Family Pet Research Articles

Working in Europe to Stop Truancy Among Youth (WE‐STAY) Project: Preventing truancy and promoting mental health of adolescents in different European countries

Dear Editor, With the recent events in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and my experience assessing higher functioning youth within the autism spectrum (HFASD), I have become convinced of the need for early diagnosis and intervention. Those who have received little support around social learning and self-regulation prior to adolescence are more difficult to treat and some are at risk for acting out their anger with no sense of the social restraints that might inhibit violent expressions of rage. Although many children with HFASD present challenges from a young age, many parents simply consider their “difficultness” as just “who they are.” They can cope with the “meltdowns” of the two to four year old. Their obsessive interests are also tolerated as many of them appear gifted with their fund of knowledge about dinosaurs, insects, cars or math. Stressed parents may find themselves quite frustrated by the child’s resistance over minor requests, the “melt-downs” that can last hours or the extreme fussiness around food and aggression directed at younger siblings or family pets. Despite appropriate efforts at helping their child understand the importance of “using their words and not their hands” and how others feel when they react aggressively, parents often report that the child doesn’t “get” why this is important, especially when frustrated. Most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties with self-regulation and are often diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). They may even respond to stimulant medication reducing the impulsivity but this does not treat the difficulties with social understanding. With well supported parents these parenting challenges can be manageable, but for stressed or poorly supported parents the relationship with the child can begin to become very strained, increasing the child’s anxiety and anger. Many of our typical parenting interventions are relatively ineffective in managing the behavioural issues. In the school system, children with HFASD often have difficulty complying with the teacher’s directions, not fully understanding the difference between adult and child roles. Interaction with peers is often compromised by their poor understanding or approach behaviours, and difficulty with sharing and turn taking. This regularly results in peer rejection and a sense of confusion in the child who really does not understand why their peers don’t want to play. Lastly, the stimulation in the classroom may overwhelm their hypersensitive sensory system. With good teachers who understand their difficulties they may receive support with peers, opportunities to take breaks when overstimulated and strategies like visual cueing to deal with difficulties with change. In other situations, interaction between child and teacher becomes strained, leading to angry and sometimes inappropriate reactions that reinforce the child’s resistance. This is obviously compounded when the interactions with peers result in frequent rejection. This more negative trajectory often results in school refusal and increasing demoralization, often made worse by bullying. At this point, many children with HFASD begin to withdraw from peers and family, feeling that, no matter what they do, others get frustrated and angry with them. This pattern becomes even more painful for them as they advance through the later grades of elementary school. Their withdrawal may include preoccupation with video games with themes of violence not always understood as “a fantasy world.” Earlier difficulties differentiating reality from fantasy may make them more vulnerable to acting out these fantasies, especially when very angry. School refusal may allow escape but results in conflict with parents and more anger and frustration on both sides. Depression and threats to kill oneself or others become frequent. Visits to emergency departments produce more frustration as the system is seldom designed to support these youth who continue to feel misunderstood and unfairly treated. Residential treatment can be an option but is often rejected by the youth. Jail is threatened but resisted by all involved as inappropriate. Early diagnosis can abort the negative spiral of family conflict and peer rejection when these youth receive adequate support around self-regulation and social learning. Many find friends with shared interests and can begin to understand their social world better. Although we have less research evidence about the success of our social skills interventions with high-functioning youth, many professionals working with these children see significant improvements. Further, parents who understand their social comprehension difficulties can take a different approach and work harder at staying calm in their interactions with them. Having such youth identified in school as needing special help with social learning also may increase teacher’s efforts to prevent bullying and peer rejection. I cannot argue that such interventions will prevent the horrible tragedies that we have witnessed at New-town, but I know that we can do more when we recognize the difficulties early than when we try to address the problems in an out-of-control adolescent.

