Factors influencing adjustments in the transition to parenthood are identified and strategies for support in Britain and the USA are reviewed through participant-observation of 20 USA programmes (N=94 parents). A longitudinal British study, using a wide range of self report measures and in-depth interviews at three time points (1) examined key features of the transition to parenthood for a low risk sample of women (N=106) and men (N=106), and compared adjustments of 52 couples who participated in a new support programme with 54 couples who did not. The programme combined a group-based and home visit model which either began in pregnancy and continued postnatally, or began postnatally. The programme focused on the psychological dimensions of the transition to parenthood, with the intersubjectivity of the couple and parent-infant relationship at the core of the integrative model. Evidence is provided that the transition to parenthood is more complex than previous studies assume. A substantial number of the "low risk" women and men appeared to experience psychological distress and the main concern of women and men were different from the agenda of hospital based antenatal classes. A number of gender differences were found but partners were the main source of support for women and men. Women and men in the support group were comfortable to disclose explicit details about their experiences. At 6 months postnatally, their adjustments were more positive than women and men on the control for aspects of (a) confidence as a parent; (b) satisfaction with the couple relationship ; (c) satisfaction with the parent-infant relationship; (d) coping strategies, and (e) separation anxiety. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed.

The number of displaced people around the world today is unprecedented in world history, with a third of those displaced below the age of 18. These children often undergo traumatic experiences which can cause serious mental health issues before and during their flight as well as afterwards when resettling in a new country. In Sweden, they are offered psychological aid in order to better deal with these issues and hence recover. However, due to the cultural stigma attached to mental health problems, psychosocial aid is often ruled out by the child themselves. In addition, up to 30% of these unaccompanied children have been reported to suffer from PTSD, where merely speaking about one's issue can trigger a relapse of the trauma. There is therefore a shortage of pragmatic approaches to help tackle the challenges that these children faces. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how creative programs such as the organisation Clowns without Borders works with unaccompanied refugees and how their methods affect the wellbeing of these children. This thesis explores the effects that laughter and playing has on a child’s well-being using a qualitative field research approach. The research is a contribution to the field of development since it offers new grounds on how to work towards increasing the living standards of resettled displaced persons.

Tyrimo tikslas : nustatyti moterų emocinės būklės kitimo ypatumus nėštumo metu ir pogimdyminiame laikotarpyje, atsižvelgiant į asmenybės bruožus ir informuotumą apie gimdymą. Tyrime dalyvavo 142 moterys, lankiusios ir nelankiusios nėščiųjų mokymo kursus Kauno ir Vilniaus miestuose. Tiriamosios buvo apklausiamos du kartus : nėštumo metu ir po gimdymo. Tiriamųjų apklausai buvo naudoti šie klausimynai : lietuviškas H. ir S. Aizenkų (Eysenck) klausimynas (EPQ), Edinburgo pogimdyminės depresijos skalės klausimynas (EPDS), C.D. Spilbergo (Spielberger) nerimo skalė (STAI). Socialiniams, demografiniams bei subjektyvios sveikatos rodikliams nustatyti buvo naudojami bendrosios apklausos klausimai, sudaryti A.Masiukienės. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad nėščiųjų informuotumas gerina emocinę būklę po gimdymo, įskaitant ir pažeidžiamų savybių turinčias moteris. Neurotiško tipo moterų lankiusių nėščiųjų kursus emocinės būklės pokytis pogimdyminiame laikotarpyje geresnis, lyginant su neurotiško tipo moterimis nelankiusiomis nėščiųjų kursų. Asmenybės bruožas gali nulemti nėščiųjų kursų lankomumą, neurotiškos moterys linkusios nelankyti neščiųjų kursų. Asmenybės bruožai, tokie kaip introversija ir neurotiškumas, yra svarbus veiksnys susijęs su prasta emocine būkle po gimdymo, bet tai ne svarbiausias veiksnys. Su prasta emocine būkle pogimdyminiame laikotarpyje turi ryšį ir kiti psichosocialiniai veiksniai, tokie kaip žemas išsimokslinimas, prasta emocinė būklė prieš... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The Purpose of The Study: To analyse the connection between changes in emotional wellbeing during and post pregnancy periods in women whilst observing their personality traits and obtained antenatal education levels. The study was conducted among 142 women, who have or have not attended antenatal courses in the cities of Kaunas and Vilnius. The participants were questioned twice: during pregnancy and after the childbirth. For the Survey were used: The H. and S. Eisenck Questionnaire (EPO), The Edinburgh Questionnaire of The Scale of Postnatal Depression (EPDS), The C.D. Spielberger Scale of Anxiety (STAI). The questionnaire that helped to assess the social, demographic and subjective health aspects in the study was constructed by A.Masiukiene. The study results showed that the level of antenatal education positively effects postnatal emotional wellbeing, including the wellbeing of vulnerable women. The positive change in the emotional wellbeing of the neurotic type is also noticed between those who attended the antenatal courses, compared to women of the neurotic type who did not attend the courses. Personality Traits, such as introversion and neuroticism, is an important factor that can determine a lower level of emotional wellbeing after childbirth, but is not the most important one. Low emotional wellbeing can be caused by other psychosocial conditions, such as poor education, lower emotional wellbeing before pregnancy, social support after childbirth. Antenatal education... [to full text]

This research project is located in the context of Aboriginal health and education, and in particular, emotional and social wellbeing, recognising the critical need for effective mental health services and resilient, well-trained workers in the field of mental health.Mental health is understood to include a broad spectrum of conditions with extreme and chronic mental illness at one end and resilience or wellbeing at the other – the socalled ‘soft end’ of the social health spectrum. While recognising that the lines of demarcation between one category and another are grey, my thesis addresses the problems at the latter end of the spectrum: problems of excessive pain; the grief and despair caused by dispossession, loss of place, family and identity; and the deep frustration, humiliation and anger that results in family violence and child sexual abuse, intergenerational substance abuse, neglect and poor physical health. It is my position that very many Aboriginal people who need to make changes in their lives in order to feel well and functional in the world are not suffering from a Western disease but from the transgenerational consequences of colonisation. In recognition of the notion that Aboriginal wellbeing is everybody’s business, this PhD research project represents my response to these consequences.While popular assumptions are made about the relevance of art to Aboriginal health and many Aboriginal people testify to the fact that their engagement with art (writing, drama, dance, music and visual art etc.) has brought about significant change in their lives, there is no available research in Australia that supports the development of an arts-based approach to learning/therapy/wellbeing that has, for reasons that are well understood, the potential to suit the needs of Aboriginal people.Addressing this gap in the research, I inquire into an experiential, arts-based, emotionfocused, narrative-orientated, constructivist approach to healing in the tradition of humanistic psychology, which emphasises the importance of an emancipatory, clientcentred processes that facilitates the development of awareness, creativity, clarity of expression and critical reflection. The position I take breaks with the traditions of the biomedical model and conforms to the now widely held view that psychology and counselling treatment programs for Aboriginal people must address the whole person, emotionally/spiritually, mentally and physically, responding to the individual in his/her sociopolitical and historical context. Expressive arts therapy, the multi-modal approach to healing explored in this thesis, lays claim to these intentions.In this project, I locate myself as the researcher/practitioner whose life-stance is expressive of the phenomenological principles of experiential learning and reflexivity. Accordingly, I have drawn on a number of closely related research methodologies all of which, I argue, are consistent with phenomenology and Indigenous, participatory research practices: critical action research, art-based research and phenomenological research methodology. These modes of inquiry are linked through principles that value subjective experience and allow for a diversity of ways of knowing. Embracing an expanded field of ways of knowing respectful of Indigenous epistemologies is at the core of the arts-based therapy program under investigation.Expressive arts therapy, in this research project, was delivered in two modes: one was a series of nine full-day group workshops conducted over an academic semester; the other was a series of ten intensive individual therapy sessions with three participants conducted over the period of a year. The participants or ‘co-researchers’ were drawn from the College of Indigenous Australian Peoples and the Education and Art departments at Southern Cross University. Three mature-age Aboriginal students who had engaged in the Masters of Indigenous Studies program emerged as the core participants who, having contributed to the development stage of the project, followed the program through the group workshops to the final interviews at the end of the series of individual sessions.This thesis is, in part, an illustrated narrative of the in-depth work the core participants did with me in both the context of the group and individually. It invites the active participation of the reader. Insights into the nature and impact of expressive arts therapy are offered through a focus on the lived experience of the three core participants, their reflections on the program and