Marguerite Daniel

In this invited commentary series on teaching salutogenesis, the first paper (Sallaway-Costello et al. 2026a) addressed educational philosophies and training needs, whilst the second (Sallaway-Cost...

Mentoring promotes integration of migrants, but little is known about the mechanisms of success. We explore the particular contribution and experience of mentors in mentoring for migrants. We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with program leaders, mentors and mentees in three mentoring programs in two cities in Norway. Organisational factors, the quality of the relationship between mentors and mentees, type of information given and skills taught are important to facilitate labour market integration and social participation. Mentors valued training, space and opportunity to meet with other mentors and reciprocity. Mentoring in teams (one Norwegian and one peer mentor) was particularly effective.

Salutogenesis is a major health promotion paradigm. It challenges the historically dominant biomedical perspective, by exploring factors creating health, rather than those enabling disease. There i...

Maladaptive family interaction is one of the mechanisms through which trauma is transmitted across generations. The current intervention approach for trauma-affected families focuses on traumatized parents and child–parent dyads during childhood. This leaves a gap in how adult children, who might no longer live with their parents, can overcome the negative impacts of maladaptive childhood interactions with parents as a legacy of parental trauma history. This study focuses on the children of Vietnamese boat refugees in their 30s and 40s in two cities in Norway, applying narrative interviews to elicit long narratives about their lifespan experiences. A hybrid analytic approach utilizes Thematic Network Analysis, informed by a conceptual framework integrating salutogenesis theory and Bowen family systems theory. The findings reveal that maladaptive parent–child interactions in Vietnamese boat refugee families include parents’ high expectations, harsh parenting, children’s obligation to please parents, and adultification, which are trauma-shaped and mediated by Vietnamese culture. Developing a strong sense of coherence (SOC), characterized by enhancing one’s understanding of the self in relation to family, making meaning regarding the past, and playing an active role in reframing relationships with one’s parents, serves as a pathway to outgrow the impacts of maladaptive patterns in one’s family of origin. Overall, this paper contributes a salutogenic, lifespan-oriented framework for understanding recovery beyond childhood impacts of intergenerational trauma.

Objective: The study explored the relevance and implications of Dipo (a puberty rite of passage in Ghana) on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent females in the Krobo culture. Design/Methods: Using a qualitative research design, a total of 23 participants were recruited using a purposive sampling method for the study. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and analysed using the Attride-Stirling thematic network analysis. Results: Findings indicated that the Dipo represents a cultural means of instruction aimed at encouraging chastity and marriage for adolescent females. Also, the sexual and reproductive health education aimed towards female adolescents during Dipo was found to contain over-generalised, inaccurate, and fear-inducing messages. Within the Dipo rite of passage, limitedopen communication about sexual health and sexual intercourse was reported. Instead, information was unidirectional and postponed to later ages for adolescent females. As a consequence, adolescent females may experience delayed development in their identities as a ‘Krobo’ woman, and also have limited information on safe sex practices in modern times. Conclusion: The Dipo rite of passage is increasingly viewed as having diminishing relevance and potentially negative consequences for the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent females, partly due to the lack of explicit, age-appropriate sexual health education. In light of modern social changes and the growing recognition of the importance of safe sex practices, this study underscores the need to integrate explicit sexual education into traditional rites. This integration would enhance the relevance of such practices and help protect adolescent health within evolving socio-cultural contexts.

Documentary films potentially provide a rich source of secondary data on societal phenomena. As novices and ‘fools’ we first used documentary films as secondary data during the extended COVID lockdown. We describe in detail the methods used in two case studies. Each focuses on a different environmental theme and one uses documentary films to supplement two additional sources of secondary data while the other uses films as secondary data to compliment primary data. As novices we made many mistakes, most notably failing to engage with the rich literature and theorising on documentary films. However, we learned much from the process, including that documentary films as secondary data provide valuable insights on social issues being researched.

In recent decades, Nordic countries have seen a general move towards stricter migration policy, including in the area of refugee family reunification. While the body of literature on family reunification in these countries is growing, we lack a broad overview of research on policy and practice, as well as the impact of policy on refugee wellbeing. We conducted a scoping review of the academic literature on family reunification policy, practice and impact on refugees in the Nordic countries. The objective of this study was twofold: to collect and review academic literature on family reunification policy in the Nordic countries and on the experiences of and strategies used by refugees to navigate this process. We used a key concept in the theory of salutogenesis, a sense of coherence, to frame the analysis of refugee experiences. The findings of the review indicated that there is an uneven coverage of the Nordic countries in the literature, both in terms of geography and thematic focus. Much research reports on the negative impact on refugee wellbeing, but qualitative approaches allow for more nuanced insights into refugee experiences and responses. The use of a sense of coherence helped identify refugee use of resources and strategies in the literature.

Background: Partnerships between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the global north and south have commonly been used as a vehicle to drive global health research and initiatives. Among these initiatives, include health system strengthening, research capacity building, and human resource training in developing countries. However, the partnership functioning of many global north-south partnerships still carry legacies of colonialism through unrecognized behavior patterns, attitudes, and belief systems in how they function. Even with research literature calling for a shift from equality to equity in the functioning of these partnerships, many still struggle with issues of complex and unspoken power dynamics. To understand the successes and challenges of north-south partnerships, this paper explored partnership development and functioning of a northern and multi-southern HEIs partnership focused on nutrition education and research. Methods: A qualitative research approach was used; data were collected through in-depth interviews (IDIs) with questions developed from the Bergen Model of Collective Functioning (BMCF). Thirteen IDIs were conducted with partners from all institutions including stakeholders. Findings: The partnership was built on the foundation of experiences and lessons of a previous partnership. Partners used these experiences and lessons to devise strategies to improve partnership inputs, communication, leadership, roles and structures, and maintenance and communication tasks. However, these strategies had an impact on partnership functioning giving rise to issues of inequitable power dynamics. The northern partner had two roles: one as an equal partner and another as distributor of project funds; this caused a conflict in roles for this partner. The partners distinguished themselves according to partner resources – two partners were named implementing partners and two named supportive partners. Roles and partner resources were the greatest contributors to power imbalances and caused delays in project activities. Conclusion: Using the BMCF to examine partnership dynamics illuminated that power imbalances caused a hierarchical stance in the partnership with northern partners having overall control and power of decision-making in the partnership. This could impact the effectiveness and sustainability of project in the southern institutions going forward.