Chinese parents’ involvement in sexuality education for adolescents

Objectives and Methods: Structural equation modeling was used to examine a model of factors related to the level of involvement of Chinese parents in sexuality education for adolescents. Results: Greater parental education was indirectly related to parental engagement in sexuality education through its relationship with more traditional cultural values, greater perceived knowledge of sexuality, and increased quality of the parent-child relationship. The model was found to be largely consistent regardless of the gender of the parent or child and the residence of the family. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that there are multiple pathways to consider within the topic of Chinese parental involvement in sexuality education.     

Producing the Prurient through the Pedagogy of Purity: Childhood Sexuality and the Social Purity Movement

Abstract  Drawing on primary materials from the United States, England and Australia, we explore the complex and contradictory manner in which the sexual child and innocence was constructed and made intelligible within social purity discourses in the mid 19^th to early 20^th century. The sexuality of the child was paradoxically conceptualized as a ubiquitous and boundless erotic force and as a pliable site for pedagogical intervention. We contend that the discursive production of the corrupt sexual companion, within purity literature, was an attempt to disentangle purity reformers' ambivalent construction of childhood sexuality as well as larger cultural anxieties about modern urban living. The sexual child validated social purity narratives because it was the category against which innocence was defined and made possible. ¹     

Cross-Cultural Media-tions: Media Coverage of Two Child Sexual Abuse Controversies inNewZealand/Aotearoa

This paper takes a cultural studies perspective and examines media coverage of two child sexual abuse conflicts in the 1980s in New Zealand/Aotearoa, as part of an era of increasingly media-ted, child sexual abuse controversies. The main representations of both conflicts were distinguished by a hostile response to a feminist-influenced analysis of child sexual abuse; yet at the same time, analysis of textual construction shows that feminist and other child protection arguments have made some inroads into popular discourse. There were some similarities in the media accounts to the ways in which recent controversies have been depicted in other western countries. The paper suggests that these similarities, along with local differences, need further exploration. As the twentieth century nears its end and child sexual abuse continues to be an important cultural preoccupation across national boundaries, these kinds of comparative projects could be of use to child protection workers and researchers.     

Child sexual abuse in Sri Lanka: the current state of affairs and recommendations for the future

This article focuses on child sexual abuse in Sri Lanka. The background of child sexual abuse in the country and its current status are discussed. The role of the National Child Protection Authority, the primary governmental body concerned with child protection, is also explored. The article also brings to light various cultural dimensions that serve to call attention to the issue of sexual abuse of children in Sri Lanka. These are explored and illustrated with case vignettes from the author's clinical experience. Finally, the article elucidates the main issues and barriers in Sri Lanka that need to be surmounted in order to have an integrated service delivery in the care of the sexually abused child.     

Typologies of Child Protection Systems: An International Approach

In recent decades, typologies have been developed to better understand the way in which different countries create systems to protect the interests of vulnerable children and their families. A child protection system typology is a classification of a set of characteristics that capture and define different approaches to child protection. Typologies are helpful in enabling comparisons of systems across international contexts, helping also to illuminate the various strengths and weaknesses of child protection systems. Typologies can also guide or redirect the development of a system, as they illustrate the varied ways in which children might be better protected. They explain how a cultural value base underpins approaches to child protection and can suggest alternative ways in which a system might evolve, based on the experiences of other countries. This article builds upon early typology building work and presents an international child protection system typology that has universal application. Country examples are used to illustrate the development of systems across two dimensions: whether they are oriented towards an individual or community focus; and whether systems are more, or less, regulated.     

Recommendations for Improving Cultural Competency When Working with Ethnic Minority Families in Child Protection Systems in Australia

Australia’s research and knowledge base on cultural competency has been slow to develop. To help address this gap, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) funded a large scale study in this area, which included a detailed literature review. The paper reports on key findings from that review including that collectivist values are at odds with ‘child-centred’ philosophies of child protection; there is an inherent tension between the right to equal protection from harm and the right for respect in cultural differences in parenting and family functioning (‘cultural absolutism’ versus ‘cultural relativism’); there are factors that uniquely characterise ‘the migrant context’ (especially lack of awareness of child protection laws and systems, economic disadvantage, and fear of authority); and that cultural competency is separable from cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity, and also different from addressing language barriers. However, in reviewing the literature it became apparent that the specific roles and responsibilities of workers, agencies, and systems were not clearly delineated. Thus this paper also aimed to address this unmet need. Identifying their unique roles and responsibilities can help ensure that the delivery of child protection services are efficiently and effectively mobilised from both the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ to benefit all ethnic minority families. Moreover, any implementation of cultural competency needs to move beyond the emphasis on culture and acknowledge the dimensions of inferiority and oppression to truly promote value for diversity and protect ethnic minority children from the dangers of systematic disadvantage that institutional racism represents.     

Sexuality: a neglected component of child sexual abuse education and training

Human sexuality is defined broadly as a function of total personality, especially to feelings of personal worth. A rationale, specific content, and teaching methodologies are suggested for the integration of sexuality content in the preparation of child welfare workers concerned with the prevention, intervention, and treatment of child sexual abuse.     

