Muslim Marriages: Intergenerational Differences in the Notions of Marriage among the Bulgarian Pomaks

Abstract

Based on ethnographic data, this study investigates the changes in the notions of marriage within three generations in a Muslim Pomak community in Bulgaria. The main goal of the study is to revisit the concepts of the detraditionalization and retraditionalization of marriage, taking into account the communist past and the repressions against Muslims in Bulgaria known as the “Rebirth process” or the “Revival process”. After 1989 the notions of marriage have been reconsidered by the youngest cohort under the influence of globalizing processes and the interactions with the Christian Bulgarians in bigger cities. The analyses pay particular attention to the intergenerational conflict over the role of the woman in the marriage, the emerging individualism among the women from the youngest generation, and their fears from re-traditionalization of their future marriages.     

Bonding and Attachment in Adoption

SUMMARY

The meaning of the words “bonding” and “attachment” as terms related to human connections are examined from an historical perspective and as important tools in the field of adoption. For over three decades there has been confusion between the two words and about the processes which they represented. Because adoption, by definition, changes the usual patterns of family connections, it is especially important that there be common agreement about terminology. Clinical observations have led to the discrete definitions proposed here. The words are defined, for utilitarian purposes, in a way that underscores the qualitative differences. The result is a tool that can improve placement decisions, help resolve controversial custody cases, reduce tensions among the families to which an adopted child has connections, and provide concrete assistance to children in their efforts to learn how to make significant attachments.     

Corporate Quotas and Symbolic Politics in Advanced Democracies

ABSTRACT

This article identifies trends in the adoption and implementation of quotas for corporate boards, an underresearched topic in political science. Corporate quotas—like legislative quotas—constitute the “fast track” to gender equality but appear more commonly in advanced democracies. These corporate quotas fall into three categories: laws covering all companies; laws covering state-owned companies only; and nonbinding (voluntary) measures in corporate governance codes. Despite on-paper differences, these corporate quotas are largely toothless. First generation corporate quotas, like first generation legislative quotas, operate symbolically. By raising the specter of stringent legislation in the long run, corporate quotas induce firms into voluntary compliance in the short run.     

Masturbation in a Generational Perspective

Abstract

Each generation has adopted views on masturbation via transforming cultural definitions of sexuality and normality. This article presents how masturbation habits have changed during the last decades in different generations and how these habits are linked to the partnership status. The analysis is based on three national follow-up sex surveys in Finland (in 1971, in 1992, and in 1999), and sex surveys in Sweden (in 1996), in Estonia (in 2000), and in St. Petersburg, Russia (in 1996).

Across these countries, each new generation had been more active in masturbation than the previous one. However, in Estonia masturbation had increased in each generation about 20 years later and in St. Petersburg about 30 years later than in Finland and Sweden. The increase in masturbation was almost unrelated to the relationship status and to the years spent in the relationship. The masturbation habits that each generation had internalized in adolescence seemed to remain unchanged through the course of their lives. The implications of these findings are that masturbation did not decrease with age and that masturbation was not a compensation for a missing sex partner but an independent way to gain sexual pleasure. The results indicate that masturbation is linked to the perceptions within a given culture of its nature and consequences during the teenage years of participants.     

The Comparison of Grandparents’, Parents’, and Young People's Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Turkey

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to compare attitudes toward lesbians and gay men across three generations in Turkey. Participants were 112 young people, 169 parents, and 125 grandparents. A total of 406 men and women were involved. The short form of Herek's (1998) the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale was used. MANOVAs and ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. Results showed the attitudinal differences toward gay and lesbian people across generations. Grandparents have the most negative attitudes, whereas parents have more negative attitudes than their children. When comparing attitudes of each generation across sex, we found that young women have more liberal attitudes toward gay men compared to all other groups. Discussion focuses on understanding the results within the unique cultural context of Turkey.     

The Development of Adoption Law

Abstract

Adoption law in the United States, since its inception in 1851, has reflected changes in society and in child welfare practices. The author reviews its evolution from an issue involving property and inheritance, to a means of helping children and creating the ideal nuclear family, to the current understanding that virtually all children needing permanent homes are “adoptable” and that families can take many forms. She also recounts changes in the perceived “best interests” of all members of the adoption triad over time, and the growing recognition of links between adoption and child welfare policy. Finally, she discusses current controversies including open adoption; rights of birth parents, including unmarried fathers, and the role of culture and race.     

Promoting Computer-Mediated Communications in Community Coalitions

SUMMARY

Community coalition participants are adopting new communication tools. This article identifies issues involving adoption of one type of communication tool, computer-mediated communications (CMC), based on a review of relevant literature and a recent exploratory research study of CMC adoption by community coalitions. Suggestions for aiding adoption and anticipating problems are presented and some social justice and professional value issues are highlighted. Human service professionals whose work involves community coalitions may find the theoretical background and practical advice useful in anticipating and responding to CMC changes in coalitions.     

