Indigenous Knowledge,Beliefs, and Cultural Practices for Children and Families in Nigeria

This study examined the indigenous cultural practices that impact the well-being of children and families at five sites in Nigeria. Fifteen community leaders participated in semi-structured interviews, and 78 community members participated in focus group discussions in their communities. Responses were analyzed using a grounded theory and thematic analysis approach. Three cultural practices are discussed: the naming ceremony of the child, the use of Oríkì, and the care of children and family by relatives. Overall, the cultural practices largely reflected the indigenous knowledge and beliefs of the local context. Implications for social work are discussed.     

Steps in the Right Direction,Against the Odds,An Evaluation of a Community‐Based Programme Aiming to Reduce Inactivity and Improve Health and Morale in Overweight and Obese School‐Age Children

The study describes an evaluation of a 48‐week physical activity and nutritional education programme for overweight/obese school‐age children using quantitative and qualitative methods. The majority of participants were obese or severely obese when enrolled, and while some improvements in body mass index, self‐esteem and engagement in a range of physical activities were noted, difficulties in evaluating a complex community‐based intervention were highlighted. Children, parents and health professionals described a range of benefits from attending the programme but more intensive services are likely to be needed for the most seriously obese children and for those families resisting intervention.     

Children,Poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into force in January 2016, taking over from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Significant human development progress has occurred in recent decades. Nevertheless, the MDGs have been criticised not least for failing to prioritise inequality and gains for the poorest people. The SDGs create a much more comprehensive agenda and support many key child rights concerns. While SDGs reflect an important global consensus, their delivery depends upon national action.     

农村留守儿童家庭教育的现状、问题及对策

随着中国社会经济的飞速发展,城市里的农民工越来越多,留守儿童的数量也随之增加,由于留守儿童在家庭教育中存在一些问题,导致各类相关问题也日渐突出。文章阐述了农村留守儿童家庭教育的现状,分析了留守儿童家庭教育中存在的问题,提出了解决的对策。     

Representations of Attachment Patterns in the Family Drawings of Maltreated and Non‐maltreated Children

The study was conducted to investigate and compare the attachment styles of maltreated and non‐maltreated children through the use of the family drawing technique. The sample consisted of ten maltreated and ten non‐maltreated children between the ages of five and 11. The findings revealed that the maltreated children depicted significantly more items in their drawings linked to an insecure attachment pattern than non‐maltreated children, while the non‐maltreated children made use of significantly more drawing features linked to a secure attachment pattern. These results corresponded to scores on the Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). All maltreated children scored in the clinical range. The family drawings of maltreated children significantly evidenced a greater distress ? represented by an insecure attachment pattern – than the drawings of non‐maltreated children represented by a secure attachment style. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

‘The family drawings of maltreated children significantly evidenced a greater distress’

Citing Literature

Number of times cited according to CrossRef: 16

• Clare Bridget Noonan, Pamela Doreen Pilkington, Intimate partner violence and child attachment: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Child Abuse & Neglect, 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104765, 109 , (104765), (2020). Crossref
• Peter D. Rehder, W. Roger Mills-Koonce, Nicholas J. Wagner, Bharathi J. Zvara, Michael T. Willoughby, Attachment quality assessed from children’s family drawings links to child conduct problems and callous-unemotional behaviors, Attachment & Human Development, 10.1080/14616734.2020.1714676, (1-18), (2020). Crossref
• Esther Burkitt, Dawn Watling, Hannah Message, Expressivity in children's drawings of themselves for adult audiences with varied authority and familiarity, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10.1111/bjdp.12278, 37 , 3, (354-368), (2019). Wiley Online Library
• Cecilia Serena Pace, Viviana Guerriero, Giulio Cesare Zavattini, Children’s attachment representations: A pilot study comparing family drawing with narrative and behavioral assessments in adopted and community children, The Arts in Psychotherapy, 10.1016/j.aip.2019.101612, (101612), (2019). Crossref
• Bharathi J. Zvara, Roger Mills-Koonce, Lynne Vernon Feagans, Martha Cox, Clancy Blair, Peg Burchinal, Linda Burton, Keith Crnic, Ann Crouter, Patricia Garrett-Peters, Mark Greenberg, Stephanie Lanza, Emily Werner, Michael Willoughby, Intimate Partner Violence, Parenting, and Children’s Representations of Caregivers, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 10.1177/0886260519888527, (088626051988852), (2019). Crossref
• Zahra Maghami Sharif, Nasrin Yadegari, Hadi Bahrami, Tahere Khorsandi, Representation of children attachment styles in corman’s instruction of family drawing, The Arts in Psychotherapy, 10.1016/j.aip.2017.10.004, 57 , (34-42), (2018). Crossref
• Rajan S. Hayre, Natalie Goulter, Marlene M. Moretti, Maltreatment, attachment, and substance use in adolescence: Direct and indirect pathways, Addictive Behaviors, 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.10.049, (2018). Crossref
• Rebecca Carr-Hopkins, Calem De Burca, Felicity A Aldridge, Assessing attachment in school-aged children: Do the School-Age Assessment of Attachment and Family Drawings work together as complementary tools?, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 10.1177/1359104517714589, 22 , 3, (402-420), (2017). Crossref
• Emiko Katsurada, Mitsue Tanimukai, Junko Akazawa, A study of associations among attachment patterns, maltreatment, and behavior problem in institutionalized children in Japan, Child Abuse & Neglect, 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.06.018, 70 , (274-282), (2017). Crossref
• Sherwood Burns-Nader, Examining children’s healthcare experiences through drawings, Early Child Development and Care, 10.1080/03004430.2016.1192616, 187 , 11, (1809-1818), (2016). Crossref
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Volume 21 , Issue 3 May/June 2012

