Examining the trajectories of children providing care for adults in rural Kenya: Implications for service delivery

Research on caregiving children tends to be limited to children's caregiving experiences of parents with a specific disease or disability. This has led to a common perception that children's caregiving is a single, uniform and often long-term experience. Whilst this is most certainly the case for many children in economically more advanced countries, this may not hold true in rural Africa, where poverty and AIDS can have significant knock-on effects on entire families and communities. This paper seeks to develop a more complex understanding of children's caring experiences by asking children whom they have cared for over time and explore the different pathways that lead to their caregiving at different stages of their lives. The study reports on qualitative data collected from 48 caregiving children and 10 adults in the Bondo district of western Kenya in 2007. A multi-method approach was adapted, with historical profiles, Photovoice and draw-and-write essays complementing 34 individual interviews and 2 group discussions. A thematic network analysis revealed that children's caregiving was not confined to a single experience. Children were observed to provide care for a number of different family and community members for varying periods of time and intensities. Although their living arrangements and life circumstances often gave them little choice but to care, a social recognition of children's capacity to provide care for fragile adults, helped the children construct an identity, which both children and adults drew on to rationalise children's continued and multiple caring experiences. The study concludes that agencies and community members looking to support caregiving children need to consider their care trajectories — including whom they care for as well as the order, intensity, location and duration of their past and likely future caring responsibilities.     

HOW ARE FAMILY‐RESPONSIVE WORKPLACE ARRANGEMENTS FAMILY FRIENDLY?

Family-responsive workplace arrangements, including schedule flexibility, reduced hours, and workplace social support, are often touted as important to employed parents' abilities to balance the simultaneous demands involved in work and childrearing. Empirical evidence regarding this supposition has most often focused on employed parents' perceptions of work-family incompatibility, leaving little understanding of (1) which arrangements are associated with parenting and children's well-being and (2) the process through which these arrangements may be related to these aspects of family life. A stress perspective on the work-family interface suggests that work-family arrangements might be related to parenting and children through the mechanisms of parents' psychological well-being. I use data from a regional sample of employed mothers to investigate this proposition. Findings from path models show that most relationships between arrangements and parenting are direct and unmediated by mothers' well-being and that work-family arrangements are only indirectly associated with children's socioemotional well-being.     

Cosmopolitanization in action: connecting scales in international environmental organizations

In this article we analyse how professionals in two international environmental organizations (IEOs) concerned with biodiversity act as ‘entrepreneurs of cosmopolitanization’ by establishing connections between the various scales they mobilize in their daily work. Drawing on an empirical survey, we show that these professionals mobilize a range of activities to meet a twofold requirement. The first requirement is for universality, which corresponds to their status, their determination to adopt a scientific approach and to the scale at which they initially defined the problem of biodiversity loss. The second requirement is to embed in specific contexts. Tension between these two types of requirement is inevitable. It is inherent in the cosmopolitan perspective and leads to contextual arrangements between the global approach to environmental problems and the forging of alliances with national, regional or local institutions and actors, according to opportunities and requirements. Connecting the various scales of environmental action unavoidably remains a partially achieved objective.     

Spare-Time Life of Chinese Children

The report focuses on trends in children's spare time and the amount of time spent in various activities. Modernization has resulted in new opportunities and a widening of interests. Doing homework, watching television, and playing with peers take up most of the free time. Areas of growing interest include sports, travel and camping, film and television performance, music and dance, science and technology, and special topics such as environmental protection and mathematics. Student run newspapers, radio stations, and literary clubs are becoming popular. Concerns focus on the small amount of discretionary spare time due to academic pressures, and the tendency for parents to structure free time so that children have little say in what they are able to do.     

The Marginalization of Nonresident Fathers: Their Postdivorce Roles

ABSTRACT

A sample of 260 Australian men were surveyed about their experience as nonresident fathers and their contact with their children. Most reported having little input into decisions concerning children's postseparation living arrangements, the amount of child support they paid, and the spending of their child support payments. Many claimed to have very limited say in any parenting decisions, and little or no involvement in children's schools. Fathers' limited parental role was found to be negatively correlated with their ongoing contact and involvement with children, and positively with their reported level of interparental hostility. Many respondents viewed their marginalization as parents as an impediment to their capacity to develop meaningful relationships with their children.     

