Institutional characteristics and staff behaviour in day nurseries

SUMMARY. The authors report on a research project aimed at identifying differences between day nurseries in relation to staff and child behaviour. Six day nurseries were studied in London: staff levels and behaviour were measured against child behaviour and interactions between adults and children. They conclude that management styles, group size and staff attitudes to parents affect staff behaviour and consequently problem behaviour in children. The work was supported by a grant from the Department of Health and Social Security This paper is based in part upon a presentation to the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society, Leeds, April 1988     

Adults with cystic fibrosis and barriers to employment

Existing research on cystic fibrosis (CF) tends to view CF as a long‐term medical condition of childhood, thus reinforcing the mistaken view that few children with CF survive into adulthood. Despite the fact that people with CF are increasingly living into older age there has been little research into the employment of adults with CF. Those studies which have been undertaken portray CF as a ‘serious illness’ which causes employment problems. In contrast, this paper discusses findings from a study which explored the employment experiences of adults with CF from a social model perspective. The findings reveal barriers to employment which are similar to those experienced by other disabled people, as well as barriers related to the ‘impairment effects’ of CF. The authors conclude that adults with CF have valuable perspectives to contribute to social model analysis and the development of employment‐related policy solutions.     

Perceptions of Parental Intimate Relationships and Their Affects on the Experience of Romantic Relationship Development Among African American Emerging Adults

The quality of romantic relationships that parents maintain has an impact on their children. Emerging adult children base their relationships on similar values and/or opposing beliefs of their parental romantic relationships. This phenomenological study aimed to identify how African American emerging adults experience their parental romantic relationships and how they find meaning in the romantic relationships of their parents. Results suggest that African American emerging adults develop both positive and negative perceptions about romantic relationships from their parents’ relationships, which affect the way these adults perceive, develop, and maintain their own romantic unions. African American emerging adults also find meaning in their parental couple relationships as they share similar experiences in their relationship quality, mate choice, and/or personal or mate characteristics and personality traits as their parents.     

Life Course Status and Exchanges of Support Between Young Adults and Parents

The authors investigated intergenerational support exchanges in relation to young adults' life course status. In a sample of 2,022 young adults (ages 18–34 years) in The Netherlands, single young adults reported receiving more advice from parents than married young adults, and those with children of their own received more practical support. Married young adults and young adults with children provided less support to parents than, respectively, single young adults and young adults without children. Congruent with the life course perspective, the authors' findings suggest that the intergenerational support network is both durable and flexible, responding to the resources and needs associated with an individual's life course status.     

Children's Vocational Development: A Research Rationale

Vocational development research and interventions have focused primarily on adolescents and young adults. The lack of attention to career development antecedents in children has led to a serious neglect of this period of life when the foundation is laid for career choices and outcomes in later life. A harmful by‐product is the frequent preclusion of gender‐atypical occupational pathways by boys and especially by girls. To address this situation, the authors recommend identifying a core set of constructs that describe children's vocational development and developing sound instruments to measure them, leading to a longitudinal study ranging from childhood to early adulthood.     

Qualitative Health Research with Children

The authors of this article identify and discuss some of the practical and ethical issues of qualitative research with children. The problems are illustrated through a research study about children's experience of asthma, and the way in which they perceive and interpret their condition. It is shown that social research with children has inherent difficulties relating to access, ethical and developmental issues. Researchers do not only have to gain parental permission but also want the child to enter the research voluntarily. Because of the children's stage of development and the asymmetrical relationship between researcher and informants, adequate safeguards and awareness of these problems are essential.     

Young people's views on safety and preventing abuse and harm in residential care: “It's got to be better than home”

Young people who live in residential care are at greater risk of experiencing sexual abuse and other forms of abuse than those living in other out of home care placements. To better understand how young people perceive and experience safety in residential care, and the things that they most need to be and feel safe, a qualitative study was conducted with 27 Australian children and young people for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This paper describes young people's perspectives on what makes residential care safe: supportive relationships, stability and predictability, fair rules, and having some control over their environment. Young people said that safety could be improved with: better appreciation of the risks in residential care; better matching, staffing and oversight; and better-designed responses that involve young people themselves. The findings provide critical insights from young people themselves and argue that adults and institutions need to appreciate their views of safety so as to adequately respond.     

Young Adult and Parent Perceptions of Facilitation: Associations with Overparenting,Family Functioning,and Student Adjustment

Overparenting occurs when parents engage in developmentally inappropriate involvement in their children’s lives. This topic is salient in the context of young adults attending college, as this developmental stage necessitates independent decision-making and adjustment on the part of these students. At the same time, the turbulence involved in this transition might engender parental interference and facilitation that could impact young adults’ adjustment and perceived family functioning. This study used structural equation modeling to examine overparenting, perceived interference, facilitation, student adjustment, and family functioning in 302 parent–young adult dyads. Results indicated that overparenting was associated with facilitation, but not interference. Whereas this association was negative for young adults, it was positive for parents. This pattern was also reflected in the indirect effects of overparenting on student adjustment through young adults’ versus parents’ perceived facilitation. Young adults appear to have better outcomes when they perceive their parents to be facilitating their goals.     

