scholarly journals ‘Our Breadcrumb Trail through the Woods’: Reflections on the Use of a Secret Facebook Group as a Strategy for Surviving and Thriving on the Doctoral Journey

10.28945/2306 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 465-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Satchwell ◽  
Hazel Partington ◽  
Lynne Barnes ◽  
Ridwanah Gurjee ◽  
Susan Ramsdale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Peer Support ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Student Ownership ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Professional Doctorate ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Doctoral Candidates

This article explores the value of attending to the emotional side of the doctoral journey by focusing on the use of a ‘secret’ Facebook group amongst a cohort of EdD (Professional Doctorate in Education) students at one English university. Presented as a piece of action research in which the participants created an intervention to address a perceived problem and then reflected on its effectiveness, it is co-authored by the cohort of six students and their tutor. The stresses and loneliness of the doctoral journey have been well documented and constitute the ‘problem’ addressed by this cohort of students. Their inception and use of a Facebook group was a response to challenges experienced in their studies, with the expectation of facilitating peer support. As will be shown this aim was successfully met with enhancements in academic, social, and emotional support. However, unexpected benefits arose from the interactions within the group including a normalization of the challenges of the doctoral quest and the advantage of being able to follow the ‘breadcrumb trail’ found in the group postings as group journal and aid to reflection. Further, both tutors and students have noted the development of a strong sense of ‘cohortness’ and inclination to work collaboratively. Through a process of individual and group reflection on experiences of the intervention, combined with analysis of the content of the postings, this article examines the characteristics of the Facebook intervention and considers some ethical implications. We suggest that key characteristics that have contributed to its success include the student ownership, the protection of the secret format, and the combination of emotionally supportive, academic, and irreverent exchanges between group members. It is hoped that these insights may be useful to future doctoral candidates and their tutors as they negotiate their own way through the doctoral woods.

Social media and peer-to-peer support for individuals with health care needs and their caregivers: a scoping review (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Kelly ◽  
Shelley Doucet ◽  
Alison Luke ◽  
Rima Azar ◽  
William Montelpare
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Health Care Needs ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
The Many

BACKGROUND Individuals with health care needs and their caregivers require substantial informational and emotional support. Providing this support is a major challenge for care providers, who are often not able to adequately address barriers and may not be aware of available services and programs. Online P2P support offers an accessible and inexpensive source of support; however, the breadth of these supports on social media has not been previously documented. OBJECTIVE This study was a scoping review of research examining the use of peer-to-peer support on social media by individuals with health care needs and their caregivers. METHODS This review used the PRISMA-SR method to search for articles from 1997 to 2019. RESULTS A total of 94 articles were included. Patients and caregivers use many social media websites for P2P interaction, including: Facebook (n = 19), Twitter (n = 7), and YouTube (n = 6). Providing and receiving informational and emotional support were important uses of social media for P2P support; however, the specific needs and experiences of patients and caregivers appeared to change as knowledge regarding the condition(s) improved. Despite the many benefits associated with participating in online P2P groups, concerns related to ethics, privacy, and the potential to spread misinformation are outlined as risks associated with its use. CONCLUSIONS This study revealed that patients and caregivers engage in P2P support on social media to receive informational and emotional support from peers, despite known risks and limitations. Social networking websites were revealed to be particularly suited for P2P support communication.

scholarly journals SWK-12. PEDIATRIC NEURO-ONCOLOGY PARENT PERSPECTIVE ON ASPECTS OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FOR ONLINE APPLICATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii466-iii467
Author(s):  
Kendra Koch ◽  
Tatum Fettig ◽  
Meghan Slining
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Family Needs ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Online Application ◽  
Parent Perspective ◽  
Social And Emotional

