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No description available.

No description available.

The age period of adolescence is significant for epidemiologic research because of the emergence of emotional and behavioral problems, which occur during this time. Many studies have shown that few of the adolescents identified as suffering significant psychological disturbance receive help from specialist mental health agencies. The recognition of this gap between identified need in the community and the utilisation of services underlies the pathways model proposed by Goldberg and Huxley (1980). Understanding the pathways by which the distressed person reaches specialist services may assist in the improvement of the quality of mental health care in the community. The studies of pathways have mainly focused on adult populations. However the dominant patterns of General Practitioner and Medical pathways found in these studies are inconsistent with those of adolescents. Their different level of social and emotional development affects both how they seek help and how their problems are perceived by significant others. This study examined the records of initial contact for adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, who were referred to three community based mental health clinics serving a regional health district of Brisbane, during the period of 1 June 1997 to 30 June, 1998. The results showed that the pathways by which adolescents reach mental health services were broader in scope than those of adults. Parent, Education Professionals and General Practitioners were the dominant pathways to service. The factors most commonly presented to mental health services at the initiation of help seeking were familial/life event problems and behavioral problems. A notable feature in the presentations was the alarming and disturbing quality of a substantial proportion of the identified problems. It is considered that the social impact of the problems is a strong precipitant in referral. The significant findings of the study are that the pathways vary by the age and sex of the adolescent, and that some presentation problems are more highly associated with particular pathways.

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

As a means of addressing observed inadequacies in school curricula, the Catholic Special Education and Guidance Service, Brisbane Catholic Education Office in 1980 established a partial withdrawal centre for counsellor-selected gifted children. The Learning Enrichment Centre (L.E.C.) aimed to - 1) meet the needs of enrolled gifted students by - a) providing appropriate learning experiences; and b) providing an administrative arrangement (partial withdrawal) which afforded them the opportunity to interact with like minds; 2) meet the needs of the system by - a) developing and evaluating units of work for gifted students; b) conducting workshops, seminars and in-service days for teachers. In 1984 the L.E.C. curriculum was designed and implemented in accordance with Maker's model of curriculum modification for gifted students (Maker, 1982). This model outlines a set of principles which Maker claims, recognize the characteristics and needs of gifted students and guide the development of a qualitatively different curriculum. In making decisions about design and implementation of Maker's curriculum modifications, factors related to the setting, the teachers and the students were considered. The overall purpose of the Study was to assist teachers in making rational decisions about future L.E.C. provision. In particular the Study was to collect information on the worth of the program - its relative strengths and weaknesses - and the influence on the curriculum of the administrative arrangement. The program was evaluated by ascertaining levels of satisfaction typically expressed by the students. Of secondary concern was whether the organisational arrangement of partial withdrawal had inhibited or enhanced the program's intentions. It was acknowledged that unfavourable attitudes of parents, classroom teachers or peers could conceivably alter students' receptivity of the program. In Term 4, two parallel questionnaires, one addressing the L.E.C., the other the regular classroom, were administered to the students. By comparing responses on matching items, levels of satisfaction with the L.E.C. curriculum were determined. Selected items on the L.E.C. instrument were further to reveal how students felt about the administrative provision and whether classroom teachers and peers were perceived to be supportive. Subsequent to program completion, a questionnaire was mailed to parents bo ascertain their support for the program by asking them how their child's emotional behaviour had changed as a result of LEC attendance. Also they were to indicate whether they preferred that enrichment occur in the regular classroom or partial withdrawal setting. To confirm the students' impressions of classroom teacher support and interest, parents were requested to comment on their understanding of it. Student responses indicated that they found their LEC experiences to be particularly interesting and enjoyable, and the LEC teachers to be kind, helpful, friendly and fair. These perceptions differed significantly from their perceptions of school. Elements of the Maker model which were consistently most valued by the group were the Process modifications, 'Freedom of Choice' and 'Higher Levels of Thinking'. Parents proved to be supportive of the LEC program. Although some would have preferred classroom enrichment to partial withdrawal, they felt that schools could not currently provide it. It was the students' viewpoint that interactions with peers and classroom teachers were not adversely affected by their LEC participation. Classroom teachers were seen to be generally supportive and interested - a perception incidentally not shared by parents and LEC teachers. Perceived positive attitudes towards their LEC involvement most likely enhanced student satisfaction with the program. The evaluation unequivocally indicated that the LEC program based on Maker's model appealed to the students. Though withdrawal from class possibly contributed to program satisfaction, the level of satisfaction was very high and could not be attributed solely to hidden curriculum efects (the organisational arrangement). The Study concluded that use of the Maker model as a guide for developing LEC curricula should continue but that parent and classroom teacher attitudes towards the administrative arrangement should be regularly monitored as they appeared to have the potential to enhance or reduce students' receptivity of the program. As a result of Study, various procedures for the conduct of future evaluations were recommended.

