Domestic Discord Research Articles

Prevalence Estimate for Adjustment Disorders in the South African Navy.

Adjustment Disorder is among the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in the armed forces, with a mean prevalence estimated at 7.4% across military populations. The prevalence in South African military populations is not known. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of Adjustment Disorders in the South African Navy and to explore potential risk factors. In this cross-sectional study, a representative sample of 714 sailors completed the International Adjustment Disorder Questionnaire, and also provided information from their biennial occupational health assessment mental health screening, which included other clinical screeners of mental health and adjustment history. The estimated prevalence of Adjustment Disorders in the South African Navy was 6.9%, and was proportionally distributed across gender and age categories. Depression and PTSD were the main comorbid conditions. Risk factors included a) history of adjustment difficulties during military deployment or family adjustment difficulties, b) domestic discord (difficulties in relationship with spouse/partner or immediate family), and c) the experience of stress overload (i.e., that the demands of life are overwhelming available resources). The estimated prevalence was similar to the expectation of military personnel generally, although the self-report data needs to be interpreted cautiously. The contributing risk factors offer possible direction for targeted intervention, e.g., skills training and relationship counselling to enhance coping with military service and family challenges, and cognitive behaviour therapy generally to address sailors' experience of stress overload.

Decoding Walter Morel- Class Politics in Sons and Lovers

David Herbert Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers (1913) tells the story of the Morels— a working-class family. Lawrence has referred to Sons and Lovers as his ‘colliery novel’. The present paper attempts to decode the class politics of the novel by closely focussing on Walter Morel, the chief working-class figure in the novel. The novel’s narrative pivots around the domestic concerns of the Morel family, very often in which, Walter Morel, emerges as a villain and an oppressor of his wife and children. The text poignantly portrays domestic discord and the hardships that Gertrude Morel and her children face. However, it fails to delve into or elucidate upon the underlying reasons for the emergence of these hardships in the first place. At the obvious level, Walter Morel seems to be demonised as a brute who causes his family continuous pain. However, it is imperative that the text is read within the larger social, economic, and political structures of its time, which significantly shaped and influenced the lives and action of Walter Morel and his family. This paper attempts to recuperate dispersed evidence from the margins of the novel to gainsay a superficial interpretation of Walter Morel as a mindless violent brute who is solely responsible for the trials and tribulations of the Morel family. It attempts to connect the dots between the representation of Walter Morel with the narrative’s inclination towards the middle-class value system aspired to by the other members of his family, in order to, gain a more nuanced insight into the class politics of the novel.

Mental Wellbeing Monitoring in a Sample of Emergency Medical Service Personnel

Background: There have been concerns regarding the mental wellbeing of emergency medical service staff, particularly when faced with multiple trauma exposures. This study aimed to describe a cross-sectional view of the mental wellbeing status of emergency medical service workers, as well as to comment on the usefulness of an electronic survey tool to reach staff that is distributed across large geographical areas. Methods: The data presented here are drawn from an anonymous, voluntary, electronic survey, made available via the internet, to emergency medical service workers in the Western Cape province of South Africa. This paper reports on four domain expressions of mental wellbeing, namely disordered mood, problematic substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder, and domestic discord. Results: Elevated rates were reported by this sample, across all four distress domains, i.e. mood disorder = 12.3%; problematic substance use = 14.9%; post-traumatic stress disorder = 11.9%; and domestic discord = 11.9%. These rates were generally similar to data from comparable emergency worker groups, and much higher than local population estimates. Conclusions: The data support earlier findings that emergency medical work is associated with increased risk for symptoms of psychological distress, which present a strong case for regular organizational monitoring of employees’ mental wellbeing. In this regard, a brief, internet delivered, survey-type tool showed promise for screening employees, in order to guide further streaming of distressed individuals towards appropriate support services. Further work is required to develop clear mechanisms for referral and intervention in order to optimize a confidential and supportive monitoring program.

Introduction

Introduction to special issue of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict (2018) entitled 'Closeness and Conflict: The discourse of domestic discord across English and Spanish-speaking communities'

The Obstacles Facing Young Saudi Men and Women Getting jobs in Small Businesses Sector

<p>Small businesses are considered the backbone of the national economy due to their role in creating job opportunities for young men and women who seek private sector employment. However, a series of obstacles face young Saudi male and female citizens in getting jobs in small businesses sector. The present research focuses on studies which discuss the definitions of small businesses and how they are related to the creation of employment opportunities for young men and women, their effect on improving young adults’ economic and social levels by boosting their morale and kindling their entrepreneurial spirit. The research also sets out the proposed mechanisms for the removal of obstacles faced by young small business would-be entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it endeavors to develop solutions, based on hypotheses and primary assumptions, which may contribute to a better understanding of the employment issue of Saudi young men and women. Solutions are set within a comprehensive strategy framework based on the integration and encouragement of young people to initiate small businesses, raise their standard of living, reduce the unemployment phenomenon and its consequences and repercussions which can result in domestic discord and moral degeneration– which may sometimes lead to misanthropy and suicide, as is the case in some societies such as Japan. </p>

