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Gendered models of abuse describe intimate partner violence (IPV) as unilaterally perpetrated by dominant, aggressive men towards vulnerable women. This unidirectional conceptualization has contributed to a “domestic violence stereotype” which, alongside broader attitudes regarding gender, influences attitudes towards ‘non-typical’ victim and perpetrator groups (e.g., male victims, female perpetrators, those within same-sex relationships), and has significant outcomes for help-seeking decision-making, as well as responses from service providers and the criminal justice system. Whilst prevalence data and research suggest bidirectional violence is in fact the most common pattern (e.g., see Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Misra, Selwyn, & Rohling, 2012), there is still little known about how the stereotypes and attitudes described above manifest in scenarios where both parties occupy ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ labels. The present pilot study therefore asked 178 undergraduate students to allocate ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ labels, and make judgments of severity, resolution and justice outcomes, towards hypothetical opposite-sex IPV scenarios varying on the proportion of abuse perpetrated by each party, and type of violence. Results showed that participants were reluctant to label men as ‘victims’, and women as ‘perpetrators’, across scenarios. They were also less likely to recommend that the man should call the police. These exploratory results therefore suggest that powerful stereotypes about IPV and gender may serve to influence perceptions of bidirectional violence and point to a need to study this issue in more detail in order to elucidate the most appropriate way to begin to address these issues.

Background/Aims:Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are at an increased risk of suicidal ideation and suicide, compared to the overall population. This article provides an insight into the identifiable risk factors and protective determinants that can impact on these increased risks. The aim of this study was to ascertain the protective determinants of suicide ideation in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population based on the extant published evidence base surrounding this issue in the context of health care generally and mental health nursing practice, specifically.MethodsA systematic review of five articles pertaining to suicidal ideation in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community was undertaken, in accordance with the 2009 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Implementation Framework Guidelines.ResultsDatasets were synthesised using an inductive thematic analysis. Five core themes emerged from the data: (1) resilience (2) specific personality traits (3) mindfulness and self-esteem (4) social support and positive role modelling and (5) the need for culturally competent healthcare provision, of which mental health nurses are an integral part.ConclusionsThe findings of the systematic review revealed the need for mental health nurses and adjunct healthcare staff to reflect on their interactions with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, particularly where suicidal ideation or tendency is either directly articulated or suspected. Helping and supporting vulnerable members of society could potentially be driven by increasing awareness of these specific vulnerabilities in clinical practice.

The aim of this study was to explore the impact of men’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in a non-help-seeking sample. Utilising an anonymous online survey to encourage disclosure, men were asked how their experiences had impacted on them, what barriers they had experienced to leaving the relationship, and what their perceptions were of societal attitudes about men and IPV. Findings indicated that men’s experiences impacted on their physical and mental health, the development of future relationships, and their relationships with their children. They described the impact of attitudes towards male victims of IPV as being significant and felt society did not believe men who described these experiences, often perceiving them as “weak” or in fact “abusers”. These contributed towards the barriers men experience to both help-seeking and to leaving the relationship. The findings are discussed in relation to current UK policy and practice, including reference to IPV being treated as a gendered crime under a “Violence against Women and Girls” strategy (Ministry of Justice, 2018).

One of the potential avenues for former professional football players to pursue their career is to become a head coach of a club's first team. An important question is how to best prepare for such a reconversion. This letter is the first in the academic literature quantifying the association between success as a professional head coach and prior experience of former professional players as a youth coach, player-coach, head coach at a lower division, assistant coach, in other staff positions and in club management positions. Our regression analyses, based on unique coach career data, show a significant positive association for the jobs of assistant or youth coach.

The traditional view of intimate partner violence (IPV) is that the perpetrator is male and the victim is female (Dobash, Dobash, Wilson & Daly, 1992). As a result of this, most research into victimisation experiences appears to be conducted with female victims of IPV (Morin, 2014), and research with male victims, and victims from the LGBTQ+ community is less common. The main aim of the current research was to conduct a systematic literature review to synthesise the literature base of IPV victimisation experiences to ascertain how abuse is experienced, and the effects of that abuse. The secondary aim was to investigate the prevalence of different victim groups, across gender and sexuality, in current research studies. The review highlighted that victims of IPV experience several different types of abuse and the negative mental and physical health outcomes associated with that abuse are significant. Additionally, it was found that the large majority of research studies included in the review were conducted with female victims in opposite-sex relationships, and were quantitative and cross-sectional in nature. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are put forward.