The notion of community remains an important concern, for individuals, in urban planning practice, and more recently in consumer research. This thesis research explores community at the junction of these areas, through a grounded study of the consumption practices of a place based consumer tribe that exists within an inner city suburb undergoing urban renewal. The process of urban renewal is positioned as a means to revitalise under-utilised inner city areas, and broaden opportunities for city residents and visitors to experience an inner city lifestyle. It can also be seen as a standardising project that commodifies diversity and devalues existing communities and is associated with gentrification. Both perspectives can obscure the possibility that consumption practices can be used to build community like connections. This thesis applies a framework of literature from marketing and consumer research to an urban renewal context, to explore this area of ambiguity. The result of this exploration is a grounded theory of assuming a 'local' identity through consumption experiences in servicescapes. This thesis argues that consumers seek out individual servicescapes for the value experiences that they offer, which can be identity defining. In particular the interaction generated through these experiences can work to build tribal connections to, and within, that servicescape. These consumption experiences can also be used to make assumptions regarding the identity of others; both of the businesses themselves, and the individuals encountered within them. The tribal connections these experiences may generate can have individual benefits in that they can build into existing social networks, but through repetition and shared experiences, may also link an individual to a broader place based community. This thesis also proposes that servicescapes can work to encourage this process, by encouraging identity defining consumption experiences. Like individuals, businesses can come to be assumed to be tribe members and this 'localness' can become a symbolic operant resource that is valued by the tribe. As key sites in which members of the 'local' tribe reinforce their commitment to the tribe, locally owned businesses may benefit by being more likely to be chosen over their 'non-local' competitors. However, as an element of their tribal membership these businesses have a moral responsibility to reinforce the collective ethic of the tribe and assist in integrating new tribe members. In this way they can become ambassadors for the identity of the community, communicating the shared values of the tribe to members and non-members alike. Such a place based tribe is primarily based on public interaction, thus the servicescapes and public spaces that link them can come to work as a theatre in which the tribe is manifested and its rituals performed. As the experience of a sense of shared value is repeated across a range of geographically united servicescapes, this shared experience can be displaced from any one servicescape and generalised into a localness experience that is grounded within the geographic community. It is here that the physical and ideological aspects of the community combine, and the experienced value of a shared identity that originated in a servicescape based consumption experience can come to symbolise the values of the greater community itself. These research findings have implications for inner city urban renewal developments, suggesting that the increased availability of consumption activities that are associated with urban renewal may also be considered as an increased opportunity to build place based consumer tribes. This thesis proposes ways of encouraging this process.

This thesis considers and critically analyses literary representations of what I have called “alternative masculinities” within a selection of texts by male writers from the turn of the millennium. The novels chosen for this analysis are Last Drinks by Andrew McGahan (2000), World of Chickens (2001) by Nick Earls and Sushi Central by Alasdair Duncan (2003). The work of R.W. Connell, Doreen Massey and Bruce Bennett will inform a framework blending theories of masculinities, spatiality theories and critical regionalism, providing the tools to conduct a reading of the spaces fictional representations of alternative masculinities engage with. Applying Connell’s hierarchy of masculinities (1995) I examine the emerging textual constructions of alternative masculinities that correspond with the changing cityscape of Brisbane. Within the above texts I argue there is a strong emphasis on the connections between identity and place. This is expressed through references to Brisbane’s social and historical identity and the gendered alignment of Brisbane spaces with particular masculinities.

The study of archaeological site formation processes, although commonly undertaken in prehistoric sites, is only carried out in historical archaeological sites in a limited way. Understanding the processes which formed the archaeological record of a site is an important first step towards developing justifiable inferences about past behaviour and past societies regardless of the age of the site. This thesis identifies and examines the cultural and noncultural processes that formed the archaeological record at the Commissariat Store, in Brisbane, Australia. The history of the site, from its construction in 1829 as part of the Moreton Bay penal settlement to the present, is examined and the expected impacts and processes on the archaeological record are identified. The archaeological evidence from the salvage excavation of the site undertaken in 1978/79 is analysed to identify the cultural and noncultural site formation processes. This study identified the presence of the cultural formation processes of discard, loss, abandonment and re-use from an examination of the historical and archaeological evidence. Non-cultural formation processes at work in the site include faunalturbation, floralturbation, flooding and aquaturbation. This research also identified deficiencies in Schiffer's model for identifying and categorising cultural formation processes. The activity of construction of the site's drainage system did not clearly fit within a single type of formation process. Water as a formation agent is only discussed in the literature as a non-cultural formation process, while at this site water can be seen as a cultural formation process. This thesis demonstrates the value and importance of understanding site formation processes as a firm basis for future interpretation of the archaeology of the Commissariat Store site.