Perceived social support in Chinese parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a Chinese context: Implications for social work practice

This article reports the results of a Hong Kong study (no. of parents = 121) which identified perceived social support (PSS), both overall and four types of support, of Chinese parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and examined the impact of PSS on the interrelationship between the ADHD symptoms and parenting stress. The parents perceived support of their primary social network as more satisfactory than professionals’. Parenting stress of the high PSS group was lower than the low PSS group’s. The PSS-overall, parenting role, and the ADHD symptoms explained a significant variance of parenting stress. The results pave the way to develop a complex social work model in helping.     

Parents of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Meta-Synthesis,Part II

In 2011 6.4 million children in the United States ages four to 17 years had a diagnosis of ADHD. Quantitative studies have indicated that parenting stress for parents of children diagnosed with ADHD is high. The purpose of the current meta-synthesis was to conduct a comprehensive review of both the published and unpublished qualitative studies involving the experience of parents raising children diagnosed with ADHD. Searches in online scholarly databases yielded an initial 1217 hits, which were narrowed down to eighty studies that met the criteria. A “meta-ethnography” framework was used for the synthesis. Results of the first part of the analysis were reported in Corcoran et al. (2016) and had to do with the personal impact on parents. The themes in Part II have to do with the processes parents go through in accepting the diagnosis of ADHD and in deciding whether their children should take medication. Parents struggled to make sense of their child’s problems and came to terms with the diagnosis in a series of stages. Regarding medication use, parental attitudes varied greatly, with both costs and benefits noted. Though there was considerable ambivalence towards medication use, some parents reported relief after their child began using medication. Implications from this study are that providers should recognize the processes involved in making decisions about an ADHD diagnosis and the use of medication. Social workers should allow sensitive exploration of parents’ attributions and understanding of their children’s behavior and level of acceptance of the diagnosis. Keeping an ethical and critical stance toward the use of medication, social workers should also have full exploration with parents around the potential benefits and risks associated with the treatment of their children’s ADHD, taking into account parents’ preferences.     

Parenting a child with Autism Spectrum disorder: parental work context

This research contributes to the literature on work-related factors for parents raising a child with a disability. Specifically, we used questionnaire methodology to compare two parent families raising a child with Autism Spectrum (AS) with similar families raising ‘typical’ children. Our findings suggested that parents raising a child with AS self-report higher parenting stress and more mental health symptomatology, as well as lower overall job satisfaction, less satisfaction with supervisors and less workplace contentment. In addition, our findings suggested that parents raising a child with a disability self-report similarly to parents raising ‘typical’ children with respect to work interest, commitment and quality, as well as time missed. In conclusion, our results appear to suggested that despite increased parental stress related to parenting a child with AS, with respect to several work-related factors, there are more similarities than differences among these parenting groups.     

Flemish Foster Mothers’ Perceptions of Support Needs Regarding Difficult Behaviors of Their Foster Child and Their Own Parental Approach

Family foster care is a valuable, but vulnerable type of out-of-home placement. Adequate support of foster parents is an important factor for placement success. This requires an accurate assessment of the support needs of foster parents. This paper focuses on the support needs of foster mothers concerning difficult behavior of the child and their own parenting behavior. Data were gathered from 282 foster mothers. 46 % of the foster mothers needed support on at least one behavior of the child, 40 % on at least one parenting behavior. Foster mothers, who felt less competent to deal with the child, expressed a higher support need on both areas. A high support need concerning difficult behaviors was further predicted by the foster mother’s age, the type of foster care, and the number of biological children. A high support need concerning parenting was further predicted by the quality of support by the foster care worker and the number of foster children. Careful monitoring of all types of foster care situations with special attention to problem behaviors and how to handle them could make this type of out-of-home-placement more effective.     

A Qualitative Study of Parents’ and Children’s Views on Mediation

This qualitative study examined the benefits to children of family mediation for divorcing couples and the limitations of such mediation. To capture the perspectives of parents and their children, we invited 40 parents and 10 children to participate in the study. The parent informants reported that mediation improved the efficacy of their parenting and alleviated their children’s stress about their divorce. In contrast, the child informants felt they were powerless when involved in the mediation process and that they received limited support from the mediators. Strategies are proposed for improving the cultural applicability of mediation services for children in a Chinese society.     

