It's Good to Talk! A Multidimensional Qualitative Study of the Effectiveness of Emotional Literacy Work in Schools

This paper reports on a small‐scale research study evaluating the work of an emotional literacy project in the North West of England. The purpose of the evaluation was threefold: to assess the degree of success of the emotional literacy project in achieving its aims; to capture and disseminate learning of what works, with whom and in which context, when promoting emotional literacy; and to provide policy makers and practitioners within the LEA, and beyond, with research evidence upon which best practice can be delivered to children, young people and their families. A multi‐dimensional qualitative study was designed to explore the views of children, young people, parents/carers, headteachers, teachers, project workers and allied professionals regarding the emotional literacy project from their own perspective. The findings contribute to the growing body of research evidence on, and models of best practice in, promoting the emotional well being of children and young people. © 2006 The Authors(s).Journal compilation © 2006 National Children's Bureau     

Exploring the needs of parents for achieving reunification: The views of foster children,birth family and social workers in Spain

BackgroundFamily reunification refers to the process through which children and adolescents under a measure of temporary separation (foster care or residential) return to live with their biological families. The research has begun to reflect a paradigm change in intervention and support for these families that affects the consolidation of reunification and the prevention of new processes of separation and reentry into the protection system.ObjectivesThis article examines the needs of parents who are susceptible to an educational intervention from a positive focus that contributes to the consolidation of family reunification.MethodEighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted and 22 discussion groups were convened with 135 participants (63 protection-system professionals, 42 parents and 30 children and adolescents). The data were analyzed through content analysis and were subject to peer revision.ResultsA series of parents' specific educational needs when their children return home was recognized. These needs can be the objects of family intervention based on a positive focus directed toward highlighting parents' strengths and are related to awareness of family progress, emotional management, giving and receiving help from other families and social support. The participants' comments show that feelings of self-sufficiency and positive reinforcement are fundamental for consolidation of the process.ConclusionsSocial support through formal and informal networks may be a path to explore for providing more and better support after returning home. Empowering families so that they can be agents of support for other families can be a way to consolidate reunification, allowing families to be active agents in the reunification process. In addition, listening to children's voices can be a good strategy for family consolidation.     

The Parenting Task: Parent's Concerns and Where They Would Seek Help

ABSTRACT

Governments are concerned to promote positive parenting but it is difficult to know how and where to target the necessary support. How should we listen to the concerns expressed by parents themselves? Social work and health care professionals and those involved in developing parenting programmes tend to base their interventions on their experiences with families already in crisis. This paper reports on a survey of the views of two groups of parents: a community sample and a small group of parents involved in a young parent's project. Issues, which concern the parents, are identified as well as consideration of which agencies might be best placed to address these. Parents were most likely to approach their children's school or doctor for information, advice, or support. Parents were found to be reluctant to approach social work agencies.     

Social support among homeless and housed mothers: an integrative review

Homelessness has been associated with levels of stress beyond the normal strain of living in poverty. For mothers who are homeless, support from their social networks may provide a buffer from some of the stresses associated with being homeless. To better understand the relationship between social support and female-headed homeless families, an integrative review was conducted of 12 research articles that compare social support among low-income housed mothers and homeless mothers, using guidelines set forth by Ganong. The included studies revealed four significant attributes of social support among housed and homeless mothers: size of the social support network; composition of the social support network; contacts with members of the social support network; and perceived support from members of the social support network. Nurses who work with homeless families are in a position to help develop ways for these families to cultivate and maintain their social support networks while homeless. Nurses can be available to offer support, including the necessary mental health services or referrals.     

Is relationship and marriage education relevant and appropriate to child welfare?

Child welfare professionals (CWPs) have historically been ignored as a potential delivery system of relationship and marriage education (RME). Based on a sample of 1015 CWPs from two states, the current study shows that CWPs believe promoting healthy couple and marital relationships is relevant to the families they serve and their work, and that they are open to receiving RME training. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that CWPs' beliefs about the relevancy and appropriateness of RME may be influenced by their current RME ability and comfort level, their beliefs about the state of marriage and the prevalence of couples in their current caseload of families they serve. Implications related to promoting RME within child welfare and engaging CWPs in RME training are discussed.     