Morphosyntactic development and educational style of parents in neglected children

This research analyses the morpho-syntactical competence of children in care and the educational style of their parents. The studies from the literature give no specific data concerning how the morphological and syntactic components are affected in children suffering from neglect. These studies point to important deficiencies in language development, but do not specify what such difficulties actually are. This research is carried out within the framework of the residential care children's homes in the region of Extremadura (Spain). The morpho-syntactic competence of the children and the parental educational style of a total of 74 children in residential care are analysed. The subjects are 41 males and 33 females, between 6 and 18 years of age. We apply the ‘Objective Language Criteria Test’ (BLOCScreening) to evaluate their linguistic development and the ‘Autoevaluative Multifactorial Child Adaptation Test’ (TAMAI) to determine educational style. The presence of difficulties in morphosyntaxis is evident. The children with a low dominion of morphology and syntax perceive a more punitive style in the parents. The difficulties in morphosyntax are manifested both expressive and receptive. Use short sentences to frequent omission of morphological markers. Comprehension problems are lower than those of expression, but it shows a erroneous understanding of some grammatical structures, and grammatical errors in spontaneous speech. Use fewer morphologically complex words in their narratives. Have difficulty in organising the content of the speech and the use of cohesive devices (using the precision and accuracy of the conjunctions used in compound sentences). We must stress the need to carry out early prevention and intervention programmes in order to promote an increase in both the quantity and the quality of language stimulation. From there, the need to set up intervention programmes that influence the linguistic competence of children who have suffered abuse.     

School Choice

Abstract

In recent years voucher programs that permit the use of publicly funded monies to pay for private schools have emerged as a proposed solution to perceived problems within the public school system. Lost in this debate are the implications of choice based proposals for children with disabilities. In this article the authors examine the legal basis for special education services and explore the extent to which the rights of children in a private choice based system would be protected. The authors conclude that serious questions of equity exist, with the dis-enfranchisement of children with special needs a likely consequence if vouchers are adopted on a broad scale.     

The role of psychological factors on teenagers who become parents out-of-wedlock

This paper presents the role of psychological factors in teenagers who become parents out of wedlock. It talks on the normative adolescent psychological development, emphasizing the developmental thrust towards separation, but juxtaposes the deviant psychological development of teenagers who are unable to gain control of their childbearing. The different experiences of female and male teenagers and the meaning of parenthood are cited. The pre-existing, intrinsic, psychological dynamics that predispose these vulnerable teenagers to early childbirth includes unmet early dependency needs; the desire to appear as adults, while simultaneously wanting to remain as children; denial of parenthood risk; and denial of the demands of babies. Furthermore, male teenagers perceive fatherhood as an attainment of some psychological sense of manhood. While for both males and females, the unconscious acceptance of dependency on the government to provide for the basic needs of their children and themselves can be a way of psychologically gratifying their own needs. The impact of early childhood experiences, role of parents as models, family experiences, social class, changing societal sexual mores, urban living, education and a sense of future are explicated. The influence of cognitive challenges and of specific psychiatric illness is also discussed. This study concludes that social policy integrate an understanding in the crafting of domestic policy on teenage parenthood.     

Obligations of kinship in contemporary Britain: is there normative agreement?

This article explores the extent to which there is normative agreement in contemporary Britain about the 'proper thing to do' for relatives. Using quantitative survey data generated using the 'vignette technique', the authors assess how far certain policy and sociological assumptions about appropriate kinship obligations hold up to empirical scrutiny. They argue that there is not a straightforward consensus about a set of normative principles but that it is possible to identify patterns of normative agreement. These vary more in line with the circumstances specified in the vignettes than with the social characteristics of the respondents. There is more evidence of a consensus over procedures - that is what factors people should take into account in working out the proper thing to do for relatives - than over the substance of what should be done. The authors conclude that people do not carry around with them stable sets of values and meanings about obligations to kin, but construct them when they have to out of various materials available.     

Relieving the Time Squeeze? Effects of a White‐Collar Workplace Change on Parents

Employed parents perceive a time squeeze even as trends from the 1960s show they are spending more time with their children. Work conditions (e.g., hours and schedule control) would seem to affect both parents' time with children and perceived time squeeze, but most studies rely on cross‐sectional data that do not establish causality. The authors examined the effects of the introduction of a workplace flexibility initiative (Results Only Work Environment [ROWE]) on changes in mothers' and fathers' perceptions of the adequacy of their time with children and actual time spent with children (N = 225). Baseline data show the importance of work conditions for parents' sense of perceived time adequacy. Panel data show that mothers (but not fathers) in ROWE report increased schedule control and improved time adequacy, but no change in actual time spent with children, except that ROWE increases evening meals with children for mothers sharing few meals at baseline.     