“It's really overwhelming”: Parent and service provider perspectives of parents aging out of foster care

Rates of pregnancy and parenthood among current and former foster youth are two to three times higher than non-foster youth peers. Repeat pregnancies among young mothers aging out of foster care also occur at higher rates than peers not involved with the child welfare system. Furthermore, mothers aging out of foster care demonstrate high levels of parenting stress and risk for child maltreatment. Indeed, this population is in significant need of help; however, beyond anecdotal evidence, little is known about the needs and day-to day experiences of this population. In order to tailor interventions to meet the needs of parents aging out, the perspectives of stakeholders must be taken into account. Using qualitative data gathered from separate small group interviews with parents aging out and service providers, this study examined participants' perceptions of parents' daily experiences, strengths, and needs. Findings indicated that parents aging out face overwhelming adversity and stress with little outside financial, emotional, or parenting support from family or friends. Yet, parents also expressed motivation to be good parents, resilience, and the desire to gain effective parenting skills. Although similar themes arose among parent and provider interviews, perceptions differed. Parents expressed hope and optimism in providing for their children while providers expressed systemic failure in preparing parents for independent living. Based on these findings, we conclude that parenting interventions specific to parents aging out may need to address three fundamental and key components: basic needs, social support, and effective parenting techniques.     

Engaging substance-affected families in child welfare: parent perspectives of a parenting intervention at program initiation and completion

Families affected by substance abuse are at an increased risk of child welfare involvement and poor child welfare outcomes. One strategy to improve outcomes among these families is evidence-based parenting interventions. While these interventions show the potential for advancing the child welfare field, they have not been widely and rigorously evaluated with birth parents, especially those affected by substance abuse, who face marked vulnerability and marginalization. We sought to draw on parents’ expertise and to understand their first and changing impressions throughout involvement in a parenting intervention, as well as overall impressions at program completion. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 10 parents who were involved in child welfare and a family drug treatment court. All parents were affected by parental substance use and had recently completed the Strengthening Families Program. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for prominent themes. The study’s findings showed that parents described four key themes that influenced their perspectives of the parenting intervention: program reputation as communicated by peers, relevance and applicability of the program, children’s involvement and enjoyment of the program, and program structure issues that pointed to the need for high-quality group facilitation. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Family support: the roles of early years' centres

The development of children and the welfare of their parents are closely inter‐linked. The study outlined below uses a longitudinal, ecological approach to explore links between different models of early years' centres and the expansion of parents support networks. Over time, parenting stress reduced and well‐being improved. Sources of informal and formal support developed and extended. It is argued that all types of centres need to develop a comprehensive approach to child development in which child care and education, as well as family support, are explicit functions. This can promote family resilience as well as social inclusion in communities. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Time for work,commuting, and parenting? Commuting parents' involvement with their children

For most Australian parents, there is continuing tension between work and family commitments. This tension is exacerbated by the need not only to have sufficient time available to children in the family but also for that time to be characterized by nurturance and guidance. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored how 21 part-time or full-time working parents, who also commute 10–15 hours a week to work, manage both the quantity and quality of their time with their young children (0–5 years). The study revealed the difficult conditions of commuting and the importance of social support to parents' well-being, as well as a significant pattern of parent–child interaction which we have described as ‘attentive parenting.’ Parents felt these activities contributed to the parent–child bond and their children's well-being in spite of an acknowledged lack of interactive time.     

Promoting birth parents' relationships with their toddlers upon reunification: Results from Promoting First Relationships® home visiting program

Birth parents, once reunified with their child after a foster care placement, are in need of in-home support services to prevent reoccurrence of maltreatment and reentry into foster care, establish a strong relationship with their child, and enhance child well-being. Few studies have addressed the efficacy of home visiting services for reunified birth parents of toddlers. This study reports on the findings from a randomized control trial of a 10-week home visiting program, Promoting First Relationships® (Kelly, Sandoval, Zuckerman, & Buehlman, 2008), for a subsample of 43 reunified birth parents that were part of the larger trial. We describe how the elements of the intervention align with the needs of parents and children in child welfare. Although the sample size was small and most of the estimates of intervention effects were not statistically significant, the effect sizes and the pattern of results suggest that the intervention may have improved both observed parenting sensitivity and observed child behaviors as well as decreased parent report of child behavior problems. Implications are that providing in-home services soon after a reunification may be efficacious in strengthening birth parents' capacity to respond sensitively to their children as well as improving child social and emotional outcomes and well-being.     

