Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Author: search.filters.author.Riley SSubject: search.filters.subject.healthism

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    Love and lifestyle: how 'relational healthism' structures couples' talk of engagement with lifestyle advice associated with a new diagnosis of coronary heart disease.
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-12) Robson M; Riley S; Gagen E; McKeogh D
    Objectives Healthy lifestyle change improves outcomes in coronary heart disease (CHD), but is rarely sustained. To better understand barriers to lifestyle change, we examined couples’ talk of engaging with lifestyle advice after one partner receives a diagnosis of CHD. Design A longitudinal qualitative design, in which a poststructuralist discourse analysis was performed on 35 interviews, conducted with 22 heterosexual British people in a long term relationship. The interviews occurred over three months after one partner was referred to a cardiac rehabilitation programme designed to support lifestyle change. Results Couples understood their health as a shared practice underpinned by an ideological framework of healthism, creating a form of ‘relational healthism’. Practicing relational healthism was not straightforward because the practices of surveillance, control, and discipline related to healthism often contravened relationship norms of support, acceptance and respect for the other’s autonomy. Couples struggled to resolve this tension, dynamically adopting, resisting, and occasionally transforming discourses of health and love in ways that worked for and against engagement in lifestyle change. Conclusion In foregrounding the discursive and relational contexts of behavioural change engagement, we show the considerable complexity for couples, including costs related to engagement with lifestyle advice.
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    A post-phenomenological analysis of using menstruation tracking apps for the management of premenstrual syndrome
    (SAGE Publications Ltd, 2022) Riley S; Paskova K
    Objectives Menstruation tracking digital applications (MTA) are a popular technology, yet there is a lacuna of research on how women use this technology for the management of PMS. Theoretical frameworks for understanding users’ experiences are also underdeveloped in this nascent field. The objectives of the study were therefore twofold, to propose a theoretical framework for understanding women's use of MTA and apply it to the analysis of users’ experiences in the management of PMS. Method A novel theoretical framework was proposed, informed by post-phenomenology, postfeminist healthism, feminist new materialism and digital health technologies as public pedagogy. This framework focuses analytic attention on affective relationships between subjectivity, bodily sensations, digital technology, and discourse. It was used to structure the analysis of five in-depth timeline interviews with women in Aotearoa New Zealand who experienced benefits from using MTA to manage PMS symptoms. Results Three pedagogical relationships were identified: a pedagogy of empowerment, where users learnt to control, predict and manage their PMS symptoms in line with healthism; a pedagogy of appreciation, where users learnt to understand their menstruating bodies as amazing, a valued part of them, and awe-inspiring that radically overturned past internalised stigma; and an ‘untrustworthy teacher’ who eroded this affirmative learning through inaccuracy, positioning users in dis-preferred categories, or being ‘creepy’. Conclusions MTA offers huge possibilities for challenging menstrual stigma that need to be nurtured, developed, and protected; and there are benefits for analysing MTA within wider scholarship on postfeminist healthism.