Systemic Therapeutic Approaches with Sexual Minorities and Their Families

Abstract

GLBTQ families encompass very diverse forms, all of which are interwoven with other differences such as class, race, ethnicity, religious and spiritual beliefs. This article will familiarize the reader with some challenges faced by families of sexual minorities and how different family therapy approaches might be applied. Training issues for therapists are identified and future areas for development are discussed.     

Lesbian-Headed Stepfamilies

Abstract

This paper examines the lesbian stepfamily. It considers the family structure, parenting roles, gender composition of the couple, the distribution of family labor, and the impact of familial and community support. It discusses some of the challenges facing lesbian-headed stepfamilies, their strengths, capacities and competencies, and the strategies these families use for coping with stigma and intolerance. The paper concludes with implications for policy and practice with lesbian stepfamilies.     

Canada and Family Life

Abstract

Important Canadian factors are discussed to obtain a profile of this country, its communities, and family trends. The challenges for Canadian families are presented and include the sandwich generation, seniors, effects of divorce and remarriage, and same-sex marriages. A review of existing studies related to the strengths of Canadian families is included. The need for families to be strengthened has led to a variety of social supports available to the families of Canada.     

Enhancing the Resilience of African American Families

Abstract

This article attempts to demonstrate how a resiliency perspective can assist helping professionals in working more effectively with low-income families of color. It also seeks to assist social workers and policymakers in developing program interventions and public policies that enhance resilience by building on the strengths and assets of families of color.     

Gender across family generations: change in Mexican American masculinities and femininities

How do conceptions of gender – attitudes, expectations, and behaviours – change from generation to generation in Mexican American families? The notion of gender as socially constructed allows for the possibility of change, yet existing studies documenting change provide insight into why gender changes occur but do not sufficiently describe how this process happens. Based on interviews with three-generation Mexican American families in California, this article finds that reflection on natal family experiences and intergenerational family communication – autobiographical stories, lessons, and advice – are mechanisms that shift masculinity, femininity, and gender relations. Men use their natal family dynamics to rethink male dominance in favour of improved familial and romantic relationships whereas women consider their biographies and cross-generational advice to challenge patriarchy and become more educated and assertive. Families are crucibles of social change: reflection on natal family experiences and communication that crosscuts family generations actualise and initiate paradigm shifts about gender.     

The Family Strengths in Greece Then and Now

Abstract

Family has a long historical course in Greece. The turbulent periods of Hellenic history and the fluctuations of the political, social and economic life have influenced Hellenic family strengths. Nevertheless, there have been some basic elements on which the family has been based and acquired a continuous stability and homogeneity. These features are: religion, language, a rich cultural heritage, tradition and customs. Roles in the family are strongly influenced by the above, though they have been readjusted and redefined in contemporary society.     

COLAGE

Abstract

COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) is a national, non-profit organization run by and for children who have one or more gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender (GLBT) parents. Our mission is to engage, connect, and empower people to make the world a better place for children of GLBT parents and families. This article chronicles COLAGE's work within the context of the larger GLBT-family movement. A review is made of the emotional and socio-political challenges that children of GLBT parents face, as well as the benefits and unique perspectives gained from growing up in a family outside of the social norm. Finally, COLAGE is conceptualized in terms of its prominence as a community based intervention for building networks, empowering youth, and ensuring society recognizes, validates, and celebrates all families.     

Challenges for Studying Care After AFDC

Mandatory work and low wages after the end of AFDC may propel changes in the caregiving of children and dependent elders in single-mother families. This article suggests some challenges facing researchers who will examine care in single-mother families. Drawing on a qualitative study of care in the last years of welfare, and on social network analysis, it suggests how changes in resources, networks, and norms may affect practices of care and also make it difficult to discover the changes.     

Shared Family Care: Fostering the Whole Family to Promote Safety and Stability

ABSTRACT

Shared Family Care is an innovative child welfare service that temporarily places whole families in the homes of community mentors who, along with a team of professionals, help the families to obtain the skills and resources they need to move toward self-sufficiency and adequately care for their children. This article provides an overview of this model, identifies existing programs in the United States, discusses key elements of the model, summarizes outcomes and comparative cost information, identifies implementation challenges, and provides tips for starting a Shared Family Care program in any community.     

Family Strengths in Romania

Abstract

Romania is situated in the southeast of Central Europe with more than two millennia of agitated history. The main dimensions of the Romanian cultural model are represented by Latinity and Christianity and have involved very consistent principles. This article is focused on the specific aspects of the Romanian family and its present transformation under major structural changes in the socio-cultural context. In Romanian contemporary society there are two main types of effects that were generated by communism in the middle of the 20th century and by the rediscovery of democracy in 1989. The Romanian family has supported the consequences of these events, first by the abusive insertion of state control into the domestic sphere and second by the necessity of redeveloping self-reliant capacities for family survival. Under the pressure of continuous change in the social context, the contemporary family has valuable resources inherent in traditional Romanian culture and in the family's internal strengths.     

Rural Lesbian Mothers and Their Families

Abstract

Lesbian mothers face unique challenges to parenting based on their status as lesbians. They face not only the challenges of discrimination based on sexism and homophobia, but the challenges of parenting. This article explores these challenges and offers practice recommendations to be supportive of good parenting and resources for parenting enrichment.

Lesbians who are parenting either alone or as part of a couple face numerous barriers. And women living in rural communities present unique issues to mental health practitioners. Mental health practitioners working with rural lesbian mothers and their families need an awareness of those issues which are unique to this population as well as those issues which are exacerbated by the combination of minority statuses and social and geographic isolation.