How Did Erectile Dysfunction Become “Natural”? A Review of the Critical Social Scientific Literature on Medical Treatment for Male Sexual Dysfunction

This article reviews the multidisciplinary social science literature assessing the social consequences of medical treatment for male sexual dysfunction. This literature applies medicalization theory and social constructionist approaches to gender to assert that Euro-American cultural ideals of masculinity and sexuality, as well as ageism and ableism, determine which sexual changes and experiences get defined as “dysfunction” and shape the marketing and use of medical treatments for those changes. These medical responses assuage the suffering of men who become unable to meet cultural ideals for sexuality but in the process make reductive norms for male sexuality seem biologically natural. In addition, the critical social science research suggests that an economic logic underlies the process of redefining diversity and change in men’s sexual function as medical pathology. However, comparative qualitative data on men’s and their sexual partners’ experiences of sexuality and aging across world regions suggest that people do not universally accept the narrow ideals of male sexuality embedded in medical discourse regarding men’s sexual dysfunction. The diversity in people’s sexual desires across the life course and their responses to sexual function change highlight the cultural nature of medical definitions of sexual dysfunction.     

Broadening Our View

Summary

The growth in child welfare caseloads and the increasing use of kinship foster care has raised new questions about effective permanency planning. The majority of children in kinship foster care are children of color and have been less likely to exit the custody of the child welfare system than children placed in traditional foster care. Permanency planning which ensures the long-term protection and well-being of children from diverse cultural backgrounds requires a broad view of family, ongoing striving for cultural competence, collaboration between the formal child welfare system and the kinship systems of children in state custody, and a long-term view of permanency planning and child-rearing that builds on the case-management capacities of kinship networks to support permanent plans, looks beyond the child's exit from state custody, and helps families and larger kinship systems make long-term plans for the protection, permanence, and well-being of children.     

Three paradigms of childhood

Le conflit social contemporain au sujet des relations parents-enfants, et spécialement en ce qui concerne la sexualité de l'enfant, est analysé ici à l'aide de trois paradigmes théoriques sur la construction sociale de l'enfance: a/ les enfants en tant que propriété, une définition sociale trouvant son origine dans la société pré-industrielle; b/ la protection des enfants, légitimée par l'industrialisation; et c/ l'enfant en tant que personne, une conception défendue par de récents mouvements de libération. Des exemples pour chaque paradigme sont tirés de sources canadiennes contemporaines. L'intensité actuelle de la révolution paradigmatiqué est expliquée sous l'image d'un noeud de tabous étreignant la construction sociale de la sexualité aussi bien que du pouvoir.
Contemporary social conflict over parent-child relationships, especially concerning child sexuality, is analysed using three theoretical paradigms of social construction of childhood: a/ children as property, a social definition originating in pre-industrial society; b/ protection of children, legitimated by industrialism; and c/ the child as person, advocated by recent liberation movements. Examples of each paradigm are drawn from contemporary Canadian sources. The current intensity of 'paradigmatic revolution' is explained in terms of a nexus of taboos surrounding social construction of both sexuality and power.     

Beyond cultural competence: what child protection managers need to know and do

This article addresses issues for child protection managers, such as hiring, program design, service evaluation, and policy development. It presents three frameworks for levels of organizational change: cultural sensitivity, which modifies existing services to better meet the needs of target populations; self-reflective cultural sensitivity, which calls for managers to be aware of personal and organizational cultural values; and cultural solidarity, which acknowledges that organizational power is vested in managers, which can oppress clients.     

Commentary / Commentaire Three paradigms of childhood

Le conflit social contemporain au sujet des relations parents-enfants, et spécialement en ce qui concerne la sexualité de l'enfant, est analysé ici à l'aide de trois paradigmes théoriques sur la construction sociale de l'enfance: a/ les enfants en tant que propriété, une définition sociale trouvant son origine dans la société pré-industrielle; b/ la protection des enfants, légitimée par l'industrialisation; et c/ l'enfant en tant que personne, une conception défendue par de récents mouvements de libération. Des exemples pour chaque paradigme sont tirés de sources canadiennes contemporaines. l'intensité actuelle de la 'révolution paradigmatique' est expliquée sous l'image d'un noeud de tabous étreignant la construction sociale de la sexualité aussi bien que du pouvoir.
Contemporary social conflict over parent-child relationships, especially concerning child sexuality, is analysed using three theoretical paradigms of social construction of childhood: a/ children as property, a social definition originating in pre-industrial society; b/ protection of children, legitimated by industrialism; and c/ the child as person, advocated by recent liberation movements. Examples of each paradigm are drawn from contemporary Canadian sources. The current intensity of 'paradigmatic revolution' is explained in terms of a nexus of taboos surrounding social construction of both sexuality and power.     

