Legal assumptions, cohabitants' talk and the rocky road to reform

types: ArticleAuthors' pre-print version archived with permission of the publisher. Final version published by Jordan; available at http://www.jordanpublishing.co.uk/online-services/family-lawThis article assesses recent proposals for the reform of cohabitation law by drawing on two interdisciplinary empirical studies. The first, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice included a survey (n=102) of people who had accessed the ‘Living Together Campaign’ website, investigating legal awareness, attitudes to cohabitation law and financial practices. The second, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, included a nationally representative survey (n=3197) investigating attitudes towards marriage, cohabitation and their legal and financial consequences. Each survey was followed up with semi-structured interviews which explored financial practices, processes of decision-making, understandings of commitment, awareness of and attitudes to current cohabitation law and possible law reform. In the analysis, we considered cohabitants’ practices alongside attitudes to their legal position and the links between finances, commitment and different ‘types’ of cohabitation were considered alongside demographic differences in order to explore the legal needs of diverse groups of cohabitants. We concluded that cohabitants in both projects fitted a typology comprising: Ideologues, Romantics, Pragmatists and Uneven couples and we considered the current proposals for legal reform in the light of this typology

Is modern marriage a bargain? Exploring perceptions of pre-nuptial agreements in England and Wales

types: ArticleAuthors' pre-print version archived with permission of the publisher. Final version published by Jordan; available at http://www.jordanpublishing.co.uk/online-services/family-lawDrawing on data from a recent national and follow-up study exploring attitudes towards binding pre-nuptial agreements at a time when the Law Commission was considering law reform, this article considers what might be gained and lost in family law terms by their introduction. Looking at the tensions between providing autonomy to agree arrangements at the outset of a marriage and achieving fairness between the parties at the point of divorce, questions were framed in the study to consider views on the socio-legal and psychological issues surrounding a move towards making pre-nuptial agreements binding. In particular, it explored whether we are ready culturally to use pre-nuptial agreements and any perceived limit to their acceptability. In addition, were there situations where pre-nuptial agreements were considered more or less appropriate for those entering marriage? How might they affect the commitment involved in marriage? More generally, in the light of the study’s findings, the article examines the implications of a legal and moral shift away from a paternalistic court redistribution of assets at the point of divorce towards an approach based on enforcement of a pre-maritally determined private contract, and concludes by considering what sort of a bargain it would be acceptable for modern marriage to become

The Living Together Campaign - An investigation of its impact on legally aware cohabitants

Research Report to the Ministry of Justice, UK.This is a summary of the findings of a short study carried out between January and September 2006 into the behaviour and attitudes of a group of ‘legally aware’ cohabitants/former cohabitants and intending cohabitants who had accessed The Living Together Campaign (LTC)’s website on the legal position of cohabiting couples - http://www.advicenow.org.uk/livingtogether. ‘Legally aware’ cohabitants are defined here as those cohabitants who do not believe in the ‘common law marriage myth’ and thus are aware by having accessed the LTC website or by prior knowledge that they do not have the same rights as married couples.Ministry of Justice, UK

What Do Supervisors’ and Supervisees’ Think About Mindfulness-Based Supervision? A Grounded Theory Study

ObjectivesMindfulness-based supervision (MBS) is a vital support for teachers of mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs), and good practice guidance requires mindfulness teachers to have at least 4 hr of MBS a year. Despite this, underpinning theory and research on MBS is sparse. This study explores the perspectives of supervisors and supervisees to identify helpful and unhelpful processes within MBS.MethodA total of 12 supervisors and supervisees participated. Two phases of semi-structured interviews took place, the first with all 12 and the second phase with a selected six participants. A conceptual model of how MBS affects the teaching of MBPs was developed using a constructivist grounded theory approach.ResultsAll participants spoke of how MBS is a highly experiential way of developing skills to competently teach MBPs, supported through the relationship between supervisor and supervisee. MBS uses a mindfulness-based relational inquiry process characterised by specific ways of speaking, listening, and pausing. This inquiry supports the supervisee to cultivate an embodied way of knowing, a deliberate stance of “not knowing”, and to take an approach mode rather than avoidance mode towards vulnerability. During the interviews, participants emphasised the collaborative approach within MBS, but showed little acknowledgement or recognition of the inherent power with the role. Potential tensions in the holding of professional and ethical frameworks within MBS were identified.ConclusionsRecommendations are made about how the key findings can be brought into the ongoing good practice within MBS. Future changes within MBS should address issues of bias, diversity, and inclusivity.<br/

Online interaction and "real information flow": Contrasts between talking about interdisciplinarity and achieving interdisciplinary collaboration