Parenting challenges and parents’ intimate relationships

ABSTRACT

Parenthood is a rewarding as well as a potentially stressful event for many couples as it brings many changes to their lives. Having young children at home can result in decreased relationship satisfaction and a low-quality sexual relationship. Same-sex couples may, however, report different parenting experiences, and their parenthood may not significantly affect their level of relationship satisfaction. The quality of marital relationship is an important determinant of the parenting stress and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Mothers and fathers who report dissatisfaction with their marriage and relationship experience more parenting difficulties and stress than those who are satisfied with their relationships. Although research into transition to parenthood is very significant, the association between parenting challenges and parents’ intimate relationships remains an understudied topic. Research needs not only to highlight the importance of parents and family well-being and its direct impacts on the child’s well-being, but also to emphasize the bidirectional association between parent-child interactions and couples’ intimate relationship satisfaction.     

Parenting in poverty: Perspectives of high-risk parents

Parents considered high risk by child protection services commonly are striving to raise children in poverty but are identified as requiring improved parenting skills. Parent perceptions of their own needs are typically not sought or elicited. This longitudinal study of 35 parents over 18 months garnered 115 in-depth interviews focusing on parent views regarding barriers to effective parenting. Analysis indicated that parents uniformly identified poverty as the primary barrier to their capacity to provide adequate care for their children. Themes elicited indicated that financially parents were living precariously close to margins of defeat. Parents accepted personal responsibility for their economic and parental failings, equating no income with bad parenting. Depression and despair associated with poverty were acknowledged to impair parenting and increase self-doubt about parenting capacity. Experiences with social services generally led to low expectations of parenting assistance. The need for improved aid for impoverished parents is discussed.     

Does joint legal custody increase child support for nonmarital children?

Nonmarital children account for two fifths of births in the US, and close to two thirds of these children do not live with their fathers by age five. Although nonmarital children primarily live with their mothers, joint legal custody has emerged as an option for their parents. Parents with joint legal custody are expected to make major decisions for their child together, regardless of their prior marital status. This study investigates whether joint legal custody increases child support payments in the first year of a child support order among fathers of nonmarital children who live with their mothers, using a unique sample of court records in 2000–2009 in Wisconsin. It finds consistent and statistically significant positive associations across different methods; joint legal custody is associated with higher child support payments by about $170 a year and a higher compliance ratio by 5 percentage points. Paying child support is only one way nonresident parents can contribute to their children. Therefore, more studies are needed to understand whether and how joint legal custody affects other aspects of parenting and conditions under which it should be encouraged.     

Looking at engagement and outcome from the perspectives of child protection workers and parents

This paper reports a study that sought to understand what facilitates engagement between parents and child protection workers and to ascertain the relationship between such engagement and intervention outcome. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through personal interviews with 131 worker-parent dyads (workers and corresponding parents receiving service) from 11 child protection agencies in Ontario, Canada. Measures included scales for engagement, parental well-being (depression and stress), and worker well-being (burnout, job satisfaction, stress). Outcome measures included perception of child safety, changed parenting practices and satisfaction. A relationship was found between workers' perception of parent engagement and parents' perception of their own engagement, as well as between the perceptions that workers and parents had around their own respective engagement. Workers who were satisfied with service outcomes were significantly more engaged than those who were unsatisfied. Parents thinking that their children were safer as a result of intervention were significantly more engaged than parents who thought that their children were less safe. The strongest reason given by parents for positive change was being able to trust their worker (p < .001) and believing that their worker was knowledgeable about parenting (p < .01). Qualitative data suggested that parents valued experienced workers because they thought such workers could better understand their problems and how to deal with them. Correspondingly, workers felt that experience enabled them to better understand clients' problems and provide more effective support. No relationship was found between parent engagement and parental depression or stress, but the mean depression score for parents placed them at risk of clinical depression. There was a negative correlation between worker stress and engagement. The study demonstrates that engagement between clients and workers is related to positive outcomes (as reported by workers and parents) and supports the contention that promoting engagement is integral to a successful child protection intervention.     