Sounds of Silence: narrative research with inarticulate subjects

This article addresses the challenge of using narrative methods with people who have learning difficulties. Such informants present four particular interview problems: inarticulateness; unresponsiveness; a concrete frame of reference; and difficulties with the concept of time. The authors focus on the first two of these problems and argue that neither of them constitutes an insuperable barrier to people telling their story. Drawing on detailed interview material from an informant with learning difficulties, the authors set out to show in practical terms how these problems might be tackled, emphasising in particular the importance of being attentive to what goes unsaid. They conclude that researchers should put more emphasis on overcoming the barriers that impede the involvement of inarticulate subjects in narrative research instead of dwelling on their limitations as informants.     

Intermittent child employment and its implications for estimates of child labour

Using longitudinal data from urban Brazil, the authors track the employment patterns of thousands of children aged 10-16 during four months of their lives in the 1980s and 1990s. The proportion of children who work at some point during a four-month period is substantially higher than the fraction observed working in any single month. The authors calculate an intermittency multiplier to summarize the difference between employment rates in one reference week vs. four reference weeks over a four-month period. They conclude that intermittent employment is a crucial characteristic of child labour which must be recognized to capture levels of child employment adequately and identify child workers.     

“I don't feel shy because I will be among others who are just like me…”: The role of support groups for children perinatally infected with HIV in Zimbabwe

As access to paediatric antiretroviral therapy (ART) continues to improve in sub-Saharan Africa, a new historically specific cohort of HIV-perinatally infected children surviving into adolescent has emerged. Although remarkable successes have been made clinically in keeping this cohort alive and in reasonable health, their social support experiences are still unknown. The research being reported here sought to explore peer social support experiences of HIV-perinatally infected children in Harare, Zimbabwe. In this article, we draw on 56 repeat in-depth interviews (IDIs) conducted in three phases and two focus group discussions (FGDs) with HIV-infected children (11–13 years). Additional interviews were held with 10 carers. Study findings suggested that both children and carers perceive support groups as a safe social space for learning and acquiring HIV information as well as gaining confidence. Additionally, findings highlighted the importance of consistency of participation. Structural and personal barriers to access and participation in support group were also identified. We conclude that support groups are a useful resource for HIV-infected children and therefore should be supported by stable funding.     

‘My Mother Thinks that this is the Case,and so Does My Teacher. I,for My Part,Do Not Notice Any Difference’: Methodological Reflections on Intersubjectivity in the Research Process with Children

This article illustrates why the notion of intersubjectivity is important when conducting interviews with children. Even though intersubjectivity is often undermined in educational activity as well as in research with children, it needs to be established and maintained in order to make the children talk and the adults listen. By discussing some interview material from a research project in which children diagnosed with AD[H]D talk about their medication, the authors show how creative the children are when expressing their subjective meanings, and how helpless the adults often are when they do not at first understand the children. Here, intersubjectivity is realised when the adult interviewer manages to understand the children's expressions as their efforts to convey their ideas. Children who struggle to express themselves and communicate need to rely on adults' empathy and understanding.     

'My Mum and Dad said it Calms You Down': Children's Perceptions of Smoking as a Coping Strategy

While studies have shown that adults use smoking to deal with stress, little research has been carried out with children to explore their perceptions of smoking as a coping strategy. Qualitative questionnaire and interview data were generated with children aged 9–11 years. Participants perceived that adults smoked to relieve boredom and stress, and suggested that children might smoke for the same reasons. Children were more likely to know that adults smoked to deal with stress if they lived in a deprived area. Girls were more likely to believe that some children need to smoke as a coping strategy.     

Family Relationships and Religious Identities of GLBQ Christians

ABSTRACT

Nonheterosexual individuals are half as likely as their heterosexual counterparts to report a religious identity. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer (GLBQ) emerging adults who maintain a religious identity and affiliation throughout their adolescent and young adult years challenge dominant narratives of sexuality and religion (Pew, 2012, 2013). This study contextualizes these demographic findings and considers their impact on family life and sexual identity. The authors present data from 11 qualitative interviews with GLBQ individuals between the ages of 20 and 25. Results are presented in a model describing how participants constructed a GLBQ Christian identity, and how they perceive the acceptance of their identities in both their families and church communities.     

Theory,practice, and perspectives: Disability Studies and parenting children with disabilities

Abstract

In this process-oriented article, the authors weave short personal narratives with theoretical reflections to examine the relationship between Disability Studies scholarship and parenting children with disabilities. The authors present three findings: first, their position as parent-teacher-scholars informs their work in Disability Studies. Second, the work of Disability Studies scholars has the potential to positively influence parents’ understandings of disability; consequently, Disability Studies-informed parenting can influence parent advocacy for their children. Third, parent-scholars have the potential to create research that can positively impact parents, practitioners, and the field of Disability Studies. The authors conclude by arguing that there is a need for Disability Studies scholarship for and by parents. This work is significant because it challenges divisions between theory and practice, and articulates a need and responsibility for parents to grapple with alternative understandings of disability and alternative (collective) ways to create better social conditions for their children.