Retirement and marital decision making: Effects on retirement satisfaction

This study explores how partner's employment and preretirement decision‐making structures affect retirement satisfaction, using pooled data from Waves 1 to 4 of the Health and Retirement Surveys. Based on resource theory, the analyses indicate that retired husbands are least satisfied if their wives remain employed and had more say in decisions prior to the husband's retirement. Retired wives are least satisfied if their husbands remain employed and had more say in decisions prior to the wife's retirement. These results suggest that retirement transitions undermine married retirees’ satisfaction if they enhance the other partner's influence in the relationship. More research should address linkages between work and family realms during transitions such as retirement and explore the negotiation processes surrounding such transitions.     

‘You have to choose your childcare to fit your work’: Childcare decision-making among low-income working families

Regardless of their economic background, most working parents face the task of arranging childcare at some point. The decision-making process they experience is often complex, and this complexity is intensified for particular groups of families with limited financial and social resources. In this paper, we present findings from a three-year qualitative study of the childcare choices of low-income working families, many of whom were immigrants, had limited English proficiency, were parents of children with special needs, or represented some combination of these factors. The study explored families' current care arrangements, their reasons for selecting a particular form of childcare, and the characteristics of their ideal arrangements. Data were coded to identify themes in parental preferences, decision factors, and the barriers families faced in accessing their preferred care arrangements. Most significantly, the parents studied described their preferences for an environment where their children could learn and be in the presence of caring and trustworthy caregivers. About a third of the families said they preferred relatives as caregivers, and selected relatives to provide childcare. Other parents selected care according to cost, location, and availability of the provider; they described the challenges of locating affordable, high-quality care that met their nonstandard schedules. These findings have important implications for childcare policy.     

The 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey: job insecurity, debt weigh on retirement confidence, savings

Americans' confidence in their ability to retire comfortably is stagnant at historically low levels. Just 14 percent are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement (statistically equivalent to the low of 13 percent measured in 2011 and 2009). Employment insecurity looms large: Forty-two percent identify job uncertainty as the most pressing financial issue facing most Americans today. Worker confidence about having enough money to pay for medical expenses and long-term care expenses in retirement remains well below their confidence levels for paying basic expenses. Many workers report they have virtually no savings and investments. In total, 60 percent of workers report that the total value of their household's savings and investments, excluding the value of their primary home and any defined benefit plans, is less than $25,000. Twenty-five percent of workers in the 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey say the age at which they expect to retire has changed in the past year. In 1991, 11 percent of workers said they expected to retire after age 65, and by 2012 that has grown to 37 percent. Regardless of those retirement age expectations, and consistent with prior RCS findings, half of current retirees surveyed say they left the work force unexpectedly due to health problems, disability, or changes at their employer, such as downsizing or closure. Those already in retirement tend to express higher levels of confidence than current workers about several key financial aspects of retirement. Retirees report they are significantly more reliant on Social Security as a major source of their retirement income than current workers expect to be. Although 56 percent of workers expect to receive benefits from a defined benefit plan in retirement, only 33 percent report that they and/or their spouse currently have such a benefit with a current or previous employer. More than half of workers (56 percent) report they and/or their spouse have not tried to calculate how much money they will need to have saved by the time they retire so that they can live comfortably in retirement. Only a minority of workers and retirees feel very comfortable using online technologies to perform various tasks related to financial management. Relatively few use mobile devices such as a smart phone or tablet to manage their finances, and just 10 percent say they are comfortable obtaining advice from financial professionals online.     

Spirituality for Building Resilience in Children of Divorced Parents: A Cross-Country Experimental Study

Based on a post-test experimental study of 1,893 children of divorced parents across 15 countries, I examine influence of a spiritual education program (SEP) on their resilience building. I have used 4 scales to study the resilience and strengths of the treatment group children. Results of the analysis of variance and t test showed that treatment group children scored better on the scales compared to the control group. Through 4 structural equation models, I show that the scores of the treatment group children were influenced by parenting arrangements, economic class, SEP, and self-practice. Children who lived with single parents or had nonresident cooperative coparenting arrangements scored higher on the scales vis-à-vis those who had custodial and frequently conflicting coparenting arrangements or those whose parents had repartnered and they had stepparents. Upper middle-class children responded better to SEP than their elite class counterparts. Further, treatment group children who did 2 or 3 rounds of the SEP during the course of the study vis-à-vis once, and those who said that they self-practiced the program lessons regularly scored higher on the scales. The findings highlight the importance of spiritually sensitive interventions for resilience building of children of divorced parents.     