Counselling in humanitarian settings: a retrospective analysis of 18 individual-focused non-specialised counselling programmes

BackgroundMédecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides individual counselling interventions in medical humanitarian programmes in contexts affected by conflict and violence. Although mental health and psychosocial interventions are a common part of the humanitarian response, little is known about how the profile and outcomes for individuals seeking care differs across contexts. We did a retrospective analysis of routine programme data to determine who accessed MSF counselling services and why, and the individual and programmatic risk factors for poor outcomes.MethodsWe analysed data from 18 mental health projects run by MSF in 2009 in eight countries. Outcome measures were client-rating scores (1–10 scale; 1 worst) for complaint severity and functioning and counsellor assessment. The effect of client and programme factors on outcomes was assessed by multiple regression analysis. Logistic regression was used to assess binary outcome variables.Results48704 counselling sessions were held with 14963 individuals. Excluding women-focused projects, 66.8% of patients were women. Mean (SD) age was 33.3 (14.1) years. Anxiety-related complaints were the most common (35.0%), followed by family-related problems (15.7%), mood-related problems (14.1%) and physical complaints (13.7%). Only 2.0% presented with a serious mental health condition. 27.2% did not identify a traumatic precipitating event. 24.6% identified domestic discord or violence and 17.5% psychological violence as the precipitating event. 6244 (43.9%) had only one session. For 91% of 7837 who returned, the counsellor reported the problem had decreased or resolved. The mean (SD) complaint rating improved by 4.7 (2.4) points (p < 0.001) and by 4.2 (2.3, p < 0.001) for functional rating. Risk factors for poorer outcomes were few sessions, non-conflict setting (stable or societal violence settings), serious mental health condition, or attending a large, recently opened project.ConclusionsThe majority of clients accessing counselling services present with anxiety related complaints. Attrition rates were high. Good outcomes were recorded among those who attended for more than one visit. Lessons learned included the importance of adaptation of approach in non-conflict contexts such as societal violence or post-conflict contexts. There is a need for further research to evaluate the intervention against a control group.

An Institutional Economic Analysis of the Decision to Do-it-yourself in Housing Renovation

This paper examines home renovators’ decision in choosing do-it-yourself (DIY) or hiring contractors. DIY may reduce financial pressure but may lead to potential domestic discord and perils of incompetence; hiring contractors may alleviate time pressures but may require more financial resource. This choice is modelled as analogous to Williamson’s corporate strategic decision between ‘outsourcing’ and ‘internalisation’ in the context of vertical integration, and extended via Richardson’s capabilities-based theory, with social reputation effect taken into account. Based on a survey of Brisbane home renovators, it is found that the Richardson’s thesis seems stronger than the Williamson’s when applied to housing renovation and that ‘trust’ issues in respect of contractors are paramount.

The Ankara Consensus: Islamists, Kemalists, and Why Turkey's Nationalism Remains Overlooked

Over the past decade scholarly consensus has moved away from viewing turmoil in Turkey as a product of religious–cultural incompatibility with modernization. Instead, scholars have shown that the rise of an Islamic elite has expanded democracy in Turkey, while often vexing the secularist elite. This article reviews the most important of the new scholarship, but criticizes it for inheriting the assumption that all events in Turkey somehow hinge upon Islamist–secularist antagonism. Alternatively, insights from sociology are employed to argue that domestic Turkish discord is intimately related to industrialization and democratization, and that excessive attention to supposedly religious conflict blinds much contemporary scholarship to the intolerant Sunni-Turkish nationalism cultivated by the Turkish state.

Republicanism in Italy from the eighteenth century to the early Risorgimento

Historians have underlined the importance of Italy's history from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance in shaping the republican paradigm. The sources examined in this paper reveal something different. Eighteenth-century writers – especially those from the Kingdom of Naples – drew their republican ideas from other models: the republics of the Ancient World and, above all, from the Italian peoples of the era before they were colonized by Rome. They regarded the republics of early modern Italy, by contrast, as examples of domestic discord, aristocratic rule and weakness in the international arena. First the American Revolution and then, above all, the French Revolution reinforced the connection between the republic and democracy, especially representative democracy. Between 1796 and 1799, Italy experienced a multitude of republics in both the institutional and political meaning of the term, but although the French Revolution gave birth to a new form of republicanism, it was one that would not flourish in Italy in the age of the Risorgimento.

