Journals
2026 EN
Rouhshad Amir · Flynn Catherine · Maghidman Marcelo
+3 more
Seeking understanding of the nuances of student engagement with assessment feedback has been grounded in a desire to enhance students’ self-regulation and independence. However, research in this area has been limited. Such understandings are crucial for social work education due to the importance of feedback in preparing students for professional practice. Therefore, this study explores social work students’ expectations of, and engagement with, assessment feedback. This paper also compares the views of social work educators and students on such feedback, relating to common practices and preferences. Data were collected from 29 students, and 12 educators involved in one Master of Social Work programme in Australia, through surveys and focus groups. Although nearly all students reported reading assessment feedback, most did not review this feedback, seek further assistance in understanding it, or study resources regularly for improvement. Additionally, findings showed the perspectives of educators and students regarding the usefulness of certain feedback formats to be misaligned. These findings point to the need for increasing communication about the formats in which feedback is offered, as well as providing training for both cohorts. This will assist in empowering students and educators on how to take ownership of their learning and teaching collaboratively.
Journals
2026 EN
Shaby Neta · Dillon Justin · Peleg Ran
+13 more
For decades, narrative has had a prominent place in educational studies, both as a focus of research and pedagogy. However, most research was done with school (or pre-school) students in formal settings. This paper emerged from a conference symposium that brought together five studies by researchers from across the world to discuss, debate and generate insights about the use of narrative in informal environments. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the findings to form design conjectures that can serve informal researchers and practitioners. We examine the use of narrative in five informal STEM environments: a science museum, a zoo, a virtual exhibition, an escape room, and home-based engineering activities. The five studies look at a variety of participants, including elementary and high school students, free-choice visitors, and preschool-aged children and their families. We describe the use of narrative in these learning environments and explore the ways narratives can potentially support and facilitate STEM teaching, engagement, and understanding. All studies use qualitative research approaches, utilizing interviews and observations, following interpretivist data analysis approaches. The findings from the five studies were synthesized to form five design conjectures of how narrative support learning in informal STEM environments. The significance of this collection of studies is to showcase the varied use of narratives in informal STEM learning environments.
Journals
2026 UN
McNamara Catherine
This article discusses the efficacy of a freely available arts-based intervention used to tackle Child Criminal Exploitation. A digital, interactive story ( Cold Chips & Money ) was used in school and youth settings in Hampshire, England with 1,451 young people aged 11–13 in 2021 as part of a project of the same name. Its use has continued since. I was and continue to be the Project Lead and oversaw the development of the story, the supporting resources and the evaluation framework. I worked with a project facilitator and evaluator throughout. Cold Chips & Money was designed to help students understand, recognise and manage external influence and pressure. The story and supporting resources which included a lesson plan and access to the project evaluation lead, enable professionals to have conversations with young people about how they can keep themselves safe, as well as how they can support one another to resist unwanted attention that might lead to exploitation. The resources relate directly to the PSHE Association Key Stage 3 Core Theme Relationships: Social Influence section R42–47. The development and use of the resources was planned to complement multi-agency work on Child Criminal Exploitation and County Lines and had input from multiple professionals. Project evaluation evidenced a significant increase in awareness of county lines, and the issues surrounding it. Teachers stated that the interactive storytelling format was effective at and provided the opportunity to facilitate in-depth dialogue around the cause and effect of the decisions we make.