The essence of being connected: the lived experience of mothers with young children in newer residential areas

Parenthood is a significant life transition and a time of increased social support need. In newer residential areas, a lag in social infrastructure and family relocation can influence potential isolation of families with young children. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of being connected to local communities for mothers with children aged 0–5 years. Family insights were obtained through in-depth interviews with 12 mothers who were primary caregivers, homeowners and living in newer residential areas in outer suburban Perth, Western Australia. For mothers with young children, being connected to the local community appears to be shaped from their past and present lived experience as well as future aspirations. Connectedness evolves and may develop more slowly in newer communities where social relationships and networks are often recently formed. ‘Interaction’, ‘knowing what's going on’ and ‘help is nearby if you need it’ were identified as the essential themes of connectedness for mothers and families in this study. Belonging was identified as an incidental theme as not all mothers who felt connected felt like they belonged. The findings provide insight for professionals and agencies working with families with young children as well as planners of newer residential areas.     

Levels of burden and satisfaction among Spanish foster carers

The aim of this study was to analyse the levels of burden and satisfaction among foster families in Spain, as well as the relationships between these variables and characteristics of the foster children and their carers. Participants were 86 foster families (comprising 71 foster fathers and 86 foster mothers) and the 104 children who they were fostering (56 boys and 48 girls). The instruments used were the Zarit Burden Interview and a questionnaire on foster carers' satisfaction with the preparation and support they had received. The results revealed low levels of burden among the families. Levels of burden were directly correlated with the amount of time the children had spent in residential care and with the age of foster fathers, and inversely correlated with how long the child had been with the current foster family. Higher levels of burden were reported by carers whose foster child was academically delayed. Regarding satisfaction, the highest ratings corresponded to items referring to the work of professionals, while the lowest were given for items concerning the information that foster families had received about the child's personality and the material and financial support available to them. The implications of the findings for professional practice are discussed.     

Lemonade for Life—A pilot study on a hope-infused,trauma-informed approach to help families understand their past and focus on the future

The Adverse Childhood Experiences' (ACEs) research provided groundbreaking evidence that events that occur early in life can impede core life capabilities and lead to significant negative social, behavioral, and physical outcomes. While the research is widely known, the translation and application for use with families has been lacking. In response to this gap, Lemonade for Life was developed to help professionals who work directly with families understand how to use the ACEs research as a tool to build hope and resilience. A developmental evaluation was conducted to learn about how Lemonade for Life participants integrate ACEs in their work with families, as well as whether and how the Lemonade for Life training and materials influenced their work. Focus group and survey data were collected from 24 home visitors and parent educators and parent educators, who participated in a Lemonade for Life training. Findings indicate that Lemonade for Life may be a useful tool for translating ACEs research into practice with families. Participants perceived that following the integration of what they learned through Lemonade for Life into their work, the families they served were more engaged in services and better able to understand their past experiences and current life circumstances. Results suggest a continued need to assess and focus on the hope and mindset of professionals who work directly with families to optimize opportunities for change.     

The Go-Between — Strategic Therapy with Teenagers in Separated Families*

The adolescent's experience of divorce needs to be understood within a developmental and systemic framework. Problematic or symptomatic behaviour in teenagers from separated families often reflects on the family's difficulty in managing the transition to a new and different family organisation. The type of problem or symptom presented is shaped partly by the developmental characteristics of the adolescent period, as well as being indicative of unresolved problems within the broader family system. Problem resolution can often require the involvement of both separated parents and their children in a conjoint interview, in which case a strategic family therapy approach can be particularly useful. A strategic approach offers the therapist clear guidelines regarding the focus and process of the interview, and assists the therapist to be in charge whilst remaining neutral in the sense of not allying more with one side or another. Case illustrations are included of a strategic approach with teenagers and their separated families.     

Survival in Isolation*

A group of individuals with widely different work roles and experiences got together about a year ago ostensibly to study family therapy. It soon became clear that the group was meeting many varied needs only one of which was the study of family therapy itself. When the group began to prepare a paper on the influence of isolation on the families in family therapy, a number of surprising parallels between the isolated rural families and the study group were discovered. This paper explores some of these parallels in contact and emotional support; approval by others; balancing intimacy and distance; development of symptoms. The most surprising finding was that the functioning of the group was markedly shaped by the environment in which it lived and worked; in short, we had ‘discovered’ the importance of systemic influences on ourselves as well as on the families with whom we work. Within a systemic theoretical approach this paper also examines three major constraints imposed on both families and professionals alike by the larger environmental system: being too close; being geographically isolated; and being in a rural environment.     

