Olivia Monson

Augmentative alternative communication (AAC) devices or systems are often prescribed to minimally verbal or nonspeaking autistic individuals and other individuals with complex communication needs to facilitate communication or as an alternative to spoken language. AAC use can result in communication gains and improved quality of life for minimally verbal or nonspeaking individuals. Despite this, AAC abandonment is high, limiting societal participation of the individual on the autism spectrum with complex communication needs. Our study is a novel exploration of the barriers of AAC use from a multi-stakeholder perspective, and a qualitative analysis of similarities and differences between stakeholders. We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 30 parent-carers, educators and clinicians currently supporting AAC users in Western Australia and analysed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. Barriers from each stakeholder group were coded, resulting in 17 subthemes forming five main themes common to all stakeholders: Stakeholder Knowledge, Stakeholder Attitudes and Stigma, Resources, AAC User Engagement, and Device Fit. Contrasting perspectives included actual and perceived stigma associated with AAC use (parent-carers vs clinicians); different struggles with resources and knowledge (parent-carers vs clinicians and educators); and a lack of clinician communication in the processes that determined AAC-fit for school environments (educators only). Findings are discussed in the context of improving inter-stakeholder collaboration and capacity building in Australian health service and practice to better support minimally verbal or nonspeaking autistic individuals and individuals with complex communication needs. Suggestions are also offered for communication partner training.

Dating applications (‘apps’) have become a popular means for men who have sex with men (MSM) to seek sex or relationships. Indeed, dating apps have become popular, in part, because they are perceived as providing LGBTQIA+ people with a safe space to explore their sexuality with a reduced risk of discrimination and violence compared to non-virtual dating. The current study aimed to better understand how Australian MSM experience dating apps, specifically how they perceive that dating apps influence their attitudes about relationships and dating behaviours. Thematic analysis from interviews with 11 MSM adult dating app users identified three themes that were centred around exposure to non-traditional relationship models and conformity to gay dating norms, commodification of dating and safety concerns. Dating apps appear to be a conflicted space for young Australian MSM that may offer some safety for relationship development away from threats of homophobia, but which may facilitate online harassment and predatory behaviours. This paper concludes with recommendations for dating apps to increase security and verification to ensure they offer a safe space for LGBTQIA+ users.

Tinder is a popular mobile dating application among emerging adults (18 to 29-years-old) seeking new romantic and sexual partners. Tinder’s design features are proposed to encourage hookups (casual sexual relationships) while undermining romantic relationship commitment (David & Cambre, 2016). Research into female dating application users is particularly underinvestigated despite research suggesting that female Tinder users report their application use to have a greater impact upon their dating behaviors compared with male users (Newett et al., 2018). This quantitative study explores relationships between Tinder use and attitudes and behaviors surrounding hookups and committed romantic relationships in female Tinder users. It was hypothesized that Tinder users (n = 146) would engage in more hookups and place less importance on committed relationships than nonusers (n = 103). Data were collected using online surveys. As expected, Tinder users reported less-strict sexual standards scripts, lower soul-mate beliefs, greater sexual permissiveness, have greater numbers of relationships, and hookup more than nonusers. Contrary to expectations, no differences were observed between Tinder users and nonusers on sexual communion. Obtained findings suggest that Tinder may facilitate greater sexual liberality or alternatively that those already high in liberality are drawn to nontraditional forms of dating. Further research should qualitatively investigate the extent to which female dating application users are active agents in pursuing casual sex. Obtained findings have implications for emerging adults to enable informed decision-making about their Tinder use and to ensure their motivations for use are aligned with potential attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Biggest Loser (TBL) is a reality television weight-loss programme that positions itself as a response to the so-called “obesity crisis”. Research on TBL has thus far focussed on audience responses and its effect on viewers’ beliefs about weight loss. This article focuses instead on how meaning is constructed in TBL. We conducted a multimodal critical discourse analysis of a key episode of TBL (the 2012 Australian season finale) to examine how the textual, visual and auditory elements combine to construct meanings beyond the ostensible health messages. Although the overt message is that all contestants have worked hard, turned their lives around and been “successful”, examination of editing choices, lighting and colour, clothing and time spent on contestants allows us to see that the programme constructs varying degrees of success between contestants and provides accounts for these differences in outcomes. In this way the programme is able to present itself as a putative celebration of all contestants while prescribing narrow limits around what constitutes success. TBL reinforces an ideology in which “success” is a direct result of “the work” of weight loss (both physical and emotional), which can apparently be read straightforwardly off the body. TBL’s “celebration” of weight loss thus reproduces and strengthens the widespread view of fat bodies as physical manifestations of individual (ir)responsibility and psychological dysfunction, and contributes to the ongoing stigmatisation of obesity.

As a result of developments in assisted reproductive technology (ART), it is now possible to choose the sex of a baby. However, the procedures are currently not allowed for this purpose in Australia. This article explores how the positions for and against the use of ART for social sex selection are constructed by parents and parents-to-be in online discussion forums. Critical Discourse Analysis is employed to identify the arguments, evidence and experience drawn upon in the negotiation of the topic. We identify an important distinction between the legitimacy of using ART procedures for social sex selection, and the appropriateness of individuals actually wanting to use the procedures. We further show that expectations about the parent/child relationship, the nature of parental love and implications for society are mobilized in the debate, much of which is underscored by traditional gender constructions.

The Biggest Loser is reality television’s most enduring response to the ‘obesity epidemic’. The program is framed as a well-founded health intervention and employs widely accepted beliefs relating to nutrition and exercise. In this way it is able to trade on the lives and experiences of ‘obese’ contestants with apparent legitimacy. But not only are the weight loss methods problematic and questionable, the messages conveyed through editing choices such as lighting, camera angles and timing reinforce and perpetuate negative stereotypes about overweight and obese individuals and establish prescriptive criteria for success, not just for weight loss but for life. By applying multimodal discursive analysis to the finale of the 2012 Australian season of The Biggest Loser it is apparent that beneath the ostensible focus on health are messages that feed into anti-obesity discourse and discrimination, and potentially impact the lived experiences of fat people.