Where Are the Children? Extent and Determinants of Preschoolers' Child Care Time

According to the 1988 National Health Interview Child Health Supplement, half of all children under age six attended nonparental child care on a regular basis. Close to a quarter of all children spent 40 or more hours per week in care. Average time in care was 30.5 hours for children in care. Statistical tests indicate that (a) the predictors of whether parents use any child care differ from the predictors of the number of hours care is used, and (b) estimates for children under three years of age differ from estimates for children from three to five years of age. The probability of attending care is related to a child's age, mother's education, race, family type, number and age of siblings, type of adults living in the household, income, poverty status, and region and size of the community in which a family resides. For children from three to five years of age, hours in care are associated with child's age, mother's education, race, family type, siblings, income, poverty status, and region. For children under three years of age, relatively few factors (mother's education, race, siblings, and region) predict the number of hours spent in child care.     

Guardians of the Golden Age: Custodians of American Military Culture and the Fortified “Home” in Time and Space

ABSTRACT

The Heritage is a gated retirement community for military officers and their wives. This “defensive space” is modeled on elite Anglo-American military culture rooted in the American Revolution. The military “family” and “home” are re-envisioned in this liminal space: a military culture into which they were born, into which they chose to marry, and now, the home into which they have chosen to live until they die.     

“Adding Their Flavour to the Mix”: Involving Children and Young People in Care in Research Design

Abstract

Children and young people are often the subjects of research but are not usually thought of as codesigners of research projects contributing to the development of tools and resources so that research about them and their peers is more likely to be appropriate and effective. This paper describes and analyses the involvement of a group of 14 children and young people who have been in out-of-home care. They assisted in the design of a research project that sought their views on what makes a “good” foster carer. The impetus for this study arose from a desire to include children and young people as stakeholders in improving the foster care system and a long-held belief that they could and should be active partners in creating change. The study demonstrated how children and young people could be engaged creatively in individual and group conversations and activities in relation to potential research questions and research methods and tools. The paper concluded that capturing their views will ensure that research will be of benefit to other children and young people and to policy makers and practitioners working in the field.     

“We Live and Breathe Through Culture”: Conceptualising Cultural Connection for Indigenous Australian Children in Out-of-home Care

Indigenous Australian children are overrepresented in the out-of-home care (OOHC) system, with numbers and rates on an upward trajectory. There is now serious concern that this overrepresentation is creating a second Stolen Generations in Australia, noted within policy campaigns such as Family Matters—Kids Safe in Culture, not in Care, and Grandmothers Against Removals. While placement in OOHC is designed to protect children’s long-term safety and wellbeing, it threatens cultural connection, which is fundamental to Indigenous identity and wellbeing. Some government policies that aim to foster cultural connection have not been effective, while others, such as the 2014 permanency legislation in Victoria, arguably threaten cultural connection. This article highlights the vital importance of cultural connection for Indigenous child development, arguing that for Indigenous children, family connection strengthens cultural connection. We argue that family needs to be recognised as a critical component of cultural connection that is equally as important as placement stability in OOHC. Consequently, statutory and community organisations responsible for Indigenous children in OOHC must focus on facilitating and strengthening family relationships, not only to foster cultural connection, but also to explore reunification possibilities.

IMPLICATIONS

• Cultural connection is fundamental to Indigenous identity and wellbeing, but requires family connection if it is to be fostered and strengthened.

• When Indigenous children live in out-of-home care, social workers in child and family welfare need to ensure that children are connected to culture.

     

A Comparison of Out-of-home Care for Children and Young People in Australia and Sweden: Worlds Apart?

Abstract

In this paper we present a comparative analysis of out-of-home care in Australia and Sweden. We compare the age structure of the out-of-home care population and the types of out-of-home care services provided to children and young people in both countries. Our analysis reveals that in Australia the out-of-home care service system is focused mainly on children who are deemed to be abused or neglected within their families, while in Sweden the majority of the out-of-home care population are teenagers who cannot live with their families for emotional or behavioural reasons. These population differences intersect with variations in the forms of service provision in both countries, with a much greater reliance on home-based care in Australia than in Sweden, while there is more extensive use of residential care in Sweden. We envisage that this paper will demonstrate how the age structure of the out-of-home care population, though rarely considered in international comparative child welfare research, reveals much about the assumptions on which State intervention with children and young people is based. We intend that this analysis will assist social workers to better understand and address the gaps in the quality and comprehensiveness of out-of-home care service provision to children and young people in both countries.     

Urban poverty and labor market dynamics in five Latin American countries: 2003–2008

Latin America experienced a long period of sustained growth since 2003 that positively impacted social and labor market indicators, including poverty. This paper contributes to the understanding of this process as it carries out a comparative study of poverty dynamics in five Latin American countries during 2003–2008. It analyzes the extent to which countries with different levels of poverty incidence diverge in terms of poverty exit and entry rates, identifies the relative importance of the frequency and impact of events associated to poverty transitions and examines how these events affect households with different characteristics. For this, a dynamic analysis of panel data is carried out using regular household surveys. Sizeable rates of poverty movements were observed in all five countries and it was found that a large proportion of household experienced positive events, mainly related to the labor market; however, only a small fraction of them actually exited poverty. Demographic events and public cash transfers proved to be of little relevance; in particular, the latter did not contribute much either to intensify poverty exits or to prevent poverty entries. Households with children experienced more (less) negative (positive) events than those without children. It appeared therefore that even when the economy behaved reasonably well at the aggregate level, high levels of labor turnover and income mobility (even of a negative nature) still prevail, mainly associated to the high level of precariousness and the undeveloped system of social protection that characterize the studied countries.     