The rise of India and the Indian Ocean

Over the past few years, India has placed itself on a path to potentially achieve the regional influence in the Indian Ocean to which it aspires. To this end, New Delhi has raised its profile and strengthened its position in a variety of states on the Indian Ocean littoral, especially Iran, Sri Lanka, Burma, Singapore, Thailand and most of the Ocean's small island states. India has also become a more palpable presence in some of the Ocean's key maritime zones, particularly the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Of equal or greater importance, India's links with the most important external actors in the Indian Ocean – the United States, Japan, Israel and France – have also been upgraded. These are significant achievements and derive both from India's growing economic clout and the surer hand of contemporary Indian diplomacy. Gaps, of course, remain in India's strategic posture. New Delhi will need to strengthen further its hand in coastal Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. More work will also be required to upgrade India's still somewhat distant relationship with Australia. At the same time, India will need to be more skilful than it has been in cultivating – or ‘compelling’ – better relations and an environment more attuned to its interests in Pakistan and Bangladesh. As India pursues its various goals in the Indian Ocean, much will depend on the performance of the Indian economy and on India's ability to avoid domestic communal discord. Another variable will be the extent to which other states – particularly China and the United States, but also Pakistan and others in southern Asia – are willing or able to offer serious resistance to India's ambitions. The future of political Islam is another wild card. However, barring a halt to globalisation – one of the key mega-trends of the contemporary world – the rise of India in the Indian Ocean is fairly certain. This development will have a transforming effect on the Indian Ocean basin and eventually the world.

Jack, Steven, and Jane: Austen's Domestic Discord and Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command

Jack, Steven, and Jane: Austen's Domestic Discord and Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command

The Priest’s Husband

Clergy self-concepts provide an important resource for research into the psychosocial pressures that often breed domestic tension and marital discord in ministerial families. More than 30 years ago the Journal of Religion and Health published (15:3, 1976) Platt and Moss's initial study of clergy families, research focused on the self-perceptions of the wives of Episcopal priests. That investigation explored some of the intrapsychic ingredients and interpersonal concerns of these women. Platt and Moss [corrected] now concentrate [corrected] on clergy spouses from a different vantage point--the [corrected] historically recent phenomenon of the Episcopal priest's husband. This article grows out of the first formal study of such a growing parochial reality. Husbands of priests present novel issues because there has never been anyone like them before. They are men who will inevitably find themselves confronted by congregational expectations that can modify their self-concepts and retailer their marriages, "for better or for worse".

The Effects of Economic Crisis, Domestic Discord, and State Efficacy on the Decision to Initiate Interstate Conflict

Studies of diversionary conflict typically claim that lower rates of economic growth and domestic unrest increase the risk of militarized interstate conflict. Research shows that these factors are also related to regime changes. Lower rates of economic growth and domestic conflict should increase the risk that governments are overthrown. This article investigates the comparative risk of economic growth and domestic turmoil on militarized interstate conflict and regime changes on a sample of over 100 countries from 1920‐92. I find that higher rates of economic growth are related to violent militarized interstate conflicts and reduce the risk of regime changes. Democracy and economic development likewise provide internal stability and interstate peace. Yet the risk of regime change increases rapidly relative to involvement in an interstate conflict for states affected by high levels of domestic conflict, suggesting that any diversionary strategies are a risky gambit that have a high chance of failure.