The Impact of Openness on Adoption Agency Practices

ABSTRACT

This article reports the results of a longitudinal study of the changing openness-related practices of private U.S. adoption agencies. Staff from private adoption agencies were interviewed at three points in time, in 1987–89, 1993, and 1999, about their current practices and attitudes regarding openness in adoption and any changes that may have taken place since the previous interview. From 1993 to 1999 agencies continued a trend toward offering and encouraging more open adoptions. During this period fully disclosed arrangements became more common and had the greatest growth since 1987, while confidential adoptions continued to decrease in frequency. Mediated adoptions remain the predominant arrangements. Changes in the adoption options offered by the agencies at all three time periods have been driven primarily by the demands of the birthmother for greater openness. However, by final data collection in 1999, most agencies in this sample changed from viewing the birthmother as their primary client to viewing the adopted child as their primary client. Implications for agency practices are discussed.     

Intergenerational continuity in parenting: a review and theoretical integration

Abstract

Objective: This review evaluates literature on how parenting behaviors are passed from one generation to the next in families by providing a new definitional framework to organize existing work, utilizing this framework to review literature on intergenerational continuity in parenting behaviors, and proposing a new developmental framework for understanding the etiology of intergenerational continuity in parenting behaviors.

Design: The present review examines 31 studies of intergenerational continuity in parenting, summarizes the findings offered by these studies, and integrates this existing literature in a theoretical framework for considering the etiology of intergenerational continuity in parenting behaviors.

Results: Results indicate that parental warmth, hostility, and behavioral control each demonstrate intergenerational continuity, and that internalizing and externalizing behavior serve as potential mediators of intergenerational continuity across all three types of parenting behaviors.

Conclusions: Parenting behaviors falling in the warmth, hostility, and behavioral control domains each demonstrate modest continuity across generations. Internalizing and externalizing behaviors developed by children in response to parenting in their family of origin may persist and cause similar patterns of parenting when these children grow up and start their own families. Partner psychopathology and parenting styles may moderate these externalizing and internalizing pathways to intergenerational continuity in parenting.     

Adoption in the Media

Abstract

This is a review of three articles that appeared in the popular print media in 1996. All cover the subject of teen pregnancy. Two are written by or about birth parents and their decision to plan adoption. The other article focuses on the life of two teenagers who will parent their children.     

Examining rates and risk factors for post-order adoption disruption in England and Wales through survival analyses

PurposeThis paper reports findings from two research studies that set out to calculate the rate and predictors of post-order adoption disruption in England and Wales.MethodsAll available national level administrative data on adopted children in England and Wales were analysed, supplemented by national surveys adoption managers. Complete national datasets were available 12 years in England and for 11 years in Wales.ResultsOf the 36,749 and 2,317 adoptions considered, 565 in England and 35 in Wales had disrupted over the follow up period. Kaplan-Meier analyses indicate that cumulative post-order adoption disruption rates were 3.2% and 2.6% respectively for England and Wales. Cox regression models indicate that being older than four years adoptive placement, adoptive parents taking longer than a year to legalise the adoption, being a teenager and previous multiple placements in care were risk factors for post-order adoption disruption.ConclusionThe post order adoption disruption rate is low. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Terms for Intergenerational Relations Among the Tumbuka of Northern Malawi

ABSTRACT

Culturally enshrined ideas about generational relations affect language, the use of language, and linguistic conventions for expressing these ideas. Generation terms (or age-set terms) distinguish people in the social group according to their age and sex. The age set is a formally organized group of youths, or men or women which has collectively passed through a series of stages each of which has distinctive status, ceremonial, military or other activities. Membership of the group frequently involves ritual in initiation, accompanied by special teaching of the community's law and customs, instructions in sexual matters, and, in some societies, physical initiation that is the mark of attainment of maturity. But how is the system of intergenerational relationship manifested in a particular social group? How do the members of each generation use language differently? How does language treat the generations differently? How do such differences affect our perceptions, attitudes and behavior in everyday life? How do language and behavior reflect unity of the generation groups and their relationship to each other? In this paper we are going to examine the social, cultural, and linguistic characteristics that focus on features common to members of a particular generation and account for its relationship to other generations. We will do this by looking at the Tumbuka of northern Malawi, and examining their social organization and the system of terms and social behavior that is employed in addressing and referring to members of a particular generation. The learning of generation-type language by children and cross-cultural aspects of these questions will be considered.     

Ethical Considerations in Adoption Research: Navigating Confidentiality and Privacy Across the Adoption Kinship Network

Abstract

Adoption research often includes multiple members of the adoption network, each of whom has distinctive perspectives. Participants may include adopted individuals and their siblings as well as adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoption professionals. Due to these multiple informants and the sensitivity of the topics explored in adoption research, researchers encounter several unique ethical concerns when working with populations impacted by adoption. The current article addresses confidentiality and privacy issues that arise when conducting adoption research. Examples from a longitudinal study on openness in adoption are provided to highlight strategies that can be used to address these issues.     