Who Pays for Seniors Housing and Care Communities? Evidence from the Residents Financial Survey

To examine the financial characteristics of residents in assisted living and independent living communities and to see how they currently pay for their care arrangements, we surveyed 2,617 residents in assisted living and independent living communities. We asked them how they pay for their current costs and verified their answers by examining self-reported information on their cost and income. Residents stated that they are largely paying for their community costs independently. Approximately one third of respondents reported using their assets and income to cover their current costs. The data supported the notion that individuals living in assisted living and independent living communities are largely mid- to high-income elderly. However, the cross-sectional analysis showed that length of time in the community was positively associated with paying for their expenses independently out of income, after controlling for many confounders including age, education, and lifetime earnings to try to rule out differential longevity and differential selection over time. Further longitudinal analysis is needed to understand the cause and the implications of the positive correlation between ability to pay one's bills out of income and the length of time in the community before conclusions about spend-down can be made.     

The Use of the Conceptual Category of Race in American Sociology, 1937–99

We examine how mainstream sociology has used race as an explanatory factor by examining papers in the American Sociological Review between 1937 and 1999. We find a dramatic increase in the likelihood that sociologists will take race into account, and we suggest that methodological innovations are largely responsible for creating an environment in which it is taken for granted that analysts in many fields will control for race. This pattern of usage may reinforce an implicit conception of racial differences that we call broad but shallow, in that race is expected to matter almost everywhere, but its effect can be neutralized by the addition of a control.     

Delay and Anxiety in Care Proceedings: Grounds for Hope?

This paper draws on an evaluation of a pilot project in three London boroughs (the ‘Tri-borough’ authorities) which had the aim of reducing the length of care proceedings to 26 weeks, in advance of nationwide moves in the same direction. Rather than looking at this as yet another battleground between professional autonomy and bureaucratic rigidity, the authors focus on the psychological aspects both of court delay itself and of setting time limits, considering the impact of each on the children, parents and professionals involved. The challenge is to balance the pressures of time and the need for thoroughness, being mindful of the uncertainty and anxiety that pervade care proceedings. The pilot succeeded in greatly reducing the average length of care proceedings. Professionals involved in the project, including those whose job was to represent the interests of parents and children, seemed satisfied that this had not been achieved at the expense of thoroughness, and indeed that shorter proceedings might help to reduce the overall level of distress and anxiety that children and parents endure. On the other hand, the new approach adds to the pressures on the professionals themselves. If the changes are to be sustained, the anxiety involved in making these life-changing decisions about children must be recognised, and adequate support offered to those who have to make them.     

Children’s Mental Disorders and Their Mothers’ Earnings: Implications for the Affordable Care Act of 2010

Children with emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) may have a negative effect on their mothers’ earnings because they require additional time for treatment. On the other hand, children with EBP require additional financial resources, which may increase their mothers’ earnings through an increase in work activities. This study examined the impact of children’s EBP on parental earnings, while accounting for omitted variable bias. This study found significant reductions of single mothers’ wage rate/annual earnings if their children have EBP. Conversely, children’s EBP increased their married mothers’ hourly wage. These results have important implications in terms of public policy such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 in terms of expanding health insurance coverage to children with EBP to have access to appropriate treatment.     

Children in Kinship Foster Care Speak Out: “We Think We're Doing Fine”

This article describes the findings from interviews with six African American children currently living in kinship foster care. The general purpose of the interviews was to explore successful aspects of the kinship foster care experience from the children's perspective. Hermeneutic phenomenology guided the interpretation of the texts. Implications for casework practice are discussed.     

Children in self-care: Homeless in the afternoons or socially provided for?

This study examines the adaptation of children in self-care compared with children in adult-care to out-of-school relationship contexts and solitude. Thirty-six French children aged 9–11 years were interviewed about their out-of-school activities and responses to solitude. The theoretical framework integrates Weiss' (1974) notion of relational provisions and Valsiner's (1984, 1987) constraint theory to understand individual adaptation in the social and solitary contexts of self-care. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed complexity and variability of the structural organization and children's adaptation in self-care contexts. Although self-care children reported more activities outdoors alone than did adult-care children, the development of the capacity to be alone may protect children's psychological well-being. Moreover, the inherent structure of self-care, i.e., parental absence, demanded that children lead the promotion of their own development in self-care contexts. In a few extreme instances, children were indeed homeless in the afternoon.This study was carried out with the Self-Care Research Team including Professors Janine Beaudichon, Pierre Coslin, and Annick Cartron of theLaboratoire de Psychologie du Developpement et de L'education de L'enfant, Universite Paris V, La Sorbonne and was funded by the French Ministry of Education.