DSpace Community:https://hdl.handle.net/2440/3012024-03-28T12:29:16Z2024-03-28T12:29:16ZRefugee youth and transition to further education, training, and employment in Australia: Research protocol of a mixed methods studyZiaian, T.Miller, E.De Anstiss, H.Puvimanasinghe, T.Dollard, M.Esterman, A.Barrie, H.Stewart-Jones, T.https://hdl.handle.net/2440/1403362024-01-11T06:59:49Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Refugee youth and transition to further education, training, and employment in Australia: Research protocol of a mixed methods study
Author: Ziaian, T.; Miller, E.; De Anstiss, H.; Puvimanasinghe, T.; Dollard, M.; Esterman, A.; Barrie, H.; Stewart-Jones, T.
Abstract: Background: Young people with refugee experiences are widely acknowledged as encountering multiple disadvantages that affect their school completion and retention, university entry, and subsequent employment. This paper discusses the rationale for and protocol of a mixed methods investigation focusing on improving education and employment outcomes among refugee background youth aged 15 to 24 years from three focus regions: the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria), South Asia (Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar/Burma, Pakistan) and Africa (Sudan, South Sudan, Liberia, Ethiopia, Somalia, DR Congo). Objective: The rationale of the project is to identify the facilitators and barriers to successful transition from school to further education and employment; investigate participant awareness of support systems available when faced with education and employment difficulties; redress the disadvantages encountered by refugee background youth; and bridge the gap between research, policy, and practice in relation to social inclusion and participation. Methods: The study involves collecting survey data from 600 youth followed by individual interviews with a subset of 60 youth, their parents/primary caregivers, and their teachers. A cross-sectional survey will assess facilitators and barriers to successful transition from school to further education and employment. Individual interviews will provide context-rich data on key issues relevant to education and employment outcomes. Results: The study began in 2016 and is due for completion by the end of 2019. The quantitative survey has been conducted with 635 participants and was closed in March 2019. The qualitative interview stage is ongoing, and the current total in April 2019 is 93 participants including educators, youth, and family members of the youth. Analysis and presentation of results will be available in 2020. Some preliminary findings will be available during the late half of 2019. Conclusions: This project will contribute new and unique insights to knowledge in relation to key factors influencing education and employment outcomes among refugee youth. This research will enable effective planning for the needs of some of Australia’s most disadvantaged and marginalized young people, leading to a sustainable improvement in the education and employability of young refugees.2019-01-01T00:00:00Z“I *know* all the things I should be doing …": accounting for mental health and illness in an online mental health discussion forum during the COVID-19 pandemicHorwood, G.Augoustinos, M.Due, C.https://hdl.handle.net/2440/1402832023-12-21T03:06:03Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: “I *know* all the things I should be doing …": accounting for mental health and illness in an online mental health discussion forum during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author: Horwood, G.; Augoustinos, M.; Due, C.
Abstract: Background: Mental health is highly correlated with a person’s social and economic circumstances, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic made this connection uniquely visible. Yet a discourse of personal responsibility for mental health often dominates in mental health promotion campaigns, media coverage and lay understandings, contributing to the stigmatisation of mental ill-health. Methods: In this study, we analysed how the concept of ‘mental health’ was discursively constructed in an online mental health peer-support forum in Australia during 2020, the period of the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. An approach informed by Critical Discursive Psychology was employed to analyse all posts made to a discussion thread entitled “Coping during the coronavirus outbreak” in 2020, a total of 1,687 posts. Results: Two main interpretative repertoires concerning mental health were identified. Under the first repertoire, mental health was understood as resulting largely from the regular performance of a suite of self-care behaviours. Under the second repertoire, mental health was understood as resulting largely from external circumstances outside of the individual’s control. The existence of two different repertoires of mental health created an ideological dilemma which posters negotiated when reporting mental ill-health. A recurring pattern of accounting for mental ill-health was noted in which posters employed a three-part concessive structure to concede Repertoire 1 amid assertions of Repertoire 2; and used disclaimers, justifications, and excuses to avoid negative typification of their identity as ignorant or irresponsible. Conclusions: Mental ill-health was commonly oriented to by forum posters as an accountable or morally untoward state, indicating the societal pervasiveness of a discourse of personal responsibility for mental health. Such discourses are likely to contribute to the stigmatisation of those suffering from mental ill-health. There is a need therefore for future communications about mental health to be framed in a way that increases awareness of social determinants, as well as for policy responses to effect material change to social determinants of mental health.
Description: Published online: 06 November 20232023-01-01T00:00:00Z"It's important to manage our stress": Mental health advice in the Australian print news media during the COVID-19 pandemicHorwood, G.Augoustinos, M.Due, C.https://hdl.handle.net/2440/1402662023-12-21T02:27:19Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: "It's important to manage our stress": Mental health advice in the Australian print news media during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author: Horwood, G.; Augoustinos, M.; Due, C.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened existing concerns about mental health and illness in Australia. The news media is an important source of health information, but there has been little research into how advice about mental health is communicated to the public via the news media. In this study, we examined how advice about building and maintaining mental health was discursively constructed in the news media during the COVID-19 pandemic. A discourse analytic approach informed by critical discursive psychology was employed to analyse 436 articles published in daily newspapers in Australia between 1 January and 31 December 2020, which contained references to mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic. Three main interpretative repertoires were identified – negative emotions are a risk to mental health and must be managed; risky emotions should be managed by being controlled (based around a ‘border control’ metaphor); and risky emotions should be managed by being released (based around a ‘pressure cooker’ metaphor). This study demonstrates that, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, advice constructed negative emotions as risky and problematic; and normalized the habitual management of emotions by individuals through strategies of control and release. Potential implications of such discourses for goals of improving population mental health are discussed.
Description: Available online 21 March 20232023-01-01T00:00:00ZCognitive load exacerbates rightward biases during computer maze navigationBartlett, M.L.Scott Gwinn, O.Thomas, N.A.Nicholls, M.E.R.https://hdl.handle.net/2440/1402242023-12-18T04:09:17Z2020-01-01T00:00:00ZTitle: Cognitive load exacerbates rightward biases during computer maze navigation
Author: Bartlett, M.L.; Scott Gwinn, O.; Thomas, N.A.; Nicholls, M.E.R.
Abstract: Neurologically healthy individuals exhibit subtle attentional asymmetries, such that attention is preferentially directed leftwards for objects in near space and rightwards for objects in far space. These attentional biases also affect navigation and cause people to deviate to the right when passing through an aperture. The current study examined whether the rightward deviations observed in real-world environments translate to simulated environments. As proof of concept and to determine whether rightward biases could be further exacerbated, the degree of cognitive load imposed on participants was manipulated. Experiment 1 asked participants to navigate through the centre of a computer-based doorway. In one block of trials, participants completed the task by itself (baseline condition), while in another block of trials they also completed a simple auditory discrimination task (load condition). While analyses revealed rightward biases for both conditions, the difference between conditions was not significant. Experiment 2 therefore increased the difficulty of the auditory task. Analyses revealed a significant difference between conditions, suggesting that the degree of cognitive load further exacerbates rightward biases, demonstrating that the rightward asymmetries in navigation observed in the real world generalises to a simulated environment and that this phenomenon behaves in a way that is consistent with pseudoneglect.
Description: Available online 14 February 20202020-01-01T00:00:00Z