Each of us has a story that comes alive as we wake up in the morning, develops throughout the day, and holds layers of meaning as we lay our heads down at night – it might be called a narrative of our identity. When loss occurs, our story fragments into unfamiliar pieces, and who we identify as becomes scattered – sometimes even shattered. We must work to reconstruct meaning in our lives and to rebuild our identity. As leading author on this editorial, with an article of my own in this issue, I confronted this when my father died. I felt his story slipping away, becoming blurred, forgotten, and for some, erased – and the same held true for me. The chaos of my shattered identity exacerbated the deep pain of losing him and I experienced complicated grief. I had to reshape my narrative to remember the authentic parts of me and rebuild a new self in a fatherless world. This journey is in part what motivated me to become a symposium co-editor for the journal. All four of us editors of this special issue have experienced “living with loss” following the premature loss of either our father or spouse, and I wanted to see what lived experience and knowledge we could bring to the readers about loss in the fields of both guidance and counselling.
MULTIFILE
This research adopts a social constructionist perspective and utilizes qualitative inquiry with a generative approach (McNamee, Gergen, Camargo-Borges, Rasera, 2020). The focus lies on collaborative efforts between the researcher and trafficking survivors, aiming to mutually shape and understand the experiences of trafficking, while fostering relational agency. The aim is to co-construct a relational space in which counter-narratives on victimization can be generated. Ten interviews were carried out with women survivors of trafficking at the Anti-Trafficking System of the N.A.Ve Project (Veneto Region AntiTrafficking Network). These women were from different nationalities and experiences of exploitation. We referred to the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, and formulated an episodic interview (Flick, 2023) composed by circular and reflexive questions, as well as generative questions inspired by the items of the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory(Romaioli, 2022). The critical reflexivity of the researcher and the research team was enhanced through an autoethnography and reflection work. A reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) was performed on the gathered textual material, generating five themes: resources/strengths, relationships, future, helpful aspects, momentary feelings.This inquiry illustrates the potentials offered by a methodology inspired by a social constructionist perspective with a generative approach.
Abstract Purpose: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of low bone mineral density (BMD) in male and female elite cyclists at different stages of a professional cycling career and to identify potential risk factors of low BMD. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 93 male and female early career, advanced career, and postcareer elite cyclists completed dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry at the hip, femoral neck, lumbar spine, and total body; blood sampling; assessment of training history and injuries; and the bone-specific physical activity questionnaire. Backward stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between BMD and its potential predictors in early and advanced career (i.e., active career) cyclists. Results: With a mean Z -score of -0.3 ± 0.8, -1.5 ± 1.0, and -1.0 ± 0.9, low BMD ( Z -score < -1) at the lumbar spine was present in 27%, 64%, and 50% of the early, advanced, and postcareer elite male cyclists, respectively. Lumbar spine Z -scores of -0.9 ± 1.0, -1.0 ± 1.0, and 0.2 ± 1.4 in early, advanced, and postcareer elite female cyclists, respectively, indicated low BMD in 45%, 45%, and 20% of these female subpopulations. Regression analyses identified body mass index, fracture incidence, bone-specific physical activity, and triiodothyronine as the main factors associated with BMD. Conclusions: Low BMD is highly prevalent in elite cyclists, especially in early career females and advanced career males and females. These low BMD values may not fully recover after the professional cycling career, given the substantial prevalence of low BMD in retired elite cyclists. Exploratory analyses indicated that low BMD is associated with low body mass index, fracture incidence, lack of bone-specific physical activity, and low energy availability in active career elite cyclists.