Implementing the Crossover Youth Practice Model in diverse contexts: Child welfare and juvenile justice professionals' experiences of multisystem collaborations

This study takes advantage of a unique opportunity to observe structural and psychosocial processes of multisystem collaborations primarily from the perspectives of professionals attempting to bring about change in practice with crossover youth. The involvement of maltreated youth in the juvenile justice system is a persistent problem that can compound vulnerable youths' risks for problematic developmental outcomes. Youth outcomes may be improved when professionals in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems communicate and collaborate more effectively in case assessment, planning and management. The Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) is an attempt to translate these and other research findings into practice largely through multisystem collaborations. This study presents an approximately two year-long, ethnographic inquiry into professionals' experiences of CYPM implementation in five diverse counties in a Midwestern state. During individual interviews, participants consistently described structural changes involving improved service provision to youth and families, and procedures and legal mandates for sharing information across departments. They also discussed psychosocial changes including improved professional support, strengthened relationships with other professionals and positive shifts in their ways of thinking and feeling about youth and their families. Participants also experienced implementation challenges including inadequate support and training of front line workers, distinguishing core features of the multifaceted model, and some issues in engaging families and key community stakeholders. Comparative case analyses across five counties suggest that systems change processes vary across and within local contexts. Implications for the implementation of systems change practice models in diverse contexts with professionals serving in various roles are discussed.     

Challenges of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Abstract

The realities of the 1990s, which include reduced funding and resources, the public's impatience with bureaucratic rigidity, and the empowerment of families who want timely and appropriate services, have created a favorable climate for collaborative, interdisciplinary practice. Collaborative, family-centered practice models are being promoted by family/child advocates and professionals. Yet child and family services, for the most part, continue to be provided in traditional ways using individual treatment and categorical services. However, federal child mental health funding is supporting community-wide, collaborative practice in twenty-one sites scattered across the United States. One site, in rural northeastern North Carolina, is unique as it includes a graduate-level, interdisciplinary academic component [East Carolina University's (ECU) Social Sciences Training Consortium (SSTC)] to train and support service providers and families, and to prepare master's level graduates to work in such innovative programs. Called PEN-PAL [an acronym for Pitt-Edgecombe-Nash (three NC counties) Public Academic Liaison] this university/interagency collaborative effort works in partnership with families to coordinate public and community services into a seamless system of care for children with severe emotional disturbances. This article is based upon a qualitative study of SSTC faculty members, and it chronicles the successes and difficulties encountered by faculty in the first year of a five-year collaborative process.     

The influence of partners on parental stress of neglectful mothers

This study aims to test the existence of a specific pattern of maternal perception of partners' participation: that is mothers in neglectful families perceive their partners as (1) less satisfying as a marital partner, (2) more violent, (3) less supporting, and (4) having a less positive relationship with the target child than mothers in low-educated, low socioeconomic but non-maltreating families. The study also aims to estimate the link between this pattern of maternal perception of partners' participation and the level of parental stress of the mothers. The total sample is composed of 48 two-parent families with a target child aged 0–6 years old. Half of the families received treatment by the child protection services for child neglect and the other half were non-maltreating families paired with the neglectful families on sociodemographic variables. The data partially support the first hypothesis: compared to men in non-maltreating families, men in neglectful families are perceived by the mothers as being less adequate marital partners, less supportive and more violent.     

The Intergenerational Consequences of Parental Health Limitations

Scholars have theorized interrelationships between family members' health and well‐being. Though prior research demonstrates associations between parents' and children's health, less is known about the relationship between parental health limitations and children's behavioral and academic outcomes. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Well being Study (N = 3,273) to estimate the relationship between parental health limitations and four aspects of children's well‐being. Findings reveal that mothers' health limitations, especially when they occur in middle childhood or chronically, are independently associated with greater internalizing and externalizing behaviors, lower verbal ability, and worse overall health at age 9. Fathers' health limitations are not associated with children's well‐being. Fathers exert influence in other ways, as the relationship between mothers' chronic health limitations and children's internalizing behaviors is concentrated among children not residing with their fathers. These findings support the development of policies and interventions aimed at families.     

