Family networks and solidarity: continuity and change

At the end of the 1960s it had become obvious that the family as an object of analysis could not be reduced to the nuclear family. During the following decades, the focus of analysis has shifted from the statistical concept of household, implicitly related to the nuclear family to ties between households and intergenerational relationships. At present, it appears that the individual would shape her entourage of parents and significant others by combining affinities, space, distance, and proximity. This opens a new way of looking at the family with new tools for observation and new definitions. This themed section includes six articles based on surveys on the family networks conducted by researchers from different European countries and Quebec, where some fundamental questions related to this new approach are discussed. It appears that family networks play an important role in supporting social change and that they reveal the crucial role played by women hidden in the household and nuclear family paradigm. Finally, the question of continuity of the generational chain is analyzed in the change-oriented baby-boom generation.     

The Evolution of Family Policy in Spain

Summary

The aim of this article is to trace the evolution of Spanish family policy from its beginning in the 1930s to the present, showing the shifting role played by the State in defining and supporting family formation and functioning. Different periods areconsidered according to the objectives and characteristics of this policy as well as according to the support it received from the political forces ruling in each period. For each period, objectives, mechanisms, output and outcome are analyzed. The evolution over the whole period has been, on one hand, away from support of the patriarchal family to the recognition of family pluralism, and, on the other, evolution from a government provided family salary to a policy intended to combat poverty.     

Shared Family Care: Fostering the Whole Family to Promote Safety and Stability

ABSTRACT

Shared Family Care is an innovative child welfare service that temporarily places whole families in the homes of community mentors who, along with a team of professionals, help the families to obtain the skills and resources they need to move toward self-sufficiency and adequately care for their children. This article provides an overview of this model, identifies existing programs in the United States, discusses key elements of the model, summarizes outcomes and comparative cost information, identifies implementation challenges, and provides tips for starting a Shared Family Care program in any community.     

Support,social networks and the family in Portugal: two decades of research

This article presents two major surveys, carried out in Portugal, on the inclusion of families and individuals in social networks of support and affinity. The first, dating from 1999, sought comprehensively to reconstruct families' social networks by mapping effective support relations. The second survey, fielded in 2009–10, followed a family configuration perspective which sought to reconstruct individuals' networks of close relationships, and the issue of informal support only arose as providing further insight into the characteristics of personal networks. Both surveys will be analysed from a comparative perspective which, while stressing their different but connected conceptual orientations, compares each one's methodological strategies and operationalization procedures. Finally, the main results of each survey are outlined, leading to a brief discussion of the ways in which the two surveys complement each other.     

Family Foster Care,Kinship Networks,and Residential Care of Abandoned Infants in Egypt

While infant abandonment has occurred in all segments of society, on all continents, and across all generations, the motivations for this practice are varied and depend upon the social norms of a specific geographic region at a given point in time. Western approaches addressing the care of abandoned infants focus on terminating parental rights and placing the child in an adoptive home. The child assumes the family name and is privy to all rights and responsibilities as biological children. In Egypt, Islamic family law does not allow for adoption of an infant by a nonbiological individual. Nor does the country of Egypt allow assignment of guardianship or fostering of a child by a non-Egyptian parent. Therefore, models of care cannot simply be transferred from one context to the other, although they may learn from each other. Egypt's system of family foster care, kinship networks, and residential (institutional) care are models that are consistent with the cultural values and customs of this population. The family foster care model and kinship networks have been shown to provide the most positive psychosocial outcomes for the child. The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast culturally acceptable approaches to caring for abandoned infants in Egypt.     

Family Capital: Implications for Interventions with Families

Social capital has been extensively discussed in the literature as building blocks that individuals and communities utilize to leverage system resources. Similarly, some families also create capital, which can enable members of the family, such as children, to successfully negotiate the outside world. Families in poverty confront serious challenges in developing positive family capital, because of lack of resources. For those families that are successful in developing positive family capital, family capital can help to create positive outcomes for family interactions. Thus, family capital can provide information about opportunities, exert influence on agents who make decisions involving the actor, provide social credentials that indicate a connection to a social network, and reinforce the actor's identity and recognition, which maintains access and entitlement to these social resources.     

Family health care decision making

How do families choose a health plan when offered the option of insurance or a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)? Choices are influenced by health consumerism, decision variables, family health needs, family composition, family socioeconomic status, and knowledge about HMOs. Subjects in the research reported here chose insurance or one of four HMOs; control subjects had no HMOs available. The model is estimated with LOGIT regression, yielding a pseudoR ² of.22 for the adjusted model. Participation in the decision process, number of chronic illnesses, and knowledge about HMOs all are significantly and positively associated with choosing an HMO; also, young adults are more likely than older adults to choose HMOs. The consumerism variable fails to attain significance. LOGIT analysis of the adjusted model indicates that the model predicted 72% of plan choices correctly. Suggested research for other family forms, for the poor, and for the elderly's health plan choices are discussed.     