Castleleslie.com: Autobiography, Heritage Tourism, and Digital Design

In 1995, Samantha Leslie opened her family home in Glaslough, County Monaghan, as a luxury hotel. Situated directly on the border dividing Northern Ireland from the Republic, Castle Leslie was purchased by the "fighting Bishop" John Leslie with funds awarded to him at the Restoration for his part in the overthrow of Cromwell. Unlike many such establishments, the estate has been continually occupied by the family and remains under their direct management. Castle Leslie also flourishes as a web presence centered around fifteen exuberant essays in family history authored by Samantha Leslie's father, the late Desmond Leslie. In these sketches, designed as much for self-expression and literary performance as for hotel advertisement, the distinct features of the Anglo-Irish comic autobiography merge with the protocols of digital design to promote a commercial enterprise dependent on the appeal of heritage tourism. This unusual and elaborate web site provides an opportunity to query the interrelationship of historical representation, literary tradition, web design, and marketing. As it constructs the interpretive frame for a private business that is nevertheless dependent on governmental and European Union restoration funding, it also raises fundamental questions about the ownership of memory in contemporary Ireland. For many historical and cultural reasons, the life writing of those who have identified themselves as Anglo-Irish abounds with comic self-representations. Most Anglo-Irish autobiography is organized around the twin motifs of family history and property, offering genealogical narratives and emotional evocations of family property as authentication of the claim to belonging in Ireland. With frequently outlandish tales of disorderly descent, domestic discord, and fiscal irresponsibility, the comic autobiography satirizes the very values on which it is structured. A colonial class propped up by its assertions of rational superiority over a majority population characterized as sentimental and superstitious nonetheless divulges its fantastic excesses and affectations in manner and speech. Writers like George Moore, Somerville and Ross, Violet Powell, and [End Page 46] Mary Pakenham delight in exposing the family secrets and unconventional conduct that etched into community memory the strange exploits of one's family. As W. B. Yeats observes, recalling the stories told by servants of local families humble and powerful, "All the well-known families had their grotesque or romantic legends, and I often said to myself how terrible it would be to go away and die where nobody would know my story."1 In many of these "grotesque or romantic legends" that are passed down orally and eventually appear in autobiography and family history, action and speech are so eccentric as to suggest insanity, and satirically reductive accounts of sex, physical functions, and death speak pointedly of the indignity of the body and the fragility of the self.2 * * * The Leslies have long been prolific autobiographers in the comic mode. As Jonathan Swift inscribed in the guestbook of their home, Here I Am In Castle Leslie With Rows And Rows Of Books Upon The Shelves Written By The Leslies All About Themselves3 In addition to the mass of essays, letters, pamphlets, diaries, and personal sketches produced through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, during the twentieth century the Leslie family published a great deal of life writing that is deeply serious and at the same time mordantly hilarious. These highly literate, witty, and occasionally sobering autobiographies chronicle their authors' lives within the context of family history and the broader historical framework of their time. Desmond Leslie's father, the critic and biographer Shane Leslie, published his first autobiography in 1918 as well as two more full-length autobiographies and many personal essays before his death in 1971. His uncle Seymour produced two family histories, and his sister, Anita, published two memoirs in addition to numerous biographies of the more famous members of the family.4 [End Page 47] As a contemporary manifestation of this tradition of literary self-display, family histories dominate the Castle's extensive web site. The general navigation bar guides one not only toward...

Facing the Second World War: Strategy, Politics, and Economics in Britain and France, 1938-1940 (review)

Reviewed by: Facing the Second World War: Strategy, Politics, and Economics in Britain and France, 1938–1940 Eugenia C. Kiesling Facing the Second World War: Strategy, Politics, and Economics in Britain and France, 1938–1940. By Talbot C. Imlay. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-926122-9. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. vi, 393. $99.00. This lucid and tightly argued book offers a comparative account of French and British preparations for World War II. The bulk of the book comprises three pairs of chapters respectively discussing French and British performances in what Imlay labels the strategic, domestic-political, and political-economic dimensions. Though told separately, the three stories are closely interrelated. Thus, political strife within France impeded the organization [End Page 990] of a proper war economy, a problem which, in turn, forced France to attempt to win the war before Germany's economic weight decided the issue. The milder political climate in Britain, on the other hand, conduced to a greater degree of cooperation between labor and management and, consequently, to acquiescence by both parties in a degree of government planning unattainable in France. This is a refreshingly contrarian book. Where recent scholarship emphasizes growing French confidence and domestic discord in Britain, Imlay underscores the discouraging defects in French industrial mobilization and identifies long-term sources of social cooperation within Britain. Most strikingly, he attacks the orthodox view that France (and Britain) went to war in September 1939 confident that their superior resources promised victory in a protracted conflict. Imlay argues instead that France abandoned the "long-war" strategy as unworkable both in the absence of a strong eastern ally and in view of Germany's economic and demographic strengths. Britain followed suit, briefly yielding to the temptations of offensive operations on the continent. Indeed, Imlay argues that only France's rapid defeat saved Britain from the consequences of its dangerous flirtation with a short-war strategy. Although Imlay supports his narrative with solid documentary evidence, there remains much to be said in defense of the alternative points of view, and his package of strategic, political, and economic analysis seems just a little too neat. His denial that France undertook any serious effort at economic planning requires, for example, that he deal with the 1938 Loi Paul-Boncour "On the Organization of the Nation for War" whose fraught history illuminates the complexities of the story. Some of Imlay's conclusions stem from his definitions. His assertion that France abandoned the canonical "long-war" strategy to seek a military panacea in the Baltic or the Balkans is less revolutionary than he supposes. Since the "long-war" strategy was largely a set of concepts serving in the interwar period to shape the structure of French military forces and to reassure her citizens that they had little to fear from the next war, one should not be surprised that it became increasingly irrelevant once the war began. This reviewer also feels that Imlay's analysis depends too heavily on a facile distinction between "total" and "limited" war. This is a judgmental book, centering on the (rather too sweeping) question "How well have nations and societies met the test of modern war?" Too many repetitions of the phrase "failed to meet the test of modern war," makes one feel sympathetic to two countries forced to face not only the Axis threat but such an implacable critic. Such questions suggest that Imlay has written a thought-provoking book, one valuable especially for its detailed description of the political and economic underpinnings of military strategy. It is to be recommended both for the story it tells and for the debates it will spark. Eugenia C. Kiesling U.S. Military Academy West Point, New York Copyright © 2004 Society for Military History