their observations of the changes they made in their lives. An important parameter that I set, determined that the ultimate voices of authority were to be those of the participants. I was not at liberty to look for meanings that went beyond their experience and understanding.I argue that the experiences of expressive arts therapy re-presented in this thesis demonstrate that expressive arts therapy is in principle consistent with current approaches to Aboriginal psychology and counselling currently recommended by Aboriginal professionals and spokespeople in the field of Aboriginal health. Furthermore this body of work demonstrates that expressive arts therapy is a culturally appropriate intervention grounded in a creative process that has the potential to facilitate healing and change in the lives of people suffering from the long-term consequences of damaging childhoods.It is my hope that this approach to healing will be further researched and developed and, with culturally appropriate terms of reference, adapted to a wide variety of existing community services – rightfully, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners working for the wellbeing of their own people.

This research project is located in the context of Aboriginal health and education, and in particular, emotional and social wellbeing, recognising the critical need for effective mental health services and resilient, well-trained workers in the field of mental health.Mental health is understood to include a broad spectrum of conditions with extreme and chronic mental illness at one end and resilience or wellbeing at the other – the socalled ‘soft end’ of the social health spectrum. While recognising that the lines of demarcation between one category and another are grey, my thesis addresses the problems at the latter end of the spectrum: problems of excessive pain; the grief and despair caused by dispossession, loss of place, family and identity; and the deep frustration, humiliation and anger that results in family violence and child sexual abuse, intergenerational substance abuse, neglect and poor physical health. It is my position that very many Aboriginal people who need to make changes in their lives in order to feel well and functional in the world are not suffering from a Western disease but from the transgenerational consequences of colonisation. In recognition of the notion that Aboriginal wellbeing is everybody’s business, this PhD research project represents my response to these consequences.While popular assumptions are made about the relevance of art to Aboriginal health and many Aboriginal people testify to the fact that their engagement with art (writing, drama, dance, music and visual art etc.) has brought about significant change in their lives, there is no available research in Australia that supports the development of an arts-based approach to learning/therapy/wellbeing that has, for reasons that are well understood, the potential to suit the needs of Aboriginal people.Addressing this gap in the research, I inquire into an experiential, arts-based, emotionfocused, narrative-orientated, constructivist approach to healing in the tradition of humanistic psychology, which emphasises the importance of an emancipatory, clientcentred processes that facilitates the development of awareness, creativity, clarity of expression and critical reflection. The position I take breaks with the traditions of the biomedical model and conforms to the now widely held view that psychology and counselling treatment programs for Aboriginal people must address the whole person, emotionally/spiritually, mentally and physically, responding to the individual in his/her sociopolitical and historical context. Expressive arts therapy, the multi-modal approach to healing explored in this thesis, lays claim to these intentions.In this project, I locate myself as the researcher/practitioner whose life-stance is expressive of the phenomenological principles of experiential learning and reflexivity. Accordingly, I have drawn on a number of closely related research methodologies all of which, I argue, are consistent with phenomenology and Indigenous, participatory research practices: critical action research, art-based research and phenomenological research methodology. These modes of inquiry are linked through principles that value subjective experience and allow for a diversity of ways of knowing. Embracing an expanded field of ways of knowing respectful of Indigenous epistemologies is at the core of the arts-based therapy program under investigation.Expressive arts therapy, in this research project, was delivered in two modes: one was a series of nine full-day group workshops conducted over an academic semester; the other was a series of ten intensive individual therapy sessions with three participants conducted over the period of a year. The participants or ‘co-researchers’ were drawn from the College of Indigenous Australian Peoples and the Education and Art departments at Southern Cross University. Three mature-age Aboriginal students who had engaged in the Masters of Indigenous Studies program emerged as the core participants who, having contributed to the development stage of the project, followed the program through the group workshops to the final interviews at the end of the series of individual sessions.This thesis