problems and a previous criminal record in comparison to the type of crime committed by a violent youth offender.
The study used a quantitative approach that utilised secondary data. Descriptive statistical methods were used to determine characteristics of violent offenders.
The results indicated that the majority of offenders across the four crime categories had not completed their schooling, with 62.7% of those who had committed assaultive violence, 67.5% of those who had committed robberies, 55.1% of those who had committed sexual crimes and 55.0% of those who had committed robbery / sexual crimes having had some high school education. Unemployment was highest in the categories of robbery (42.2%) and 74.7% of offenders who committed robbery belonged to a criminal gang. These results may be effective in crime prevention and offender intervention programmes. Overall, the findings indicated that the characteristics of youth violent offenders in South Africa are similar to the risk factors reviewed in other research.

Coordinated case management: Providing holistic stability for families with complex needs

Within the services of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), there is a subset of highly vulnerable families who are failing to achieve sustained stability. This is because they have particularly complex needs across generations and multiple service areas that are not being addressed in a coordinated way, resulting in families failing to obtain stability or repeatedly returning to DFSS for services. This presentation explains how DFSS rehabilitated its service practice. First, the department identified a target population. Second, DFSS identified a referral process to lessen the burden on families. Next, coordination structures were created and led by psychologist and social workers. Subsequently, information sharing to support coordination was increased. Finally, delegates strengths were leveraged to bolster gaps.