Suicidal Masculinities

Across the West, suicide rates in young men have been rising for some time. This trend has attracted considerable media attention and is often cited within media discourse as evidence of a \'crisis of masculinity\'. The field of suicide research (or suicidology) is dominated by quantitative methodology, and although there has been research attention to the gendered character of suicidal behaviour, studies tend to compare \'men\' as a group with \'women\' as a group. There is also relatively little consideration within this literature of power relations and the social-political dimension of masculinities. This paper argues the case for a qualitative sociological approach to the study of gendered suicide and begins to outline a framework for understanding the diversity of suicidal masculinities. Connell\'s theoretical work on masculinities is used to analyse evidence from the suicidology literature. The framework includes consideration of when hegemonic masculinity fails; the subordinated masculinities of gay sexuality and mental illness; and control in intimate relationships.Suicide, Masculinity, Men, Gender, Crisis, Hegemonic, Subordinated, Mental Health, Autopsy, Qualitative

An independent process evaluation of Mellow Dads

No abstract available

Predictors of social service contact among teenagers in England

Very few UK studies make use of longitudinal general population data to explore social service contact for children and young people. Those that do only look at specific interventions such as care placements. This paper seeks to address this gap by asking to what extent do structural, neighbourhood, familial and individual characteristics predict social service contact. We provide an empirical answer by analysing the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England, which includes data on social service contact in connection with young people's behaviour. Our findings indicate that social class, gender, ethnicity, stepfamily status and special education needs are all significant predictors of social service contact. Difficult parent–child relationships, frequent arguments and parents' lack of engagement with school meetings also matter, as does young people's own risk-taking behaviour. We conclude with a discussion of the limitation of the data for social work research and the implications of the findings

Children’s accounts of Wales as racialized and inclusive

The article is a discussion of the aspects of children’s accounts of Welshness that are either racialized or inclusive. The empirical basis is a qualitative research project on children’s national and local identities in Wales, conducted with 8-11 year olds in six primary schools across the country, with schools selected to provide diversity of region, language, social class and ethnicity. This article focuses on the aspects of the children’s talk that highlight ‘race’ and the position of minority ethnic children within Wales. There is discussion of Welshness as racialized, children’s views on being white and on being a minority, and evidence of inclusivity amongst children. We found aspects of the children’s talk that pose a barrier to the development of an inclusive Welsh citizenship and also aspects that support it. There is consideration of children’s agency in the construction of nationhood and the limited repertoires they can draw on for this process

New times or same old story? Risk, reflexivity and social control in child protection

The paper addresses some recent attempts to reassess the child protection system as potentially liberating. These are, firstly, discussions of child protection in the context of theories of reflexive modernisation and the risk society, and secondly, post-modernist feminist writings. After initial theoretical debate about some of these perspectives, the authors go on to present ethnographic research evidence showing that social control is alive and well in child protection work. The paper concludes that whilst these recent optimistic accounts of the child protection system are welcome contributions, they have overstated the liberating potentials of the current system

New Labour and the politics of masculinity

The New Labour government has arguably broken new ground by making ‘masculinity policy’. Whereas the policy process is always inevitably gendered, with implications for men as well as women, it is only in the last few years that a government has made quite such explicit references to men in some areas of policy. The most high profile initiatives have been in relation to fathering and to the education of boys. In this paper we make out a case that New Labour proceeds with policy optimism about men in the home and pessimism about men outside the home. In contrast, there has been policy pessimism about women in the home and optimism about women outside the home. Where New Labour is optimistic, it tends to produce policies that are encouraging and facilitative, and where New Labour is pessimistic, it can produce policies that are authoritarian

Islamic social work in the UK: the service user experience

There has been growing interest in religion and spirituality within social work literature. However, little empirical research has explored Islamic welfare organisations and especially their significance for service users. This article presents findings from an evaluation of a British Islamic social work organisation (Ihsaan Social Support Association (ISSA) Wales), drawing on qualitative interviews with Muslim service users (n = 8) and quantitative findings from the service user database (n = 495), a quality-of-life assessment (n = 42) and a satisfaction survey (n = 36). In discussing the qualitative findings, religious authority, authenticity, culture, gender and the role of mosques are considered in analysing why the organisation’s services were perceived as beneficial to their Muslim service users. Over three-quarters of those responding to a satisfaction survey reported that the help from the organisation had improved their well-being, but quantitative data from assessment and review showed no evidence of either improvement or deterioration in quality of life over time, with the exception of social life, where there was a significant improvement. Overall, in exploring the experiences of these service users, the findings highlight the diversity within the category of the ‘Muslim service user’ and the potential contribution that Islamic social welfare organisations may make in meeting the needs of British Muslims

The challenge of engaging fathers in the child protection process

This commentary piece gives an overview of the well-known difficulties of engaging fathers in the child protection process and makes some suggestions about constructive responses from services. There is brief discussion of the historical context of the problem, current child welfare policy, the culture of front-line practice amongst child protection staff and the behaviour of fathers who come to the attention of child protection staff. Ideas for changes in policy and practice include embracing more sophisticated theory, avoiding the dualistic responses of seeing men as either risk or resource, institutionalising the engagement of men as core business and building on interventions that have been found by research to be effective. A range of effective interventions may be relevant, including cognitive-behavioural work with abusive men and strengths-based family work such as the family group conference