“I want you to help me, you’re family”: A relational approach to women's experience of distress and recovery in the perinatal period

Theoretical approaches have tended to understand perinatal distress through either individual or socio-cultural factors. In contrast, Natasha Mauthner proposed a relational model that understands perinatal distress in the context of interpersonal relationships. This study aims to build on Mauthner's work to explore how women speak about their relationships in connection to their stories of perinatal distress and recovery. Eight women were interviewed for the study. All women had at least one child under the age of three and self-identified as having experienced distress in the perinatal period. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using Voice Centred Relational Analysis. Four broad themes were identified: (i) the role of practical support, (ii) the role of emotional support, (iii) relational dynamics, and (iv) the role of socio-cultural norms. Whilst some women experienced practical and emotional support in their relationships, those who did not linked a lack of support to their feelings of distress. Relationships were also found to reinforce unhelpful social norms around motherhood and mental health, as well as offering a space to resist norms and create wider discourses about what it means to be a mother. This study suggests that organizations supporting women in the perinatal period should focus on women's relational needs and consider the cultural discourses of motherhood that they perpetuate.

Disparate Safety Enforcement: Curvilinear Effects, Mechanisms, and Boundary Conditions of Supervisor-Rated Leader–Member Exchange

Across three studies, we integrate relational leadership theory with affective events theory to examine the leader perspective in dyadic relationships and how this perspective influences differential leader behaviors directed toward each subordinate in terms of safety enforcement. First, in two field studies with different high-risk contexts, we delineate a curvilinear relationship between supervisor-rated leader–member exchange (SLMX) and safety enforcement. In our second field study we also examine the moderating role of leaders’ safety commitment as well as the linkage between safety enforcement and accidents. Finally, in a fully randomized experiment, we explore three relational dynamics as mechanisms of the effect of SLMX on safety enforcement—trust, consideration, and liking. Through these efforts, we offer rare direct tests of the theoretical assertion that leader–member exchange includes differential treatment based on affective relationship cues within a leader-and-subordinate relationship. Our two field studies reveal that leaders are likely to monitor safety most closely for low- and high-SLMX subordinates, but mid-SLMX subordinates are most likely to be overlooked. This U-shaped relationship emerges only for less committed leaders, and safety enforcement translates these effects to actual accidents. Our experimental study reveals a similar U shape between liking and enforcement, but a positive relationship emerges between distrust and enforcement, as well as between consideration on enforcement. These results shed insight into theoretical and practical implications for how leaders can foster a safer workplace for all.

Raising Children in Risk Neighborhoods from Chile: Examining the Relationship between Parenting Stress and Parental Adjustment

Introduction: Parenting stress and parental adjustment could implicate key differences in the relational dynamics that parents establish with their children, particularly when families come from vulnerable social contexts. Method: Participants were 142 fathers and mothers from a risk neighborhood of Chile. The variables examined were parenting stress (parental distress, parent–child dysfunctional interaction and difficult child) and parental adjustment (depression, anxiety, and stress). Parents also completed a sociodemographic characterization survey. The statistical analyses were a correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analyses. Results: Overall, not all components of parenting stress were related to parental adjustment. Only parental distress was found as a significant predictor of poor parental adjustment (greater depression, anxiety, and stress), but not parent–child dysfunctional interaction and having a difficult child. Conclusions: The present study findings highlight the influence of stress on parenting as a relevant dimension of research for the improvement of the intervention deployed by the state regarding the protection of vulnerable Chilean children, providing multiple clinical and psychosocial applications for research and intervention purposes.

Small firm coopetition – the missing links: coopetitive tension, balance and value

Purpose This paper aims to explore small firm perceptions of coopetition, focusing on coopetitive tension, balance and value appropriation realised in dyadic relationships, not considered holistically in previous research. Design/methodology/approach The authors use seven cases of small firms as the empirical foundation of this study and analysed data thematically. Findings The findings show that precursors to coopetitive tension in dyads influence friction in these relationships, as firms seek to achieve balance. Balance is dynamic as firms continuously appraise their positions to determine the benefits realised from coopetition. The extent to which firms act cooperatively or competitively is influenced by their perception of fair value appropriation for sustained coopetitive relationships. Research limitations/implications Because of the research design findings are not generalisable but provide insight into small firm coopetitive relational dynamics. Future research should explore how industry differences influence firms’ perceived precursors to coopetitive tension and value appropriation based on boundary conditions. Practical implications Small firms can proactively address coopetitive tension by developing relationships with potential partner firms through trialling smaller projects and increasing awareness of how their competitive or cooperative behaviours might influence the actions of their counterpart. Originality/value This study advances a theoretical framework integrating coopetitive tension, balance and value appropriation, as opposed to earlier fragmented approaches. The framework reveals that precursors to coopetitive tension are continuously appraised as firms act in cooperative or competitive ways. These interactions imply that firms will take a position of balance that provides complementary benefits.