In this article we study how members of an interdisciplinary research team use an online forum for communicating about their research project. We use the concepts of “community of practice” and “connectivity” to consider the online interaction within a wider question of how people from different academic traditions “do” interdisciplinarity. The online forum for this Grey and Pleasant Land project did not take off as hoped, even after a series of interventions and amendments, and we consider what the barriers were and how they might be overcome. Barriers to involvement included participants’ expectations of interaction and collaboration--expectation that real interaction happens elsewhere, tensions between academic discourse and forum talk norms, unfamiliarity with the technology, and different conceptions of appropriate academic discussion. We suggest that common academic practice does not prepare us well for creating interdisciplinary research communities through online collaboration tools, whereas such tools are our best bet currently for including geographically dispersed members in collaborative projects. Therefore, careful planning and competence building would be necessary if such tools are to be used in collaborative research. Suggested interventions, based on our experience, include providing a more focused forum, making technical support easily available, and setting up particular tasks or items to debate, within a preset, synchronous timeframe, focusing on issues relevant to the project at that time

Barriers to, and facilitators of, the prevention of unintentional injury in children in the home: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research

Journal ArticleMeta-AnalysisResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tReviewBACKGROUND: This review considers barriers to, and facilitators of, success for interventions to reduce unintentional injury to children in the home through supply and/or installation of home safety equipment, and looks at risk assessments. METHODS: A systematic review of qualitative research. Bibliographic databases were searched for studies on interventions to reduce unintentional child injury in the home, or on related attitudes and behaviours. Studies were quality appraised, findings extracted, and a conceptual framework was developed to assess factors affecting the success of interventions. RESULTS: Nine peer-reviewed journal articles were included. Barriers and facilitators were highlighted at organisational, environmental and personal levels. Effective provision of safety equipment involves ongoing support with installation and maintenance. Take up and success of interventions depends on adjusting interventions according to practical limitations and parents' cultural expectations. A particular barrier was parents' inability to modify rented or shared accommodation. CONCLUSIONS: The review highlights ways in which health inequalities affect the take up and success of home safety interventions, and how health workers can use this knowledge to facilitate future interventions.NICE Centre for Public Health Excellenc

‘Treating this place like home’: An exploration of the notions of home within an adolescent inpatient unit with subsequent implications for staff training

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Notions of home are deeply rooted in how we under stand our interrelational selves and where we fit in to the world around us. This qualitative research explored how young people, their families and staff on a United Kingdom (UK) psychiatric adolescent inpatient unit constructed meaning around the notion of home within the unit. Admissions on such units can range from a few days to many months, and understanding what young people, families and staff consider the unit to be – home, hospital, or something else – has significant clinical implications for both treatment and recovery. Eleven focus groups with staff, young people and families on a general adolescent inpatient unit were conducted and the data scrutinised using a discourse analysis. This re search suggests that discourses around role confusion, safety and the embodiment of home, attachment rela tionships and the contradictory positions of home or hospital were evident for all participants. Theories such as the reciprocal nature of attachment relationships be tween staff and young people, iatrogenic injury and at tachment ruptures between young people and parents all have a profound impact on an inpatient admissioand are often unspoken and under-operationalised. Clinical recommendations are made about the need for a paradigm shift in how admissions are understood for young people, how to manage the dilemmas associated with the unit becoming a home and what the subse quent training needs of inpatient staff are.publishedVersio

From theory to impact: bringing work-life initiatives into the mainstream.

In this special issue we focus on the work and influence of Sue Lewis, one of the Community, Work and Family Journal's two founding editors. In launching this journal Sue, together with Carolyn Kagan, aimed to encourage debate and critical examination of, and reflection on, existing perspectives, frameworks and practices (Kagan & Lewis, 2015). They also explicitly aimed ‘to publish work that challenged the status quo, encouraged personal reflection and reflexivity, and put professional and lay views side by side' (Kagan & Lewis, 2015). For this special issue we invited researchers who have worked with Sue at different stages of her career – from her Ph.D. supervisor (Cary Cooper), some of her international research partners (Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ellen Kossek), her previous colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University (Carolyn Kagan, Rebecca Lawthom), her national and international research partners on a series of European projects (Julia Brannen, Ann Nilsen, Laura den Dulk, Bram Peper), through to one of Sue's recent Ph.D. students and early career researcher (Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Sweta Rajan-Rankin). In the articles that are to follow, the authors draw upon and highlight the considerable and invaluable influences that Sue's work has had in the field of Community, Work and Family. The fact that the authors of these papers have had relationships with Sue that span several decades means that the papers focus on a variety of areas, but some common themes recur throughout the issue. Below we draw out some of these recurring themes and highlight Sue's influence in this area