Growing Up In a Large Family

Family, being the most basic unit of society is where the values of an individual are shaped. That is ideal of course and varies from widely from culture to culture.   In developed countries the family is mostly composed of the mother, father and the child. The number of children also varies from 1-3. That is called the nuclear family wherein a home includes no other relatives other than the first degree. However when it comes to developing countries where family ties are valued down to the farthest line such as cousins, uncles and grandparents, a family can be as large as seven to 12 people of more. In countries where the Islam religion is dominant and where the law allows for concubines, a family can be a very large. There are many advantages when it comes to growing up in a large family. For one, it is more lively and there are a lot of people who can help each other just in case the parents are busy. In cases where there are many children, as long as the parents are able to give equal love, care and financial support to each child then the family can be a host to a well rounded child. This is because even at a young age he is trained to mingle with a large crowd and build close ties with the others. The child therefore, grows to be an emotionally stable child and is well endowed with love and care. Brotherhood and sisterhood can also be cultivated in the mind of the child since he has a lot of siblings to take care of and play with. He will learn values such as teamwork and camaraderie at a young age. In addition to that, if the parents are loving enough and are effective in their parenting, the children will value sharing and fairness.  In cases where the grandparents and other relatives live with the family, then there would be a lot of adults to take care of the children and minimizing or compensating the love and attention that the parents can’t give to their child. In a nutshell, growing up in a large family can be very beneficial for the emotional status of the child.      

12 Angry Men The Film Essay

In reviewing the film 12 Angry Men, I have identified many types of influence tactics being utilized by the jurors. The five tactics that I believe were most used in this film were; reason or rational persuasion, coalition building, ingratiation, inspiration and pressure. Although there were several jurors throughout the film who may have demonstrated similar tactics at various times, it is my opinion that the majority of the influencing throughout the deliberation came from juror #8. I do believe there were other jurors that attempted to influence with the same amount of tenacity, however, their tactics were less affective as proven by the outcome of the deliberation and verdict decided by the jury. As the jury begins their deliberation very early on in the film, a discussion takes place where it becomes apparent some of the jurors are speaking as though it will be a quick one which will result in a guilty verdict. When the first vote takes place and juror #8 is the only one to vote â€Å"not guilty†, he begins to demonstrate some of the influence tactics discussed above. I believe that juror #8 himself demonstrated reasoning, coalition building, ingratiation and inspiration tactics. He reminded the other jurors that he was not necessarily saying that the boy was not guilty, however, he did not believe the evidence was strong enough to take away reasonable doubt that possibly the boy didn’t commit the crime. He insisted that they all review the evidence and discuss it in more detail. He was reasoning with the other jurors and stating a fact about what they should be basing their vote on. It is clear that juror #8 was exhibiting effective rational persuasion by pres enting factual information, making very clear, specific, and relevant points. Reasoning is the most commonly used influence tactic in general as well as the most commonly used tactic in this film. Once juror #8 was able to convince a few of the other jurors to also question the evidence, they started to build a coalition where multiple individuals were now also challenging the guilty verdict and some of the evidence. This may not have necessarily been a conscience decision to form a coalition, as one may see with a typical example such as a union, however, the simple fact that there were now several individuals all aligned on a decision seemed to be enough to allow others to explore additional scenarios and feel  comfortable questioning the evidence. There were also times in the film where juror #8 gave credit to another juror and made him feel like their opinion really mattered. When juror #8 told juror #9 that he had a right to be heard and asked that he explain why he thought the old man would be lying is an example of the ingratiation influence tactic. Although this wasn’t outright flattery as a more pointed example of ingratiation might be, telling someone their voice counts is enough to boost their self-esteem and could result in influencing their decision to side with the person using the ingratiation tactic. Lastly, it seemed apparent that most of the jurors in that room whether they were at a point where they agreed with the not guilty verdict or not, seemed somewhat inspired by juror #8’s willingness to stand alone for what he believed was the right thing to do. Taking a lone stance in the beginning of this deliberation and continuing to question the evidence to induce discussion is something that I believe the other jurors admired. Throughout the film, juror #8 continues to demonstrate leadership characteristics by challenging the status quo and never losing control of his emotions. He never seemed to be taking a stance for any personal reasons, he never demonstrated any prejudice and he came across very authentic. This influence tactic, although not intentional, can be described as inspiration. Juror #3 is the loudest and most adamant juror in favor of a guilty verdict along with juror #10. Juror #3 grows increasingly angry throughout the film as other jurors begin to change their vote from guilty to not guilty. Throughout the film he can be seen using the pressure influence tactic, attempting to strong-arm, threaten and intimidate the others into agreeing with him. He used an aggressive tone and an unnecessary high volume when speaking to the group. This type of tactic may work well in environments such as military basic training, along with a legitimacy tactic, but not amongst peers or in situations where the person doing the pressuring does not possess any real authority or pose any real threat to the group. There were no real consequences for the other jurors to be forced to succumb to juror #3’s pressure tactics. At one point in the discussion, the foreman states, ‘All of this fighting is getting us nowhere’. It is my opinion that this statement couldn’t be further from the truth. For juror #8 to take a jury of 11 men believing the boy is guilty to having every one of those 11 men eventually change their decision based on the discussion he ignited shows that all of the ‘fighting’ or discussion was very necessary and actually did result in a different outcome because of the issues that were brought out during the conflict. In most cases where the stakes are high, discussions are necessary to ensuring that all of the facts are laid out. To demonstrate specific examples of where discussion was impactful to the deliberation, a few key scenes can be sited. One of the first scenes where the audience can see this shown is when juror #8 asks to see the knife that killed the man. During the trial it was stated that this was a rare switchblade and when juror #8 produces a very similar knife that he picked up from a store in the same neighborhood as the father and son, doubt is now starting to settle in with some of the other jurors which then causes them to reconsider their position. Other key scenes where their disagreements resulted in a robust discussion that ultimately swayed juror’s decisions include a re-enactment of the old man getting out of bed to witness the boy running out of the apartment. Without a full on debate, they would have never figured out that this was actually impossible to do in the 15 seconds that the old man said it took. In another scene the jury also discussed the old woman’s testimony that she saw the murder take place through the el train. If they had not gone through this in detail and figured out that she actually wore glasses and couldn’t have seen the assailant very clearly, some jurors would have still been convinced that the only eye witness did in fact see the boy murder his father. These extremely important details were discovered through a robust discussion or conflict and were absolutely pertinent in the ultimate decision to acquit the boy in the murder. Works Cited Edrogen, T. B. (2013). Organizational Behvavior v1.1. Flatworld. Rose, R. (Director). (1957). 12 Angry Men [Motion Picture].

History of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution Research Paper

History of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution - Research Paper Example It is no wonder that different times have seen different interpretations of the statutes of the constitution in accordance with the needs and cognizance of the ruling class, and to a lesser extent, the citizens of the United States. What the founders of the nation meant by those statues, for the most part, has been lost to the numerous changes in the application of the Constitution. The text that is written, and the effects of it on the general public, can be so different from each other sometimes that leaves one wondering if indeed the Constitution itself had been followed. This is not only true for the Constitution, but for all forms of Law, be they judiciary, civil, or criminal. To some extent, it is explainable and even expected; given the rate at which the society is developing, and the sophistication and complexity that it is bringing with itself in every field and sector, it is imperative that changes in the context of established laws would take place. It is legal too, as long as such changes do not repeal the said laws in their entirety. Perhaps the article of law from the Constitution that has been the subject of most controversies, and is, paradoxically the most under-researched and less studied is the 2nd Amendment (Subcommittee on the Constitution). And perhaps it deals with the most controversial of the topics; the bearing of arms, as regards to th e current state of unrest and rampant threats of terrorism all over the nation. Hence, one can safely assume that what this amendment stands for today might not have been what it was aimed for when it was drafted, or even why the need to draft such a bill came into existence to begin with. These issues require an in-depth study of the amendment; what is most important in this case is the history of the 2nd amendment rather than its present form or its present context. This is because through the examination and understanding of the history o f this amendment can we hope to unearth its true meaning, context, and need for enactment, which will point the way to its proper application today. This in itself is important because there has been much debate over the meaning of the exact wordings of this amendment, which have caused a great deal of concern and argument in the recent times (U.S. Constitution Online). This has led to discrepancies in the court decisions among the different sta tes and different courts of the country. Maybe by studying the history of the amendment, it can be hoped to draft a unified meaning to this pertinent amendment with the aim of bringing harmony and unity to the court decisions and among the legal bodies, scholars, experts, and critics dealing with this amendment. This paper aims at discussing the history o f the 2nd amendment of the U.S. Constitution, bringing to light the many aspects of its blurred history, comparing it with the present day version of the different terms used in this amendment, and trying to established a set meaning to the amendment itself. The basic question to be answered would be: what the writers of the Constitution meant when they wrote the 2nd amendment. As will be seen from the study in the subsequent pages, there are quite a number of shades to its history, many of them quite controversial. We will begin by stating the 2nd amendment in its current form: â€Å"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to t he security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.† (U.S. Constitution Online). It is beneficial for the study to break the statement of the amendment into its three constituent parts, and to study the history of each phrase in order to understand the true meaning of the amendment as a whole. Let us begin by

