This thesis examines women’s participation in community groups, in order to investigate the concept of ‘social capital’ and its implications for women’s mental well-being. Its aim is to examine the concept of social capital, and the ways it is linked with health, in a way that is attentive to gender and class inequity. For the purposes of this thesis, social capital is broadly defined as social relationships between people and the individual or community level ‘resources’ that can arise from these social relationships. Two different conceptualisations of social capital were considered in this study: the ‘communitarian’ approach associated with Robert Putnam, and the more ‘critical’ conceptualisation associated with Pierre Bourdieu. This research adopted a critical stance towards social capital, and focused upon four research questions: Firstly, what was the nature of participation in community groups among women who live in metropolitan Adelaide? Secondly, what were the personal outcomes that were perceived to arise from women’s community group involvement? Thirdly, what were the differences in the nature and perceived outcomes of women’s community group participation, according to social and economic factors? Finally, how did the nature and perceived outcomes of women’s participation in community groups relate to the ways they experienced their mental health and well-being? This study used qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate these questions. The quantitative analysis provided a preliminary investigation to complement the qualitative study, and involved the analysis of questionnaire data from 968 women in two contrasting areas of Adelaide. This analysis considered sociodemographic differences in the type and frequency of women’s involvement. The qualitative research involved the analysis of in-depth interviews with 30 women. The interviews explored the participants’ experiences of community group involvement; the personal outcomes that they felt arose from their involvement, their ‘lay accounts’ of their mental health, and how they felt community group involvement was connected with their mental well-being. This study found that women’s participation was shaped by gender and aspects of economic, cultural and ‘informal’ social capital. The qualitative data illustrated that women’s involvement was influenced, motivated and constrained by the gendered nature of their roles and responsibilities. These findings also highlighted contrasts among the participants in the types of involvement they undertook, and the personal outcomes of their involvement, according to their levels of material, financial and social advantage. This was supported by the quantitative findings, which revealed that the respondents’ participation in community groups, the type of group involvement they undertook, and the frequency of their involvement varied according to sociodemographic measures. The qualitative findings also identified how community group participation could lead to both positive and negative outcomes for individual women. Many participants reported the ways in which they felt their involvement enhanced their mental well-being. The qualitative data also illustrated how involvement could detract from mental well-being. In some instances, the negative consequences of participation had a severe and detrimental impact upon mental health. The findings of this study offer support to feminist criticisms of communitarian approaches to social capital, and to Bourdieu’s critical approach to understanding the concept. The study concludes that Bourdieu’s conceptualisation offers greater potential for considering how community group participation and ‘social capital’ can be used as a strategy to promote women’s health and mental well-being.

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<p>The Lattrell-Dax method of nitrite-mediated substitution of carbohydrate triflates is an efficient method to generate structures of inverse configuration. In this study it has been demonstrated that a neighboring equatorial ester group plays a highly important role in this carbohydrate epimerization reaction, inducing the formation of inversion compounds in good yields. Based on this effect, efficient synthetic routes to a range of carbohydrate structures, notably β-D-mannosides and β-D-talosides, were designed. By use of the ester activation effect for neighboring groups, a double parallel as well as a double serial inversion strategy was developed.</p>

The conceptually simple process of linking carbohydrate units by glycosylation has proven to be one of the most difficult synthetic processes to control from a stereochemical perspective. In particular it is the stereocontrolled synthesis of 1,2-cis glycosyl linkages (e.g. α-glucosides, β-mannosides) which poses the most difficult challenge. The research presented in this thesis describes new ways in which stereocontrol in glycosylation reactions can be achieved. New methods of neighbouring group participation have been explored, utilising novel protecting groups at the 2-postion of a series of glycosyl donors. In particular the use of glycosyl donors bearing a (thiophen-2-yl)methyl protecting group at the 2-hydroxyl have shown exceptional α-selectivity especially when used in conjunction with a sterically hindered glycosyl acceptor. Work within this thesis also describes the first use of chiral Brønsted acid catalysts in the activation of glycosyl donors. It has been clearly demonstrated that not only can such catalysts be used in glycosylation reactions, but also that the chirality of the catalyst can dictate the stereochemical outcome of the reaction. The preliminary studies presented demonstrate that this methodology warrants further investigation.