is, in part, an illustrated narrative of the in-depth work the core participants did with me in both the context of the group and individually. It invites the active participation of the reader. Insights into the nature and impact of expressive arts therapy are offered through a focus on the lived experience of the three core participants, their reflections on the program and their observations of the changes they made in their lives. An important parameter that I set, determined that the ultimate voices of authority were to be those of the participants. I was not at liberty to look for meanings that went beyond their experience and understanding.I argue that the experiences of expressive arts therapy re-presented in this thesis demonstrate that expressive arts therapy is in principle consistent with current approaches to Aboriginal psychology and counselling currently recommended by Aboriginal professionals and spokespeople in the field of Aboriginal health. Furthermore this body of work demonstrates that expressive arts therapy is a culturally appropriate intervention grounded in a creative process that has the potential to facilitate healing and change in the lives of people suffering from the long-term consequences of damaging childhoods.It is my hope that this approach to healing will be further researched and developed and, with culturally appropriate terms of reference, adapted to a wide variety of existing community services – rightfully, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners working for the wellbeing of their own people.

This thesis reports on a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the SEL policy makers’ conversations taking place in England and Wales during the New Labour period. The research sets out to offer a critical explanation of Welsh and English SEL policy thinking and doing and how the SEL policy discourse worked to privilege certain ideas and topics and speakers and exclude others. Thinking with theory and building on the work of Apple (2007) and Ball (2012) I draw on the contemporary tenets of critical theory to examine the (dominant) English and (often subjugated) Welsh discourse(s) to historically locate and contextualise the mainstream SEL literature within the ideological discourse of neoliberalism (Harvey, 2005). This neoliberalism is one which unequivocally drives policy in the direction of markets and propounds a thorough marketization of educational provisions and practices (Lynch, 2006).Drawing on data from a series of eight semi structured interviews with key national level policymakers, alongside documentary analysis, I argue that New Labour in England, particularly in its second term, through a particular policy network and the SEAL programme, adopted SEL as a tool of managerialism designed to shape and govern a self-managing, entrepreneurial, placid subject in the service of the neoliberal economic model. Alternatively I contend that the Welsh assembly adopted SEL as a practical and progressive tool for developing a more equal society and a more egalitarian and democratic modus operandi of social justice (rooted in normative precepts of the collective and of community cohesion). This “Welsh” approach was powerfully intertwined with the devolution programme and notions of the child as a democratic citizen with agency and rights. In both England and Wales this understanding and application of SEL was intimately connected with national identity and notions of nationhood. This work was undertaken using a CDA approach. It employed Fairclough’s Three Dimensional Model (1992) of Critical Discourse Analysis and engaged with the subject and data through the three lenses of text (the written and spoken word), discursive practice (the production, distribution and consumption of the text) and social practice (the wider social, political and economic forces shaping the discourse). By illuminating through CDA the ideologically infused discursive claims to truth and value, which underpinned the rhetoric and substance of the UK (Anglo-centric) Government’s version of SEL in schools and that of the devolved Welsh Government, my findings reveal the broader scale ideas and political-ontological truth claims which drove the development of SEL across England and Wales during the New Labour period; the research therein unveils the implicit but reified notions of childhood and children’s wellbeing which were central to SEL development at both the national and devolved levels; it identifies the unspoken and latent ideological projects which were core to the production of divergent SEL discourses in each of the countries; and finally, it reveals the influence which national tradition, domestic power structures, cross-societal inequities and the subjugation of certain identities have had on the conceptualisation and practical delivery of SEL in England and Wales. The study concludes that the relationship between language and political ideology in England and Wales during the New Labour years powerfully shaped the SEL policy discourse. In England the result of this was a thin version of SEL co-opted into the service of the neoliberal marketplace. In Wales a similar outcome occurred but only after a very different contextualised and transformative version of SEL was relinquished due to the invasive neoliberal forces attacking Welsh education.