Speedy Hire Plc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Speedy Hire Plc - Essay Example y has increased the requirements for the housing sector in the country and the reduced cyclicality has allowed companies to anticipate the market trends more effectively. Companies including Speedy Hire Plc within this sector is continuously relying on the information technology therefore there will be increased dependence on technology in the future also. Legal environment in the country is favorable. Environmental concerns for companies are increasingly becoming a burning issue for the hire industry and it is believed that companies successfully addressing environmental issues will competitive advantage in the future. Starting with a very humble beginning, Speedy Hire Plc is now considered as top company in UK for hire market and is listed on Stock Exchange. Speedy Hire Plc is a business to business company and operates through two divisions of Tool Hire and Equipment Hire. The Tool hire division operates through five regional companies with 235 depots whereas Equipment Hire division also operates through the five businesses with 126 depots. Over the period of time, company has made an organic growth and now considered as one of the major players in the market. The competitive landscape in the market is changing. The market historically remain divided into two product lines however this traditional demarcation is changing and market seems to be consolidating. The increasing environmental concerns and increased use of information technology are the two factors which are further pushing the competition to the limits. This further aggravates the fact that there are very low barriers to entry into the market therefore there remains a great threat of new entrants into the market also. Besides small players mushroomed at local level can be considered as bigger threat also. As discussed above that the barriers to entry are low in the market therefore there is a strong possibility of new entrants making into the market however considering the cost of doing business,

PWC job opportunities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PWC job opportunities - Assignment Example However, there is no limit to the professional skills that are considered in this respect. The organization is interested in establishing how one’s talents, leadership abilities and skills are best fit for its needs. PWC offers a range of services to its customers which means that it needs a relatively wide variety of skilled personnel to accomplish its functions effectively as a service provider. Generally, the organization offers internship and full time jobs for university students who are interested in working under any of the following lines of service: Advisory, Tax or Assurance. Since the organization is dedicated to training its own staff beyond what they have learnt at school, the organization accepts students taking almost any course. A high GPA and consistency in academic performance is one of the organization’s focus when recruiting its staff. The company generally employs students pursuing degree courses at the least. In order to be considered for internship, a student needs to submit his/her application stating their personal and academic background, accomplishments, personal interests, professional interests and leadership roles if any. The student may apply for positions advertised by the organization as posted in the school’s career centre. Alternatively, the student may apply by creating a talent profile on the company’s website. Generally, students who have worked with the organization as interns have a higher chance of getting full time jobs withy the company as common practice with other organizations. The student may apply for positions advertised by the organization as posted in the school’s career centre. Alternatively, the student may apply by creating a talent profile on the company’s website. In the application process, the student will have to submit his/her professional resume which will be vital in their evaluation.

The wedding banquet by Ang Lee Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The wedding banquet by Ang Lee - Movie Review Example The film’s main plot revolves around immigrant homosexual couples, named as Wai-Tung Gao (from Taiwan) and Simon. But Wai-Tung was forced to marry a bankrupt lady named as Wei-Wei. Besides, Wai-Tung agrees to marry because he does not like to dishearten his parents. Meanwhile, Wei-Wei gets impregnated from Wai-Tung. On the other side, Wai-Tung discloses his sexual interest to his mother. In the end, Wai-Tung’s father accepts his son’s sexual interest and goes back to his motherland. Besides, Wei-Wei gives birth to a child and accepts Simon to her family. In short, sexual orientation becomes acceptable within Wai-Tung’s private circle. In the film, the director makes use of the main characters as his mouthpiece to share his opinion on homosexuality. Cliff Mills opines that, â€Å"The Wedding Banquet script is based on a true story about a gay Taiwanese immigrant living in New York City with his partner† (59). One can see that the gay couple in the film tries to hide their sexual interest because they consider that the society will not accept their relationship. Besides, the problems faced by the gay couple can be generalized to the wider context of the social problems faced by gay people. Still, the female protagonist (say, Wei-Wei) shows acceptance to the gay couple. In short, the director sheds light into the problems faced by gay people. In the film, the western society does not hesitate to accept homosexual people to the core of the society. On the other side, those who represent Eastern society hesitate to accept homosexuality as a sexual interest. Fran Martin states that, â€Å"In its negotiation of the positioning of Taiwan vis-a-vis the US and hence ‘the rest of the world’, The Wedding Banquet stages a kind of postcolonial cultural clash between two regimes of sexuality: broadly a ‘Chinese-familial’ regime, and a regime of ‘American gay identity’ † (143). To be specific, the

Perfect Competition and Long-run Equilibrium Term Paper

Perfect Competition and Long-run Equilibrium - Term Paper Example Basically, in a market of perfect competition does not give monopoly to a single company. A single firm or company does not rule over the whole market as many firms are producing the same products. Thus one single firm is not able to determine the prices of products. A market with perfect competition would have many suppliers, producers and consumers because of the different firms involved in such a market. The perfect competition involves many sellers or firms and thus it cannot be found to be very common in this world. In perfect competition it is not difficult for the new firms to enter, thus it is seen that many sellers are involved in this type of competition. The reason for this is that the firms do not have to have a huge capital to enter this competition and they can seek help from many individuals when entering in this sector. Moreover not only is it easy to enter the perfectly competitive market but also it is easy to exit such a market. The transactions which are made in t his type of competition do not cost anything to the buyers or sellers. In such a type of competition, it is aimed that the firms maximize their profits by selling their products where the marginal costs and marginal revenue are in equilibrium. The most important characteristic of such a competition is that the products which are being sold are usually manufactured by many companies thus strong competition is felt in this type of competition. An example of perfect competition is a group of fruit vendors who are selling the same fruits.

Investment appraisal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Investment appraisal - Essay Example This analysis has been conducted based on several financial theories related to equity valuation. 1 Introduction 1.1 History of Google Google, a name synonymous with world leader in specializing in internet related services and product. The product and services offered by Google are vast and its operations are expanding at a rapid pace. The primary services offered by this giant corporation include cloud computing, software and online advertising. As per the latest and historical financial analysis, the company has been deriving its main revenue from the Adwords. Google was founded Larry Page and Sergey Brin who own about 16% of the shares of the company as per the latest annual report of the company. Soon after the initial public offer (IPO), the company’s revenue, and in turn its profitability has increased by leaps and bounds. The initial public offering of the company took place on August 19, 2004. On this historical date, around 19,605,052 shares of the company were offer ed at a price of $85 per shares. The mode of the sale of the shares was suggested to be through online auction. Through this IPO, the company was able to generate a great deal of capital amount to around $ 1.67 billion resulting in a market capitalization of over $ 23 billion. However, the majority of the Google shares remained under the control of the Google. The paper evaluates the price of the shares of Google at the time of its IPO. Through applying different equity valuation method, it can be evaluated whether the share was overpriced or under priced. 2Financial Valuation 2.1 Introduction to equity valuation Equity valuation can be defined as the process of identifying the current market value of the company which is also regarded as the current market capitalization of the company. There are several step of equity valuation process and it requires an adequate understanding of financial management techniques and acumen. 2.2 Equity valuation techniques The most important step in equity valuation process is the selection of an appropriate valuation model. Few models widely used in financial evaluation are as under: Net Asset Valuation Price Earning Valuation Dividend growth model Based on the above valuation models, an analyst predicts the equity value of the company by selecting any one of the above mentioned models which appears to be apt in the circumstances. Finally the investor must make an investment decision based on the calculated value of equity in the above step. This decision involves investment recommendation to the investor whether it is financially feasible to invest in the stock of the company being valued or not. If the analyst concludes that the equity value of the company is as such which is significantly greater than the current book value of the company, then it represents that the company will reap benefits in the future for the investors, thus the investment decision would be financially viable. 2.3 Net Asset Valuation Net asset valuat ion is also called the net worth of a company. It is simple valuation model which is based on the recoded balance on the balance sheet items of a company. The stock price of the share under this model can be calculated by divided the net

Global Communication Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global Communication - Term Paper Example Gannon further explains that use of cultural metaphors makes it easy for an individual to comprehend the differences in cultures. For example, the Japanese Garden acts as a metaphor, which depicts the culture in Japan. In both modern and traditional settings, men have always grouped themselves into different regions, currently known as countries. Every country has its own unique practices best presented by various cultural metaphors. In addition, cultural metaphors have various advantages such as offering an in-depth understanding of a country’s culture. In that view, one may have the opportunity to witness experiences, which may include seeing the practical bit of a people’s culture. When an opportunity for cross-cultural interaction appears, cultural metaphors can prove to be of significant use as they may provide a deep understanding as to why people are doing things in a certain manner (Gannon, and Pillai, 2009). Subsequently, this understanding makes interaction sm ooth and fruitful. In addition, this understanding may prove to be of essence where global communication is bound to take place as it gives rise to peace among individuals from different countries that have different cultural practices. The US and Poland both present two countries that have different cultural beliefs and practices. They each bear different metaphors to distinguish them. In Poland, a significant metaphor found virtually in all the towns is the village church. The village church is a symbol representing Poland’s peasant roots, Catholicism, which is a religious belief highly upheld in Poland’s culture, and the foreign power that was dominating them a while back. Poland’s choice of the exterior and interior looks of the church is a form of another cultural metaphor of the Polish. This is so because the looks are unique and present a product of the many years Poland underwent foreign domination. It is also worth noting that the Polish churches are st rategically located as they stand at the central part of the village. Concurrently, we find US having different cultural practices from those in Poland. For example, in the United States of America, different religions dominate the towns and cities. Moreover, the churches do not have a particular site that defines them. However, the United States of America has its own cultural metaphors, starting from its distinct colorful flag, which is a symbol of the unity of the states within the continent of North America. It is also notable that the Polish are high-context speakers on comparison to the Americans. Currently, the Polish culture is diverging from its roots, a change that to Poles has a negative effect; however, others feel that it will bring about positive changes. A change in the role of Polish church is one of the changes Poland’s culture is facing. At first, the church acted as a central figure within the towns but currently there is a large-scale project, which involv es building churches all over Poland’s countryside. Over the recent years, people have lost touch with the church; this presents another cultural change among the Poles. Prior to this sudden change people viewed the church as a haven of resisting communism, however, it now disregards what the