Pages 203-218     

Wanting Mixed‐Sex Children: Separate Spheres,Rational Choice,and Symbolic Capital Motivations

Substantial research concludes that most Americans want to have “at least 1 boy and 1 girl,” yet few have empirically explored what drives this preference. The author used nationally representative data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 5,544) and generalized ordered logistic regression to evaluate 3 potential psychosocial frameworks motivating the mixed‐sex ideal using gender and family attitude variables. The results supported a “separate spheres” ideology, through which parents may view the interests, traits, skills, and roles of boys and girls in families as very different. Second, the results supported a rational choice orientation, whereby achieving this goal maximizes having a variety of needs met in old age. Third, the desire for 1 boy and 1 girl may be motivated by its symbolic capital as a status marker, representing the image of a “balanced,” ideal family. Based on beliefs about the nonsubstitutability of boys and girls, this ideal represents a form of gender inequality that persists in families.     

The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children

I use a divorce‐stress‐adjustment perspective to summarize and organize the empirical literature on the consequences of divorce for adults and children. My review draws on research in the 1990s to answer five questions: How do individuals from married and divorced families differ in well‐being? Are these differences due to divorce or to selection? Do these differences reflect a temporary crisis to which most people gradually adapt or stable life strains that persist more or less indefinitely? What factors mediate the effects of divorce on individual adjustment? And finally, what are the moderators (protective factors) that account for individual variability in adjustment to divorce? In general, the accumulated research suggests that marital dissolution has the potential to create considerable turmoil in people's lives. But people vary greatly in their reactions. Divorce benefits some individuals, leads others to experience temporary decrements in well‐being, and forces others on a downward trajectory from which they might never recover fully. Understanding the contingencies under which divorce leads to these diverse outcomes is a priority for future research.     

Short Break and Respite Services for Disabled Children in England: Comparing Children's and Parents' Perspectives of Their Impact on Children

Researchers, health and social care workers often seek to understand the perspectives of children; but gathering views directly from children can present difficulties. Parents are often asked to provide accounts of children's feelings or opinions on the assumption that their proxy reports are accurate and unproblematic. This qualitative thematic analysis of open‐question responses from 352 parents and 73 disabled children examines their accounts of the impact of short break services on disabled children. Participants' perspectives differed; children tended to describe immediate outcomes such as enjoying activities and participation; parents acknowledged these, but focused on longer term developmental outcomes for children.     

Consumption Patterns of Chinese Children

In the ten-year period from 1990 to 1999, children's consumption has increased dramatically in proportion to family income. In 85% of urban families, children's average consumption is equal to one third or more of the family's income. Resources are being directed to children's food and dietary supplements, toys, travel, computers and other electronic equipment, and educational resources. Children perceive that they have a significant influence on the family's financial decision-making. Problems related to children's consumption include indulgence in unnecessary or harmful purchases, and conspicuous consumption that cannot be sustained by the family's income. While some child-focused spending is viewed as enriching development, other expenditures may harm the family's economic well-being and foster an overly materialistic outlook among children.     

Children and Power in Mexican Transnational Families

Today, many families find that they are unable to fulfill the goal of maintaining a household by living together under the same roof. Some members migrate internationally. This article addresses the consequences of a transnational lifestyle for children who are left behind by migrant parents. Using ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with a total of 141 members of Mexican transnational families, I explore how children who are left behind react to parents’ migrations. I focus on how Mexican children manifest the competing pressures they feel surrounding parents’ migrations and consequently shape family migration patterns. The article shows that children may experience power, albeit in different ways at different ages, while simultaneously being disadvantaged as dependents and in terms of their families’ socioeconomic status.     

