Centralised resource on infant sleep
Public support for Armed Forces high
EIGHT OUT OF ten people in Britain have a high or very high opinion of the UK Armed Forces, according to responses from 3,300 UK adults, surveyed as part of the 2011 British Social Attitudes Survey. The study, conducted by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR), King’s College London, along with the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research, Robert Gordon University, and NatCen Social Research, found considerably less backing for the operations in which the British military have been involved in the past decade, with 58 per cent of the British public opposed to the mission in Iraq and 48 per cent opposed to the one in Afghanistan. Professor Christopher Dandeker, the lead researcher on the project, points out that this lack of support, as well as public weariness over the missions, may mean that future British governments may find it increasingly difficult to gain support for campaigns with no perceived clear benefit for the UK, including overseas based anti- terror missions or interventions to remove overseas dictators. Despite the lack of support for Iraq and Afghanistan, there is overwhelming public support for veterans of these missions – more than 90 per cent support personnel returning from these missions regardless of their opinions of the campaign itself. But this support comes with some misconceptions of the effect of military service. Over half
of those surveyed felt, wrongly, that current members of the Armed Forces were more likely than civilians to have a mental illness and be suicidal. Public opinion of both military service and its effects is increasingly shaped by civilians, including the media, television and films, as well as by Forces-related charities. In particular, images of repatriation at Royal Wootton Bassett have helped to reinforce the hero-to- victim status of Forces’ personnel. “At the end of a decade of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ‘veteran as victim’ is emerging as a key narrative, with possible implications for public policy and Armed Forces personnel, who may be at risk of being stigmatised by civilian society,” says Professor Dandeker. “Should this veteran as victim myth persist, future recruitment to the Armed Forces as well as public support for military operations could be undermined and employers’ current positive attitudes to employing former Service personnel could change.” The media and some Service charities, the researchers conclude, may need to consider carefully the pictures they paint of people’s lives after leaving the military to prevent this from happening. n
i Contact Professor Christopher Dandeker,
King’s College London Email
christophe.dandeker@kcl.ac.uk Telephone 0207 848 2673 ESRC Grant Number ES/1007873/1
SPRING 2014 SOCIETY NOW 7
SLEEP IS ONE of the main sources of stress facing parents of both new babies and older children, but one about which there is much myth and misinformation. Parents and healthcare professionals are benefiting from an authoritative online source of research-based information on normal infant sleep developed in partnership by Durham University and UK parent support charities. The Infant Sleep Information Source (ISIS) is based on information gathered from over 200 peer- reviewed studies and provides a centralised resource of research evidence on infant sleep as well as examples of policies, tools and interventions for supporting informed parental choice.
The website –
www.ISISonline.org. uk – had over 25,000 visits in the three months after launch and a further 135,000 since then. ISIS is also receiving requests for comments on national policy provision regarding infant sleep such as the NICE guidance on post-natal care.
The research team at Durham University are now planning to produce an ISIS app for phones and tablets to broaden further the audience for this popular source of information and guidance on infant sleep. n
i
Contact Professor Helen Ball, University of Durham Email
h.l.ball@
dur.ac.uk Telephone 0191 334 1602 ESRC Grant Number RES-189-25-0276
© iStockphoto
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