The Story of an Hour (short story) Research Paper

The Story of an Hour (short story) - Research Paper Example It is only when she retires to her room that the reader realizes the state of the mixed emotions of Mrs. Millard, as she feels both joy and sorrow at the death of her husband. One can infer that she had not been treated well by her husband because trivial misunderstandings do not cause one to rejoice in someone’s death. For the death of a person to cause someone such bliss the reason must be substantial. Later on when Mrs. Millard finds out that her husband is actually alive, she is unable to endure the news and instantly passes away. The plot of the story is very engaging and resonates with the reader on some level. The mood of the story is not the ordinary way in which the story of someone’s death is told; that is the tone of the story sways from sorrow to joy and back again to sorrow. A particular point of interest in the story is when Mrs. Mallard retires into her room and confides in nature as opposed to her sister (Chopin 40). I feel this shows us the conflict between human beings and the social stigmas that exist in the society due to which even though Mrs. Millard felt plagued by her husband she still could not share her happiness over the much anticipated freedom which she finally could see coming. At that point it is revealed to the reader that Mrs. Millard is actually happy about her husband’s death, which twists the perspective by which the reader perceives the story. Later in the story, Mrs. Millard’s sister tries to get her out of her room thinking that she will fall sick alone. At that point, Chopin makes use of dramatic irony because the fact that Mrs. Millar d is happy is known to the reader but not to the character of Mrs. Millard’s sister (Prentice Hall 47). There has been extensive use of imagery in the story, particularly when Mrs. Millard is sitting by the window and certain elements of nature are described: â€Å"But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the

The Water Pollution Essay Example for Free

The Water Pollution Essay What can the government do as of now to resolve problems in pollutions, specifically water pollution? Considering the fact that health hazards poses the greatest threats to the people’s survival. On the other hand, how water pollution occurs is the first issue that has to be clarified. According to Hayes (2007), water pollution takes place if there is great accumulation of foreign materials in a body of water. A source of water pollution are categorized into two levels, first is the point source which comes from canals or other sewage tunnels flowing directly to the water system, and second is the non point source when there are instances that pesticides, other chemicals and or garbage fluid leaks to the water system. Water pollution however does not only occur in the bays or streams as a result of runoff of contaminants, and it is not only the big industrial companies are responsible or the source of such contamination, in fact the pollutants being carried in the runoff might have first come from the neighborhood. Posted in Mbgnet (2006) there are many causes and or types of water pollution, these came from toxic substances like herbicides, industrials compounds and other chemicals; organic substances like dung, sewage or other household wastes that increases the eutrophication process of the water system; the thermal pollution which results when large industrial plants uses water from the river to cool their production process resulting to less dissolved oxygen in the water; and ecological pollution like siltation. Based on GEMI (2007), almost 40% of the world will live in fresh water scarcity by 2025 because of the depletion of the water source. This is one of the most adverse effects of water pollution to the ecosystem. As this is seen by continues pollution in underground water and increasing contamination of the river, lakes, oceans and other water systems mostly by industrial wastes and garbage. As cited in Edugreen. teri. res. in (2007), health impact caused by water pollution is primarily water borne diseases like viral, bacterial or protozoan infections. This is a great hazard to the human health because it cannot be acquired only through the water that people drink but also to the organisms that live in or nearby the contaminated waterways. Based on Krantz and Kifferstein’s (2007) study one of the most common practices that are being used to reduce water pollution is the waste water treatment. This is done to lessen the harmful solids and other compounds that were dissolved in the water. The possible compounds are materials that consume oxygen, dissolved inorganic compounds like that of the detergents, and harmful bacteria. According to Norris (1994) water pollution could be lessen if the citizens will do some regulatory influence over the agricultural, industrial, and municipal sector that contributes most of the pollution in water in terms of chemical runoffs and other contaminants. The citizens could either demand for a clean water act that the government will take a lead of. Problems with water pollution can never be answered by the government alone as stated by Krantz and Kifferstein’s (2007). Hence if that kind of negative phenomenon will continue to flourish, little by little life on earth will be put to risk. The people have the greatest responsibility about how it occurred and responsibility also on how to clean it up. Familiarization on what and how water pollution takes place is a big help to stop it from overrunning the whole water system of the planet. Hence pollution is like a network and it covers not only the water or the land but also the air or atmosphere, it is our choice to react and make some motions on how we can stop it or if not, at least lessen its unfavorable consequence. In cases like greenhouse effects, it is not only the emission of the cars and or the wastes coming from industrial companies that the government or the environmentalists should have concern of. But instead to a broader level like considering the population size, its activities and its contribution to carbon dioxide emission. References Edugreen. teri. res. in, 2007. Health Impacts Of Water Pollution. Retrieved on May 14, 2007 at http://edugreen. teri. res. in/explore/water/health. htm GEMI, 2007. Water Trends. Retrieved on May 12, 2007 at http://www. gemi.org/water/watertrends. htm Hayes, W. 2007. Non Point Source Water Pollution. Retrieved on May 12, 2007 at http://ohioline. osu. edu/aex-fact/0441. html Krantz, D. and Kifferstein. B, 2007. Water Pollution And Society. Retrieved on May 14, 2007 at http://www. umich. edu/~gs265/society/waterpollution. htm Mbgnet, 2007. Water Pollution. Retrieved on May 12, 2007 at http://mbgnet. net/fresh/pollute. htm Norris, J. 1994. How To Lessen Water Pollution. Retrieved on May 12, 2007 at http://scholar. lib. vt. edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp941108/11050020. htm

Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families

Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families The whole issue of parents and children in need is a vast, complex and ethically challenging one. This review is specifically charged with an examination of those issues which impinge upon the stresses and strains that are experienced by parents of children in need. A superficial examination of these issues that are involved in this particular area would suggest that there are a number of â€Å"sub-texts â€Å"which can all give rise to this particular situation. Firstly, to have child in need is clearly a stressful situation for any parent.(Meltzer H et al. 1999) This can clearly be purely a financial concern and a reflection of the fact that the whole family is in financial hardship, perhaps due to the economic situation or perhaps due to the actions of the parents themselves. Equally the need of the child can be a result of anon-financial need, so we should also consider the child who is in some way handicapped, ill, emotionally disturbed or perhaps in need in some other way. This produces another type of stress on the parent, and these stresses are typically longer lasting and, in general, less easily rectified than a purely financial consideration of need. (Hall D1996). It is part of the basic ethos of the welfare state that it should look after its less able and disadvantaged members. (Welsh Office 1997).Parents of children in need will often qualify in this definition. We shall therefore examine the various aspects of this problem. Literature Review Effectiveness of family support for children in homeless families We will make a start by considering one type of child in need. The first paper that we will consider is that of Prof. Vostanis (Vostanis2002), which looks at the mental health problems that are faced by deprived children and their families together with the effectiveness of the resources that are available to them. It is a well written and well researched paper, if rather complex and confusing in places. We will consider this paper in some detail as it provides an excellent overview of the whole area. The paper starts with a rather useful definition for our purposes. It qualifies the deprived child, initially in terms of a homeless family, that being : A family of any number of adults with dependent children who are statutorily accepted by local authorities (housing departments) in teak, and are usually accommodated for a brief period in voluntary agency, local authority or housing association hostels. This period of temporary accommodation can vary enormously depending on the time of year and the area considered, and can range from a few days to perhaps several months. The target in Greater London is currently storehouse homeless families within 4-6 weeks. In London particularly, the homeless families can be placed in Bed Breakfast accommodation.(D of H 1998) In this respect, the immediate family support mechanisms do appear tube in place. Vostranis however, goes on to make the observation that despite the fact that the definition of the homeless family is rather broad, it does not cover all of the potential children in need, as those children and their carers who have lost their homes but have managed to live with relatives, on the streets or perhaps live as travellers, are not covered by the statutory obligation to provide housing. The official figures therefore, he observes, are generally an underestimate of the true situation. The official figures for the homeless families are put (in this paper) at 140,000. (Vostanis Cumella, 1999) The authors give us further information in that many families will become homeless again within one year of rehousing and the typical family seen is the single mother and at least two children who are generally under the age of 11 yrs. They also observe that the typical father and adolescent child tend to be placed in homeless centres. (Doff H 1995) In exploration of the particular topic that we are considering, the authors give us the situations that typically have given rise to the degree of parental stress that may have led to the homelessness. They point to the fact that a homeless family is usually homeless for different reasons to the single homeless adult. Vostanis (et al 1997)is quoted as showing that 50% of the cases studied were homeless as direct result of domestic violence and 25% as a result of harassment from neighbours. The authors observe that the numbers in this category(and therefore the problems), are rising. (Welsh Office 1999). There are a number of section to this paper which are not directly referable to our considerations. We shall therefore direct our attention purely to those parts that have a direct bearing on the subject. One particularly useful and analytical part of the paper is the section that details the characteristics and needs of the target group. This is a very detailed section, but it makes the point that the children in need in this group are particularly heterogeneous, generally all with multiple and inter-related needs. Homelessness is seldom a one off event. This particular observation, (say the authors),is crucially important for the development and provision of services. Most families have histories of previous chronic adversities that constitute risk factors for both children and parents (Bassuk et al,1997). Such events include family conflict, violence and breakdown; limited or absent networks for family and social support; recurring moves; poverty; and unemployment. Mothers are more likely to have suffered abuse in their own childhood and adult life and children have increased rates of placement on the at-risk child protection register, because of neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse. If we specifically consider the health needs of this population, the authors categorise them thus: The children are more likely to have a history of low birthweight, anaemia, dental decay and delayed immunisations, to be of lower stature and have a greater degree of nutritional stress. They are also more likely to suffer accidents, injuries and burns. (BPA 1999) Some studies have found that child health problems increase with the duration of homelessness, although this finding is not consistent. Substantial proportion of homeless children have delayed development compared with the general population of children of a similar chronological age. This includes both specific developmental delays, such as in receptive and expressive language and visual, motor and reading skills, as well as general skills and educational status (Webbet al. 2001). It is for this reason specifically, that it has proved extremely difficult to assess the effectiveness of the family support services because of the multivariate nature of the problems that are presented. The authors point to the fact that one of the prime determinants of the degree of support available, is the actual access that the families have to these services. Many sources (viz. Wilkinson R 1996), equate the poor health of the disadvantaged primarily with the lack of access to services. One immediate difficulty is the current registration system in the UK. In order to be seen in the primary healthcare team setting, one must be registered with a named doctor. In the majority of cases that we are dealing with here, they have moved area and registration is probably not high on their list of priorities. One can argue that there is the access to the A E departments of the local hospitals but there is virtually no continuity here and they arena geared up to provide anything other than immediate treatment. (HallD 1996). This fact restricts their access to primary healthcare team procedures such as immunisations and other preventative medicine health clinics.(Lissauer et al, 1993) . By the same token these groups also have restricted access to the social services, whether they be the access teams, the family teams or the family support units and other agencies. The authors also point to other more disruptive trends in this group such as an inability to attend a particular school for fear of being tracked by an abusive partner. It follows that these children do not have a stable social support of a school. They are denied such factors as peer groups, routines and challenges which are both important protective and developmental factors. (Shankleman J et al2000). The summation of all of these factors, and others, is that the effectiveness of the family support services is greatly reduced by the mobility and the transient nature of the family unit. Quite apart from the difficulties outlined above relating to the problems of access to avenues of help open to the child in need and their families there are the problems engendered by the fact that social service departments indifferent areas of the country may not have immediate access to the previous records giving rise to many potential, and real, problems with continuity of care. This problem is brought into more immediate focus when one considers the increased frequency of child protection registrations in this particular group. (Hall D et al 1998). One specific analysis of the family support services of this particular group comes in the form of the psychiatric services. In the context of the title of this piece, it demonstrates how these particular services,(but not these alone), are failing to deal with the totality of the problem. All of the aspects that we have outlined so far are conspiring to dilute the effectiveness of the services provided. The fact that they are a mobile population with no fixed address means that some of the services may choose to invoke this as a reason for not making provision for them, particularly if resources are stretched. If more resources are given, then they are typically preferentially targeted at the single adult homeless population where the need is arguably greater. The authors of this paper point to the fact that this may not actually be true as some studies have shown that homeless single mothers and their children have a 49% psychopathy rate and only an 11% contact with the support services. (Cumella et al, 1998). The impact of this fact on the children can only be imagined. To an extent however, it can be quantified as the authors cite other studies which show a 30% need rating for children, (they do not actually define exactly what their perceived level of need was), contrasted with a 3% contact rate for children and adolescents in this area. (viz. Power S et al. 1995). Suggestions for improvement Putting these considerations together, the authors outline a set of proposals which are designed to help improve the access to some of the essential services. The model that they propose could, if successful and with a degree of modification, prove suitable for adaptation to other areas of the family support services. It is not appropriate to discuss this model in detail, but suffice it to say that it has tiered structure so that the degree of distress and need is titrated against the degree of input generated. One of the reasons that we have selected this particular paper to present in this context is for its last section. It proposes a â€Å"family support services model† which has been developed and pioneered in the Leicester area. In the context of our review, it is worth considering in some detail. A service provided through a family support team (four family support assistants).This is designed to detect a range of problems at the time of crisis; manage a degree of mental health problems (behavioural and emotional); provide parenting-training; support and train housing(hostel) staff; co-ordinate the work of different agencies; and provide some continuity after rehousing by ensuring intake by appropriate local services. The family workers are based at the main hostel for homeless children and families. Other, predominantly voluntary, services have established alternative posts, such as advocates and key workers. Whatever the title of the post, it is essential that the post-holder has some experience and on-going training in mental health and child protection, so that he or she can hold a substantial case-load, rather than merely mediate between already limited services. The family support workers have direct access to the local child and adult mental health services, whose staff provide weekly outreach clinics. Their role is to work with the family support workers another agencies, assess selected children and families, and provide treatment for more severe problems or disorders such as depression, self-harm and PTSD. A weekly inter-agency liaison meeting at the main hostel is attended by a health visitor, representatives of the local domestic violence service and Sure Start, There are also close, regular links with education welfare and social services. The aim is to effectively utilise specialist skills by discussing family situations from all perspectives at the liaison meeting. A bimonthly steering group, led by the housing department, involves senior managers representing these agencies, as well as the education and social services departments and the voluntary sector, and they oversee and co-ordinate the service. This appears to be something of an exemplar in relation to services provided elsewhere. The paper does not provide any element of costing sin this area neither does it provide any figures in relation to its success rates, contact rates or overall effectiveness. In conclusion this paper is an extremely well written and authoritative overview of the situation relating to the stresses of the homeless parent with children and the effectiveness (or lack of it) in its ability to reduce the stresses experienced by the homeless children in need and their parents. It proposes remedies but sadly it does not evaluate the effectiveness of those remedies. The effectiveness of the support services on families of children with psychiatric morbidity In order to address these shortcomings we can consider another paper by Tickler (et al 2000). This looks at a similar outreach set up which has been designed to capture the families of children in need who might otherwise slip through the net. This paper is written from different perspective and specifically analyses the effectiveness of these services as they pertain to an entry cohort of 40 families. This particular study was set up after preliminary work was done in the Birmingham area with 114 homeless families and this study defined the needs of the families but did not quantify their support systems.(Vostanis et al 1998). This paper set out to identify and measure the support systems available and their effectiveness as far as the families were concerned. The stresses encountered were partly reflected by the incidence of psychiatric morbidity. The mothers in the group were found to have over 50% more morbidity than a matched control group. The children in the group were found to have â€Å"histories of abuse, living in care, being on the at-risk protection register, delayed communication and higher reported mental health problems.