Journals
2026 EN
Ehmer Amelia · Greisch Catherine · Sonnen Emily
+3 more
Breastfeeding has a positive impact on child and maternal health outcomes. Black and Latina women and adolescent mothers have lower rates of breastfeeding initiation and continuance in the U.S. Maternal depression and psychosocial stressors may contribute to reduced rates of breastfeeding. The current study aims to better understand behaviours and associated factors related to breastfeeding in a diverse group of adolescent mothers attending a teen-tot clinic for postpartum and infant well care. Participants were 191 mother-infant dyads. Mother’s age ranged from 13 to 25, and 54% of mothers identified as Latina, 22% Black, 11% more than one race and 5% white. Demographic information and breastfeeding behaviour were abstracted from the medical record. Rates of postpartum mood/anxiety symptoms and psychosocial stressors were obtained from screening measures completed at medical visits. Analyses revealed that 87% of adolescent mothers in the sample initiated breastfeeding at birth and the racial/ethnic breakdown of those mothers closely mirrored the overall population (58% Hispanic or Latina, 17% Black, 10% more than one race, 5% white). At 2 months postpartum, only 41% of the population was still breastfeeding. Mothers with significant mood/anxiety symptoms at the newborn visit were more likely to be breastfeeding at the 1- and 2-month visits. Mothers with psychosocial stressors at the newborn visit were less likely to be breastfeeding at the 1- and 2-month visits. Efforts to promote health equity through breastfeeding for at-risk mothers must occur within the first few weeks postpartum and must consider associated factors including postpartum mood/anxiety symptoms and psychosocial stressors.
Journals
2026 EN
Munns Lydia B. · Crossland Anna E. · McPherson Monique
+2 more
Pregnancy is a transformative time for women and their bodies, and therefore thoughts and feelings about the body understandably change during this period. While previous research has established the impact of body dissatisfaction on factors like antenatal attachment and maternal mental health, there is a notable gap in understanding its long-term effects on postnatal factors. This is often due to high attrition rates in longitudinal studies. Using retrospective measures could address this issue, however a measure of retrospective pregnant body dissatisfaction has not yet been identified. This paper aimed to create a retrospective measure of pregnancy body dissatisfaction by adapting a previously validated measure. It also aimed to investigate the relationship between retrospective accounts of body dissatisfaction during pregnancy and postnatal anxiety, depression, and bonding. Cross-sectional online survey data was collected from women postnatally ( N = 404). An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis identified a two-factor model of retrospective body dissatisfaction, adapted from the Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale, which was equivalent to two of the original subscales. Using this factor structure, linear regressions demonstrated that higher levels of retrospective pregnant body dissatisfaction were associated with elevated rates of postnatal anxiety and depression and lower bonding scores. This study successfully established a measure for assessing retrospective pregnant body dissatisfaction, potentially aiding future research. Additionally, it has highlighted the link between pregnant body dissatisfaction and postnatal levels of depression, anxiety, and bonding. Thus, improving the pregnant bodily experience may have the potential to enhance the postnatal experience.
Journals
2026 EN
Takács Lea · Putnam Samuel P. · Monk Catherine
+4 more
Most studies on emotions in the perinatal period have focused on psychopathology, identifying groups of women with distinct symptom trajectories, but research on typical, normative changes in emotions across the perinatal period is scarce. This study examines typical patterns of emotions in low-risk, healthy perinatal population. A prospective longitudinal study with 151 participants who completed emotion-related questionnaires (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Perceived Stress Scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) six times during pregnancy and twice in the postpartum. Linear mixed effect models were used to test whether maternal emotions underwent significant changes across the perinatal period and whether those changes are affected by child sex and parity. Nonlinear temporal trends were fitted by natural cubic splines. For all emotions, we observed significant nonlinear changes across the perinatal period. Negative affect and anxiety decreased and positive affect increased significantly from the first to the third trimester. Depressive symptoms showed a U-shaped pattern and perceived stress remained unchanged during pregnancy. Negative affect and anxiety increased significantly from the third trimester to the first postpartum week. After stratifying for parity, the increase in negative emotions with approaching childbirth occurred only in primiparae. Low-risk pregnancy and the early postpartum period are associated with emotional changes which differ depending on parity. Health care providers should inform pregnant women about those common changes to help them develop realistic expectations and enhance their ability to cope with the demands of pregnancy and the early postpartum period.
