Identity and its different constructions - national, social and personal, for example - are increasingly recognised as fundamental to understanding current and historic cultures. The reflexive relationship of identity issues with sartorial expression is a key concept within dress, fashion and textile studies. This thesis contributes to that growing body of knowledge by developing an understanding of how specific eighteenth century Scotswomen and their families related to their garments, thus bringing together contemporary study methods and understandings of identity with historic manifestations. This study of identity is embedded within an object-study methodology, following investigative practice and cataloguing methods currently used within the international museums community. This assists the secondary purpose of the thesis, which is to highlight a breadth of largely unpublished main garment objects within Scottish public and private collections. The intimate study of these objects has revealed stories of how daily life interacted with personal taste and style, purchase methods, garment use and international markets for individuals connected to Scotland. This has contributed material understanding to wider academic research areas, most importantly the everyday lives of eighteenth century Scotswomen, issues of identity within Scotland, and how European fashion trends were adopted or adapted by individuals outside of the major fashion centres of London and Paris. Study of the garments has involved stylistic analysis of their textiles and of their construction, connecting them to other extant and depicted garments from British and international collections. Thus providing material evidence of international styles in the eighteenth century, and matching two items in a rare example of extant main garments evidencing duplication in the eighteenth century handmade clothing industry.

This thesis explores and analyses the impact of ethno-religious conflicts in the city of Jos and other parts of the Middle Belt and Nigeria on gender relations and the lives of women. The thesis addresses the question of the impact of conflict on women beyond loss of life and property as seen in other literature. It shows how ongoing conflictual relations that are not always violent, but include aspects of political competition disadvantage women. The research locations covered by this research are urban areas. Data for this research was gathered through interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with 102 respondents, recruited through purposive sampling and willingness to participate in the interview. This thesis argues that the conflict dynamics affect the life chances of women on different levels because women are associated with the transcendence or transgression of group boundaries in their private life. The growing importance of group boundaries means that women’s life choices, such as marriage, are increasingly subject to public comment and criticism. Beyond the private, the growing importance of group boundaries makes it increasingly difficult for women to participate in typically female activities such as trading and selling in local markets. At the political level, the desire for ever smaller groups to be recognised works against the representation of women, who are seen as being much less capable than men of representing group interests. And within the public sector, too, the fallout from the crisis means that women here are also subject to increasing control and scrutiny.

Research has shown that the reaction of the non-offending guardian following disclosure of child sexual abuse (CSA) is an important factor related to the adjustment of the victim. However, to date, comparatively little research has examined the characteristics of non-offending guardians, specifically factors related to their ability to support and protect their child in the aftermath of disclosure. A systematic review of the existing literature, specifically primary studies of intervening variables for guardian belief, support and protection, or various combinations thereof, is firstly presented. Here, the lack of consensus within the literature over definition of ‘guardian support’ is highlighted, a situation that has confounded the drawing of firm conclusions regarding associated factors. Secondly, an empirical study is presented where this area of research is broadened out to include a general population of mothers and female carers, and to specifically examine perception of future sex offending risk through the use of vignettes. It is postulated that risk perception is a mediating variable between a guardian’s belief in the occurrence of CSA and subsequent support and protection, a variable that has yet to be examined within the literature as it relates to non-offending guardians. Results showed that mothers tended to over-estimate risk of re-offending, although of concern was that, in general terms, younger offenders with male victims (rated as ‘high risk’ according to a widely-used actuarial measure of sex offender risk) were regarded to be the least risky. Finally, an existing measure of guardian support is critically appraised. It is hypothesised that this type of instrument, that only measures a narrow aspect of a non-offending guardian’s post-disclosure functioning, might be usefully employed within an overall ‘risk of failure to protect’ assessment framework. Drawing upon the current findings, a model upon which to base this type of assessment is outlined in the discussion.

Volume one represents the research component of the qualification, and is comprised of a conceptual literature review and a qualitative research paper. The conceptual review analysed a small sample of the qualitative literature on couplehood and dementia. The analysis used Dialogic/Performance Analysis (Reissman, 2008) to provide critical commentary about the implications of participant voice, linguistic features and context in research papers, and how these may uncover possible narratives that are embedded in the literature. Implications of embedded narratives have been discussed. The research portion is a piece of qualitative research that used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The theoretical underpinning is that of Systemic psychology. Three couples were recruited (the husbands were all diagnosed with dementia). The couples have been presented as case studies showing themes that emerged between the partners in the couples. The discussion focuses on the perceptions of continuity/discontinuity in the relationship and shared and unshared narratives. Clinical implications and directions for future research have been proposed. Volume two represents the clinical aspects of this qualification and is comprised of five clinical case reports: A case study using dual formulation, a small scale service-related research (service evaluation), single-case experimental design, case study and the abstract from an oral presentation.