† Allot which adds to the general background stress levels. (Kerouac S etal. 1996). This particular study found that despite the psychiatric morbidity in the children, (estimated to be about 30%), and the psychiatric morbidity in the parents, (estimated at about 50%), only 3%of the children and 10% of the parents had had any significant contactor support from the social services. In this respect, this paper is very useful to our purpose as it quantifies the levels of intervention and access to healthcare resources that this particular group has. By any appreciation, it would be considered woefully inadequate in any society that calls itself civilised. In the terms of the title of this piece, the effectiveness of the family support services is minimal. Suggestions for improvement Like the last paper discussed, this one also considered how best to tackle the problem, and this one is of much greater value to us, as it specifies a response, or intervention, to the problem in much the same way as the Vostranis 2002 paper did, but it makes the same measurements as it did prior to the intervention, and therefore allows us an insight into the actual effectiveness of the intervention. The way this particular study worked was to assess the problem (as it has been presented above), devise an intervention strategy and then to measure its effect. This particular study goes to great lengths to actively involve all the appropriate agencies that could help the situation by having a central assessment station that acted as liaison between all of the other resources. In brief, it actively involved liaison with the following: Education, social services, child protection, local mental health services, voluntary and community organisations to facilitate there-integration of the family into the community, and particularly their engagement with local services following rehousing; and training of staff of homeless centres in the understanding, recognition and management of mental illness in children and parents. This is essential, as hostel staff often work in isolation and have little knowledge of the potential severity and consequences of mental health problems in children. It was hoped that, by doing this, it would maximise the impact that the limited resources had on reducing the levels of morbidity and stress in the families of the children in need. Results The post intervention results were, by any estimate, impressive considering the historical difficulty of working with this particular group (OHara M 1995). 40 families (including 122 children) were studied in detail. The paper gives a detailed breakdown of the ethnic and demographic breakdown of the group. By far the biggest group were single mothers and children (72%) The results showed that the majority of referrals were seen between1-3 times (55%), with a further 22% being seen 4-6 times. It is reflection of the difficulty in engaging this type of family in need that over 25% did not actually keep their appointments despite the obvious potential benefits that could have been utilised. The authors investigated this group further and ascertained that a common reason for nonattendance was the perception that the psychological welfare of the children was not actually the main concern. The families perceived that their primary needs were rehousing and financial stability. Other priorities identified were that physical health was a greater priority than mental health. The authors also identify another common failing in the social services provision, and that is the general lack of regular contact. They cite the situation where some families cope well initially, apparently glad to have escaped an abusive or violent home situation, but a prolonged stay in a hostel or temporary accommodation may soon precipitate a bout of depression in the parents and behavioural problems in the children of such parents. (Brooks RM et al 1998). They suggest that regular re-visiting of families who have been in temporary accommodation for any significant length of time should be mandatory. This paper takes a very practical overview by pointing out that workability of the system is, to a large extent, dependent on the goodwill of a number of committed professionals. The authors state that this has to be nurtured and they call for sufficient funding must be given to enable this particular model to be extended to a National level. Thus far in the review we have considered the effectiveness of the service provision in the support of the families of the children in need in one specific target grouping, those who are stressed by virtue of the fact that they are homeless. We will now consider the literature on a different kind of family stress, and that is when a parent dies. This leaves the children with a considerable amount of potential emotional â€Å"baggage† and the surviving parent with an enormous amount of stress. (Webb E 1998). Effectiveness of support services in the case of parental bereavement An excellent paper by Downey (et al 1999) tackles this particular problem with both sensitivity and also considerable rigour. It is a long and complex paper, but the overall aims and objectives are clear from the outset. The structure of the paper is a prospective case study which aims to assess whether the degree of distress suffered by a family during a time of bereavement is in any way linked to the degree of service provision that is utilised. The base line for this study is set out in its first two paragraphs. Parentally bereaved children and surviving parents showed a greater than predicted level of psychiatric morbidity. Boys had greater levels of demonstrable morbidity than did girls, but bereaved mothers showed more morbidity than did bereaved fathers. Children were more likely to show signs of behavioural disturbance when the surviving parent manifested some kind of psychiatric disorder. (Kranzler EM et al 1990). The authors point to the fact that their study shows that the service provision is statistically related to a number of (arguably unexpected[Fristad MA et al 1993]) factors namely: The age of the children and the manner of parental death. Children under 5 years of age were less likely to be offered services than older children even though their parents desired it. Children were significantly more likely to be offered services when the parent had committed suicide or when the death was expected. Children least likely to receive service support were those who were not in touch with services before parental death. Paradoxically the level of service provision was not found to be statistically significantly related to either the parental wishes or the degree of the psychiatric disturbance in either the parent orchid. (Sanchez L et al 1994) The service provision did have some statistical relationships but that was only found to be the manner of the parental death and the actual age of the child at the time. The authors therefore are able to identify a mismatch between the perceived need for support and the actual service provision made. Part of that mismatch is found to be due to the inability of the social services and other related agencies to take a dispassionate overview. Elsewhere in the paper the authors suggest that there are other factors that add to this inequality and they include lack of resources and a lack of specificity in identifying children at greatest risk.(Harrington R 1996) The authors examine other literature to back up their initial precept that bereaved children have greater levels of morbidity. They cite many other papers who have found distress manifesting in the form of â€Å"anxiety, depression, withdrawal, sleep disturbance, and aggression.†(Worden JW et al. 1996) and also psychological problems in later life(Harris T et al. 1996). In terms of study structure, the authors point to methodological problems with other papers in the area including a common failing of either having a standardised measure or no matched control group(Mohammed D et al 2003). They also point to the fact that this is probably the first UK study to investigate the subject using a properly representative sample and certainly the first to investigate whether service provision is actually related to the degree of the problems experienced. The entry cohort involved nearly 550 families with 94 having children in the target range (2-18). With certain exclusions (such as two families where one parent had murdered the other etc.) and no respondents, the final cohort was reduced to 45 families and one target child was randomly selected from each family. It has to be noted that the comparatively large number of on-respondents may have introduced a large element of bias, insofar as it is possible that the families most in need of support were those who were most distressed by the death of a family member and these could have been the very ones who chose not to participate. (Morton V et al2003) The authors make no comment on this particular fact. The authors should be commended for a particularly ingenious control measure for the children. They were matched by asking their schoolteacher to complete an inventory of disturbed behaviour on the next child in the school register after the target child. A large part of the paper is taken up with methodological issues which ( apart from the comments above) cannot be faulted. Results In terms of being children in need, 60% of children were found to have â€Å"significant behavioural abnormalities† with 28% having scores above the 95th centile. In terms of specific service support provision, 82% of parents identified a perceived need for support by virtue of the behaviour of their children. Only 49% of these actually received it in any degree. Perhaps the most surprising statistic to come out of this study waste fact that of the parents who were offered support 44% were in the group who asked for it and 56% were in the group who didn’t want it. The levels of support offered were independent of the degree of behavioural disturbance in the child. Suggestions for improvement As with the majority of papers that we have either presented here or read in preparation for this review, the authors call for a more rationally targeted approach to the utilisation of limited resources. The study also provides us with a very pertinent comment which many experienced healthcare professionals will empathise with, (Black D1996), and that is: Practitioners should also be aware that child disturbance may reflect undetected psychological distress in the surviving parent. While not suggesting that this is a reflection of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, the comment is a valid reflection of the fact that parental distress may be well hidden from people outside of the family and may only present as a manifestation of the child’s behaviour. (Feldman Met al. 1994) The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that there is considerable gap in the support offered ( quite apart form the effectiveness of that support) in this area of obvious stress for both parents and children. (Black D 1998). This study goes some way to quantifying the level of support actually given in these circumstances. Effectiveness of support in families where there is domestic violence We have considered the role of the effectiveness and indeed, even the existence, of adequate support services for the children in need and their parents in a number of different social circumstances. The next paper that we wish to present is an excellent review of the support that is given to another specific sub-group and that is women and children who suffer from domestic violence. Webb and her group (etal 2001) considered the problem in considerable (and commendable) depth The study itself had an entry cohort of nearly 150 children and their mothers who were resident in a number of hostels and women’s refuges that had been the victims of family violence at some stage in the recent past. The study subjected the cohort to a battery of tests designed to assess their physical, emotional and psychological health, and then quantified their access to, and support gained from, the primary healthcare teams and other social service-based support agencies. This study is presented in a long and sometimes difficult tread format. Much of the presentation is (understandably) taken up with statistical, ethical and methodological matters – all of which appear to be largely of excellent quality and the result of careful consideration. Results The results make for interesting and, (in the context of this review), very relevant reading. Perhaps one of the more original findings was that nearly 60% of the child health data held by the various refuges was factually incorrect. This clearly has grave implications for studies that base their evidence base on that data set(Berwick D 2005). Of great implication for the social services support mechanisms was the finding that 76% of the mothers in the study expressed concerns about the health of their children. Once they had left the refuge there was significant loss to the follow up systems as 15% were untraceable and25% returned to the home of the original perpetrator. The study documents the fact that this particular group had both high level of need for support and also a poor level of access to appropriate services. In the study conclusions, the authors make the pertinent comment that the time spent in the refuge offers a â€Å"window of opportunity† for the family support services to make contact and to review health and child developmental status. This is not a demographically small group. In the UK, over 35,000children and a parent, are recorded as passing through the refuges each year, with at least a similar number also being referred to other types of safe accommodation. Such measures are clearly not undertaken lightly with the average woman only entering a refuge after an average of 28separate assaults. One can only speculate at the long term effects that this can have on both the mother and the children. Suggestions for improvement In common with the other papers reviewed, this paper also calls for greater levels of support for the families concerned as, by inference, the current levels of effectiveness of the family support services is clearly inadequate. Conclusions This review has specifically presented a number of papers which have been chosen from a much larger number that have been accessed and assessed, because of the fact that each has a particularly important issue or factor in its construction or results. The issue that we have set out to evaluate is the effectiveness of the family support services which are specifically aimed at reducing the stress levels for the parents of children in need. Almost without exception, all of the papers that have been accessed (quite apart from those presented) have demonstrated the fact that the levels of support from the statutory bodies is â€Å"less than optimum† and in some cases it can only be described as â€Å"dire†. Another factor that is a common finding, is that, given the fact that any welfare system is, by its very nature, a rationed system, the provision of the services that are provided is seldom targeted at the groups that need it the most. One can cite the Tickler (et al 2000)and Downey (et al 1999) papers in particular as demonstrating that substantial proportion of the resources mobilised are actually being directed to groups that are either not requesting support or who demonstrably need it less than other sectors of the community. Some of the papers (actually a small proportion) make positive suggestions about the models for redirecting and targeting support. Sadly, the majority do little more than call for â€Å"more research to be done on the issue†. In overview, we would have to conclude that the evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the family support services in reducing stress and poverty for the parents of children in need is poor at best and certainly capable of considerable improvement. References Bassuk, E., Buckner, J., Weiner, L., et al (1997) Homelessness in female-headed families: childhood and adult risk and protective factors. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 241–248 1997 Berwick D 2005 Broadening the view of evidence-based medicine Qual. Saf. Health Care, Oct 2005; 14: 315 316. Black D. 1996 Childhood bereavement: distress and long term sequelae can be lessened by early intervention. BMJ 1996; 312: 1496 Black D. 1998 Coping with loss: bereavement in childhood. BMJ 1998; 316: 931-933 BPA 1999 British Paediatric Association. Outcome measures for child health. London: Royal College of Paediatric Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families The whole issue of parents and children in need is a vast, complex and ethically challenging one. This review is specifically charged with an examination of those issues which impinge upon the stresses and strains that are experienced by parents of children in need. A superficial examination of these issues that are involved in this particular area would suggest that there are a number of â€Å"sub-texts â€Å"which can all give rise to this particular situation. Firstly, to have child in need is clearly a stressful situation for any parent.(Meltzer H et al. 1999) This can clearly be purely a financial concern and a reflection of the fact that the whole family is in financial hardship, perhaps due to the economic situation or perhaps due to the actions of the parents themselves. Equally the need of the child can be a result of anon-financial need, so we should also consider the child who is in some way handicapped, ill, emotionally disturbed or perhaps in need in some other way. This produces another type of stress on the parent, and these stresses are typically longer lasting and, in general, less easily rectified than a purely financial consideration of need. (Hall D1996). It is part of the basic ethos of the welfare state that it should look after its less able and disadvantaged members. (Welsh Office 1997).Parents of children in need will often qualify in this definition. We shall therefore examine the various aspects of this problem. Literature Review Effectiveness of family support for children in homeless families We will make a start by considering one type of child in need. The first paper that we will consider is that of Prof. Vostanis (Vostanis2002), which looks at the mental health problems that are faced by deprived children and their families together with the effectiveness of the resources that are available to them. It is a well written and well researched paper, if rather complex and confusing in places. We will consider this paper in some detail as it provides an excellent overview of the whole area. The paper starts with a rather useful definition for our purposes. It qualifies the deprived child, initially in terms of a homeless family, that being : A family of any number of adults with dependent children who are statutorily accepted by local authorities (housing departments) in teak, and are usually accommodated for a brief period in voluntary agency, local authority or housing association hostels. This period of temporary accommodation can vary enormously depending on the time of year and the area considered, and can range from a few days to perhaps several months. The target in Greater London is currently storehouse homeless families within 4-6 weeks. In London particularly, the homeless families can be placed in Bed Breakfast accommodation.(D of H 1998) In this respect, the immediate family support mechanisms do appear tube in place. Vostranis however, goes on to make the observation that despite the fact that the definition of the homeless family is rather broad, it does not cover all of the potential children in need, as those children and their carers who have lost their homes but have managed to live with relatives, on the streets or perhaps live as travellers, are not covered by the statutory obligation to provide housing. The official figures therefore, he observes, are generally an underestimate of the true situation. The official figures for the homeless families are put (in this paper) at 140,000. (Vostanis Cumella, 1999) The authors give us further information in that many families will become homeless again within one year of rehousing and the typical family seen is the single mother and at least two children who are generally under the age of 11 yrs. They also observe that the typical father and adolescent child tend to be placed in homeless centres. (Doff H 1995) In exploration of the particular topic that we are considering, the authors give us the situations that typically have given rise to the degree of parental stress that may have led to the homelessness. They point to the fact that a homeless family is usually homeless for different reasons to the single homeless adult. Vostanis (et al 1997)is quoted as showing that 50% of the cases studied were homeless as direct result of domestic violence and 25% as a result of harassment from neighbours. The authors observe that the numbers in this category(and therefore the problems), are rising. (Welsh Office 1999). There are a number of section to this paper which are not directly referable to our considerations. We shall therefore direct our attention purely to those parts that have a direct bearing on the subject. One particularly useful and analytical part of the paper is the section that details the characteristics and needs of the target group. This is a very detailed section, but it makes the point that the children in need in this group are particularly heterogeneous, generally all with multiple and inter-related needs. Homelessness is seldom a one off event. This particular observation, (say the authors),is crucially important for the development and provision of services. Most families have histories of previous chronic adversities that constitute risk factors for both children and parents (Bassuk et al,1997). Such events include family conflict, violence and breakdown; limited or absent networks for family and social support; recurring moves; poverty; and unemployment. Mothers are more likely to have suffered abuse in their own childhood and adult life and children have increased rates of placement on the at-risk child protection register, because of neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse. If we specifically consider the health needs of this population, the authors categorise them thus: The children are more likely to have a history of low birthweight, anaemia, dental decay and delayed immunisations, to be of lower stature and have a greater degree of nutritional stress. They are also more likely to suffer accidents, injuries and burns. (BPA 1999) Some studies have found that child health problems increase with the duration of homelessness, although this finding is not consistent. Substantial proportion of homeless children have delayed development compared with the general population of children of a similar chronological age. This includes both specific developmental delays, such as in receptive and expressive language and visual, motor and reading skills, as well as general skills and educational status (Webbet al. 2001). It is for this reason specifically, that it has proved extremely difficult to assess the effectiveness of the family support services because of the multivariate nature of the problems that are presented. The authors point to the fact that one of the prime determinants of the degree of support available, is the actual access that the families have to these services. Many sources (viz. Wilkinson R 1996), equate the poor health of the disadvantaged primarily with the lack of access to services. One immediate difficulty is the current registration system in the UK. In order to be seen in the primary healthcare team setting, one must be registered with a named doctor. In the majority of cases that we are dealing with here, they have moved area and registration is probably not high on their list of priorities. One can argue that there is the access to the A E departments of the local hospitals but there is virtually no continuity here and they arena geared up to provide anything other than immediate treatment. (HallD 1996). This fact restricts their access to primary healthcare team procedures such as immunisations and other preventative medicine health clinics.(Lissauer et al, 1993) . By the same token these groups also have restricted access to the social services, whether they be the access teams, the family teams or the family support units and other agencies. The authors also point to other more disruptive trends in this group such as an inability to attend a particular school for fear of being tracked by an abusive partner. It follows that these children do not have a stable social support of a school. They are denied such factors as peer groups, routines and challenges which are both important protective and developmental factors. (Shankleman J et al2000). The summation of all of these factors, and others, is that the effectiveness of the family support services is greatly reduced by the mobility and the transient nature of the family unit. Quite apart from the difficulties outlined above relating to the problems of access to avenues of help open to the child in need and their families there are the problems engendered by the fact that social service departments indifferent areas of the country may not have immediate access to the previous records giving rise to many potential, and real, problems with continuity of care. This problem is brought into more immediate focus when one considers the increased frequency of child protection registrations in this particular group. (Hall D et al 1998). One specific analysis of the family support services of this particular group comes in the form of the psychiatric services. In the context of the title of this piece, it demonstrates how these particular services,(but not these alone), are failing to deal with the totality of the problem. All of the aspects that we have outlined so far are conspiring to dilute the effectiveness of the services provided. The fact that they are a mobile population with no fixed address means that some of the services may choose to invoke this as a reason for not making provision for them, particularly if resources are stretched. If more resources are given, then they are typically preferentially targeted at the single adult homeless population where the need is arguably greater. The authors of this paper point to the fact that this may not actually be true as some studies have shown that homeless single mothers and their children have a 49% psychopathy rate and only an 11% contact with the support services. (Cumella et al, 1998). The impact of this fact on the children can only be imagined. To an extent however, it can be quantified as the authors cite other studies which show a 30% need rating for children, (they do not actually define exactly what their perceived level of need was), contrasted with a 3% contact rate for children and adolescents in this area. (viz. Power S et al. 1995). Suggestions for improvement Putting these considerations together, the authors outline a set of proposals which are designed to help improve the access to some of the essential services. The model that they propose could, if successful and with a degree of modification, prove suitable for adaptation to other areas of the family support services. It is not appropriate to discuss this model in detail, but suffice it to say that it has tiered structure so that the degree of distress and need is titrated against the degree of input generated. One of the reasons that we have selected this particular paper to present in this context is for its last section. It proposes a â€Å"family support services model† which has been developed and pioneered in the Leicester area. In the context of our review, it is worth considering in some detail. A service provided through a family support team (four family support assistants).This is designed to detect a range of problems at the time of crisis; manage a degree of mental health problems (behavioural and emotional); provide parenting-training; support and train housing(hostel) staff; co-ordinate the work of different agencies; and provide some continuity after rehousing by ensuring intake by appropriate local services. The family workers are based at the main hostel for homeless children and families. Other, predominantly voluntary, services have established alternative posts, such as advocates and key workers. Whatever the title of the post, it is essential that the post-holder has some experience and on-going training in mental health and child protection, so that he or she can hold a substantial case-load, rather than merely mediate between already limited services. The family support workers have direct access to the local child and adult mental health services, whose staff provide weekly outreach clinics. Their role is to work with the family support workers another agencies, assess selected children and families, and provide treatment for more severe problems or disorders such as depression, self-harm and PTSD. A weekly inter-agency liaison meeting at the main hostel is attended by a health visitor, representatives of the local domestic violence service and Sure Start, There are also close, regular links with education welfare and social services. The aim is to effectively utilise specialist skills by discussing family situations from all perspectives at the liaison meeting. A bimonthly steering group, led by the housing department, involves senior managers representing these agencies, as well as the education and social services departments and the voluntary sector, and they oversee and co-ordinate the service. This appears to be something of an exemplar in relation to services provided elsewhere. The paper does not provide any element of costing sin this area neither does it provide any figures in relation to its success rates, contact rates or overall effectiveness. In conclusion this paper is an extremely well written and authoritative overview of the situation relating to the stresses of the homeless parent with children and the effectiveness (or lack of it) in its ability to reduce the stresses experienced by the homeless children in need and their parents. It proposes remedies but sadly it does not evaluate the effectiveness of those remedies. The effectiveness of the support services on families of children with psychiatric morbidity In order to address these shortcomings we can consider another paper by Tickler (et al 2000). This looks at a similar outreach set up which has been designed to capture the families of children in need who might otherwise slip through the net. This paper is written from different perspective and specifically analyses the effectiveness of these services as they pertain to an entry cohort of 40 families. This particular study was set up after preliminary work was done in the Birmingham area with 114 homeless families and this study defined the needs of the families but did not quantify their support systems.(Vostanis et al 1998). This paper set out to identify and measure the support systems available and their effectiveness as far as the families were concerned. The stresses encountered were partly reflected by the incidence of psychiatric morbidity. The mothers in the group were found to have over 50% more morbidity than a matched control group. The children in the group were found to have â€Å"histories of abuse, living in care, being on the at-risk protection register, delayed communication and higher reported mental health problems.