Adolescent depression affects up to 24% of adolescents before adulthood and is linked with serious outcomes. However as only 25% of affected adolescents in Australia receive appropriate assistance the prevention of adolescent depression has a high priority. Risk and protective factors exist in the individual, family, school and society, but the connection between these factors is often uncertain. Prevention at the individual level has been found to be successful but despite the importance of family factors there is little research into prevention at the family level. Because of the difficulty in engaging parents in preventive interventions it has been suggested that convenient, flexible delivery interventions may achieve better penetration. This study evaluates in two stages the Resourceful Adolescent Parent Program (RAP-P), a positively-focused family-based intervention for parents which has been developed to fill the need for a universal preventive intervention for adolescent depression. Firstly the study evaluates the theoretical basis for RAP-P by developing and testing models linking the family-based psychosocial risk and protective factors for teenage depression that are addressed by RAP-P, and the family systems factors underpinning these. No previous models linking these variables could be found in the literature. The study then evaluates two formats of RAP-P, one of three facilitated workshops attended by parents; the other a videotaped flexible delivery format for use at home, developed to overcome parents' poor involvement in preventive programs. Participants were 242 adolescents in Year 8 and 361 of their parents, recruited from eleven schools in Brisbane, Australia. Schools were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: workshop intervention, video intervention and control. Adolescents and parents completed measures at pre-test, post-test and 15 month follow-up. Based on the current adolescent depression literature and Bowen Theory, four models were developed, tested using structural equation modeling and confirmed after minor revisions. The first model examined links between adolescents' depression and the family based risk factors of parent-adolescent conflict and adolescents' negative perceptions of their parents' interactions with them, and the protective factor of parental attachment. Other models, based on Bowen Theory, examined the trans-generational transmission of differentiation of self from the adolescents' grandparents (generation 1) to the adolescents' parents (generation 2) and the effects of parents' differentiation and anxiety on the third generation adolescents' perceptions of their mothers, attachment and depression. The second part of the study examined the implementation and efficacy of the two formats of RAP-P. Predictions that the convenience of the flexible delivery format of RAP-P would result in better recruitment and lower attrition than for the workshop format were not supported, with the flexible delivery format encountering poorer recruitment and higher attrition. Predictions that parents' evaluations of both formats would be equally positive were not supported; the flexible delivery format was consistently evaluated less positively than the workshop format. However parents perceived both formats to be of similar benefit to them. Parents in the intervention conditions were predicted to exhibit better differentiation and lower anxiety than those in the control condition, resulting in their adolescents experiencing less intense conflict over fewer issues and appraising their parents more positively, and consequently exhibiting better parental attachment and lower levels of depression. The level of improvement was predicted to be related to the level of parental engagement in the interventions. However parents and adolescents in the intervention conditions did not show any positive effects of the interventions at post-test or follow-up. Parents who were engaged in the interventions and their adolescents similarly did not show any measurable benefits from the intervention. Thus this study has found support through modeling for the theoretical basis for RAP-P. Parents' feedback strongly supported the overall thrust and ethos of RAP-P and particularly of the workshop format, indicating that the intervention targeted the right factors in the right way. However the interventions did not achieve measurable improvements for parents or adolescents within the time frame of the study. With models supporting the appropriateness of the measured variables it appears that the potency of the intervention was insufficient. Finally the study found that the use of a flexible delivery videotape intervention did not achieve its goal of increased participation and was still very costly of resources.

Thesis (M.Env. St.)--University of Adelaide University, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1995.

No description available.

This dissertation explores value-creation in interaction design through practical collaborations with studio craftspersons. A focus is on the meaning of “preciousness” from a design perspective – what I refer to as Making Preciousness –  which highlights aspects of material properties, design processes, and the attitude to the design space. Theoretically, the work takes inspiration from the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which is based on the fact that things are impermanent, incomplete, and imperfect. This reflects a view of preciousness beyond notions of practical use, luxury or monetary cost. In addition to theoretical studies, I engaged in practice-based research at the intersection of interaction design and studio crafts, in the domains of leather, silversmith and textile crafting. Through an approach that blends these practices with the making of interactive artefacts, preciousness for interaction design was explored. Through this work, I extract three qualities, all of which are closely linked to attributes and values ​​embedded in the craft practices examined. I refer to these as resourceful composition, material sensuality and the aiming for mattering artefacts. Resourceful composition refers to approaching a design space “resourcefully”, meaning that the designer actively values and uses the specific qualities of materials and tools consciously, for what they are suitable for. Material sensuality is about appreciating the sensory experience of interacting with materials, arriving through particular material qualities, such as texture, temperature or smell, but also interactive qualities. Aiming for mattering artefacts involves actively designing for impermanence, incompleteness and imperfection, and through that contributing to notions of preciousness through use, care, ownership and interaction between users and artefacts over time. The attitude of making preciousness can be seen as tying together materials and making with user experiences of computational artefacts. For interaction design, this points towards making processes in which computation and material knowledge, craftsmanship and aesthetic intentions are placed at the core. These values ​​relate to cultural, but also sensual experiences, which can be seen as under-explored in the design of interactive products. / <p>QC 20171213</p>

As technology is increasingly used in mobile settings, energy and battery management is becoming a part of everyday life. Many have experienced how quickly a battery can be depleted in a smartphone, laptop or electric cars, sometimes causing much distress. An important question is how we can understand and work with energy as a factor in interaction design to enable better experiences for end-users. Through design-oriented research, I have worked with the specific case of electric cars, which is currently a domain where people struggle in terms of energy management. The main issue in this use case is that current driving range estimates cause distrust and anxiety among drivers. Through sketches, prototypes and studies, I investigated causes as well as possible remedies to this situation. My conclusion is that instead of providing black-boxed predictions, in-car interfaces should expose the logics of estimates so that drivers know how their own actions in e.g. driving style, climate control, and other equipment, affects energy use. Revealing such energy mechanisms will not only empower the driver, it will also acknowledge the impact of variables that cannot be predicted automatically. In this work, understanding the dynamic aspects of energy has emerged as central to interaction with systems. This points to a need to design energy sensitive interactions - focusing on supporting users to find the right balance between energy use and the experiential values sought for. To ease design of energy sensitive interactions, energy use is divided into three different categories with accompanying ideals. These are exergy (always needed to achieve the required interaction), intergy (controllable and changing over time and use, needs to be addressed in design), and anergy (always waste that needs to be reduced). This articulation highlights aspects of energy that are specific to interaction design, and possible aspects to expose to allow more energy-efficient interactions in use. / I takt med att vi använder alltmer teknik i mobila sammanhang blir energi- och batterihantering en allt större del av vår vardag. Många har erfarenheter av de besvär som ett plötsligt urladdat batteri i en mobiltelefon, laptop eller elbil kan orsaka. En central fråga för att uppnå bättre användarupplevelser är hur vi kan förstå och arbeta med energi som en faktor i design av interaktion med mobil teknik. Genom designdriven forskning har jag arbetat specifikt med interaktionen i elbilar, en situation där många brottas med just hantering och förståelse av begränsad energi. En specifik utmaning i denna kontext är den misstro som många upplever kring existerande system för räckviddsberäkning. Genom skisser, prototyper och användarstudier har jag undersökt orsaker och praktiska lösningar på detta problem. Min slutsats är att bilens gränssnitt bör exponera den inre logik som beräkningarna bygger på, så att föraren förstår hur egna handlingar, såsom körsätt och användning av t ex kupévärmare, påverkar energiförbrukning och räckvidd. Detta leder till ökad upplevelse av kontroll för föraren, och samtidigt till mer tillförlitliga beräkningar då det tar hänsyn till variabler som inte kan förutsägas automatiskt. I arbetet har dynamiska aspekter av energi framträtt som centralt i användning av interaktiva system. Detta pekar på behovet av att designa energikänsliga interaktioner, som hjälper användaren att förstå balansen mellan energiåtgång och bruksvärde. För att stödja design av energikänsliga interaktioner artikuleras tre kategorier av energianvändning i interaktiva system. Dessa är exergi (behövs för att uppnå tänkt interaktion), intergi (kontrollerbar och föränderlig över tid och användning, måste adresseras med design), och anergi (är alltid ett slöseri som behöver reduceras). Denna artikulation belyser specifikt de aspekter av energiförbrukningen som varierar genom användning, och som skulle kunna exponeras för mer energieffektiv interaktion med ny teknik. / <p>QC 20160429</p>

This thesis aims to learn about opportunities for and challenges to the development of multilingual literacies in three forms of education in Sweden and Australia that teach or draw on immigrant languages.  In Sweden mother tongue instruction and multilingual study guidance are in focus and in Australia, a community language school. Taking an ecological approach to the research sites, the thesis investigates how language ideologies, organization of the form of education and language practices impact on the development of multilingual literacies. A range of linguistic ethnographic data including 75 lesson observations, 48 interviews, field notes and photographs has been analyzed against the theoretical backdrop of the continua of biliteracy (Hornberger, 1989; Hornberger &amp; Skilton-Sylvester, 2000), heteroglossia (Bakhtin, 1981) and emerging theories of translanguaging (García &amp; Li, 2014) to investigate the questions. The thesis ties together the results of four interlocking case studies investigating the above-mentioned forms of education. Study I analyses the syllabus for mother tongue instruction in Sweden and finds that while aligning with the overall values of the curriculum for the compulsory school, a hidden curriculum constrains implementation. In Study II, multilingual practices during multilingual study guidance in Sweden are analysed, and demonstrate how translanguaging helps recently arrived students reach the learning goals of subjects in the Swedish curriculum. In study III, systematic analysis of indexicals reveals contrasting language narratives about language and language development in and around a Vietnamese community language school in Australia. Study IV focuses on mother tongue instruction in Sweden and through analysis of audio-recordings of lessons, interviews and field notes, finds three dimensions of linguistic diversity infuse the subject.  Opportunities for the development of multilingual literacies are created when there is equal access to spaces for developing literacies in different immigrant languages, within which language ideologies that recognize and build on the heteroglossic diversity of students’ linguistic repertoires dynamically inform the organization of education and classroom practices. Challenges are created when monoglossic ideologies restrict access to or ignore linguistic diversity and when there is a lack of dynamic engagement with implementation and organization. Basing organization, and classroom strategies around the linguistic reality of the students and the genres they need, benefits the development of multilingual literacies in both settings and can help students become resourceful language users (Pennycook, 2012b, 2014). / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>