The focus of this study was to investigate psychological effect on grandchildren when they are being raised by their grandparents. Considerable research has been done on the psychological effect on the grandparents, but very little on the effects on grandchildren, especially in South Africa. By means of a mainly qualitative investigation, empirical data were collected through informal discussions, observations and projection media from four families and seven grandchildren in total. The findings yielded a number of common themes among all the grandchildren, and yet others showed the influence of the attitude of the grandparents towards the situation. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance and counseling)

Die doel van hierdie ondersoek was om vas te stel of Opvoedkundige Kinesiologie deur die Opvoedkundige Sielkundige gebruik sou kan word as 'n psigoterapeutiese benadering ten einde emosionele welsyn te verhoog. Volgens Edu-K is die brein-liggaam sisteem onlosmaak:lik verbind en emosionele blokkerings is nie slegs in die denke en intellek van die mens gelee nie, maar ook op sellulere vlak vasgele. Navorsing aan die hand van die idiografiese benadering is gedoen. Vyf proe:tpersone, wat aangemeld is met emosionele probleme, het elkeen 'n reeks Edu-K balanserings ontvang volgens individuele behoeftes. Die doel daarvan was om te bepaal ofEdu-K balanserings sou lei tot verhoogde welsyn. Na die reeks balanserings is daar beduidende positiewe veranderinge waargeneem ten opsigte van emosionele probleme, sowel as verbeteringe in ak.ademiese prestasie. Daar is ook algemene prak.tiese riglyne gegee vir ouers, onderwysers en Opvoedkundige Sielkundiges. / The aim of this investigation was to ascertain whether Educational Kinesiology could be applied by the Educational Psychologist as a psychotherapeutic tool in order to enhance emotional wellbeing. According to Edu-K the mind-body system is inseperably one: emotional blocks are not only situated in the mind and intellect of a person, but are recorded on cellular level as well. Research was done by way of an idiographic approach. Five subjects with emotional problems received a series of balances according to their individual needs. The aim was to ascertain whether Edu-K balances could enhance emotional wellbeing. A significant positive improvement in emotional problems as well as in academic performance were noted. General guidelines for parents, teachers and Educational psychologists are also given. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

Over the past decades socio-emotional programmes have been implemented in schools worldwide. Depression in Swedish Adolescents (DISA) and Social and Emotional Training (SET) are two socio-emotional programmes being practised in Swedish schools. The aim of the present dissertation is to explore students’ perspectives on DISA and SET, as well as the programmes’ intentions and strategies. The empirical material consists of interviews with students taking part in DISA and SET, participant observations conducted in an elementary school practising SET, participant observations of DISA and SET instructor courses, and a broad range of textual material concerning the programmes. Article I reports on an inherent contradiction in DISA, where techniques designed as treatment are practised as universal prevention for girls as a group. The girls’ accounts of DISA demonstrate why this contradiction is problematic – it was not up to the girls as course participants to define what problems they were having, but the problems were instead defined for them by the course. Taking part in DISA and SET involves exercises in which the students are expected to selfdisclose in front of their classmates. Article II reports on how this task of self-disclosure had a potential for strengthening students’ peer relations, while it at the same time entailed a risk of triggering already on-going destructive interactions, such as bullying and harassment. Article III demonstrates that the potential of self-disclosure is not equally distributed across the students, but depends on their social status within their peer group. Article III also shows that the norm conveyed by the SET programme – that showing anger is an inappropriate behaviour –functioned locally as a way to justify exclusion and negative positioning of peers who showed anger in response to ill treatment. Article IV provides an in-depth analysis of exchanges in a SET lesson concerning how students should deal with exposure to the negative actions of peers. It demonstrates how the types of questions a teacher is instructed to pose to maintain a neutral attitude