Intergenerational Impact of the AIDS Pandemic in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This paper articulates and assesses the intergenerational impact of the AIDS pandemic in Nigeria based on literature reviews and mailed surveys. The findings reveal that, with the advent of colonialism in the 19th century, the wave of modernization, and the new idea of nuclear family system, intergenerational bonds and relationships were weakened to an extent. But the arrival of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and its steady increase worsened the situation. Intergenerational relationships have been affected to the extent that bonds between generations are collapsing. The AIDS pandemic creates social isolation and stigmatization of the infected and affected population. Since the middle generation is mostly infected, the older and younger generations who depend on them suffer most of the consequences. Some efforts have been made by the government and non-governmental organizations to address the increasing rate of infection. But little has been done to mitigate the impact of the pandemic especially on intergenerational relationships. As a possible solution, this paper suggests some intergenerational programming and policy approaches to address the problem, and achieve better intergenerational relationships in Nigeria at this time of crisis.     

An Effective Adoption Education Program That Can Be Replicated

ABSTRACT

The article details the creation, development and organization of a public adoption education agency. Founded in 1986, Adoption Option, Inc. has become a catalyst for a broad array of adoption education activities in Southwestern Ohio. These activities center around a three-step education initiative which targets three groups: (1) people who have direct contact, and a counseling role, with pregnant women/teenagers and their partners and families; (2) adolescents who are being schooled in family life, sexuality and health programs; and (3) the general public. The three program areas for carrying our the agency's mission are: (1) a training program for individuals who counsel and assist women and teens with unplanned pregnancies which provides factual information about adoption and how to present it in a non-directive way; (2) educational programs to put adoption into school-based health curricula aimed at students ages 12-18; (3) a media initiative to convey accurate information about adoption. The agency and its successful programs can be replicated by individuals who are interested in making their communities more adoption-literate and adoption friendly.     

The Value of Adoption

ABSTRACT

Recent work shows that the governmental cost of adoption is about half the cost of long-term foster care for children whose birth parents' rights have been terminated. Because adoption is also associated with greater accumulation of human and social capital, the total savings to government in areas such as special education and criminal justice is of the same magnitude as the child welfare savings. The private benefit to adopted children in terms of additional income earned over their working lives is similarly large. In all, a dollar spent on the adoption of a child from foster care yields about three dollars in benefits.     

Vulnerability as a politics of decolonial solidarity: the case of the Anarchists Against the Wall

ABSTRACT

The contemporary turn to the settler-colonial framework has allowed an emerging and growing generation of activist-scholars working on Palestine-Israel to think about decolonisation as an alternative to the official conflict-management-focused peace process. This framing has allowed for the articulation of a range of rich and complex discussions concerning the making and unmaking of settler-indigenous relations in Palestine-Israel, as well as the possibility for decolonial cohabitation. This paper’s contribution to this ongoing conversation is to theorise the ways in which the widespread adoption of the settler-colonial framework by Israeli and international solidarity activists active in the nonviolent struggle against the West Bank Separation Wall has contributed to the evolution of a praxis of decolonial solidarity articulated through the strategic mobilisation of vulnerability vis-à-vis the violence, repression and dispossession of the settler-colonial state.     

Factors Associated with Adoption and Adoption Intentions of Nonparental Caregivers

ABSTRACT

Data from the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children's Health and the 2013 National Survey of Children in Nonparental Care were used to fit a multinomial logistic model comparing three groups to those who never considered adoption: those who ever considered but are not currently planning adoption, those planning adoption, and those who adopted. Adoption may be more likely when the caregiver is a non-kin foster parent, a foster care agency was involved, and/or financial assistance is available. Those with plans to adopt but who have not adopted may face adoption barriers such as extreme poverty, lower education, and being unmarried.     

Psychological Functioning Through the First Six Months in Mothers Adopting from China: Special Needs Versus Non–Special Needs

ABSTRACT

This paper describes research investigating maternal adjustment to parenthood via special needs and non–special needs adoption from China. China's adoption system has a program for adoption of children with special needs and those without and both have remained top sources for intercountry adoption. Participants were 46 women who were surveyed at six weeks before, six weeks after, and six months after adopting a child. The psychological functioning of mothers adopting from China was assessed using the Beck Depression Index, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scales. Mothers adopting children without special needs reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and adjustment problems at clinical levels six weeks following the adoption. Mothers adopting children with special needs reported positive adjustment and low psychological dysfunction at all three time points. These results suggest that mothers pursuing a non–special needs adoption route are at greater risk for adjustment and psychological difficulties post-adoption. Mothers adopting special needs children may be better prepared prior to the adoption and may receive more support after returning home.     

Changing Agency Practices Toward Openness in Adoption

Abstract

The impact of openness in adoption on private adoption agencies' practices and services was examined. In 1987-89 and 1993 staff from private agencies participated in structured interviews concerning their current practices regarding openness and the services offered by the agency. Over time, agencies tended to offer a greater range of openness options. Agency personnel reported that client demand, changes in agency philosophy, and competition from independent or private adoptions were among the most salient reasons for this change. Compelled to adopt new roles in response to openness, many agencies now offer mediation services to help address requests for information or problems within the adoptive family-birthparent relationship. The perspectives of adoption staff regarding the main advantages and disadvantages of each type of openness are explored, and implications for practice are discussed.