Children's Appraisals of their Experiences in Out-of-Home Care

Few studies have asked children directly about their experiences in out-of-home care. This study uses data collected from 180 nine- to-11-year-old children currently in out-of-home care who were asked about their perceptions and appraisals of out-of-home care. Analysis of variance and chi-square analyses were used to examine whether children's appraisals of their lives following removal from their families of origin differ as a function of age, gender, race/ethnicity, type and severity of maltreatment, length of time in out-of-home care, placement type, attachment to current caregivers, and rating of current caregiver/home. Youth who were sexually and emotionally abused, youth who were satisfied with their current caregivers and placements, and girls were more likely to state that their lives would have been worse had they remained with their families of origin. Youth who were physically abused were more likely to report that their lives would have remained the same. Children living in group care were more likely than those living in family foster care or with kin to report that their lives would have been better had they remained with their families of origin. Differences were not found between children living in family foster care and those living with kin nor did children's appraisals differ based on age, race, ethnicity, length of time in out-of-home care, neglect, or severity of maltreatment.     

Encouraging workers to save: the 2005 Retirement Confidence Survey

This Issue Brief reports findings of the 15th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), which points to potential solutions to the American retirement savings problem, specifically ways that could help workers save more through their employment-based retirement plans. IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYER MATCH: More than 7 in 10 workers not currently contributing to their employer-sponsored retirement plan say an employer contribution of up to 5 percent of their salary would make them much more or somewhat more likely to participate (72 percent). SIMPLIFIED OPTIONS: Other retirement plan options that nonparticipants say would make them more likely to contribute are an investment option that automatically becomes more conservative as their retirement date approaches (66 percent) and a feature that automatically raises workers' contributions by a fixed amount or percentage when they receive a pay raise (55 percent). Two-thirds of nonparticipants indicate they would be very or somewhat likely to remain in their employer's plan if they were automatically enrolled (66 percent). SOCIAL SECURITY: Nearly 7 in 10 of today's workers are skeptical that Social Security will continue to provide benefits of at least equal value to those received by current retirees (68 percent). This proportion has remained relatively constant in recent years, but is below the 1995 level (79 percent). Workers continue to be unable to identify the age at which they will be eligible for full Social Security benefits. MOST BEHIND SCHEDULE IN SAVING: A majority of workers believe they are behind schedule when it comes to planning and saving for retirement (55 percent). Most of those behind schedule say that high expenses, particularly everyday expenses (49 percent), child-rearing expenses (39 percent), and medical costs (35 percent), are a major factor in keeping them from saving. LESS THAN HALF HAVE TRIED TO CALCULATE NEEDED SAVINGS: Approximately 4 in 10 workers say they have tried to calculate how much they need to accumulate for retirement. More than one-third of these workers say they asked a financial advisor to calculate this number or used their own estimates; 10 percent say they simply guessed how much they will need in retirement.     

No Small Change: Process‐Oriented Play Therapy For Children of Separating Parents

This article looks at a process‐oriented play therapy for children adversely affected by parental separation. Process‐oriented play therapy is a therapeutic method that involves the therapist directly entering the ‘world of play’ with the child, by amplifying various modes of expression and helping underlying meaning to emerge, in order to help children access aspects of their life they feel they have no say in. One particular case has been used as an example, involving ‘Jim’ (pseudonym) and his mother, who attended the play therapy session.     

Dutch top managers and work-life arrangements in times of economic crisis

This paper investigates the considerations of top managers regarding work-life arrangements. A dynamic and contextual approach is taken, using data from 26 semi-structured interviews with top managers from 13 organizations in 2008, before the economic crisis began, and again in 2011, when the ensuing recessions were well under way. Analysis shows that work-life arrangements are increasingly perceived by top managers as integrated into their organizations. However, they indicate that such arrangements should benefit both the employees and the organization. If the consequences of work-life arrangements are perceived by top managers to be negative for their organization, they establish conditions for their use by employees so as to reduce the effect on the organization, rather than refrain from providing the arrangements altogether. During the economic crisis, top managers grew more cost-aware and expressed more concern about negative consequences for their organization. Government regulations are perceived as ‘only normal,’ but in the end top managers wish to remain in control of arrangements. If the law leaves room for interpretation, the Dutch top managers in this study used this freedom to bend the arrangements to suit their own ideas.     