Gay Content in Newspaper Comics

During last thirty years, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) characters have been appearing with increasing regularity most media genres, from television sitcoms to comic books (Becker; Waldman). However, newspaper comic characters continue to be overwhelmingly heterosexual. In strip after strip, married heterosexual couples bicker over forgotten anniversaries, young men try feeble pick-up lines on women, young women endure endless dates with losers, and children and family pets pursue hapless heterosexual romances. Heteronormativity, ideological insistence that heterosexual desire and behavior are universal human experience (Warner xiv; Nielsen, Waiden, & Kunkel 285), is promoted so loudly and incessantly that one finds no gay lead characters at all, and fewer gay minor characters than even most timid of children's picture books.However, inclusion of specifically identified LGBT characters is only one strategy of representing same-sex desire, behavior, romance, and identity. Hennessy decries the heteronormative tyranny of empirical, presumption that gayness exists only phrase I am gay, so absence of self-declaration, all characters, statements, situations, and themes are to be taken as heterosexual (31). Artists working venues where identifying characters as gay is risky or prohibited often depend on subtext, relationships, and references presumably opaque to general consumer, but obvious to those in know, or supratext, situations so outrageous that they lose any element of veracity and therefore cannot challenge consumer's heteronormative presumptions (Johnson).Queering, locating representations of same-sex desire, behavior, romance, or identity that appear independently of specifically identified gay characters (Doty 10), has been successfully applied to several genres of mass culture, including novels, popular movies, cartoons, and even children's television (Sedgwick; Dennis). This study will apply it to newspaper comics, investigating frequency with which heteronormative ideology is disrupted through several different types of gay content. It will demonstrate that gay content appears newspaper comics with some regularity, spite of near-absence of gay characters. It further investigates role of cartoonist's gender, age of title, and strip genre facilitating or prohibiting various types of gay content.Gay Content Newspaper ComicsCharacters who exhibited homophobic stereotypes were once commonplace comic strips. Heer reproduces a Mickey Mouse strip from 1930s which Mickey demonstrates his masculinity by assaulting a lisping, mincing pansy, and Applegate reports that during World War II, adventure strip Terry and Pirates regularly featured stereotypic gay and lesbian villains. During 1940s and 1950s, however, comic strips began to adhere to postwar clampdown on nonconformity general, and especially on depictions of same-sex desire, behavior, romance, and identity (Mann 121). Even stereotyped characters became vanishingly rare, and there were no references to same-sex desire or behavior, except occasionally heavily coded jokes or situations. For instance, a 1976 Wizard of Id strip, medieval knight Rodney is assigned to fight Fierce. What a drag! he exclaims. The king admonishes, That's kind of talk that made Bruce fierce!During decades after Stonewall, organizations, such as GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) strongly advocated for increased representation media, and LGBT characters began to appear movies, television programs, popular fiction, and comic books. However, advocacy had little impact on newspaper comic strip. Between 1950 and 2000, only three specifically identified gay characters appeared.In a 1976, continuity Gary Trudeau's political Doonesbury strip, law student Joanie Caucus makes romantic overtures to classmate Andy Lippincott, only to be rejected because he is gay (Are they sure? …

Blastocystis subtypes in symptomatic and asymptomatic family members and pets and response to therapy

Blastocystis is a common, enteric parasite. The pathogenicity of the organism is uncertain, but subtypes (ST) 1 and 3 have been reported more likely to cause irritable bowel-like symptoms. We treated symptomatic patients positive for Blastocystis with conventional therapy and analysed 16 small-subunit (SSU) rDNA to assess clearance and carriage rates and ST prevalence of the parasite in the asymptomatic household members. In a longitudinal, prospective case study, 11 symptomatic patients positive for Blastocystis underwent outpatient clinical assessment to exclude other diagnoses before 14 days of either metronidazole 400 mg three times daily or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole 160/800 mg twice-daily therapy. Faecal specimens were collected from patients at baseline, day 15, 28 and 56 after therapy and from 17 family members and eight pets at day 15. Specimens were analysed using faecal smear, culture and polymerase chain reaction analysis of 16SSU rDNA. No patient cleared the organism following therapy. ST 1 (45%), 3 (36%), 4 (36%) and 6 (9%) were found in the symptomatic Blastocystis patients, and ST identified before and after therapy were identical in each individual. All household contacts were positive for Blastocystis and 16/17 (94%) contacts showed identical Blastocystis ST to the symptomatic family member. All pets were positive for Blastocystis with polymerase chain reaction testing, 7/8 (88%) demonstrating ST concordance with the symptomatic Blastocystis patients. Conventional therapy is ineffective for symptomatic Blastocystis infection. The high prevalence of Blastocystis infection within households suggested transmission between humans and their pets. Subtyping analysis of SSU rDNA alone in Blastocystis does not appear to predict pathogenicity.