This thesis considers ways in which African women writers are exploring the subject of violence against women. Any attempt to apply feminist criticism to novels by African women must be rooted in a satisfactorily African feminism. Therefore, the history of black feminist thought is outlined showing how African feminisms have been articulated in dialogue with western feminists, black feminisms (developed by women in the African-American diaspora), and through recognition of indigenous ideologies which allowed African women to protest against oppression. Links will be established between the texts, despite their differences, which suggest that, collectively, these novels support the notion that gender violence affects the lives of a majority of African women (from all backgrounds) to a greater or lesser extent. This is because it is supported by the social structures developed and sustained in cultures underpinned by patriarchal ideologies. A range of strategies for managing violence arise from a cross-textual reading of the novels. These will be analysed in terms of their efficacy and rootedness in African feminisms’ principles. The more effective strategies being adopted are found in works by Ama Ata Aidoo and Lindsey Collen and these focus particularly on changing the meanings of motherhood and marriage.

This thesis focuses on intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicides in Mexico. The first chapter examines the effect of a woman’s relative income on IPV. My results show a U-shaped relationship between a woman’s relative income and the prevalence of physical, emotional and economic IPV. In contrast, sexual IPV linearly increases with a woman’s relative income. In the second chapter, I investigate the impact of easier access to divorce—as a consequence of the introduction of unilateral and no-fault divorce—on IPV and a woman’s contribution to decision-making. The results show that emotional and economic IPV decrease, while physicaland sexual IPV increase when they are not associated with the two other types of violence. Moreover, a woman’s contribution to decision-making improves as divorce becomes easier. In the third chapter I examine the role of the electoral cycle in explaining turf wars between Drug Trafficking Organisations (DTOs). Using homicides between DTOs as a proxy for turf wars, my findings show an increase in homicides during the lame duck period.

This thesis argues that only-childhood was never the sole, and only ever a minor, determinant of only children’s experiences. It analyses autobiographies and oral history interviews of only children who grew up between 1850 and 1950 to show how personal inclinations, parental attitudes, domestic circumstances, geographical location, class, gender, and historical time, alone or in combination, were far more important influences on childhood experiences than only-childhood per se. These factors not only created differences between only children themselves, but also demonstrably influenced sibling children’s experiences. Its findings challenge negative ideas about only children that spread to the public from childrearing manuals through other media from the late-nineteenth century, when numbers of one-child families began to increase. Previous historians have inadvertently maintained these stereotypes by tending to present examples of only children who conformed to them, not seeking alternative explanations for their experiences, and presenting sibling relationships as vitally important. This thesis also questions these largely-positive portrayals of siblings. It additionally shows how some only children use only-childhood as a ‘lens’ through which they present and explain their childhood traits and experiences, attesting to the pervasiveness of only-child stereotypes. By doing so, this research builds upon the work of Raphael Samuel, Paul Thompson, Natasha Burchardt, and others regarding the role of ‘myth’ in adults’ representations of their childhoods. This thesis’ main argument supports sociologists’ suggestions about the influence of factors other than only-childhood, but it takes a more historical and personal approach. It also builds upon, and is informed by, childhood and family historians’ research into the advantages and disadvantages of decreases in family size from the 1870s onwards. Furthermore, it enhances demographic historians’ work on fertility decline by examining why some only children had no siblings, and contributes to the history of emotions by examining loneliness and unhappiness.