Lesbian mothers in any geographic location find themselves belonging to several populations: lesbians, women, and mothers, to name a few (Friedman, 1990). Each of these populations has its accompanying pressures which, when combined, exacerbate some of the sub-group issues. Rural social service practitioners will encounter lesbian mothers and their families. A clear understanding of their issues will enhance the therapeutic process. The issues and themes of each of the sub-groups will be explored and then examined in the context of rural life.     

Sex,Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll…and Children

Abstract

In this article we identify some of the challenges for gay men who desire to create more intimate relationships and more stable families in the evolving and potentially more conducive socio-political environment of the 21st century in the United States. Secondly, we delineate a multi-systemic structural model of working with male couples and families that addresses the interplay of the couple's interactional system with larger religious, civil and social systems. Finally, we demonstrate systemic interventions with a case example of a male couple and their family coping with 21st century challenges.     

Transracial Adoption of Children with Developmental Disabilities

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the transracial adoption of children with developmental disabilities. Thirty-four families who had adopted a child transracially were compared with 63 families who had adopted a child inracially; additionally, we compared adoptions in 13 families who had adopted both transracially and inracially. The adjustment of mothers and fathers was gauged separately at three time points using measures of depression, stress, family strengths, and subjective well-being. Results indicated few differences in functioning between transracial and inracial adoptive parents. Mothers in both conditions maintained low depression scores and comparable means on all other outcome variables. Fathers also revealed similar adjustment patterns despite adoption type. Thus, parents experience both short- and long-term positive outcomes from the transracial adoption of children with developmental disabilities.     

Families' Values and Attitudes Regarding Responsibility for the Frail Elderly

Abstract

This study examines the norms and values associated with care to disabled and frail aging parents, in particular those with regard to the sharing of responsibilities for care between families and formal services, and this within three age cohorts in Quebec, Canada. It is based on a telephone interview of 1,315 people. Factor analysis yielded four factors: (1) family responsibility; (2) uncompromising family obligations; (3) acceptance of services; (4) distrust of services. Analyses of the data indicate that all three age cohorts consider that families have responsibilities for their aging family members, at the same time that they score very high on the acceptance of service scale. This article discusses these seemingly paradoxical results and their implications for aging policy.     

Family experiences of children’s social care involvement following a social work change programme

Abstract

Social work change programmes rooted in a particular practice theory and design are increasingly a fixture of UK local authority social work and the focus of a small but developing body of research. However, in this research to date, there has been a lack of engagement with the perspectives of families. In this article, we detail findings from 23 family interviews undertaken as part of an independent evaluation of a social work change programme in a single local authority. These findings afford insight into the positive influence change programmes can have on engaging families and re-routing practitioners to work in a relationship-based way. They also illustrate the limitations for reshaping practice in the context of rising levels of need, a paucity of supportive provision, and administrative burdens remaining the same as before the introduction of a change programme. As part of the article, we offer some brief reflections on the recruitment of families for evaluative study to assist other researchers and local authority professionals who may be involved in comparable evaluations in future.     

Family Support for the Elderly in Korea

Abstract

This article discusses major issues and concerns regarding family support for parents and elderly people in industrialized and urbanized Korea. It summarizes new trends in family support for elderly members, continuing influences of the traditional value of family support (filial piety), growing needs for public services for elderly people and their families, urgent calls for the state to assume greater responsibilities for providing social security and services for the elderly, needs for cross-cultural studies of family support, and certain cultural similarities and differences to be considered. The article concludes with some suggestions for future research.     

Using creative methods to research across difference. An introduction to the special issue

ABSTRACT

This special issue explores some of the methodological challenges that are brought into play when scholars deploy creative methods to research across difference. This introductory article defines what we mean by ‘creative methods’ and discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of using this approach within social science research. It then outlines how creative methods can be used to research across difference, specifically, and introduces the seven articles that make up the special issue.     

Blue-Ribbon Babies and Labors of Love: Race,Class, and Gender in U.S. Adoption Practice by Christine Ward Gailey

ABSTRACT

We investigated the adjustment of differing sized adoptive families rearing children with developmental disabilities. Families of 5 or more children (large: n = 54) were compared with families of 4 or fewer children (conventional: n = 69) on a variety of demographic and outcome variables measuring family strengths, family disharmony, marital adjustment, and adjustment to the adopted child. Analyses of covariance on the outcome variables demonstrated that parents of large families were functioning as well or better than parents of conventional-sized families. We concluded that adoption placement practice should not exhibit bias against the placement of multiple children with developmental disabilities in the same family.     

Family group conferences: from Maori culture to decision-making model in work with late modern families in Norway†

Models and methods within social work and child protection services are disseminated across cultural and national borders. The family group conference (FGC), with its origins in traditional Maori culture, is one example of this. The application of this model presupposes an ‘extended family’. Based on sociological theory, we highlight and problematise the explicit inattention to relevant cultural differences. The assumed existence of the extended family is implied in the direct translation of the term. The family in late modern society is often described as diversified, elective and shifting. We argue that FGC is relevant to such families. In our conclusion, we point out that despite changes, the family remains associated with traditional family values as solidarity and joint obligations, responsibilities and continuity. FGC vitalise traditional family values and facilitate for modern families performing traditional family practices. From our exploration of discourses and analyses on how FGC may be transformed from supporting Maori traditional culture to become a decision model in a CPS of a society such as Norway, we find there is a compliance with two fundamental factors: the late modern family's negotiating practices and the revitalisation of traditional family values.