The Pet Connection: An Attachment Perspective

Using the ethological-evolutionary framework of attachment, and including how the theory has been updated and expanded by findings from attachment-based research, neuroscience and animal studies, this paper proposes that a relationship with a family pet, especially a dog or cat, reflects certain dynamics of attachment which may account for the sense of comfort and connection they provide to individuals at all stages of the life cycle. There is now convincing scientific evidence that companion animals have positive effects on psychological and physical well-being, helping shape how people regulate their emotions, deal with stress or trauma, and relate to others. Discussion considers the implications of these benefits for social work, in particular for policy, prevention, and psychotherapy. An illustration of treatment for pet loss, as well as a framework for promoting attachment in pets adopted from rescue shelters, is also presented. It is recommended that both social work professionals and social work students be educated about the human-animal bond and the significance of pets to so many of our clients.

An Internet-based survey of risk factors for surgical gastric dilatation-volvulus in dogs

To evaluate risk factors for gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) in a large number of privately owned dogs across a wide geographic area. Internet-based, cross-sectional study. 2,551 privately owned dogs. A questionnaire addressed dog-specific, management, environmental, and personality-associated risk factors for GDV in dogs. Respondents were recruited through the posting of the electronic link to the questionnaire on websites for dog owners; the information was also disseminated at meetings of dog owners and via newsletters, e-mail lists for dog owners and breeders, owner-oriented dog publications, and e-mails forwarded by participants. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were performed. Factors significantly associated with an increased risk of GDV were being fed dry kibble, anxiety, residence in the United Kingdom, being born in the 1990s, being a family pet, and spending at least 5 hours a day with the owner. Factors associated with a decreased risk of GDV were playing with other dogs and running the fence after meals, fish and egg dietary supplements, and spending equal time indoors and outdoors. A significant interaction between sex and neuter status was observed, with sexually intact females having the highest risk for GDV. In dogs with a high risk of GDV, regular moderate daily and postprandial activity appeared to be beneficial. Feeding only commercial dry dog food may not be the best choice for dogs at risk; however, supplements with fish or eggs may reduced this risk. The effect of neuter status on GDV risk requires further characterization.

My Friend Fred (review)

Reviewed by: My Friend Fred Jeannette Hulick Oram, Hiawyn . My Friend Fred; illus. by Rosie Reeve. Tiger Tales, 2012. 26p. ISBN 978-1-58925-105-2 $15.95 R 4-6 yrs. Fred the dog may technically belong to the whole family, but preschool-age Grace knows that "Fred is mine. My friend Fred." And why shouldn't he be considered hers? After all, he does everything with her—he even "checks for monsters under my bed. (If there is one thing Fred will not have in our house, it is monsters under my bed)." When Grace shuts Fred up in her room with her to avoid letting him play with her sister, Fred's glum reaction finally convinces Grace to share him, even though she "knows that 'ours' is only a word and whatever anyone says, really that dog will always mostly be . . . my friend Fred." Family members who vie for the attentions of their own family pets will easily comprehend the importance of Grace's belief that Fred is "hers," and most kids (with or without siblings) will relate to the difficulty of sharing a beloved item with others. Grace's narrative voice is fresh, individual, and pleasantly conversational as well as credible in its youthful point of view. Reeve's illustrations have the slight smudginess of blended pastels, and her vibrant palette imbues the pictures with a sunny cheerfulness, while her dot-eyed people and animals call to mind the figures of Brita Granström. Grace is a lively heroine, with short dark hair that frequently goes every which way, while Fred is an adorable white pup with brown spots whose ear position deftly indicates his mood. This would particularly lend itself to storytimes or discussions concerning pets or sharing; it might also be an apt and amusing title for an older sibling to share with a younger one. [End Page 473] Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Superficial Fungal Infections

Superficial Fungal Infections

Poster #182 COMPULSORY PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT IN CANADA: 100 CASES

To investigate the longitudinal association between pet ownership and children's social-emotional development.Two time-points of data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were analyzed for children at ages 5 (n = 4242) and 7 (n = 4431) years. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) measured children's social-emotional development. Pet ownership status and type (dog, cat, other) as well as sociodemographic and other potential confounders were collected. Longitudinal panel regression models were used.Overall, 27% of children had abnormal scores on 1 or more SDQ scales. By age 7, 75% of children had pets with ownership highest in single-child households. Owning any type of pet was associated with decreased odds of abnormal scores for emotional symptoms (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.67-0.99), peer problems (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.60-0.84), and prosocial behavior (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.38-0.70), compared with non-pet owners. Dog ownership was associated with decreased odds of abnormal scores on any of the SDQ scales (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.71-0.93). For children without any siblings, only the prosocial behavior scale was significantly associated with pet ownership (OR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.07-0.66). In longitudinal models, cat-only and dog-only groups were associated with fewer emotional symptoms and peer problems compared with non-pet owners.Early school age is an important period for family pet acquisition. Pets may protect children from developing social-emotional problems and should be taken into account when assessing child development and school readiness. Children without siblings may benefit most in terms of their prosocial behavior.

The Significance of Animal Cruelty in Child Protection Investigations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency with which child protection workers (CPWs) in Ontario, Canada, seek information about animal cruelty during investigations of child maltreatment and the extent to which they consider information about animal cruelty when making decisions about whether intervention is required. The CPWs (N = 78) responded to an online survey about their experiences with animal cruelty during child protection investigations in the previous year. Few CPWs routinely asked questions about animal cruelty during investigations, but those who did ask questions were significantly more likely to report disclosures of animal cruelty by children and caregivers than those who did not ask questions. Many CPWs had directly observed children and caregivers physically harming animals. Almost all respondents indicated that animal cruelty was an important factor to consider when making intervention decisions. The results suggest that CPWs should consider routinely asking children and caregivers questions about animal cruelty and observe the behavior and living conditions of family pets when conducting risk assessments. Future research should determine whether animal cruelty is a reliable indicator of exposure to family violence. KEY WORDS: animal cruelty; child abuse; child protection; domestic violence; risk assessment ********** Data from several surveys of women seeking help from domestic violence shelters indicate that a substantial proportion of adult perpetrators of domestic violence also abuse animals. Results revealed that between 44% and 57% of female pet-owners had partners who harmed or killed family pets (Ascione, 1998; Carlisle-Frank, Frank, & Nielsen, 2004; Faver & Strand, 2003). Furthermore, two studies found that animal cruelty was perpetrated more frequently by the partners of domestic violence victims than by the partners of women from community samples (Ascione et al., 2007; Volant, Johnson, Gullone, & Coleman, 2008). A small group of studies provided evidence that children whose mothers experience domestic violence are significantly more likely to witness pet abuse than children from families in which no domestic violence occurs (Ascione et al., 2007; DeGue & DiLillo, 2009; Volant et al., 2008). Furthermore, children who are exposed to parental domestic violence are more likely to abuse animals than children who are not exposed to domestic violence (Ascione et al., 2007; Baldry, 2003; Currie, 2006; Volant et al., 2008). THE LINK BETWEEN ANIMAL CRUELTY AND CHILD ABUSE Results of recent studies demonstrated that children who had been abused were more likely to engage in animal cruelty than those who had not been abused (for example, Ascione, Friedrich, Heath, & Hayashi, 2003; DeGue & DiLillo, 2009). With respect to caregiver-perpetrated animal cruelty, the results of one study indicated that, among families in which child abuse had been substantiated, parents were the most frequent perpetrators of animal cruelty in cases that involved pain and suffering or the inhumane death of an animal (DeViney, Dickert, & Lockwood, 1983). In another study, one-third of women who had experienced domestic violence and whose partners had abused pets reported that their children had been abused; women whose pets had not been abused by their partners were less likely to report child abuse (Flynn, 2000b). RELEVANCE OF ANIMAL CRUELTY TO CHILD PROTECTION EFFORTS Given the strengthening evidence of a link between animal cruelty and family violence, it has been argued that animal cruelty receives insufficient attention from social service providers (for example, Flynn, 2000a). Some have suggested that social service professionals should routinely ask about animal cruelty when conducting assessments for family violence and that expanded collaboration among animal welfare, child protection, and domestic violence organizations is necessary to identify children who are at risk of abuse and to assist families who wish to remove pets from abusive homes (Arkow, 1996; Ascione, 1998; Baldry, 2003; Bell, 2001; Boat, 1999; Faver & Strand, 2003; Montminy-Danna, 2007; Volant et al. …

Rrralph by L. Ehlert

Ehlert, Lois. Rrralph. New York: Beach Lane Books, 2011. Print. “Would you like to meet a talking dog?” According to the author’s note, this book was based on jokes that her brother told his grandchildren. The humour translates well into the story as the narrator uses a series of onomatopoeic word-play to explain how Ralph the dog “talks”. For example, when asked where he is, Ralph answers that he is on the “Roof” of the dog house. When asked what is on a tree, he replies “Bark, Bark, Bark”. The story even includes a somewhat scary encounter between Ralph and a “Wolf! Wolf!” This book will definitely be a story-time favourite for younger children. The large format and brightly coloured pages make it ideal for displaying to groups. The super-size font alternates on each page between black and white, creating high contrasts. The illustrations were created from: “zippers, wood, buttons, twine, metal, tree bark, screws, hand-painted and home-made papers, and textile fragments”. This creates layers of interesting textures and gives the book a “home-spun” appeal. It would also provide an interesting opportunity for educators or parents to talk about making art from found or recycled objects, or the benefits of recycling in general. The highlight of the illustrations is Ralph’s multi-coloured textile collar and metal-heart shaped dog tag, which will remind readers of real beloved family pets. His zipper smile is pretty endearing as well. Other books by Lois Ehlert include: “Lots of Spots”, “Boo to You!” and “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom”. According to the publisher Rrralph is recommended for ages 2-6. Highly recommended: four out of four starsReviewer: Kim FrailKim is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. Children’s literature is a big part of her world at work and at home. She also enjoys gardening, renovating and keeping up with her two-year old.

Humboldt’s Parrot and the Re-voicing of a Dead Language: A Metaphor for Family Histories of Depression

The 18th century explorer Alexander von Humboldt discovered the remnants of a dead language in a parrot he found in the South American rain forest. The Ature people had originated from the lands around the Orinoco river in Venezuela, but disappeared when the tribe was murdered by the rival group of Carib Indians in the last years of the 18th century. Von Humboldt discovered that the pet parrot of these dead people had survived with their language, albeit in a limited form, and he set about transcribing the language phonetically. Schützenberger tells a similar story of a parrot that retained the voice of a long dead family patriarch in France, who still had power over his family through his now disembodied voice being parroted by an old family pet. This paper will explore how depression can be perpetuated or kept alive in the words, phrases and voices, literal or metaphorical, which exist in families. Material from fictional and biographical family accounts will be presented in examining how families might learn to re-voice the language they use for each other and the world, to move away from maladaptive ways of interacting with the world.“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”Anna Karenina(Tolstoy, 1878/2003)

Examining the Nexus Between Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse in a National Sample of Service Providers

Companion animals play a complex role in families impacted by violence. An outlet of emotional support for victims, the family pet often becomes a target for physical abuse. Results from a comprehensive e-survey of domestic violence shelters nationwide (N = 767) highlight both improvements and existing gaps in service provision for domestic violence victims and their pets. Quantitative and qualitative data noted frequently encountered obstacles to successful shelter seeking by abuse victims with companion animals including a lack of availability, funding, space, and reliable programming. Although results indicate an overall improvement in organizational awareness, fewer than half of surveyed shelters include intake questions about animals. Continued awareness and an expansion of services is needed to create viable safety planning strategies and reliable alternatives for women with companion animals in order to improve the likelihood that abuse victims will seek escape and refuge for themselves, their children, and their pets.

Data-Based Considerations for Electronic Family Health History Applications

Family health history contains important information about the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to patterns of health and illness in families. Applications for collecting, managing, and analyzing family health history could be improved if their design were informed by an understanding of how consumers think about and report family health history. This article presents a descriptive analysis of themes from family health history interviews that have implications for development, selection, and use of family health history tools. Important themes included ways in which family is defined, including nonbiological family members and pets; ideas about health and disease, including degree of exposure and individual perceptions; and barriers to reporting family health history, including large biological families and uncertainty. Some themes identified (eg, uncertainty) have been recognized previously and continue to be important considerations. Other themes identified, such as perceptions about severity of illness or conditions and causal relationships, are newly recognized and may have implications for nurses and other providers designing, selecting, and using family health history applications.

Robots and Other Cognitive Systems: Challenges and European Responses

Robots have come a long way since the Czech writer Karel Capek first used this term, some 90 years ago, to denote rather frightening creatures—not unlike Golems or Frankenstein's monster, yet workers all the same. Today, more than ever, robots continue to fascinate: they take over activities which humans find too dangerous or impossible. For example, the recent use of robots at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant or in the recovery of the flight recorder of Air France's Rio de Janeiro– Paris flight which went down in deep seas in 2009. They go to war and deactivate mines. And they increasingly come into our homes as children's toys, almost like family pets! In just a few years, technological progress in this area has been tremendous and Europe is one of the leaders in this research and industrial application. Yet, this is just the beginning of the robot history as many challenges remain to be addressed. Refining and improving the mechanics of robots and their sensorial capacities (including ones that living organisms do not possess) has always been of major concern for engineers. Reducing the amount of human intervention in the operation of these machines has been another persistent trend, leading for instance to numerically controlled machine tools. Ultimately, however, this means more than merely automating the completion of a task according to some preset rules. It means that, within certain limits, machines ought to be able to take “decisions” autonomously and independent of external (e.g., remote) control on how to proceed with a given task should new conditions arise unexpectedly. This could be in the form of a roving robot that is supposed to retrieve some object from a distant place but on its way encounters an unexpected obstacle. The ease of use, safety, and partial autonomy are essential if robotic devices are to leave the shop floor and strictly controlled environments and become truly useful Philos. Technol. (2011) 24:355–357 DOI 10.1007/s13347-011-0037-4

Women in Higher Education: Access, Success, and the Future

Several months ago, the Georgia Association for Women in Higher Education asked me to deliver the keynote address for their annual state meeting, with a focus on the “Current Status of Women in Higher Education: Challenges and Strengths to Moving Forward.” Over time, I have given time and small donations to various women’s advocacy and educational groups; but I must admit I have not been on the forefront of tracking women’s achievements and struggles. Developing my own career; mentoring graduate students (and others on campus who needed a listening ear); and tending two boys, a husband, and several family pets kept me busy. So, I found it interesting to do the background research for this talk. Below is a brief summary of my speech and an explanation of why I think the subject raises important questions for authors and readers of Innovative Higher Education. My talk centered on women’s earliest access to higher education, recent gains in enrollment and graduation, and current leadership in executive and administrative positions. We all know that women were excluded from formal education in the earliest years of higher education. The Georgia Female College of Macon, Georgia (now Wesleyan College) and Oberlin College in Ohio led the way in admitting women students in the 1830s, approximately 200 years after Harvard (1636) had enrolled its first class of males in an institution on a frontier that was to become the United States of America. The women’s colleges of the Northeast followed soon with the founding of Vassar (1865), Wellesley and Smith (1875), and Bryn Mawr (1884). The following100 years saw state colleges and private universities open their doors to women students, and enrollments and graduations increased at an accelerated pace according to the American Council on Education’s report about Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2010. Women’s share of baccalaureate enrollment and graduation is now close to 60 percent overall, and this percentage has remained consistent since 2000. From no participation to equal participation in a century is actually great progress. However, while the numbers highlight equity, they also conceal the struggle–legal, policy, and personal–that enabled this progress. Innov High Educ (2011) 36:145–147 DOI 10.1007/s10755-011-9184-x