Making waves: A cross-study analysis of young people’s participation arenas in Scotland’s schools

This article compares democratic participation research in Scottish schools over a 10-year period. The comparison reveals how ‘organic’ aspects of decision-making arise in arenas of school activity. We argue that research heretofore has focussed on pupil councils to the exclusion of more everyday embedded and embodied choices. Primary researchers in the studies revisited data, drawing on their respective theoretical frameworks, to consider how new materialist perspectives offer ways to attend differently to the recursive, relational dynamics of participation.

What is left of the studio, in the absence of a room to share?

This article builds on previous work exploring the essential relational experiences of risk, rupture and change that are possible for students and teachers who learn in an open studio setting. In response to the isolation that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic this article considers how the relational dynamics of the studio are translated into an online environment. The authors use artmaking to explore their experience of working alongside each other in this way, engaging their material knowing in an online learning environment. The findings reveal that just as the constructed physical space of an art studio is a dynamic container for social interaction and expression, an online space can act as a container for these transformative experiences. The article considers what elements of the studio remain in the absence of a room to share and in doing so is pertinent for art therapists and educators working across face-to-face and online environments.

Caring for a Family Member With Mild Dementia: Perceptions, Connections, and Relational Dynamics With the Sacred

Researchers define spirituality as the search for or connection with the “sacred”, which is transcendent and considered blessed, holy, or revered. For some, the sacred is connection with a divinity (e.g., God, gods) and for others, a close relationship with something else bigger than themselves (e.g., the Universe, Nature, a life philosophy). Current research reports that family caregivers with a strong connection to the sacred, as compared with those who do not, have fewer symptoms of depression, more positive perceptions of the caregiving experience, improved coping, and bolstered resilience. However, there is limited research on the impact of spirituality on the perceptions of familial caregivers whose loved ones have recently been diagnosed with dementia. In this study, 27 family caregivers of persons with mild dementia (CDR=1) were interviewed using the Dimensions of Caregiving Interview (DCI, McGee & Carlson, 2013). The DCI identified positive psychological aspects of the caregiving experience, including spirituality. Three heuristic themes emerged from Directed Content Analysis: perceptions about the sacred reflect variability in the early part of the caregiving journey; specific characteristics, traits, and functions of the sacred shape caregiver coping and adjustment; and the relational dynamics between caregivers and the sacred inform adaptation. Recommendations for clinical practice and additional research are provided.

An exploration of the role of intuitive forms of planning in the succession process: the explanatory power of effectuation theory

PurposeThis study explores how and when intuitive forms of planning can be used in a family firm's succession process.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses an extended focus group meeting, consisting of individual, group and subgroup discussions with seven highly experienced external family business advisors in the Netherlands to gain a holistic understanding of the succession process and its underlying logic. The study also employs pre- and post-group questionnaires.FindingsThis study reveals that advisors perceive intuitive forms of planning as an integral part of the succession process, with the latter containing both intuitive and formal logic and activities. Both logics are used situationally and flexibly to deal with the uniqueness and unpredictability of the succession process and to build strong relations and manage relational dynamics in business families to address tasks, dilemmas and contingencies.Originality/valueThe succession process is an important part of business families' achievement of transgenerational intent. Creating commitment among potential successors begins when they are children, and understanding the role of the more intuitive forms of planning during the succession process will provide us with a more holistic perspective on its dynamics.

A Co-Created Methodological Approach to Address the Relational Dimension of Environmental Challenges: When Critical Legal Analysis Meets Illustrated Storytelling

Environmental education research needs to take into account the relational dimension of the ecological challenges of our time. It requires the development of methodological techniques that prioritize community concerns, and generally foster positive relational dynamics of the research and study group. This leads to the construction of a research and educational approach around the collective and cocreated interpretation of stories related to ecological bonds and knowledge, and the adoption of illustrations enabling participation, inclusion, and interaction among the parties. Through the lens of critical legal analysis and participatory research, we explore the beneficial effects of cocreating knowledge with the help of a specific learning toolkit (LT), built around storytelling and designed to stimulate respectful relationships between participants. The LT addresses a wide audience of indigenous and local communities, students, and researchers. Founded on participated storytelling, collective interpretation, and illustration, the toolkit includes (1) the project cover, (2) an illustrated handbook based on an indigenous story, and (3) the illustration and conceptualization of a silent book. Through the interpretation of stories on the ecological bonds between humans and nonhumans, we analyze how the process of looking for common solutions to environmental threats makes participants reflect on their relational connection to the theme and each other. We also observe how the discussion generates a sense of responsibility that comes with bringing a new idea into being. The result is that both education and research become part of the solution to the challenge itself in the shape of a harmonious relational and transformative experience. The solution lies in the recognition of the individual and collective capacity to change systems by changing relationships. Only through a collective effort towards a common sense of relational accountability and trust we can heal the wounds of our planet, and our individual and collective wounds.