Part 1

These chapters correspond to pages 31 to 169 of the Proceedings Table of Contents.

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You can download the full PDF (including tables and graphs) for each paper, by going to each of the papers individually. Just click on the "PDF" link under each abstract.

Tomas Bons

The following is a presentation of how young people (age 17-20) perceive and interpret their position in society according to their immigrant background in the Swedish majority society, subjective integration. From the conclusions of a Master thesis where many of the youths expressed a sense of not belonging to the majority they presented strategies how to handle this situation. One possibility is when education is regarded as a way of self-realisation or as a mean to make it possible to move on to a life in another country. On the other hand they presented a strategy of starting an own company as an opposition to the Swedish society. This in order to create an own controlled unit within the society.

Mark Burton, Carolyn Kagan and Paul Duckett

Community psychology deals with the life of groups of people in context and is therefore inevitably concerned with their struggles, successes, projects and dreams. Sooner or later, because these contexts are constructed economically, politically and historically, engagement with the political is inevitable as all social groups encounter social and economic interests that differ from their own. On a global scale these conflicts include competition for resources, the dynamics of profit maximisation, and the use of violence to maintain and extend economic and political domination.

James R. Calvin, Ph.D.

The intent in this exploration of ideas about community talking and eventual actions is to present and comment on some of the critical and key interrelated factors that are driving adaptive leadership strategies as communities confront and contend with a multiplicity of circumstances and situations that are interwoven that involves business, economic and social arrangements and strategies to manage affairs with a focus and eye toward the near future given the possibility that situations and other situations are still to arise. Moreover, all of these factors with complex connections also involve the need for people and groups who are engaged in the contextual play between systems and freedom in all aspects of community life and livelihood.

Vanesa Gamero

El presente trabajo enfoca la relacion de los estereotipos de genero con la violencia percibida por la gente comun en las relaciones de pareja (hetero u homosexual). La investigacion se desarrolla en diversos paises iberoamericanos. Entre los instrumentos utilizados en el estudio figuran un IAT (Implicit Association Test), un cuestionario (que incluye series de items cerrados y de preguntas abiertas) y ejercicios de Fotointervencion. Un primer avance de los resultados de la parte de la investigacion realizada en Espana y en Puerto Rico pone de manifiesto el alto nivel de arraigo de los estereotipos de genero y especialmente de los relacionados con los agentes y victimas percibidos de la violencia en todo tipo de pareja. Ello tiene diversas implicaciones teoricas y practicas en el ambito de la prevencion de la violencia en la pareja.

Thomas F. Carr

Safety Plans are formal arrangements, most often drafted for child abuse and neglect cases that are Court involved, in which a Guardian ad Litem [GAL] is appointed by the Court to monitor. These plans may enable contact, even placement, of a child with a parent who may have been found or suspected to have perpetrated some form of abuse to the child, or may pose a risk to the child for some other reason(s).

Carlos Roberto de Castro-Silva

After more than 20 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it is noticed an intense connection with different forms of discrimination. The evolution of the epidemic has revealed that it stressed other forms of prejudice related to sexual orientation, to gender, race and social class. In Brazil, where the social inequality is very severe, the social exclusion is even a more important feature, once it exposes a bigger number of people to the infection by the virus and other sexual transmitted diseases.

P. Meringolo, M. Chiodini, E. Moscardi, & A. Morandi

This research is related to a wider program promoted in Italy by European Union, whose participants are Public Institutions, No Profit Enterprises and Faculty of Psychology of University of Florence. The program is aimed to improve health promotion in young people leisure time by means of community based interventions. Theoretical approaches come from studies about risky behavior, legal and illegal substances use, outreach work in leisure time for promoting healthy behaviors. The aim of this step of the research is to obtain quantitative data about youth lifestyle and about risky behaviors, particularly drug use, during entertainment events. Participants are 1283 subjects, male (51,4%) and female, aged 18-30 years, living in different Italian regions.

Valentina C. Chitas

This presentation put forward the preliminary results of a study undertaken in the context of a PhD dissertation on risk and protective factors linked to deviant behaviour in adolescence. The study employs a sample of 1042 adolescents (mean age 16 years), drawing from elementary and high schools of Lisbon’s suburban area. Measures of deviant behaviour include drug use (alcohol, tobacco and marijuana) and antisocial behaviour (physical and verbal violence, crimes against propriety and indiscipline). Independent measures assess individual, interpersonal and contextual factors: expectations about drug use, self control, motivation and academic achievement, parenting, peersf relations, social control and social support from neighbourhood.

Elvira Cicognani, Bruna Zani, Cinzia Albanesi

In adolescence, Sense of Community (SoC) grows thanks to positive experiences with peers and significant adults in different settings (e.g., neighbourhoods, schools) and contributes to the development of personal and social identity and to positive developmental outcomes. In order to study SoC during this developmental period, it is important to develop instruments that adequately capture adolescents’ feelings and experiences within the community.

Monica Colombo, Paolo Cherubini, Lorenzo Montali, Laura Marando

This research aims at analysing the expression of both overt and covert forms of xenophobia in native citizens’ discourse by adopting an integrated analytical approach that combines discourse and cognitive analysis. In particular, we are interested in detecting those discursive strategies that appear to be of crucial importance to the expression of xenophobic thinking and in examining the role exerted in concrete social contexts by cognitive mechanisms in shaping the inner “logic” of xenophobic discourse. To this purpose, 20 in-depth interviews were administered to adult residents from two districts in Milan. Verbatim transcripts are analysed in 3steps: a) computer-aided quantitative and qualitative data analysis; b) discourse analysis; c) cognitive analysis.

Marika Podda Connor

To explore the bio-psychosocial impact of forced migration on asylum seekers/refugees in Malta. This paper focuses on the complex processes of interaction between asylum seekers/refugees and their physical, psychological, social and cultural environments, in their search for meaning. The author’s concern prior to the study was how the participants make sense out of their lives following forced migration whilst encompassing complex challenges, affecting their health (physically and psychologically) and their social well-being.

María Virginia Mateu Armand, Catalina Cervantes Ortega, Marcela Rosas Nexticapa, & Idalia Illescas Nájera

El presente artículo describe el trabajo de un grupo de docentes e investigadores de diferentes áreas del conocimiento, que comparten el interés por estudiar la problemática de la vejez y el envejecimiento en las zonas rurales del Estado de Veracruz, México. El documento, reporta el proceso de conformación del equipo de trabajo denominado Grupo Operativo Gestor Multidisciplinario (GOGM), así como las características que lo describen, el cual está basado en la teoría de grupos de Pichón Rivieré y el concepto multidisciplinariedad, grupo que se presenta como estrategia para el trabajo de campo. La investigación está basada en la Metodología Cualitativa, enlazada con la Investigación Acción Participativa y el Método Etnográfico.