1/ First Fiction

1/ First Fiction Cynthia Sugars (bio) If there is one common thread running through most of this year's first fiction, it is that things are never what they seem. Characters are not who or what they appear to be, or they discover that what they thought were the most basic facts about their lives are false, or they are forced by their own choices to lead lives of deceit. Families uproot themselves and move halfway across the world to be part of noble political movements, only to confront a very different lived reality. Novels that seem to promise strong political messages tend more towards whimsical subtlety (though in many cases this enhances their sense of political engagement). Memories turn out to be unreliable or even treacherous. Surface appearances give way, again and again, to hidden depths lurking somewhere just out of reach, like the town in The Sentimentalists that was sunk to make the St Lawrence Seaway, still there and partly visible beneath the water. The gap between appearances and reality is precisely where these narratives become so interesting. The ethical and interpretive challenges that this gap creates extend not just to the stories' characters but often to us as readers as well. Two books stand out among this year's first novels: Don LePan's Animals and Johanna Skibsrud's Giller Prize-winning The Sentimentalists. If you read nothing else from this year's batch of novels, however, read Animals. Few Canadian novels have been as powerful. Animals is a dystopian satire set somewhere around the late twenty-first [End Page 117] century. However dramatic its subject matter, what ultimately makes this book so compelling is its subtlety. It is disturbing and gripping and relentlessly well told. Like Kazuo Ishiguro's best work (it reminded me in many ways of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker), it succeeds through its narrative restraint. It would be easy to go overboard in this type of world-gone-wrong dystopia but LePan never does. Instead, LePan delivers a tale that is at its most poetic at all the most jarring moments. There is an awful lyrical intensity, an ability to evoke a fragile state of innocence in the midst of a brutality that resides in people's attitudes as much as their actions, that makes Animals especially poignant. A great part of its power lies in what LePan manages to avoid; the narrative is suggestive rather than graphic or confrontational. This is not, however dystopian, some sort of apocalyptic nightmare. On the contrary, it is set in a world that has settled into a comfortably dysfunctional way of life, like the proverbial frog in the pot of gradually heated water. After decades of increasingly brutal but financially efficient advances, the livestock industry has imploded. Ever since 'the great extinctions,' as they have come to be remembered, the consumption of meat (chicken, beef, pork) has become a thing of the past. Worse, the rate of children born with some sort of extreme disability has skyrocketed, so much so that a new category has emerged: these sorts of children have come to be called mongrels. There is a sinister kind of duplicity about it all. The word mongrel is an umbrella term for a whole set of distinct problems, but even so, mongrels have slowly but surely become recognized as a wholly different type of species: as non-human. Categorical shorthand has been transformed into ontological difference. The differences aren't always obvious at birth, of course, but as a baby ages and it becomes clear that it is a mongrel rather than a human being, the creature must be handled differently, left to sleep on the floor, fed different types of food and no longer at the dinner table, dressed differently. In other words, it must be recognized for what it really is: a family pet. Loveable, perhaps, and eager to please, but clearly incapable of the sorts of development that one would expect to see in a child. That might not in itself be so bad except that times are tough. The bottom has fallen out of the welfare state and people are edgy...

Images of Heaven and the Spiritual Afterlife: Qualitative Analysis of Children'S Storybooks about Death, Dying, Grief, and Bereavement

Many parents turn to picture books and storybooks to help explain issues surrounding death and dying to their young children. In addition to dealing with topics such as death, funerals, memories, and grief, a number of the books also mention the concept of heaven and what our loved ones might experience after they die. This article uses qualitative research methods to analyze 49 children's storybooks that touch on the existence of heaven or a spiritual afterlife. Results show that heaven is portrayed in a simplistic fashion, as a place high in the sky with bright lights, angels, and clouds. Even as heaven is presented in a relatively simple way, there are also patterned differences in depictions of the spiritual afterlife depending upon whether the decedent in the book was a family pet, a child, a parent, or a grandparent. The article concludes with a discussion of how these depictions of heaven and the afterlife might help young children cope with death-related grief.

