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Online Communities for Child-Attracted Persons as Informal Mental Health Care: Exploring Self-Reported Wellbeing Outcomes

Online support communities are gaining attention among child-attracted persons (CAPs). Though research has largely focused on the negative consequences these environments create for potential offending, they may also provide a beneficial alternative to more formal treatment settings. To assess the utility for clinical and therapeutic purposes, this analysis focused on subcultural dynamics to examine self-reported wellbeing outcomes of participation in a Dutch forum for CAPs. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with moderators, members and mental health professionals involved in the community. Thematic analyses demonstrated that by means of informal social control, bonds of trust and social relational education, the network aims to regulate the behavior and enhance the wellbeing of its marginalized participants. Key outcomes include a decreased sense of loneliness and better coping with stigma, to the point that participants experience less suicidal thoughts. Association with prosocial peers also helps to set moral boundaries regarding behavior towards children, although we cannot fully rule out potential adverse influences. Online support networks offer a stepping stone to professional care that fits individual needs of CAPs, while also providing an informal environment that overcomes limitations of physical therapy and that extents principles of existing prevention and desistance approaches. Gepubliceerd door uitgever Sage: Bekkers, L. M. J., Leukfeldt, E. R., & Holt, T. J. (2024). Online Communities for Child-Attracted Persons as Informal Mental Health Care: Exploring Self-Reported Wellbeing Outcomes. Sexual Abuse, 36(2), 158-184. https://doi.org/10.1177/10790632231154882

Shaping tourists’ wellbeing through guided slow adventures.

Against the backdrop of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3, good health and wellbeing, this paper reports on a study that examined how outdoor guides perceive their role in facilitating the psychological wellbeing of tourists who consume slow adventure experiences. These experiences, such as canoeing, stargazing or foraging, are characterised by a slower passage of time, immersion in the natural world and a sense of belonging to small social groups. Grounded in research on wellbeing from a positive psychology perspective, the study utilised semi-structured, in-depth, interviews with ten outdoor adventure guides in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Following a hermeneutic interpretive approach to analyse the interview transcripts, the findings revealed how perceptions of time, meaningful moments and a sense of togetherness are choreographed by slow adventure guides to shape tourists’ psychological wellbeing through immersive guided experiences, ultimately helping tourists to re-establish a much-yearned-for connection with nature. The study adds to tourism, wellbeing and sustainability literature by providing new perspectives on psychological wellbeing through guided slow adventures. In particular the findings contribute to positive tourism, or tourism and positive psychology field of research, by revealing how mindful and eudaimonic visitor experiences are organised by adventure tour guides in natural settings.

The SOOTHE eQuilt of Mental Health and Wellbeing

Objectives:People with intellectual disabilities are more vulnerable to and experience mental health concerns at a higher incidence than their peers without intellectual disabilities. This may be directly related to the aetiology of their intellectual disability but also occur because of negative psychological and social factors that affect their lives, such as loss of self-esteem or lack of meaningful opportunities. The SOOTHE project, sought to understand the meaning that adults with intellectual disabilities attribute to mental health and wellbeing, the factors influencing good and poor mental health, and the strategies they utilised to maintain good mental health and wellbeing. Using an online anonymous survey, participants were invited to electronically submit an image that represented their perspectives on what mental health and wellbeing meant to them.Methods:This study, which took place in 2020 during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, employed an anonymous survey approach which resulted in individual images being received from 329 people with intellectual disabilities living in Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland. These were analysed thematically and brought together in an electronic quilt/mosaic.Results:Images were classified into seven potential themes: (1) Covid-19 and mental health; (2) maintaining good mental health; (3) activities that promote good mental health; (4) nature and mental health; (5) perspectives on self; (6) the impor- tance of relationships; and (7) home and feeling safe.Conclusions:This paper explores the possible meaning of the images and seeks alignment of those meanings with the rights and freedoms enshrined in the UNCRPD. The project supports the belief that persons with intellectual disabilities have an understanding of mental health and wellbeing and are able to identify ways of maintaining positive mental health.

Challenges to Students' Learning and Wellbeing During Placement Abroad: A Qualitative Study Using Rich Pictures

Introduction: Undergraduate healthcare students on placement abroad can experience challenges that affect their wellbeing, personal and professional development. These challenges may result in students taking a more peripheral role in workplace activities, which negatively impacts learning. We studied how personal and professional challenges affect students’ learning and wellbeing during a clinical placement abroad.Methods: We used the rich pictures drawing method to elicit semi-structured student interviews and capture personal and professional challenges within different contexts. Language, culture, education, and belonging were used as sensitizing concepts, underlying thematic analysis. We conducted a parallel and iterative analysis of the transcripts and rich pictures. Team discussions focused on developing patterns and further conceptualization of results.Results: Based on thirteen student accounts, we identified four main themes: ‘Learning to work in the international context’; ‘Cultural differences shape professional identity’; ‘Deliberate social connections’; and ‘Personal growth through international experiences’. Active participation in local practices was crucial to overcome barriers in language, culture or education, and increase belonging. Local healthcare teams and peers supported students’ wellbeing, personal and professional development by helping them establish their role as a learner, whilst exploring the scope and boundaries of their future profession.Conclusions: Language, cultural and educational challenges can be considered an inevitable part of student placement abroad. Local peers and staff may support this transition and help recognize learning opportunities and challenges in the workplace. Clinical educators can facilitate learning and wellbeing by providing social support and guidance on professional behavior, including communication.

Student Wellbeing through Community Science

Family, health, and wellbeing: the lives of Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands

This dissertation revolves around the older and younger Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. Specifically, the topic of study was the wellbeing of the older Chinese immigrants, and cultural elements as filial piety may play part in the in the wellbeing of this population.Comparative studies regarding frailty, loneliness and Quality of Life were conducted in China and the Netherlands, among older Chinese adults. In general, the older Chinese immigrant adults are predominantly socially vulnerable, such as a high prevalence of loneliness, whereas the native Chinese adults report a high prevalence of frailty. A second cross-national study provided insights in the cross-cultural equivalence of the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale among the native and diasporic older Chinese adults.The cultural element filial piety is found to be relevant both to the first- and second-generation Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. It is specifically of importance to the mental wellbeing of the older first-generation Chinese immigrants. Moreover, a qualitative study shows that filial piety frames how filial caregiving takes place among the second-generation Chinese immigrants. Lastly, a normative filial piety scale was translated to Dutch and psychometric validated among second-generation Chinese immigrants.These findings indicate that older Chinese immigrants are socially vulnerable. Secondly, filial piety is of relevance to the Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. It is of importance to consider these aspects for professionals working both with older and younger Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands.