Recruiting, retaining and engaging men in social interventions can be challenging. The focus of this paper is the successful implementation of a parenting programme for incarcerated fathers, delivered in a Young Offender Institution (YOI) in Scotland. Reasons for high levels of recruitment, retention and engagement are explored, with barriers…

Few studies investigating the validity of marijuana use have used samples of truant youths. In the current study, self-reports of marijuana use are compared with urine test results for marijuana to identify marijuana underreporting among adolescents participating in a longitudinal brief intervention for drug-involved truant youths. It was…

Background/Context: Disparities in educational opportunity and academic achievement are closely connected to social class characteristics that lie beyond the schoolhouse doors (Rothstein, 2004). Comprehensive approaches to urban school reform are ecological, seeing schools nested in broader communities. The research presented here examines one…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the rarely heard opinions of participants in alcohol educations--in this case, employees at three workplaces. What opinions were found in relation to the initiative, its content and effects, and what are the underlying notions from which these opinions derive? Design/methodology/approach: The study…

Education in Finland is facing new challenges in the form of two related trends: "therapisation" and "projectisation". The concept of therapisation describes the ways in which ideas, discourses and practices from counselling, therapy, psychiatry, educational and clinical psychology become internalised and normalised in…

Child Trends conducted a random assignment evaluation of the Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors program, one of the largest programs in the United States working with low-income Latino parents of children ages zero to five. Since it began in 2007, the program has served over 30,000 parents/families in 34 states. The evaluation study examined the…

Background: Healthy Ageing is a complex intervention aimed at reducing the prevalence of loneliness among elderly Dutch people. Purpose: This study aimed to assess how mass media communication materials, information meetings, and psychosocial courses were received by elderly people at high risk of loneliness. Methods: Face-to-face interviews with…

In Zambezia province, Mozambique, cervical cancer (CC) screening was introduced to rural communities in 2010. Our study sought to determine whether women would accept screening via pelvic examination and visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) at two clinical sites near the onset of a new CC screening program. A cross-sectional descriptive study…

HIV prevention efforts promote the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV and other STDs. Thus, a woman's agency to practice healthy sexual behaviors necessarily involves negotiation with another person. This poses unique challenges for women who have limited power in relationships. The current study explores how the experience of intimate…

Purpose: Methamphetamine (MA) addiction is a significant problem in rural areas of the United States. Yet, little theoretically driven formative research has been conducted on the interactions of factors influencing initiation. The study was guided by Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model. Methods: Eighty-three MA users participated in an…

Too often ethical boards delay or stop research projects with vulnerable populations, influenced by presumed rather than empirically documented vulnerability. The article investigates how participation is experienced by those bereaved by suicide. Experiences are divided into 3 groups: (a) overall positive (62%), (b) unproblematic (10%), and (c)…

Since at-risk youth are in transition to adulthood, major adult learning concepts can be applied to them. The purpose of this study was to describe the learning strategies of youth in transition to adulthood in the urban life skills program of A Pocket Full of Hope®. Both qualitative and quantitative data collecting methods were used. Assessing…

Whilst in government, New Labour defined social exclusion as a state of "disadvantage" resulting from individual psychology: namely, low aspirations, a lack of self-confidence or moral deviancy. Engagement in lifelong learning was considered a means of promoting social inclusion and of overcoming such disadvantage. This policy review…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the educational and employment experiences of 10 adults who had recently been diagnosed as having a learning disability. Seven of the participants eventually obtained a high school diploma or the equivalent and they all had held a variety of entry-level jobs. The participants felt that having an…

In Canada, as in many countries, public continuing education of the non-vocational general interest type for people in post-work languishes on the margins of political discourse. This case study of one such traditional program for seniors run by a school board in Ontario explores the experiences of older adults and the meanings they attach to…