The Lattrell-Dax method of nitrite-mediated substitution of carbohydrate triflates is an efficient method to generate structures of inverse configuration. In this study it has been demonstrated that a neighboring equatorial ester group plays a highly important role in this carbohydrate epimerization reaction, inducing the formation of inversion compounds in good yields. Based on this effect, efficient synthetic routes to a range of carbohydrate structures, notably β-D-mannosides and β-D-talosides, were designed. By use of the ester activation effect for neighboring groups, a double parallel as well as a double serial inversion strategy was developed. / QC 20101111

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Hercilio Pessoa de Oliveira.pdf: 2025351 bytes, checksum: a22e4243d56955eb7a51d041996a2a7c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-24 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / We aim to understand how multiple dimensions of group participation enabled a Mothers Club to remain in time. Our research tries to recognize learning and sharing skills through exchange practices in that group. We also attempt to the affection involved and how it nurture relationships within and outside the group. We highlight the ways by which assemblages and debates within the group may extend spaces for participants to claim for their rights and foster their commitment and influence in actions developed by the State. We assume a constructionist perspective, which leads us to focus on the specific ways by which the group organize conversation and make it easier between participants. We moved our focus from group as a phenomenon to group practices and we propose an understanding of group as a social construction. The group we focused as case study is Lady Mila s Mothers Club, created in the 1969. We engaged in conversations within the group in order to understand how participants worked together in the group and also to recover the group timeline, which gave us visibility to the diversity of historical moments shared by the participants. We also performed four individual interviews in order to give visibility to discursive positioning and dialogues in speeches which were analysed using dialogic maps. The maps we produced made it possible to identify two major themes related to the group history: the operational characteristics of the group and the support of the group during regular activities. We conclude that the possibility of sharing emotions and abilities, the coexistence of activities within and outside the group, the exchange of knowledge and the ability to generate income, contributed to the group permanence over the past 45 years / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo entender as múltiplas dimensões da participação grupal que sustenta a permanência no tempo de um Clube de Mães. Busca reconhecer no grupo estudado, a aprendizagem das habilidades e o compartilhamento das mesmas com as trocas de saberes. Busca também entender os afetos presentes e como estes alimentam as relações dentro e fora do grupo. Ainda destacamos os modos como as articulações e discussões grupais possibilitam ampliar os espaços do exercício de direitos, bem como de construção ou influência nas ações do Estado. Pauta-se na perspectiva construcionista que nos leva a entender o grupo numa abordagem focalizada nas formas específicas de organizar e facilitar a conversação. Nos deslocamos do fenômeno grupal, para os estudos da prática grupal e propomos o entendimento do grupo como uma construção social. O foco foi o Clube de Mães da Dona Mila, criado em 1969. Foram realizadas visitas ao grupo para entender seu funcionamento e coconstruir uma linha do tempo, que deu visibilidade aos diversos momentos históricos vividos pelo grupo. Também foram realizadas quatro entrevistas individuais, que foram analisadas utilizando como ferramenta os mapas dialógicos; que nos permitiu dar visibilidade aos posicionamentos e à dialogia presente nos discursos analisados. Os mapas possibilitaram identificar dois grandes temas: as características operacionais do grupo e a sustentação do grupo no tempo por meio das atividades desenvolvidas. Concluímos que o compartilhamento dos afetos e de habilidades, a convivência nas atividades dentro e fora do grupo, a troca de saberes e a possibilidade de geração de renda, contribuíram para a permanência do grupo ao longo dos últimos 45 anos

A National Survey indicated that 1.6 million adolescents in the U.S. were arrested in 2010 and 1.5 million in 2011 for erratic aggressive behaviors, thus showing a decline from the 2.18 million adolescent arrests in 2007. Residential facilities in the state of Pennsylvania offer a group intervention called Aggression Replacement Training (ART) to help adjudicated adolescents regain control of erratic behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which level of group participation in ART and certain demographic factors (age, gender, ethnicity, family socioeconomic status, parental involvement, and education) predict decreased aggression and increased anger control among these youth. Cognitive theory and change theory were used to guide this causal-comparative investigation. The overarching research question was, does a youth's level of ART group participation (i.e., attentive, inattentive, and resistant) result in a subsequent reduction in risk assessment as measured by post Aggression Questionnaire score differences. Data were collected for the period of 2011-2014 from archival records from 5 residential facilities (n = 160) in Pennsylvania and were statistically analyzed. Findings from an analysis of variance indicate that ART group participation predict decreased erratic aggressive behaviors and increased anger control among adolescents. Findings from multiple regression analyses indicate that parental involvement predicts attentive participation level, whereas ART group participation, gender, and parental involvement predicted a reduction in risk assessment. Study findings may assist other treatment facilities and affiliated agencies in the U.S. with developing and implementing effective interventions for youth who exhibit erratic aggressive behaviors.