The Role of Parenting and Family Factors in the Developmental Catch-Up for Children Adopted Internationally

Internationally adopted children are at greater risk for cognitive difficulties. While age at adoption is an established significant predictor of cognitive outcomes, considerable variation persists. The present study focused on whether parenting and family factors explain additional variance in cognitive and linguistic catch-up in this group of children. In total, 46 children were examined at two time points, approximately 12 months apart. Cognitive and linguistic abilities were measured at both time points, with parenting and family factors examined at follow-up, using hierarchical linear regression. Age at adoption and baseline cognitive abilities were the best predictors of cognitive and linguistic catch-up; parenting and family factors generally did not account for a significant increase in explained variance.     

Children and Young People Living Through a Serious Family Illness: Structural,Interpersonal and Personal Perspectives

This study explores the experiences of children and young people in Britain living through a serious family illness. The study considers the interplay between social structures, social relationships and individual agency. We draw on data from the Millennium Cohort Study to estimate the number of children and young people affected nationally and on seven in‐depth interviews to understand young people’s experiences and the effects on their daily lives. Living through a serious family illness impacts on young people’s educational achievements, mental health and social relationships over long periods. Policy and service responses are suggested.     

Therapeutic Assessment with Children in Family Therapy

Therapeutic Assessment with Children (TA‐C) is a brief semi‐structured intervention in which psychological assessment is used to help families with children and adolescents to change. In this paper we introduce the TA‐C model, describe its semi‐structured format and exemplify how it can be applied by family therapists.     

Youth homelessness and the racial knowledge gap

We know relatively little about homeless youth of color. Despite comprising almost three-quarters of the homeless youth population in the United States, youth of color, along with their unique needs, experiences, and wellbeing, have seldom been the subject of sustained and critical empirical inquiry. For example, in the context of education, the ways in which grade point averages, frequency of school change, and graduation rates may differ between homeless youth in general and homeless youth of color remain unknown. Even if we were to take the liberty of extending the existing comparative research regarding general student performance, the best we can surmise is that homeless youth of color fare worse according to all of these traditional success standards, but we haven’t the faintest idea how much worse or why. When it comes to vital questions about the wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable children in America, we are, at worst, asleep at the wheel and, at best, stumbling in the dark. On its surface, the “racial knowledge gap” appears to be a yawning expanse of missing information enveloped by a hazy mist of imprecise data interpretation, the meaning and significance of which I expound upon in this brief.     

Intimate Partner Violence and Social Relational Theory: Examining the Influence of Children and Important Others on Mothers' Transition Out of Violent Relationships

Interviews with survivors of intimate partner violence were conducted to gain information on the transition from violent relationships to new non‐violent relationships. A subset of this data was re‐analysed using Social Relational Theory to gain further insight into the roles of children and important others who were identified as impacting this transition for mothers who had exited violent relationships. This paper reviews two major themes discovered during the SRT analysis that were inherent in the women's experiences: (i) agency of children, family, peers and community and (ii) power. In addition, this paper suggests implications for research, intervention and psychotherapeutic practice.     

Factor Structure and Reliability of the Advantages of Children Scale with Latino and Caucasian Male Emerging Adults

Abstract

Based on the value of children theory, the purpose of this study was to develop and establish the factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the Advantages of Children Scale (ACS), a self-report measure of a modification of Hoffman and Hoffman’s value scheme of the psychological needs children meet for their parents. Data were collected from 685 emerging adult men identifying as Latino or Caucasian who were not parents. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis found a good fit for the six hypothesized subscales on the ACS: connectedness, expansion of self, family heritage, adult status and social identity, development of self, and family maintenance. We discuss potential applications of the measure in research and practice.     

Reconfigured Everyday Lives of Children from Divorced-Parent Families in Singapore

With the termination of a marriage, children involved inevitably experience dramatic changes in different facets of their lives. This article makes use of narrative accounts of divorced single parents to investigate how their marital dissolution has impacted and changed their children's lives. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 25 Singaporean divorced parents. Within the policy and social context of Singapore society, I highlight transformations in three specific aspects of the children's lives: one, the reconfigurations of familial relationships and formation of a new family unit; two, the creation of and adaptation to new family practices and routine; three, the adoption of new social identity following parental divorce. This article hopes to present a more nuanced understanding of the divorce experience by emphasizing both the precarious and productive aspects in the children's lives, contra to the existing divorce literature that typically focuses on the former.     

Financing Children's Futures: Economic Strategies for Postsecondary Education Among Middle‐Income Families

This paper, based on three waves of qualitative data with middle‐income families outside of Philadelphia, explores how families deal with the challenge of financing postsecondary education over time. Because of economic setbacks, these families adopt a variety of financial maneuvers to support their young adult children's postsecondary educational plans. In particular, families are driven to sacrifice familial savings accounts and retirement funds, take on significant student loan burdens, and downgrade children's college plans to cheaper, often less prestigious, options. These results highlight the financial vulnerability of families in the middle of the income distribution and the complicated relationship between family economics and postsecondary educational plans for children.