‘Different’ and ‘Devalued’:managing the stigma of foster care with the benefit of peer support

This paper presents findings from a study that explored the experiences of young people living in foster care in the United Kingdom (UK). Previous research highlights that children and young people in foster care experience stigma. Qualitative methods were chosen to explore how the young people in this study experience and manage stigma in their day to day lives.Findings provide valuable insights into how the participants cope with the challenges of stigma. There were two key ways they did this; 1) by carefully managing the disclosure of their ‘in care’ status; 2) by drawing support from their social relationships. Furthermore, the participants particularly valued support from their peers who were also living in foster care, as it enabled them to form an in-group, which presented them with a valuable sense of belonging.These findings have implications for practice and this paper proposes two ways to better support young people in foster care to cope with stigma. Firstly, by valuing the importance of friendship groups and enabling young people to maintain their existing friendships. Secondly, by developing more opportunities that bring fostered young people together, which enables them to interact with their peers without the pressure of managing stigma

Eco-maps and photo-elicitation: Reflections on the use of visual methods in social work research with children and young people

This paper reflects on the use of visual methods in social work research with children and young people. The author draws on their experience of undertaking a doctoral study in the United Kingdom that explored the social networks of young people in foster care. The study used eco-maps and photo elicitation as a way to build a rapport with the participants and to generate detailed qualitative data. This paper presents an overview of these visual research methods whilst considering the benefits and challenges of using them in research with children and young people. The paper highlights how this combination of visual methods facilitated rich, contextualised conversations with these young people about their experiences of foster care. Furthermore, it is argued, that in this study, the use of these methods was valuable as it provided access to data that may otherwise have gone unobserved.<br/

Constructing and Crossing Color Lines: Race and Religion in the Southern Confluence, 1810-1865

Using ethnographic accounts, oral histories, government documents, census data, church and mission records, personal diaries and journals, and other public records, the project contributes to and revises the work of other scholars on the Native South, capitalism and slavery, and Southern religion. It builds upon the work of scholars who argue that the antebellum South emerged from an older South that included European American colonizers who lived among enslaved people and shared cultural and economic ties with the Chickasaws. Within the Southern confluence, Chickasaws’ embrace and defense of race-based slavery reveals the intersection of colonial exploitation and enslaving. A focus on Native Americans’ enslaving practices, in addition to the making of the antebellum household and its link to religious doctrine and institutions at a localized level, further clarifies recent scholarship that highlights the links between slavery and capitalism as well as work that deals with Southern religion. The viability of the household rested on white women’s willingness and ability to uphold its basic foundations within a capitalist world economy, in which the white Southern enslavers and their property were fully ingratiated. To manage their households, white Southern women used the capitalistic tools they learned in schools, backed by religious institutions, and often cloaked their economic activities in a spiritual language. The project also uses a concept of “Black sacred space” to demonstrate how enslaved people critiqued religious justifications for white household organization. To understand the lives of enslaved people within Black sacred spaces, this project builds upon the work of historians who have interpreted music, folklore, language, and healing as constitutive of enslaved people’s religious lives in both the walls of churches and the setting of brush arbors. The project concludes by considering the long term ramifications of the racially stratified and religious society created in the Southern confluence between the 1810s and 1860s. The structures that served as the foundation of antebellum society in North Mississippi resonated among elite white women during the twentieth century

Invasion Ecology of Acer platanoides in an Old-Growth Urban Forest

Acer platanoides (Norway maple) is an exotic tree species with invasive potential that has been described as a prolific seed producer, shade tolerant, and a strong competitor for limiting resources. It has invaded many forests in the northeastern United States and Canada, including the Washington Grove, a 10 ha forest in Cobbs Hill Park in Rochester, NY. To quantify the extent of the invasion at the Grove, I surveyed the forest canopy, subcanopy, seedlings, saplings, shrub cover, herbaceous cover, seed rain, and seed bank. In a primarily Quercus (oak) canopy, A. platanoides was relatively sparse at 31 individuals/ha, but was the most abundant tree species in the forest subcanopy with 215 individuals/ha. Two other key findings include the prevalence of other invasive species in the understory (e.g. Alianthus altissima [tree of heaven]), and a lack Quercus regeneration. I suspected that superior competitive ability of A. platanoides was key to its invasiveness and wanted to test this at the seedling stage. Two native species (Acer saccharum [sugar maple], and Quercus rubra [red oak]) and the invasive were used in nine different competition arrangements grown under low shade, medium shade, and high shade (85%, 91%, and 97% shading, respectively). I measured photosynthesis rate, stem height, and stem diameter in control, intraspecific, and interspecific competition arrangements. Height growth and photosynthetic rate both decreased significantly with increased shade. Q. rubra had the highest overall photosynthesis rate (mean = 1.98 ± 0.10 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1) and A. saccharum had the greatest change in height (mean change = 23.7 ± 2.67%). In contrast to my expectations, I did not find any conclusive evidence 2 suggesting that the invasive A. platanoides was the superior competitor at the seedling stage. In conclusion, the Washington Grove is heavily populated by the invasive A. platanoides and if left unmanaged, the area will further progress to resemble a nonnative stand. However, this pattern does not appear to be due to competition at the seedling level. To limit the further spread of the established trees I recommend felling all of the established invasive trees and removing any emerging seedlings. A long term management plan of invasive removal and creating conditions to promote Quercus recruitment will help promote a native forest

Comparison of multivariate methods for measuring change from pretest to posttest

Three multivariate methods for measuring change from pretest to posttest are compared with respect to statistical power over various levels and combinations of effect size, alpha level, sample size, number of dependent variables, number of significantly different dependent variables, correlation between corresponding pretest and posttest scores, and correlation between unrelated pretest and posttest scores. The method utilizing posttests as the dependent variables and pretests as covariates was found to have superior statistical power in the majority of the scenarios examined. However, there were scenarios where the method utilizing change scores as dependent variables and the method utilizing only posttests as the dependent variables displayed greater power. Using results from the Monte Carlo simulations, comparisons are presented that reveal the conditions under which each of the three multivariate methods displayed greater statistical power than the other two. In addition to the immediate implications of the current study, suggested future avenues of research that could expand upon the current findings are discussed

Mutual benefits: The lessons learned from a community based participatory research project with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and foster carers

This paper presents a community based participatory research project, which adopted a photovoice approach with seven unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) living in foster care in the United Kingdom. The project also included a focus group with six foster carers to explore their perceptions of caring for UASCs. At the end of the focus group we then shared the young people's images from the photovoice project. The purpose of this was to better inform the carers understanding of this group's needs and the reality of their lived experiences, to see if this would have any impact on their perceptions or willingness to offer these children a placement in the future. The young people then developed the photographs into posters, which were shown at community events and exhibited in community spaces during refugee week.Findings from the focus group show that some of these carers had anxieties and held misconceptions around caring for UASCs. This highlights the need for practitioners to engage in open conversations with foster carers, to discuss their perceptions and challenge any misconceptions. Furthermore, the project identified that some of these carers were concerned about being able to meet the cultural needs of the young people. Foster carers also seemed unaware of the available support in place to help with this. Therefore, it would be beneficial for foster care services and practitioners to ensure that carers are fully informed of the support and training available to them to assist in meeting UASCs cultural, religious and linguistic needs. The project also presents important lessons for researchers committed to finding ways to engage UASCs meaningfully in the research process. The action orientated approach of photovoice led to a wide range of public engagement activities, that allowed us to show important aspects of the young people's lived realities growing up in foster care