Beyond Childhood Sexual Abuse

Ritual abuse-torture (RAT) may be carried out by individuals, families, cults, and gangs as a way to instill submission, humiliation, and fear in victims. According to survivors, the tactics of RAT can include confinement in locked cages, closets, single rooms, basements, or backyard sheds. To keep victims silent, there are often threats of death for the victims and/or their siblings, other family members, peers, or pets or threats of even more severe physical abuse. RAT is often associated with human trafficking. Human trafficking includes the harboring and transporting of victims for the purpose of forced sex and/or labor, which is a very profitable industry today. Human trafficking victims may be subjected to any of the tactics used with RAT victims to ensure traffickers' power and control and maintenance of compliance and silence. It is critically important to assess suspected victims alone, apart from those who bring them in and may be the perpetrators. The major barrier to any treatment plan is the risk of harm by perpetrators if victims reveal their circumstances. What is needed is a coordinated multidisciplinary action team and resources for victims of RAT/human trafficking. Additional safety protections and emotional support are needed if the perpetrators of RAT or human trafficking are being investigated or prosecuted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) Keywords: Human trafficking Language: en

All in the family

In recent years, narrative analysis has experienced what can be identified as a small stories turn. Specifically, some researchers, especially Bamberg (2004, 2006), Georgakopoulou (2006, 2007), Bamberg and Georgakopoulou (2008), have argued that the analysis of small stories that have been previously overlooked in favor of large-scale autobiographical narratives presents a valuable contribution to our understanding of identity construction and display. This paper builds on and extends the discussion of small stories as sites for identity construction by demonstrating how various small stories — retellings, hypothetical narratives, near-narrative structures as well as short past-oriented narratives — all construct a coherent family identity that includes pets as members. While a number of previous studies considered narrative as a key site for exploring how family members construct social identities, they primarily focused on individual family members and centered their analyses on traditional past-oriented narratives often limiting their settings to dinner-table conversations or interviews. In contrast, this study, drawing on prior studies of discursive construction of a shared family identity (Gordon, 2007) and pets as family members (Tannen, 2004), demonstrates how a shared family identity that includes pets emerges in diverse small stories that are embedded in on-going conversations and occur in a variety of places: a car, a dining room, a living room. This paper also shows how small stories about pets simultaneously create a shared family identity that includes pets and situate this family within a larger social discourse, or Discourse (Gee, 1996, 1999), of treating pets as family members.

Family Pet Ownership during Childhood: Findings from a UK Birth Cohort and Implications for Public Health Research

In developed nations, approximately half of household environments contain pets. Studies of Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) have proposed that there are health benefits and risks associated with pet ownership. However, accurately demonstrating and understanding these relationships first requires a better knowledge of factors associated with ownership of different pet types. A UK birth cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), were used to collect pet ownership data from the mothers, from gestation to child age 10 years old. 14,663 children were included in the study, of which mothers of 13,557 reported pet information at gestation, and 7,800 by age 10. Pet types recorded include cat, dog, rabbit, rodent, bird, fish and tortoise/turtle. The dataset also contains a number of demographic, socioeconomic and behavioural variables relevant to human health behaviour. Logistic regression was used to build multivariable models for ownership of each pet type at age 7 years. Family pet ownership increased during childhood, in particular rabbits, rodents and fish. A number of socioeconomic and demographic factors were associated with ownership of different pet types and the effects differed depending on the pet type studied. Variables which require consideration by researchers include gender, presence of older siblings, ethnicity, maternal and paternal education, maternal and paternal social class, maternal age, number of people in the household, house type, and concurrent ownership of other pets. Whether the mother had pets during her childhood was a strong predictor of pet ownership in all models. In HAI studies, care should be taken to control for confounding factors, and to treat each pet type individually. ALSPAC and other similar birth cohorts can be considered a potential resource for research into the effects of pet ownership during childhood.