Abstract Addressing family needs for social/emotional support is part of the duty of oncology care teams. This research presents a (2020) scoping review and a (2019) focus group initiated to explore pediatric neuro-oncology parent experience of social/emotional support in conjunction with developing an online peer application to address family needs. Currently, the value of online support is in the forefront of clinical conversation. The focus group queried eight parents whose children were under neuro-oncology treatment in the Northwest USA. Thematic findings include—parents want supportive peers who have (1) a personal and deep understanding of parenting a child with serious illness (they “get it”); (2) particular characteristics and skills that promote and sustain relationships, including—(a) good social skills, (b) ability to engage in “balanced” (cancer/non-cancer) conversations, (c) individual similarities (beliefs, age of children, cancer diagnosis/treatment), (d) logistic commonalities (location, availability), (e) pro-social personal characteristics (i.e. sense of humor, emotional/social flexibility), and an (f) ability to navigate and maintain social/emotional boundaries. Parents also initiated discussion about “the burden of supportive relationships” and supporting families doing “normal” activities without worrying about treatment side effects and contagions. The literature review supports finding (1) above; reveals the paucity of evidence-based supports available to this population; underscores the critical need for practitioners and researchers to develop more evidence-based supports and interventions for families of children experiencing cancer; and supports practitioners’ consistently assessing parent and sibling social and emotional needs and then consistently referring or intervening when needs are identified.

scholarly journals IQ and Internalising Symptoms in Adolescents with ASD

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monisha Edirisooriya ◽  
Dominika Dykiert ◽  
Bonnie Auyeung
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Intelligence Quotient ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Adolescents With Asd

AbstractIntelligence quotient (IQ), has been found to relate to the presence of internalising symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This meta-analysis sought to clarify the direction of the relationship between IQ and two prevalent internalising symptoms, anxiety and depression, in adolescents with ASD. Secondly, this study aimed to highlight methodological factors contributing to inconsistent findings in existing research. Self-reported anxiety was found to be significantly higher in youth with a lower IQ, while depression was positively associated with IQ. Consequently, parents, schools and clinicians should be cautious of underestimating anxiety in youth with a lower IQ. However, care should also be taken to ensure adolescents with ASD without intellectual disabilities are not overlooked with regards to social and emotional support.

Using peer support to strengthen mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Suresh ◽  
Armaghan Alam ◽  
Zoe Karkossa
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Mental Health Resource ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Anxiety Depression

BACKGROUND The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on society’s overall mental health with a notable effect on healthcare providers. To manage this global crisis, governments have had to implement numerous measures such mandated lockdowns and physical distancing to minimize the risk of overloading healthcare systems. Altogether, these measures have contributed to higher levels of anxiety, depression, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other metrics indicating worsening mental health. Unfortunately, the availability of crucial mental health resources and support remains scarce during this time as services attempt to transition to an effective online delivery model. Peer support, which is peer-to-peer provided social and emotional support, is an underutilized and effective mental health resource that is easily delivered/accessed in-person by members within a social distancing bubble, or virtually across different bubbles. OBJECTIVE This review aims to summarize the toll that this pandemic has had on society’s mental health as found in peer-reviewed literature from October 2019 to March 2021, as well as suggest the utility of peer support to address these needs. Lastly, we provide strategies to effectively deliver peer support so that members of the community can better support one another during these unprecedented times. METHODS References for this review were chosen through searches of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for articles published between October 2019 and March 2021 that used the terms: “coronavirus”, “COVID-19”, “mental health”, “anxiety”, “depression”, “isolation”, “mental health resources”, “peer support”, “online mental health resources”, and “healthcare workers”. Articles resulting from these searches and relevant references cited in those articles were reviewed. Articles published in English, French and Italian were included. RESULTS As stated in peer-reviewed literature, this pandemic has ubiquitously worsened the mental health of populations across the world, which is further exacerbated by extended periods of lockdown. Peer support has been demonstrated to yield positive effects on the mental health of a wide variety of recipients, and it can be provided through numerous accessible mediums such as web/mobile applications, video-conferencing software, workshops, telephone services, and student programs. CONCLUSIONS The provision of peer support can be very beneficial for improving mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and may be an effective tool should similar events arise in the future. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

scholarly journals Analysing tutor feedback to students: first steps towards constructing an electronic monitoring system

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Whitelock ◽  
Stuart Watt ◽  
Yvonne Raw ◽  
Emanuela Moreale
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Student Motivation ◽  
Electronic Monitoring ◽  
Feedback System ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Students First ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Right ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Larger Sample