† Allot which adds to the general background stress levels. (Kerouac S etal. 1996). This particular study found that despite the psychiatric morbidity in the children, (estimated to be about 30%), and the psychiatric morbidity in the parents, (estimated at about 50%), only 3%of the children and 10% of the parents had had any significant contactor support from the social services. In this respect, this paper is very useful to our purpose as it quantifies the levels of intervention and access to healthcare resources that this particular group has. By any appreciation, it would be considered woefully inadequate in any society that calls itself civilised. In the terms of the title of this piece, the effectiveness of the family support services is minimal. Suggestions for improvement Like the last paper discussed, this one also considered how best to tackle the problem, and this one is of much greater value to us, as it specifies a response, or intervention, to the problem in much the same way as the Vostranis 2002 paper did, but it makes the same measurements as it did prior to the intervention, and therefore allows us an insight into the actual effectiveness of the intervention. The way this particular study worked was to assess the problem (as it has been presented above), devise an intervention strategy and then to measure its effect. This particular study goes to great lengths to actively involve all the appropriate agencies that could help the situation by having a central assessment station that acted as liaison between all of the other resources. In brief, it actively involved liaison with the following: Education, social services, child protection, local mental health services, voluntary and community organisations to facilitate there-integration of the family into the community, and particularly their engagement with local services following rehousing; and training of staff of homeless centres in the understanding, recognition and management of mental illness in children and parents. This is essential, as hostel staff often work in isolation and have little knowledge of the potential severity and consequences of mental health problems in children. It was hoped that, by doing this, it would maximise the impact that the limited resources had on reducing the levels of morbidity and stress in the families of the children in need. Results The post intervention results were, by any estimate, impressive considering the historical difficulty of working with this particular group (OHara M 1995). 40 families (including 122 children) were studied in detail. The paper gives a detailed breakdown of the ethnic and demographic breakdown of the group. By far the biggest group were single mothers and children (72%) The results showed that the majority of referrals were seen between1-3 times (55%), with a further 22% being seen 4-6 times. It is reflection of the difficulty in engaging this type of family in need that over 25% did not actually keep their appointments despite the obvious potential benefits that could have been utilised. The authors investigated this group further and ascertained that a common reason for nonattendance was the perception that the psychological welfare of the children was not actually the main concern. The families perceived that their primary needs were rehousing and financial stability. Other priorities identified were that physical health was a greater priority than mental health. The authors also identify another common failing in the social services provision, and that is the general lack of regular contact. They cite the situation where some families cope well initially, apparently glad to have escaped an abusive or violent home situation, but a prolonged stay in a hostel or temporary accommodation may soon precipitate a bout of depression in the parents and behavioural problems in the children of such parents. (Brooks RM et al 1998). They suggest that regular re-visiting of families who have been in temporary accommodation for any significant length of time should be mandatory. This paper takes a very practical overview by pointing out that workability of the system is, to a large extent, dependent on the goodwill of a number of committed professionals. The authors state that this has to be nurtured and they call for sufficient funding must be given to enable this particular model to be extended to a National level. Thus far in the review we have considered the effectiveness of the service provision in the support of the families of the children in need in one specific target grouping, those who are stressed by virtue of the fact that they are homeless. We will now consider the literature on a different kind of family stress, and that is when a parent dies. This leaves the children with a considerable amount of potential emotional â€Å"baggage† and the surviving parent with an enormous amount of stress. (Webb E 1998). Effectiveness of support services in the case of parental bereavement An excellent paper by Downey (et al 1999) tackles this particular problem with both sensitivity and also considerable rigour. It is a long and complex paper, but the overall aims and objectives are clear from the outset. The structure of the paper is a prospective case study which aims to assess whether the degree of distress suffered by a family during a time of bereavement is in any way linked to the degree of service provision that is utilised. The base line for this study is set out in its first two paragraphs. Parentally bereaved children and surviving parents showed a greater than predicted level of psychiatric morbidity. Boys had greater levels of demonstrable morbidity than did girls, but bereaved mothers showed more morbidity than did bereaved fathers. Children were more likely to show signs of behavioural disturbance when the surviving parent manifested some kind of psychiatric disorder. (Kranzler EM et al 1990). The authors point to the fact that their study shows that the service provision is statistically related to a number of (arguably unexpected[Fristad MA et al 1993]) factors namely: The age of the children and the manner of parental death. Children under 5 years of age were less likely to be offered services than older children even though their parents desired it. Children were significantly more likely to be offered services when the parent had committed suicide or when the death was expected. Children least likely to receive service support were those who were not in touch with services before parental death. Paradoxically the level of service provision was not found to be statistically significantly related to either the parental wishes or the degree of the psychiatric disturbance in either the parent orchid. (Sanchez L et al 1994) The service provision did have some statistical relationships but that was only found to be the manner of the parental death and the actual age of the child at the time. The authors therefore are able to identify a mismatch between the perceived need for support and the actual service provision made. Part of that mismatch is found to be due to the inability of the social services and other related agencies to take a dispassionate overview. Elsewhere in the paper the authors suggest that there are other factors that add to this inequality and they include lack of resources and a lack of specificity in identifying children at greatest risk.(Harrington R 1996) The authors examine other literature to back up their initial precept that bereaved children have greater levels of morbidity. They cite many other papers who have found distress manifesting in the form of â€Å"anxiety, depression, withdrawal, sleep disturbance, and aggression.†(Worden JW et al. 1996) and also psychological problems in later life(Harris T et al. 1996). In terms of study structure, the authors point to methodological problems with other papers in the area including a common failing of either having a standardised measure or no matched control group(Mohammed D et al 2003). They also point to the fact that this is probably the first UK study to investigate the subject using a properly representative sample and certainly the first to investigate whether service provision is actually related to the degree of the problems experienced. The entry cohort involved nearly 550 families with 94 having children in the target range (2-18). With certain exclusions (such as two families where one parent had murdered the other etc.) and no respondents, the final cohort was reduced to 45 families and one target child was randomly selected from each family. It has to be noted that the comparatively large number of on-respondents may have introduced a large element of bias, insofar as it is possible that the families most in need of support were those who were most distressed by the death of a family member and these could have been the very ones who chose not to participate. (Morton V et al2003) The authors make no comment on this particular fact. The authors should be commended for a particularly ingenious control measure for the children. They were matched by asking their schoolteacher to complete an inventory of disturbed behaviour on the next child in the school register after the target child. A large part of the paper is taken up with methodological issues which ( apart from the comments above) cannot be faulted. Results In terms of being children in need, 60% of children were found to have â€Å"significant behavioural abnormalities† with 28% having scores above the 95th centile. In terms of specific service support provision, 82% of parents identified a perceived need for support by virtue of the behaviour of their children. Only 49% of these actually received it in any degree. Perhaps the most surprising statistic to come out of this study waste fact that of the parents who were offered support 44% were in the group who asked for it and 56% were in the group who didn’t want it. The levels of support offered were independent of the degree of behavioural disturbance in the child. Suggestions for improvement As with the majority of papers that we have either presented here or read in preparation for this review, the authors call for a more rationally targeted approach to the utilisation of limited resources. The study also provides us with a very pertinent comment which many experienced healthcare professionals will empathise with, (Black D1996), and that is: Practitioners should also be aware that child disturbance may reflect undetected psychological distress in the surviving parent. While not suggesting that this is a reflection of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, the comment is a valid reflection of the fact that parental distress may be well hidden from people outside of the family and may only present as a manifestation of the child’s behaviour. (Feldman Met al. 1994) The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that there is considerable gap in the support offered ( quite apart form the effectiveness of that support) in this area of obvious stress for both parents and children. (Black D 1998). This study goes some way to quantifying the level of support actually given in these circumstances. Effectiveness of support in families where there is domestic violence We have considered the role of the effectiveness and indeed, even the existence, of adequate support services for the children in need and their parents in a number of different social circumstances. The next paper that we wish to present is an excellent review of the support that is given to another specific sub-group and that is women and children who suffer from domestic violence. Webb and her group (etal 2001) considered the problem in considerable (and commendable) depth The study itself had an entry cohort of nearly 150 children and their mothers who were resident in a number of hostels and women’s refuges that had been the victims of family violence at some stage in the recent past. The study subjected the cohort to a battery of tests designed to assess their physical, emotional and psychological health, and then quantified their access to, and support gained from, the primary healthcare teams and other social service-based support agencies. This study is presented in a long and sometimes difficult tread format. Much of the presentation is (understandably) taken up with statistical, ethical and methodological matters – all of which appear to be largely of excellent quality and the result of careful consideration. Results The results make for interesting and, (in the context of this review), very relevant reading. Perhaps one of the more original findings was that nearly 60% of the child health data held by the various refuges was factually incorrect. This clearly has grave implications for studies that base their evidence base on that data set(Berwick D 2005). Of great implication for the social services support mechanisms was the finding that 76% of the mothers in the study expressed concerns about the health of their children. Once they had left the refuge there was significant loss to the follow up systems as 15% were untraceable and25% returned to the home of the original perpetrator. The study documents the fact that this particular group had both high level of need for support and also a poor level of access to appropriate services. In the study conclusions, the authors make the pertinent comment that the time spent in the refuge offers a â€Å"window of opportunity† for the family support services to make contact and to review health and child developmental status. This is not a demographically small group. In the UK, over 35,000children and a parent, are recorded as passing through the refuges each year, with at least a similar number also being referred to other types of safe accommodation. Such measures are clearly not undertaken lightly with the average woman only entering a refuge after an average of 28separate assaults. One can only speculate at the long term effects that this can have on both the mother and the children. Suggestions for improvement In common with the other papers reviewed, this paper also calls for greater levels of support for the families concerned as, by inference, the current levels of effectiveness of the family support services is clearly inadequate. Conclusions This review has specifically presented a number of papers which have been chosen from a much larger number that have been accessed and assessed, because of the fact that each has a particularly important issue or factor in its construction or results. The issue that we have set out to evaluate is the effectiveness of the family support services which are specifically aimed at reducing the stress levels for the parents of children in need. Almost without exception, all of the papers that have been accessed (quite apart from those presented) have demonstrated the fact that the levels of support from the statutory bodies is â€Å"less than optimum† and in some cases it can only be described as â€Å"dire†. Another factor that is a common finding, is that, given the fact that any welfare system is, by its very nature, a rationed system, the provision of the services that are provided is seldom targeted at the groups that need it the most. One can cite the Tickler (et al 2000)and Downey (et al 1999) papers in particular as demonstrating that substantial proportion of the resources mobilised are actually being directed to groups that are either not requesting support or who demonstrably need it less than other sectors of the community. Some of the papers (actually a small proportion) make positive suggestions about the models for redirecting and targeting support. Sadly, the majority do little more than call for â€Å"more research to be done on the issue†. In overview, we would have to conclude that the evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the family support services in reducing stress and poverty for the parents of children in need is poor at best and certainly capable of considerable improvement. References Bassuk, E., Buckner, J., Weiner, L., et al (1997) Homelessness in female-headed families: childhood and adult risk and protective factors. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 241–248 1997 Berwick D 2005 Broadening the view of evidence-based medicine Qual. Saf. Health Care, Oct 2005; 14: 315 316. Black D. 1996 Childhood bereavement: distress and long term sequelae can be lessened by early intervention. BMJ 1996; 312: 1496 Black D. 1998 Coping with loss: bereavement in childhood. BMJ 1998; 316: 931-933 BPA 1999 British Paediatric Association. Outcome measures for child health. London: Royal College of Paediatric