Long-term care benefits granted to the elderly in Andalusia

ABSTRACT

Using data from the Individual Care Programmes (PIAs) of the whole population of dependent elderly receiving LTC benefits as of 31 December 2014 in the most populated region of Spain, Andalusia, we compare the factors associated with the different types of LTC benefits granted. The study includes 110,966 dependent elderly aged 65 years and over. The percentage of those receiving care at their homes was very high (80%). In contrast to the main aim established in the Dependency Act, financial benefits for care at home were the most common type of benefit (47%) followed by home-based support (33%). Overall, all the determinants examined (age, gender, income, degree of dependency and type of municipality) were found to influence all types of LTC benefits with two exceptions: age in the case of long-term residential care and gender in the case of day and night centres. Our analysis suggests that income level is a key factor for being cared for at an institution but the direction of the relationship is different for private and public institutions. This fact, together with the variations in the access to institutional care depending on where the person lives, points out that a greater effort is necessary to guarantee an adequate supply. Social workers could help to improve the current LTC system if more resources are available when they participate in the design of PIAs.     

Family and Friends as Respite Providers

Abstract

Consumer-directed service options in home- and community-based care are increasingly available to adults with chronic conditions and cognitive impairments and to their family caregivers. Few studies, however, examine the experience of family caregivers who, when given a choice of providers of respite assistance (i.e., relief from the stress of providing constant care), prefer to hire family or friends rather than service providers. This study describes the in-home respite experience of family caregivers served by California's Caregiver Resource Centers “direct-pay” program who hire family or friends (n = 39) or service providers (n = 77) to provide in-home respite assistance. Findings revealed similarities between the two groups with few exceptions: caregivers who hired family or friends reported poorer physical health, were slightly more satisfied with the respite assistance, and received more hours of respite at a lower unit cost. These findings lend support to consumer-directed respite service options where family caregivers are given flexible alternatives that may act to remove barriers to respite service availability and use.     

Family Dispute Resolution: Use,Timing, and Outcomes

The mandatory requirement for separating or separated parents to mediate disputes over children before filing an application for the courts represents one of the key changes introduced in the 2006 Australian family law reforms. The process is known legally as Family Dispute Resolution (FDR). Based on the reports of three cohorts of parents who had separated in different periods after these reforms were implemented, this paper examines: (1) the socio‐demographic characteristics and circumstances of parents who used FDR; (2) the extent to which parents who attended FDR at different periods after separation differ in characteristics and circumstances; (3) FDR outcomes and the extent to which these outcomes vary according to parents’ circumstances and their timing of FDR use. The analysis shows that use of FDR was quite common among separated parents. Parents who went to FDR were typically able to reach an agreement and this positive outcome appeared to have increased over time, which may reflect improving and refining practice. The data show that the quality of inter‐parental relationship and circumstances surrounding separation such as family violence and other issues are closely linked with FDR use and its outcomes. They also reveal that parents who used FDR typically did so in the early stage of separation with its use much less common after separation for three or four years. Typically, in these cases, s60I certificates, which are normally required before the courts can intervene, were issued.     

The role of the partner in social support networks in Spain

Social support influences the subject’s well-being through various mechanisms. Literature shows that the partner is one of the main sources of social support. Nevertheless, sometimes people do not ask their partners first for help. Our aim is to determine what factors (values related to the family, personal characteristics and availability of resources) influence this decision. We use Spanish representative samples from International Social Survey Programme (2001) and Spain’s Center for Sociological Research (2010). Data show that family solidarity is widespread in Spanish society. The determinants for not turning first to the partner are the availability and frequent contact with immediate kin, whereas family values and personal characteristics are less relevant.     

Family decision making in child welfare: challenges in developing a knowledge base for practice

Over the past two decades, engaging families in decision‐making has grown in popularity across child welfare systems internationally. The family group conference in particular has generated interest as a practice model that facilitates broader family engagement in care and protection. As the practice has flourished, research has been undertaken to strengthen the knowledge base and to support the introduction of family engagement strategies across jurisdictions. This paper examines the recent research relating to family engagement strategies in child welfare and explores the ways in which family involvement in decision‐making can be incorporated into emerging protective practices. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Professional competencies in social work education for the third sector in southern Spain

The education of social workers in the Spanish university is structured around the professional competencies that will subsequently be applied in the labour market. As social work is a profession focused on the provision of social welfare and the prevention of social exclusion, it is expected of social workers that they become analytical, thoughtful professionals within their environment and that they play an active role in preventing social exclusion and inequality. However, there are important splits and contradictions between the official recognition of such competencies by universities and their effective implementation in the labour market. In this paper we analyse the main constraints and contradictions involved in the acquisition of the professional skills of social workers in their transition to the labour market. To do this, we focus on the specific case competencies in professional field of the third sector in Andalusia     