Virtual Learning Environments provide the possibility of offering additional support to tutors, monitors and students in writing and grading essays and reports. They enable monitors to focus on the assignments that need most attention. This paper reports the findings from phase one of a feasibility study to assist the monitoring of student essays. It analyses tutor comments from electronically marked assignments and investigates how they match the mark awarded to each essay by the tutor. This involved carrying out a category analysis of the tutors' feedback to the students using Bales's 'interactional categories' as a theoretical basis. The advantage of this category system is that it distinguishes between task-orientated contributions, and the 'socio-emotive' element used by tutors to maintain student motivation. This reveals both how the tutor makes recommendations to improve the assignment content, and how they provide emotional support to students. Bales's analysis was presented to a group of tutors who felt an electronic feedback system based on this model would help them to get the right balance of responses to their students. These findings provide a modest start to designing a model of feedback for tutors of distance education students. Future work will entail refining these categories and testing this model with a larger sample from a different subject domain.DOI:10.1080/0968776030110304

Gangs: Spatialities and Socialities in South Africa

Politeia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Godfrey Maringira
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Gang Membership ◽  
Gang Violence ◽  
Gang Members ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Black Township

The “making” of gang relationships has remained at the periphery of research, yet it is critical in understanding the continuity and sustainability of gangsterism in different contexts. This paper examines the ways in which young men involved in gang violence forge and sustain their relationships in the streets of a black township in South Africa. I argue that the “making” of gang relationships is never easy; rather, it is characterised by violence within and outside gang membership. The article asserts that, within gangs, violence is a technique which sustains their relationships, as it acts as a source of social and emotional support—especially in a context characterised by fractured families as well as social and economic marginalisation. The paper draws from an ethnography of walking the township streets, being in gang streets, talking to gang members, engaging with and observing young men involved in gang violence.

Training Partners for the Long Haul

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-97
Author(s):  
Kymberly Harris ◽  
Dana D. Sparkman ◽  
Cheryl L. Doran
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Task Completion ◽  
Writing Groups ◽  
Doctoral Candidate ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Doctoral Candidates ◽  
Task Satisfaction ◽  
Dissertation Process

This chapter seeks to provide the background, benefits, and design of writing groups created to aid doctoral candidates in the completion of the dissertation process. Literature will be used to support the rationale for such groups and will outline the structure that can be used to create and support doctoral students in peer groups by their dissertation chair or facilitator. In this chapter, specific guidelines for the creation of the groups and the role of the chair are outlined, and suggestions for remedying dysfunctional groups or group members. While ultimately the doctoral candidate is responsible for the successful completion and defense of his or her own research, peer groups can be instrumental in promoting task completion and task satisfaction.

scholarly journals Collaborations: providing emotional support to senior leaders

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Solvason ◽  
Alison Kington
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Emotional Needs ◽  
Senior Leaders ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Significant Discovery

Purpose The purpose of this paper, based upon research carried out between a university and a Local Authority (LA) in the Midlands, UK, is to explore the phenomenon of head teachers working collaboratively across clusters of primary schools, or inter-collaboration. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study approach was taken and the data collection methods co-constructed with the participants. Findings The head teachers were eager to share what they perceived as an overwhelmingly positive collaborative experience. The findings in this paper illustrate perhaps the most significant discovery, i.e. the role that the collaborative clusters can play in offering emotional support to those head teachers involved. Research limitations/implications This research was based within a specific LA, so the findings reflect the values manifested there. Quite different results may have been discovered in alternative contexts. Originality/value The personal, social and emotional needs of leaders are often overlooked in research whilst focussing upon the support that they offer to others. This paper explores the solitary role that headship can be and the function that supportive, collaborative clusters can provide in filling that emotional void.

Breastfeeding

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Puntis
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
World Health ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Maternity Hospitals ◽  
The World ◽  
Breast Milk Substitutes ◽  
Milk Substitutes ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Method Of Assessment ◽  
Huge Variation

Breastfeeding has many benefits to both mother and infant and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life. Correct positioning of the baby at the breast and social and emotional support for the mother are among other factors that are important to successful breastfeeding. The ‘Baby Friendly’ initiative sets out ten steps to successful breastfeeding and encourages maternity hospitals to implement these and become accredited. The WHO ‘International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes’ gives clear guidance on acceptable practices to formula manufacturers so that breastfeeding is not undermined. ‘Tongue tie’ has increasingly become regarded as a cause of maternal pain and difficulty latching on during breastfeeds. However, estimates of prevalence show huge variation and there is no agreed standard method of assessment. In addition, the risks of frenotomy need to be balanced against any possible benefit.

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