Discourse Analysis Of Different Activities English Language Essay

Discourse Analysis Of Different Activities English Language Essay Discourse analysis incorporates a number of different activities, and merging them all together is too ambitious. However, the natural nature of discourse analysis seems to be agreed upon by the scholars involved in the field. Stubbs (1983) summarizes the realm of discourse analysis like this: The term Discourse Analysis is very ambiguous. I will use it to refer mainly to mean the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connoted spoken and written discourse. Roughly speaking, it refers to attempts to study the organization of language above the sentence or above the clause, and therefore to study larger linguistic units, such as conversational exchanges or written texts. (Stubbs, 1983: 1) Discourse analysts seem to be interested in analyzing any kind of spoken and written discourse, and there are various distinct analytic patterns that can be applied to both types of discourse. This paper attempts to emphasize on some discourse analytic patterns applied by researchers in the field of learner written discourse analysis. Learner discourse is an invaluable resource that can be used, exploited, and analyzed by interested researchers in an attempt to clarify, classify, and describe the way learners use the language. Learner written discourse and texts often offer a rich resource for a learners language development. They can be used for diagnosis and evaluation, language awareness raising, and classroom use. In fact, theres a good case for learners texts being the best resources for a focus on language and they are closer to the developmental stage that other learners are going through (their interlanguage).When learners see their own used as classroom learning material, th ey become more motivated and as Scott Thornbury (2005) mentions: serves to break down the distinction between language learner and language user. In describing learner language, learner discourse can be dealt with via four major approaches identified by Ellis (1994: 44) including the study of learners errors. The focus of this paper is to try to study learners errors on some semantic and syntactic areas of discourse analysis naming grammatical and lexical cohesions, coherence (theme and rheme), ellipsis, reference, collocation, and nominalization. While focusing mainly on analyzing written texts for posterior classroom application, all the samples discussed seek to relate analysis of specific written texts to social and cultural contexts in which such texts are written and read. In our examples, we tend to demonstrate the approach of analyzing learners written assignments dealing with the issue of using and learning Arabic by foreigners in the United Arab Emirate to investigate the particular discourse methods used in the similar texts. In an attempt to relate discourse analysis with corpus linguistics, the researcher later su ggests that the use of concordancing in the teach ­ing and designing of written discourse in language classrooms is encouraging and worthwhile and presents samples of exploited concordances to highlight collocations. It des ­cri ­bes a possible way of having students approach discourse analysis tasks in an inductive and learner-centered manner. In this paper, there is an emphasis on the relationship between the linguistic features of the written texts and the UAE society in which they are produced. Written Discourse Written discourse incorporates communication by exploitation of textual material. It can be outlined in numerous modes. McCarthy defines, discourse analysis as the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used (McCarthy 1991:5). Written discourse does not have to deal with people speaking all simultaneously or even with spontaneous interruptions. McCarthy (1991:6) states that in written discourse the writer normally has time to prepare the text. He also mentions that in written discourse, the sentences are usually well formed in a way that the utterances of natural spontaneous talk are not. Learner Discourse Merely testing learners on their aptitude to write, or complete, isolated sentences is clearly inadequate if their overall ability to communicate at the level of discourse is a goal. However, even when whole texts are exploited for assessment or diagnosis, there is an affinity for many teachers not to be able to observe beyond their surface grammar errors, or to appreciate their strengths irrespective of their weaknesses. To guarantee a more efficient, more extensive, and more reasonable judgment, more comprehensive criteria for assessing texts are needed. Ellis (1994: 44) identified four major approaches in describing learner language: the study of learners errors the study of developmental patterns the study of variability the study of pragmatic features In our attempt to analyze learners text, the researcher tries to bear in mind the above-mentioned considerations. Patterns of Text Analysis Written texts can be analyzed using various patterns and methods. However, in our paper we tend to analyze texts dealing with the following aspects: Grammatical cohesion including reference (cataphoric, anaphoric, exaphoric, and endophoric cohesive devices), ellipsis, substitution, nominalization, and conjuncts; Lexical cohesion including reiteration, superordinate, repetition, and collocation. We now try to shed some light on the application of each of the abovementioned aspects. Cohesion Cohesion is the way a text is held together and has meaning (Holland and Lewis 2001:53), and the way unrelated structural elements are linked together, through the dependence of one on the other for its interpretation (Halliday and Hasan 1976:27 in Holland and Lewis 2001:55). Cohesive links can work within the text, endophorically, or outside the text, exophorically (Holland and Lewis 2001:53). Within the text they may be anaphoric when they refer to something that has already been mentioned, or cataphoric when they look to something that is yet to be mentioned (Holland and Lewis 2001:53). Halliday and Hasan propose grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion, each with their own sub classifications, as the two categories of cohesion (1976 in Holland and Lewis 2001:55). Written texts can be analyzed by detecting the grammatical connections between individual clauses and sentences of the text known in linguistics as grammatical cohesion. Grammatical cohesion is what meshes the text toge ther. Renkema defines cohesion as the phenomenon of connectedness of sentences or utterances in discourse (Renkema, 2004). Cohesion in text conveys meaning to the reader. Grammatical Cohesion Cohesion in a text, as mentioned earlier, can be established in two ways; grammatical and lexical cohesion. We shall begin by looking at grammatical cohesion. Halliday and Hasan are pioneers in the study of grammatical cohesion. They mention that there are cohesive relationships between the sentences in a text and these relationships create texture. Texture distinguishes a text from something, which is not a text. McCarthy (1991:34) defines grammatical cohesion as the surface marking of semantic links between clasuses and sentenses in written discourse, and between utterances and turns in speech. Halliday and Hasan consider grammatical cohesion through reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunctions. Reference is further subdivided into the categories of personal, such as pronouns (e.g. he, she, it, him, they, etc.), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), the article the, and items like such a (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 37-9) and comparatives (Holland and Lewis 2001:57-8). All three forms of referential cohesion can work either endophorically or exophorically (Holland and Lewis 2001:57-8). Substitution, usually working anaphorically, replaces a reference with a dummy object, while ellipses are of a similar nature, except the missing reference is replaced by nothing (Holland and Lewis 2001:58). Ellipsis is when expected elements of the text are omitted because they have already been mentioned formerly in the text or that they are spontaneously inferred. The last category of cohesion is conjunctions which operate through grammatical relationships between clauses or propos itions, and are subdivided into the categories of additive, adversative, causal, and temporal (Halliday and Hasan 1976 in Holland and Lewis 2001:60). Lexical Cohesion Halliday and Hasan consider lexical cohesion through reiteration and collocation (Angermeyer 2002:365). Reiteration could include the re-mentioning of an item using the original noun phrase, a synonym, a near-synonym, a superordinate expression, or a general word (Halliday and Hasan 1976 in Holland and Lewis 2001:63). Following such reiterations we can possibly create a lexical chain in a text. With regards to collocation, Halliday and Hasan note that it is a problematical category of lexical cohesion, (1976 in Angermeyer 2002:365), and Hasan later rejects collocation as a lexically cohesive category (1984 in Angermeyer 2002:365). Similarly, Hoey considers the various forms of repetition as the key aspect of lexical cohesion (1991 in Angermeyer 2002:365). Corpus Analysis Corpus means a body, and corpus analysis thus refers to the analysis of a body of language data. A corpus can be small (for example one newspaper article or letter) or large (several million words of naturally occurring spoken or written language). Linguistically speaking, corpus is any collection of natural language examples. It is a collection written and/or spoken examples of the usage of a language, employed in linguistic analysis. Presently, corpus analysis employs computer applications, called concordancers, in the analytic procedure. The computer applications designed for this type of analysis include concordance programs that can, for instance, recognize specific words selected by the researcher and demonstrate how frequently these words are used in discourse. Analyses of large corpora of spoken and written English have revealed the frequency and co-occurrence of many different lexical and grammatical items. This co-occurrence is called collocation. These analyses have been c apable of illustrating enormously facts about language that could hardly be inferred intuitively. For the purpose of this paper we tend to rely mostly on two major corpora naming the Collins WordbanksOnline English corpus sampler which is composed of 56 million words of contemporary written and spoken text as well as Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English which is a structured collection of language data of English as a Lingua Franca.