Journals
2026 EN
Townsend Catherine · Nichols David · Freestone Robert
Australian postwar reconstruction in the 1940s saw idealistic synergies between decentralization, regional development, and ‘new town’ planning. Two architect-planners associated with this modernising impulse were Frank Heath and Ernest Fooks. Collaborating within Heath’s eponymous practice they proposed a series of plans for the expansion of 13 regional towns during and immediately after the Second World War. Melbourne-trained Heath and Viennese-educated Fooks drew on a consistent vocabulary of planning and design concepts, notably neighbourhood unit principles or as they sometimes described them ‘rayons’ following Soviet practice. Their work integrated a blend of decentralization ideology, continental European and British modes of city building, and progressive Soviet planning ideas into an Australian rural context. Their accompanying schemes and reports enhanced planning propaganda and exhibitions throughout the 1940s. Yet for a variety of reasons, the most important of which was the unwillingness of state and federal government to invest in urban decentralization strategies after the fervour of postwar reconstruction quickly receded, none of these plans was comprehensively implemented.
Journals
2026 EN
Shoshkes Ellen · Adler Sy
The paper has two parts. The first surveys Bauer's trajectory from her arrival at Berkeley in 1940, through her time at Harvard and return to Berkeley in 1950. This section situates her work with Webber in the context of the interactive evolution of Department of City and Regional Planning (DCRP) at Berkeley and similar initiatives at Harvard and MIT, an important era in modern planning education. Part two starts with Webber's arrival at Berkeley in 1950, then chronologically examines his interchanges with Bauer. These begin in 1954 and cluster on two related initiatives. First was their joint research on metropolitan structure, which involved conceiving new theory and methods. The other was the expansion of the department curriculum to incorporate social sciences and establish a new research unit – the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD). The paper illuminates their partnership in transforming DCRP from a focus on physical design to social policy and research. More broadly, the paper reveals how Bauer and Webber advanced a significant body of ideas through their collaborative research and institution building, at a time of major reforms in higher education. This set of ideas is reflected in the plan for the British new town of Milton Keynes.
Journals
2026 EN
Morris Alan · Robinson Catherine
This article examines the impacts of accessing social housing for those who have been on the social housing waiting list in contexts of rough sleeping, shelters and couch surfing. Utilising the capabilities approach as a conceptual framework, the article shows what capabilities are unlocked for those waiting for social housing once they finally have access to it. Through unique longitudinal qualitative research in three Australian states, over 14 months we engaged with research participants across their journey through waiting for social housing and their final arrival and settlement in social housing dwellings. These participants identified a raft of improvements in physical and mental health, employment and engagement with family and community that they linked directly to the security, stability and affordability of their social housing. Strikingly, our interviews reveal the exponential value of housing in establishing not just human dignity but in providing a foundation from which capabilities and broader human flourishing could occur.
Journals
2026 EN
Torrington Eaton Catherine · Thomas Sarah · Jones Danielle
+1 more
Formulaic language is an under-explored area of research in the field of acquired language disorders as compared to propositional language. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the utility of a proposed theoretical formulaic language model (Van Lancker Sidtis, 2022) for individuals with post-stroke aphasia to inform research and clinical practice. The dataset included previously described formulaic language extracted from Aphasiabank speech samples produced by 144 individuals with fluent and non-fluent aphasias. Formulaic language items were coded according to six psycholinguistic characteristics from the theoretical model. Between-group comparisons and regression analyses were run to determine whether particular psycholinguistic characteristics of produced formulaic items could predict speaker fluency. Findings revealed formulaic language differences between fluent and nonfluent aphasias based on the theoretical model. Importantly, psycholinguistic characteristics of frequency and syntactic completeness along with presence of apraxia of speech predicted fluency status with high accuracy (88.4% of individuals with fluent and 70.3% with nonfluent aphasia). Findings in this study illustrate how theoretically-driven analyses of formulaic language production may enhance diagnostic and intervention practices in post-stroke aphasia.