in practice involve using more implicit forms of authority to construct ideals concerning desirable behaviours. These ideals were formed by discussing fictive examples, which meant stripping students’ actions of meaning and detaching them from the social and cultural context to which they belong. The present dissertation concludes by giving recommendations for policy practice. / Sedan millenniumskiftet har socio-emotionella program kommit att bli allt vanligare i skolor runtom i världen. Depression in Swedish Adolescents (DISA) och Social och Emotionell Träning (SET) utgör två socio-emotionella program som används i svenska skolan. Syftet med denna avhandling är att studera elevers perspektiv på DISA och SET, samt att studera programmens målsättning och design. Analysmaterialet består av intervjuer, deltagande observationer, programmanualer och dokument som beskriver och förklarar programmens utgångspunkter. Avhandlingen innefattar fyra artiklar. Artikel I belyser en konflikt i DISA programmet. DISA programmet lär ut tekniker som har utformats för att behandla depression. Programmet riktas dock till flickor generellt med syftet att förebygga att de utvecklar depression. Flickornas beskrivningar av DISA visar varför denna konflikt i programmet är problematisk. De fick inte själva definiera vilka problem de upplevde, istället var de tvungna att jobba med de problem som programmets övningar tillskrev dem. Övningarna som ingår i DISA och SET innebär moment där eleverna förväntas öppna sig inför varandra. Artikel II och III belyser hur detta fenomen hade potential att stärka elevernas sociala relationer, samtidigt som det också riskerade att leda till mobbning. I SET programmet tränas elever på att kontrollera sin ilska. Artikel III belyser hur normen – att visa ilska är ett olämpligt beteende – användes av eleverna för att rättfärdiga uteslutning av elever som visade ilska. Artikel IV består av en djupanalys av lektionen ’Vad kan du göra’ som handlar om hur elever bör agera om de utsätts för negativa handlingar från kamrater. Artikeln tar utgångspunkt i det dilemma som lärare ställs inför i SET programmet: att å ena sidan träna barnen i att anta socialt accepterade beteenden, och å andra  sidan följa programmets krav på neutralitet. Analysen visar att de frågor som SET lärare använder för att åstadkomma en neutral hållning i praktiken medför mer implicita former av styrning där programmets ideal om önskvärda beteenden reproduceras.  Önskvärda beteenden konstrueras genom att diskutera fiktiva fall utan att relatera dem till den sociala och kulturella kontext där barnen agerar och hanterar aktuella problem. Avhandlingen avslutas med en diskussion om hur ’barns psykiska hälsa’ och ’barns behov’ förstås och bemöts genom dessa program och vilka slutsatser som kan dras för utformandet av framtida insatser i skolan.

Die doel van hierdie ondersoek was om vas te stel of Opvoedkundige Kinesiologie deur die Opvoedkundige Sielkundige gebruik sou kan word as 'n psigoterapeutiese benadering ten einde emosionele welsyn te verhoog. Volgens Edu-K is die brein-liggaam sisteem onlosmaak:lik verbind en emosionele blokkerings is nie slegs in die denke en intellek van die mens gelee nie, maar ook op sellulere vlak vasgele. Navorsing aan die hand van die idiografiese benadering is gedoen. Vyf proe:tpersone, wat aangemeld is met emosionele probleme, het elkeen 'n reeks Edu-K balanserings ontvang volgens individuele behoeftes. Die doel daarvan was om te bepaal ofEdu-K balanserings sou lei tot verhoogde welsyn. Na die reeks balanserings is daar beduidende positiewe veranderinge waargeneem ten opsigte van emosionele probleme, sowel as verbeteringe in ak.ademiese prestasie. Daar is ook algemene prak.tiese riglyne gegee vir ouers, onderwysers en Opvoedkundige Sielkundiges. / The aim of this investigation was to ascertain whether Educational Kinesiology could be applied by the Educational Psychologist as a psychotherapeutic tool in order to enhance emotional wellbeing. According to Edu-K the mind-body system is inseperably one: emotional blocks are not only situated in the mind and intellect of a person, but are recorded on cellular level as well. Research was done by way of an idiographic approach. Five subjects with emotional problems received a series of balances according to their individual needs. The aim was to ascertain whether Edu-K balances could enhance emotional wellbeing. A significant positive improvement in emotional problems as well as in academic performance were noted. General guidelines for parents, teachers and Educational psychologists are also given. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)