Perceptions of Financial Well-Being among American Women in Diverse Families

This study investigated the financial well-being of American women using data from a nationwide web survey of 368 women between the ages of 30 and 65 with household incomes of at least $40,000. Specifically, we examined perceptions of financial well-being among women with and without children who lived in different family forms including marriage, cohabitation, stepfamilies, as well as women who were single. The majority of women reported they had conservative buying behaviors, desired financial independence, had a somewhat negative view of their current financial situation, had worries about retirement and their financial futures, and considered long-term care insurance a necessity. Women in nontraditional families (single mothers, cohabitors, and stepfamilies) had significantly greater worries about their financial futures than women in first marriages. Single mothers were less likely to say that they had their financial house in order and were more likely to express concern that their money would not last through retirement. Cohabiting women were significantly more likely to express fears about becoming a burden. All three groups were more likely than women in first marriages to agree that long-term care insurance is a necessity. Women who were older, were more educated, had higher income, and who contributed more money to the household income had more positive perceptions of their financial situation.     

What does children's art work tell us about gender?

If art is an authentic expression of the self, a sociologist should be able to examine children's art work to see what effect various social agents have had on gender socialization. Inferences could be made from the art work about the socialization process. In this study, the authors examined children's art work to investigate the implicit sex role perceptions of children. The population included 110 students between the ages of nine and 12 in three elementary schools in Texas. 126 pieces of art were examined and 500 independent ratings were made. Results of the study indicated that the content and form of children's art work differ significantly by sex. A gender role perspective was used to explain the pattern.     

Minority faith schools as claims for cultural recognition? Two examples from England

This paper presents two cases of minority faith school claim-making in England and considers what supporters of the claims say about their hopes and intentions for the schools. The paper redresses a gap in the literature on minority faith school claims and on minority claim-making more generally, which has tended to present minority claims as expressions of specific religious group identities, whilst it has had little to say about what motivates individual claimants to mobilise in the name of such identities. From an in-depth study of individual positions in favour of the two faith schools, it is concluded that depicting these claims as primarily claims for identity recognition fails to attend to the multilayered ways in which these claimants discuss their orientations to the claims and the root causes they identify for making them.     

Money Management Patterns of Dual-Earner Families in Israel

The purpose of the present study is to assess money organizing patterns and banking arrangements in dual-earner families and how they are affected by both the economic and social context. A log linear analysis of data from the International Social Survey Program for working couples in Israel indicates that the combination of money organizing patterns and banking arrangements enables meaningful distinction between traditional, modern and individualistic spousal economic behavior modes. A further comparison of demographic, employment and attitudinal effects suggests that both the economic and social context approaches are necessary to identify the factors associated with different spousal economic behavior modes. Both the spouses' labor force positions and their attitudes regarding family roles contribute to their using a particular mode.     

Students with disabilities participating in mainstream schools: policies that promote and limit teacher and therapist cooperation

This paper examines participatory arrangements for students with physical disabilities in mainstream education, cooperation between teachers and therapists to ensure that these arrangements are efficient and the organizational prerequisites for such cooperation. The study comprises data obtained from 14 'groups', with each group consisting of a student with physical disabilities aged 9-19 years, their main teacher and the relevant therapists from the local habilitation centre. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations and a review of relevant documents, including legislation. The results reveal a lack of cooperation between teacher and therapist which results in students with disabilities receiving suboptimal participatory arrangements in school. Differences in the perspectives of the teachers and therapists and in the way they act and perceive their responsibilities were anchored in institutional and societal documents and the distribution of resources. The implications for students with disabilities are discussed.     

Elective single mothers and their children: The missing fathers

Elective single mothers are adult, unmarried women who intentionally become mothers. This study utilized longitudinal data about 17 Caucasian, elective single mothers and their children to identify fathers' roles in these families, and to understand children's views of their fathers. These single mothers and their children resided for the first six years of the children's lives in father-absent households. By age six, most of the children had ghost fathers, whom they had never met or knew little about. The data suggest that the father often becomes a family secret, and that children may blame themselves for their fathers' absence.     

The saving and spending habits of young people

Over 250 British children and adolescents completed a questionnaire on their sources of personal income (pocket money/allowance, part-time job, gifts), as well as how much they had saved, where it was stored, and for what purpose it was intended. Particular attention was paid to bank accounts. The participants also responded to various attitude statements about money and the economic situation in general. Results showed numerous sex and age, but few class differences. Males received more pocket money and presents than females, and older children more than younger children. Over 80% of the children claimed their parents would not give them extra money if they had spent it all. Regressional analyses showed that the best predictors of regularity of saving, as well as the proportion of money saved, were the more money received; the less money spent in the previous week and total amount of money saved in the previous week. The results are discussed in terms of the limited empirical literature on children's pocket money allowances, particularly with respect to demographic differences. Limitations of the methodology are also reported.