Integrating Family Resilience and Family Stress Theory

The construct, family resilience, has been defined and applied very differently by those who are primarily clinical practitioners and those who are primarily researchers in the family field. In thisarticle, the family resilience perspective is integrated with conceptual definitions from family stress theory using the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response (FAAR) Model in an effort to clarify distinctions between family resiliency as capacity and family resilience as a process. The family resilience process is discussed in terms of (a) the meaning of significant risk exposure (vs. the normal challenges of family life) and (b) the importance of making conceptual and operational distinctions between family system outcomes and family protective processes. Recommendations for future family resilience research are discussed.     

Family comes first: Men's and women's personal networks in Tehran

This paper examines the characteristics of middle class Tehranis’ networks, based upon a survey of 318 individuals from the 159 households. The results show that women and men have similar-size networks. However, their networks differ substantially in gender composition, with each having almost two-thirds of network members of their own gender. Men's and women's networks contain a large proportion of kin overall. Most ties tend to be with immediate kin: children, parents and siblings. An immediate kin is usually the socially closest member of a network. Apart from voluntary factors, the importance of kinship ties in men's and women's networks may be the result of the macro-structural conditions under which patterns of social relationships take place.     

Longitudinal analysis of personal networks. The case of Argentinean migrants in Spain

This paper discusses and illustrates various approaches for the longitudinal analysis of personal networks (multilevel analysis, regression analysis, and SIENA). We combined the different types of analyses in a study of the changing personal networks of immigrants. Data were obtained from 25 Argentineans in Spain, who were interviewed twice in a 2-year interval. Qualitative interviews were used to estimate the amount of measurement error and to isolate important predictors. Quantitative analyses showed that the persistence of ties was explained by tie strength, network density, and alters’ country of origin and residence. Furthermore, transitivity appeared to be an important tendency, both for acquiring new contacts and for the relationships among alters. At the network level, immigrants’ networks were remarkably stable in composition and structure despite the high turnover. Clustered graphs have been used to illustrate the results. The results are discussed in light of adaptation to the host society.     

Family Instability,Multipartner Fertility,and Behavior in Middle Childhood

Two concepts capture the dynamic and complex nature of contemporary family structure: family instability and multipartner fertility. Although these circumstances are likely to co‐occur, their respective literatures have proceeded largely independently. The authors used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,062) to consider these dimensions of dynamic family structure together, asking whether they independently predict children's behavior problems at age 9. Frequent family instability was consistently predictive of higher predicted levels of behavior problems for children born to mothers who were unmarried, an association largely attenuated by factors related to family stress. Multipartner fertility was robustly related to self‐reported delinquency and teacher‐reported behavior problems among children born to mothers who were married.     

Family Home Businesses: Who Buys Health Insurance?

This study uses data from the Cooperative States Regional Research Project NE-167 to examine the factors that influence family home business owners in purchasing health insurance. Results indicate that net business income, full-time work, and a hospital reimbursement rate are positively related to the likelihood of buying health insurance although income from other sources is negatively related to purchasing it. Being male, a contractor, and having more education also indicates a greater probability of buying insurance. Implications for working with self-employed families are discussed.     

Mobility types,transnational ties and personal networks in four highly skilled immigrant communities in Seville (Spain)

In this study, we explore how different mobility patterns influence the composition and structure of the transnational social support networks and how personal networks allow us to elicit insightful data of mobile individuals. Ninety-five mobile individuals were selected from four distinct communities based in Seville (Spain), namely: Erasmus students, Flamenco artists, musicians from the symphonic orchestra and partners of European Commission researchers. Data were collected through an electronic survey sent by email with multiple name generators and a structured face-to-face interview utilizing a network visualization tool, VennMaker. Two distinct methods, namely qualitative case studies and cluster analysis were used to characterize mobility types. Findings reveal a heterogeneous foreign population, in which different forms of mobility are reflected in the personal networks of mobile individuals. Respondents who were settled in the city were more likely to have networks in which social support was mainly derived by hosts and people in the host location and with whom they communicated predominantly through face-to-face communication. Those who were in the host location for a study exchange, knowing that return to the county of origin is imminent were more likely to have networks linked to the home location. They relied heavily on strong transnational ties in the home country using social media to sustain their relationship. Respondents with an itinerant mobility profile, also had networks dominated by strong transnational ties, however, such ties had a higher degree of geographical spread due to previous international mobility. Participants who had a high number of hosts in the network but low connection between the ties were more likely to be linked to a specific subculture in the host society. The integration in the host location follows a different pattern to other settled individuals, mainly because their connection in the city tends to be community specific.