This paper draws on staff and student consultations conducted during the development of Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter to identify five key tensions which can arise in assessment design and strategy when seeking to balance the wellbeing of students with pedagogical, practical and policy considerations. It highlights the need to acknowledge the pressures of assessment on staff wellbeing as well as students. The particular tensions explored include the need to balance challenge against the psychological threats this can entail; the varying impacts of traditional and novel forms of assessment; the differing demands of collaborative and individual work; the tensions between ideal strategies and those which are practically feasible; and the ways in which feedback is given (as a constructive learning tool) and received (often as a psychological threat). These tensions can provide a valuable point of reflection for educators who need to critically and proactively navigate these conflicts within their own assessment design and practices, as part of a wider whole university approach to promoting student wellbeing.

The current study examined the mediating role of affect dysregulation, maladaptive personality traits, and negative urgency in the association between childhood cumulative trauma (CCT) and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV). A total of 241 men and women from the general population answered self-report questionnaires assessing these variables. Results indicated that 70% of participants reported at least two different types of childhood trauma, while, over the past year, 80% indicated having perpetrated or experienced psychological IPV. Path analyses of a sequential mediation model confirmed that the CCT–IPV association is explained by affect dysregulation, maladaptive personality traits, and negative urgency. These findings support the need to assess affect regulation and personality traits in CCT survivors. Psychosocial interventions should aim to increase self-soothing skills and decrease negative urgency to prevent psychological IPV.

In view of recent changes in the higher education sector, such as increased tuition fees, a greater focus has been placed on widening participation initiatives and monitoring student satisfaction. The aims of the current study were twofold: (1) to explore whether pre-entry programmes foster successful transition to higher education, and (2) to examine longitudinally the factors associated with course satisfaction. Eighty-eight first-year psychology students completed a questionnaire measuring academic self-efficacy, social identity and student satisfaction at the start (Time 1, November 2015) and end (Time 2, March 2016) of the academic year. Findings indicated that students who participated in a pre-entry programme reported higher academic self-efficacy and satisfaction compared to typical route students. Moreover, academic self-efficacy predicted student satisfaction at the start of the academic year, whereas in-group affect (a facet of social identity) predicted this at the end of the academic year. The current findings indicate that pre-entry programmes may have a positive impact on students’ sense of academic self-efficacy. On a more general level, the findings also suggest that academic self-efficacy and social identity may be key indicators of student satisfaction. This highlights the complexities of the concept of ‘student satisfaction’, and demonstrates the utility of examining multiple factors relating to student satisfaction across different time points.

Background: The UK’s public ultrasound departments have been understaffed for some years (Waring et al., 2018; Miller et al., 2018). This short-staffing is noted have a range of detrimental outcomes for patients, departmental managers and working sonographers alike (Miller et al., 2018; Bolton and Cox, 2015; Migration Advisory Committee, 2013). While ultrasound courses have traditionally recruited from a pool of general radiography graduates, a current shortage of the latter is compounding the overall problem (Waring et al., 2018). Consequently, new direct-entry programmes have been advocated (Society and College of Radiographers, 2013). This presentation reports findings from an evaluation of one of the UK’s first postgraduate direct-entry ultrasound programmes, exploring the perspectives of the clinical leads of the departments within which participating students were placed.\ud \ud Methods: A thematic analysis informed by a Straussian model of Grounded Theory was employed (Sloane and Miller, 2017); semi-structured interviews with N=6 participating clinical leads were conducted at the end of the first and the second year of the programme.\ud \ud Results: Five global themes emerged: (a) The anticipated extra work required to clinically mentor students with no front-line healthcare experience; (b) The ‘soft skills’ (chiefly communication) of students with no prior clinical background; (c) Student management of clinical objectives; (d) Rapid student adaptation to context; (e) Financial benefits of the direct-entry postgraduate model.\ud \ud Conclusions: The anxieties of participants regarding (a) were rapidly quashed, while those around (b) were reported to have taken a little longer to fully address. While the equation between clinical objectives and academic work was an occasional ongoing concern, the rapidity with which the students adapted was reported to have given the participants great confidence in the selection process and the programmatic model itself.