Relationship Separation and Help-seeking: Reporting on an Agency Study

Relationship separation affects many Australians with around 20,000 divorces involving children formalised per year. For profit, government and nongovernment organisations all offer services for separated couples and families. Despite promotion of specialist services such as mediation and child-centred services, which seek to assist families to navigate what is a complex interaction between public and legislative structures, there is little known about the potentially broader array of supports and information people use following separation. Better understanding of help-seeking behaviours for separating couples enables more effective targeted policy and service delivery. Individuals with children accessing a nongovernment-funded program for support during separation (n?=?134) were asked to complete a survey that was designed to track their help-seeking behaviour. We found that help-seeking for legal services was more common than seeking help for self-care, but that both were important for many people in the sample. Friendship networks, and medical and health professionals were the most common sources of information and support. We argue that social work has a role in promoting and supporting parents who are separating to access a broader range of informal support networks and professional services.     

"Who believes most in me and in my recovery": the importance of families for persons with serious mental illness living in structured community housing

In this article, the authors report on qualitative findings on the role of family in supporting recovery for mental health consumers living in structured, community housing in a large Canadian city. Despite living separately from families and relying heavily on formal services, residents identified their families more often than mental health professionals, friends, and residential caregivers as those who most believe in them and their recovery. Families supported recovery by providing affection and belonging, offering emotional and instrumental support, and by staying actively involved with residents. Families are a vital, untapped resource for social workers in promoting independent living.     

“Basically,I look at it like combat”: Reflections on moral injury by parents involved with child protection services

This study considers any “moral injury” occurring among parents involved with the Child Protection System (CPS). Moral injury refers to the lasting psychological, spiritual and social harm caused by one's own or another's actions in a high stakes situation that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations. The existing literature focuses on military contexts, but moral injury also may play a role in increasing the vulnerability of CPS clients who are threatened with loss of their parental rights and dissolution of their families. We administered a modified version of the Moral Injury Events Scale (MIES) (Nash et al., 2013) to 10 CPS involved parents. We then conducted in-depth, semi-structured, audio recorded individual interviews with parents to elaborate their responses to the MIES. Parents' MIES scores and interview elaborations suggest that some CPS-involved parents do experience moral injury. Moral injury was reported as a result of their own parenting behaviors, but also as a result of parents' involvement with professionals and within social systems that are charged with providing assistance to struggling families. For instance, some parents perceived professionals to be shaming, social services to be harmful and legal proceedings stigmatizing. Parents' reported reactions to morally injurious events included lasting feelings of guilt, shame and anger; and loss of trust in professionals. These responses impeded their perceived abilities to fully engage in services. If involvement in CPS places parents at increased risk of moral injury, then moral injury is a critically important construct for child welfare policy makers and workers to understand and address in the conduct of effective, ethical child welfare practice.     

Rethinking Partnerships Between Parents and Professionals

SUMMARY: The declaration by the United Nations of 1994 as the International Year of the Family provides a good opportunity to make a fresh start in re-examining policy and practice from first principles. The time seems ripe for a wholesale reappraisal of relationships between families and professionals in the field of intellectual (learning) disability. Members of an International Year of the Family Task Force established by the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (Inclusion International) collected around 100 family stories from families around the world who had a relative with an intellectual disability. These family stories indicated that families are not satisfied with the information they are given, the attitudes of professionals, service planners and providers or with the nature and quality of support which they are receiving. Families are asserting their rights as citizens and consumers and they want to see changes. This paper summarises some directions for change.     

The Family Experience of the Crisis of Involuntary Treatment in Mental Health

While policy and practice standards emphasise the importance of engaging and supporting families of people with mental health problems, many families have reported feeling unsupported and distanced from treatment and care planning in acute inpatient units. There has been little systematic interest in the changing role and experiences of families throughout the emergence of illness, crisis, seeking of treatment, and subsequent recovery. Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with the next of kin of 17 people who had been admitted under an Involuntary Treatment Order in a large metropolitan hospital in the Brisbane region. A general inductive approach was used to analyse the data. While hospital admission was described as a time where, ideally, families were able to let go of being responsible for their relative's behaviour and let the health care professionals take over, for many this did not occur. We suggest four critical elements for providing recovery-oriented support to families. These include: (a) ensuring that families feel that their relative is safe and receiving the care needed; (b) keeping the family informed about their relative's progress; (c) ensuring families have access to information about the mental health system, and (d) working in partnership with the families.

IMPLICATIONS

• Family wellbeing is improved when they feel part of a supportive team.

• Instituting an open policy where families can contact ward staff easily and access information about the person they care for may alleviate families’ anxieties and minimise stress.

• Family work is enhanced when health professionals acknowledge families’ relationships, expertise, and understanding of their family member.