What is the ‘Social’ in Climate Change Research? A Case Study on Scientific Representations from Chile

Over the last few decades climate change has been gaining importance in international scientific and political debates. However, the social sciences, especially in Latin America, have only lately become interested in the subject and their approach is still vague. Scientific understanding of global environmental change and the process of designing public policies to face them are characterized by their complexity as well as by epistemic and normative uncertainties. This makes it necessary to problematize the way in which research efforts understand ‘the social’ of climate change. How do ‘the climate’ and ‘the social’ interpenetrate as scientific objects? What does the resulting field look like? Is the combination capable of promoting reflexivity and collaboration on the issue, or does it merely become dispersed with diffuse boundaries? Our paper seeks to answer these and other related questions using Chile as a case study and examining peer-reviewed scientific research on the topic. By combining in-depth qualitative content analysis of each paper with a statistical meta-analysis, we were able to: characterize the key content and forms of such literature; identify divisions and patterns within it; and, discuss some factors and trends that may help explain these. We conclude that the literature displays two competing trends: while it is inclined to become fragmented beyond the scope of the ‘mitigation’ black box, it also tends to cluster along the lines of methodological distinctions traditionally contested within the social sciences. This, in turn, highlights the persistence of disciplinary divisions within an allegedly interdisciplinary field.

     

Parent-child interaction therapy: application to maltreating parent-child dyads

OBJECTIVE: Parent-Child Interaction Training (PCIT), which uses a social learning framework, is a dyadic intervention that is designed to alter specific patterns of interaction found in parent-child relationships. Previous research suggests that maladaptive and high-risk characteristics found in maltreating parent-child dyads may be responsive to PCIT. The primary focus of this study is to examine the effectiveness of PCIT with maltreating parent-child dyads. METHODOLOGY: This study describes the effectiveness of PCIT with 136 biological parent-child dyads in which 66.9% (N=91) of the children had been maltreated. Of the 91 maltreated children, 64.8% (N=59) of the parents had maltreated their children, and were thus considered to be at high risk of repeating the abuse. RESULTS: Primary outcomes of this study show the following: (1) a decrease in child behavior problems, (2) a decrease in parental stress, and (3) a decrease in abuse risk from pre- to post-treatment for dyads with and without a history of maltreatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results add to the body of research supporting PCIT as a promising intervention and as a means to aid both children and parents in high-risk families for maltreatment.     

Young People's Images of Old Age in Chile: Exploratory Research

According to gerontological thought, an important part of senior citizens' disabilities are products of their social exclusion rather than factors associated with their physical or mental health. How these exclusions come about was the purpose of the research reported in this article. The study was conducted among 682 Chilean university students using a semantic differential test. A generalized negative image on old age was observed. The conclusion is that social images of old age affect the well-being of present and future senior citizens.