Hope as a coping resource among parents at risk for child maltreatment

This study investigated hope as a protective factor buffering the relationships between parenting stress and well-being among a sample of parents identified at moderate to high risk for child maltreatment. Two hundred parents were recruited from a nonprofit organization providing secondary and tertiary child maltreatment prevention programs. Results of the analyses showed that parental stress was negatively associated with subjective and emotional well-being. Hope was positively correlated with well-being and negatively associated with parenting stress. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that hope had a significant incremental relationship to well-being and that the negative effects of parenting stress fell below statistical significance. These findings provide preliminary support for hope as a coping resource social workers can target when working with parents in the prevention of child maltreatment.     

Beyond the depleting model of parenting: narratives of childrearing and change

A great deal of scholarship investigates the effects of parenting on adults who parent. While existing literature has identified the ways in which parenting affects parents adversely, we argue that more attention needs to be paid to how having children may enhance parents’ lives. Thus, we draw upon twenty-four in-depth interviews with young parents in order to investigate this process. First, we identify five ways in which parents say caregiving has changed their worldviews, relationships, and expectations, leading them to 1) erect barriers, 2) aspire for more, 3) view parenthood as a second chance, 4) hew a new path, and 5) make connections. Second, we uncover two central metaphors that parents rely on to explain the effect that having responsibility for children has had on their lives: the child as witness and the child as tether. We also point to future areas of investigation, arguing that only with an adequate understanding of what parenting does to parents can we understand what changing trends in families and inequality hold for ourselves and our futures.     

Keeping Mum: Characteristics and Family Dynamics of Mothers Who Are Liable to Pay Child Support in Australia

In recent decades, changes in post‐separation parenting arrangements in Australia have led to an increase in the small but significant group of mothers liable to pay child support to fathers. The present study uses data from the Child Support Reform Study, a national random sample of separated parents in Australia registered with the Child Support Agency (CSA) in 2008. In total, 185 mothers with a child support liability were identified. Drawing on reports from separated mothers and fathers liable to pay child support in 2008, the study found that 43% of liable mothers had shared or more time. Few liable mothers reported spending no time with their child in the previous 12 months. Unlike liable fathers, mothers with a child support liability tended to be more ‘fearful’ of their former partner; have a resident child in their household; work fewer hours in paid employment; and have older children. Liable mothers were also more likely than other separated mothers to describe the relationship with their former partner as ‘fearful.’ Gendered expectations of parenting mean that liable mothers and liable fathers may adopt different behavioural responses to their roles. The implications of these findings for family therapists are briefly discussed.     

The Abused and Neglected Foster Child: Determinants of Emotional Conflict and Oppositional Behavior

Behavioral and emotional problems have been observed in emotionally vulnerable children in foster care under certain circumstances. A common pattern involves the unpredictable appearance of a previously absent or unavailable natural parent. Such an occurrence precipitates the reawakening of the child’s ambivalent feelings toward both natural and foster parents as well as their fears of abandonment. This frequently leads to behavior that is oppositional and difficult to manage. If the foster parents find the child’s behavior unmanageable, and if they are not provided with appropriate professional support during this difficult period, a crisis often follows that precipitates the child’s removal from the foster home. Individual, familial, and systemic contributions to this dilemma are discussed" This article emphasizes the origins and nature of the intrapsychic dilemma faced by these children. Particular emphasis is placed on the manifestations of a conflict of loyalty, in the child, and its relationship to the oppositional behavior of these children in foster care. Additional considerations include the impact of inconsistent parenting, abuse and neglect by the natural parents, the assumption of a parental role by the child and a concomitant renunciation of the child’s dependency needs, as well as an examination of the role of the foster parent’s fantasy of what it will be like to parent a traumatized child.     

Postdivorce Coparenting and Children’s Well-Being in Hong Kong

This article reports a survey study on postdivorce coparenting and its relationships with children’s well-being in Hong Kong. Based on data from 142 resident parents and 84 children, the results revealed that interparental conflict and triangulation of children within parental conflict adversely affected children’s well-being, whereas interparental support fostered children’s well-being. Parental communication and interparental support coexisted simultaneously with parent conflicts. These conflicting effects make postdivorce coparenting a mixed blessing for children. Fortunately, residential parent–child intimacy and quality parenting by both parents protected children’s well-being from the effects of negative relational dynamics. Promoting postdivorce coparenting should always accompany effective interventions in conflict resolution, the renegotiation of growth-enhancing boundaries among family members, the support of parental functioning and individual recovery of both parents, and the facilitation of noncompetitive parental involvement of nonresident parents.