From the Feds: Research, Programs, and Products

From the Feds: Research, Programs, and Products

Testosterone, Alcohol, and Civil and Rough Conflict Resolution Strategies in Lesbian Couples

ABSTRACT The present study investigated the relations among testosterone level, acute alcohol consumption, and the use of violent (Rough) or non-violent (Civil) conflict resolution strategies in lesbian couples. The participants were 54 lesbian campers at a women's campground or spectators at a gay pride celebration who each provided a saliva sample for testosterone assay and completed a questionnaire. On the questionnaire, participants indicated whether they used Civil or Rough tactics to deal with domestic discord, and whether or not their use of these tactics varied with their use of alcohol. High testosterone women used Rough tactics equally when drinking as when not drinking, while low testosterone women used Rough tactics far more often when drinking than when not drinking. Alcohol appears to release violent tendencies in low testosterone women, who are characteristically restrained under sober conditions, but has little effect on high testosterone women.

Sleep disorders.

Sleep disorders.

Domestic Discord, Rocky Relationships: Semantic Prosodies in Representations of Marital Violence in the O.J. Simpson Trial

This article addresses one of the central concerns of the forensic linguist: the analysis of courtroom discourse and the identification of potentially discriminatory linguistic practices within the criminal justice system. This critical linguistic analysis examines the semantic prosodies of some of the words and phrases used to describe domestic violence at trial, a key issue in the O.J. Simpson double homicide case. The article considers data from the 100,000-word opening arguments of the criminal trial and contrasts the respective lexical representations of domestic violence in the prosecution and defence arguments. Drawing on data from COBUILD Bank of English, the article studies the prosodies of the constructs presented by both sides in their conflicting representations of domestic violence against women in the courtroom context.

Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans: The First Slave Society in the Deep South, 1718-1819

Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans: The First Slave Society in the Deep South, 1718-1819. By Thomas N. Ingersoll. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, c. 1999. Pp. xxv, 490. Paper, $25.00, ISBN 1-57233-024-4; cloth, $60.00, ISBN 1-57233-023-6.) Thomas N. Ingersoll's Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans is an ambitious of synthesis that attempts comprehensive history of the Crescent City's first one hundred years. Divided into three equal parts that focus on the French (1718-1769), Spanish (1769-1803), and Republican periods (1803-1819), the book is based upon research in archival collections scattered across the United States, Canada, France, and Spain. In the absence of newspapers, tax lists, legislative documents, detailed diaries, extensive family papers, and other sources available to students of colonial British North America, Ingersoll has relied heavily on imperial reports, travel accounts, and especially judicial records. The author has also borrowed freely from the work of other historians, though he insists that much of the existing literature on eighteenth-century Louisiana is seriously flawed. Ira Berlin, Laura Foner, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Arnold R. Hirsch, Joseph Logsdon, and James T. McGowan are among the scholars Ingersoll criticizes for contributing to misconceptions about the nature and evolution of what would become the South' s greatest city. Ingersoll begins by challenging the popular view of early New Orleans as chaotic and immoral frontier outpost. Instead New Orleans appears in this account as remarkably stable, upright, and tight-knit little community ruled by planters. The domestic discord, divorce, bigamy, incest, concubinage, prostitution, and other social ills found in nineteenth-century New Orleans played an insignificant role in the city's formative years; indeed, the author goes so far as to contend that colonial New Orleans a wholesome environment in which to raise children (p. 54). Ingersoll also dismisses the currently fashionable contention that colonial New Orleans should be seen as part of the Caribbean world. In his view New Orleans, no less than lowcountry South Carolina or tidewater Virginia, indisputably North American in character and after the Louisiana Purchase easily incorporated into the United States without significant cultural conflict or social dislocation (p. xix). The only change experienced by the planters, for example, was that their traditional domination now improved to the point of absolute supremacy (p. …