This thesis contains three chapters that each study the spillover effects of two aspects of the child's household environment, Domestic Violence (chapter one and two) and Maternal Working Hours (chapter three). The first chapter looks at Children's Health, the second at Education Outcomes and the third looks at children's Well-Being. Understanding what influences a child's early development is of paramount importance as it explains future job market performance and success in life in general. All chapters exploit the data set UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a longitudinal survey following around 19,000 children born in the UK in 2000-01. The first chapter studies the effect of Domestic Violence on children's health production function. We use waves 4 and 5 of the MCS, when children are aged 7 and 11, respectively. We find that there is a strong negative externality of living in a household where there is violence on children's parental-assessed health outcomes. Simultaneity between the child's health and the existence of Domestic Violence in the household makes it diffcult to establish a causal relationship, so we use an instrumental approach to address the potential bias caused by this. In particular, our results show that children exposed to Domestic Violence appear to be between 55% and 61% less likely to have their health rated as Excellent. Our results are robust and statistically significant across all specifications. Our paper not only sheds light on the negative impact of Domestic Violence on children's health but provides a robust quantification of this effect. This chapter is co-authored with Prof. Jofre-Bonet and Dr. Serra-Sastre. The second chapter studies the spillover effect on children's educational attainment of living in a household in which mothers are subject to Domestic Violence. To do so, we exploit measurements of the child's educational performance in English, Science, Mathematics, Physical Education, Creativity, and Information and Technology by the age of 7 and 11, available in the MCS. Our results suggest that growing up in a household where there is Domestic Violence has a negative impact on all educational outcomes. Our results are robust and hold when addressing several potential sources of sample selection bias. Children from domestically abused mothers lose around 0.20 standard deviations in English and 0.30 standard deviations in Mathematics scores at an age as early as 11 years. The cumulative negative effect is heterogenous across academic areas, being more pronounced for those subjects where past knowledge acquisition is essential (i.e., Mathematics and Science). This chapter is co-authored with Prof. Jofre-Bonet and Dr. Serra-Sastre. The third chapter investigates how maternal working status is connected to children's well-being at ages 7 and 11. The rapid increase of female participation in the labour market, along with the impact that well-being levels during childhood has on their psychological development and labour market outcomes later in adulthood, calls for a closer examination of this topic. To do so, we also exploit the MCS, which contains a very complete set of children's well-being outcomes and the intensity of the engagement of mothers with the labour market. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use such a full array of children's well-being indicators and relate it to maternal labour supply. Our results show that in households in which mothers work fulltime, children are, on average, happier, less worried, as well as less likely to lose their temper. Further, we investigate whether child obesity, which has been related to children's well-being, is associated to the mother's working hours, the mother's commuting time and the father's employment status. We find that higher the number of working hours of the mother increases the likelihood of the child being obese at 7 and 11 years of age, in line with previous literature. This chapter is co-authored with Prof. Jofre-Bonet and Dr. Serra-Sastre.

The transition to parenthood involves psychological and social adjustments for men and women, with evidence of possible declines in mental health and close relationships. This thesis examined the relationship between parents' mental health (depression, anxiety, PTSD), the parent-infant relationship, couple's relationship and infant development. The five articles in this thesis were part of a prospective multi-method investigation of first-time parents. Parents completed questionnaires in late pregnancy, 3 months and 15 months postpartum (Article 3 & 4), detailed observations of parent-infant interactions 3 months postpartum (CARE-index; Article 4), in-depth interviews (Birmingham Interview of Maternal Mental Health) 5 months postpartum (Article 1 and 2), and infant development (Bayley Scales III) was examined at 17 months postpartum (Article 5). Results showed that a proportion of men and women suffered from poor mental health. Mental health problems were more common in pregnancy than postpartum. Women experienced worse mental health than men, but few other gender or within couple differences were found (Articles 2 & 3). A relatively high rate of poor parent-infant interactions was found (Article 4) and many parents reported feelings of anger towards their infant (Articles 1 & 2). Parents' perceptions of their infant's characteristics were important for the parent-infant relationship (Article 3) and infant's cognitive, language and motor development (Article 5). Additionally, women's postpartum PTSD and prenatal depression were associated with poor infant development (Article 5). Men's mental health was associated with poor interaction with their infants (Article 4), negative perceptions of the father-infant and couple's relationship (Article 3). These findings suggest that both men and women should be included in early mental health and family relationship interventions. However, the small low-risk sample limits generalizability of results. Future research would benefit from exploring the links between parental, infant and family relationship variables further, over time in larger more representative samples.

The aim of the thesis was to examine IPV within BME communities with a particular focus on the South Asian community. Chapter one presents a generic review of treatment on IPV victims. By examining nine studies, seven studies did not examine ethnic differences and findings suggest that interventions are more effective when there is a combination of CBT and advocacy service in reducing psychological effects and re-abuse. Looking at interventions on an individual level (Chapter 2), it was also found that in work with a female BME patient who had suffered from IPV, CBT was effective in reducing the distress she was experiencing from her delusion’s and psychotic beliefs. A number of risk factors were also identified within the assessment stage indicating the likelihood of the patient becoming a victim of IPV. Chapter three provides a critique of the CTS-2 highlighting its cultural applicability in assessing IPV within South Asian communities. Therefore, the CTS-2 was used in the empirical research presented in Chapter 4 to investigate whether differences exist in rates of IPV in South Asian and non South Asian participants. The study found high levels of severe physical violence and associations between participants’ beliefs and their use of violence within relationships.