“Children's Talk and Parental Fear”. Cases of Sexual Misconduct in Danish State Schools 1900–19701

Cases of sexual misconduct in Danish state schools became the objects of attention in the years following the turn of the 20^th Century. An analysis of 85 cases where teachers were accused of sexual misconduct towards their students reveals that the period from 1900 to 1970 present a set of changes in the attitudes to and management of intergenerational sexuality. Throughout these years there existed three ambivalent features relating to the child and its sexuality, to the pros and cons of reporting the case, and to the behaviour of the masculine teacher at a time of changing pedagogical ideals.     

(Re)Valuing Relationships in Child Protection Practice

Relationship-based social work practice with Australian Indigenous families, within an anti-oppressive framework, is considered effective in child protection work. However, procedural and legalistic approaches to child protection, as well as limited cultural competence, can limit the capacity of workers to develop relationships and take action that empowers vulnerable Indigenous families and communities to care safely for their children. This qualitative study, conducted in Australia, examines the inter-relationships between practitioners, agencies, families and community members expressed in day-to-day child protection practice with Indigenous families. There were tensions and constraints on relationship-building between practitioners and clients, between Indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners, and between government and non-government agencies. The findings support arguments to re-value and strengthen the concept of relationship-building as a foundation for practice. All practitioners must have greater support to build the culturally respectful relationships required for positive change, and more scope to work in partnership with families.     

The Munro Review of Child Protection: An Appraisal

Over the last 40 years child protection systems in all Advanced Western Societies have been subject to high profile criticisms and regular major reviews. In many respects the Munro Review of Child Protection (2011) in England, is very different to those which have gone before. This paper summarises the main findings and recommendations of The Review and locates it in its immediate policy and practice contexts. The paper also begins to identify some of its possible gaps and challenges and argues that the success of The Review is likely to depend on cultural, political and economic factors well beyond its influence and outlines what these are.     

Cross-cultural perspectives in child abuse and neglect

The rapid development of scientific knowledge pertaining to the identification, treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect during the last 30 years has not been followed by a parallel consideration of the significance of the concept of culture. The gradual expansion of a ‘syndrome’, recognized by a medical doctor in the US, to a world phenomenon, regardless of ethnicity, colour, language or religion is calling for careful consideration of the significance of a cross-cultural dimension. This involves issues of definition, research priorities and methodological questions that take into account both ethnic and cultural variations as well as a whole range of different child protection systems. Such an approach is ultimately based on the view that vulnerability depends to a large degree on the cultural context. International data suggest that child maltreatment is the product of a complex interaction of parental characteristics and the social and cultural conditions in which they exist. The value placed on children, on different categories of vulnerable children, on child-rearing practices (including views on physical punishment and the informal social sanctions regarding children and family organization and functioning) are central to the study of the phenomenon within each specific culture. As child abuse and neglect awareness expands across geographical, ideological and cultural barriers, we need not only to promote cross-cultural awareness but at the same time provide competence by incorporating the significance of a cultural dimension into research, theory and practice.     

Child protection: An unreflective practice

This paper highlights the need for social work education to focus on the ideological, cultural and organisational influences that shape practitioner perspectives and determine case careers, particularly in the area of child protection. Using the findings from a case study on the processing of child abuse referrals made to a social work team in Ireland's largest health board region, this paper illustrates the dissonance between the 'official' child protection discourse and the complexities and dilemmas of everyday practice. It also highlights practitioners' apparent lack of awareness of the dynamics that determine the way in which decisions and assessments are reached. The need to encourage and facilitate social workers' use of theory as a means of addressing these complex areas is endorsed, and implications for educational programmes are discussed.     

An ethnography of HIV/AIDS and sexuality in the People's Republic of China

China's HIV epidemic is now a growing reality, yet there is virtually no evidence of it in the HIV/AIDS literature. This report documents ethnographic and epidemiologic findings from field visits conducted in Beijing, Chengdu, and Kunming; the latter in Yunnan province, site of China's most severe nidus of HIV infection. This report also elaborates those cultural, social, and political factors involved in China's attempt to manage its growing HIV epidemic. Contemporary attitudes toward sexuality in China which impinge upon such management, as revealed through ethnographic interviews, are reviewed. Data from the First Sino‐American Management of HIV Disease Symposium (to which the author was a delegate) are also blended with the ethnographic material to further clarify the cultural and epidemiologic status of HIV/AIDS in China. It is the conclusion of this report that HIV/AIDS and its management pose a transforming, ineluctable challenge to China's traditional attitudes toward sexuality.     

Correlates of Sexual Behavior in Young Children

SUMMARY

Sexual behavior in children ages 2–12 is related to a variety of environmental, child-specific, and reporter-related variables. This paper reviews correlational research that has examined the relationship of sexual behavior to the variables of sexual abuse, domestic violence, physical abuse, family sexuality, age and gender of the child, child behavior problems, and reporter characteristics. Sexual behavior is directly related to environmental variables that cause dysregulated behavior in children. It is also associated with child behavior problems and varies with age and gender. There are a number of reporter-specific variables, including education level, abuse history, and openness to sexuality, that are also related to the level of reported sexual behavior. The article concludes with a reminder that correlation does not mean causation.