Parents' depressive symptoms and support from sons and daughters in Rural China

This investigation examined how initial levels of elder parents' depressive symptoms influenced financial, instrumental, and emotional support from sons and from daughters in rural China. Data derived from a two-wave (2001, 2003) longitudinal survey of 1,324 parents aged 60 and over living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. Structural Equation Modeling with latent difference score was used to estimate the reciprocal relatioships between children's support and elder parents' depressive symptoms. Results showed that older parents who had higher levels of depressive symptoms at baseline experienced reduced financial, instrumental, and emotional support from sons, but not from daughters. In rural China where the patrilineal family system has distinguished sons and daughters with respect to their functions in elder parents' support networks, the roles of sons and daughters warrant further examination, particularly when elder parents have some depressive symptoms, which elevates the needs of the parents and puts a strain on intergenerational relationships.     

The internalising and externalising problems of adolescents in Croatia: Socio‐demographic and family victimisation factors

This study assessed Croatian adolescents' problems in relation to socio‐demographic characteristics and experienced family violence in early and late adolescence. A national representative sample of 1,780 Croatian students (45.3% males) in two age groups representing early (M = 13.20; SD = 0.42) and late adolescence (M = 18.14; SD = 0.38) participated. The questionnaire included the Youth Self‐Report, modified version of ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool – Children's Version, and socio‐demographic data. Results show that internalising problems were more present in female adolescents, in adolescents who perceived family financial hardship and in those whose biological parents did not live together. More externalising problems were reported in late adolescence by students who were living in large cities and whose families had either low, or above‐average, financial status. Adolescents who have experienced family violence were at higher risk of developing internalising and/or externalising problems.     

儿子养老还是女儿养老？：基于家庭内部的比较分析

本文使用2010年中国家庭追踪调查数据,通过家庭内部比较,从经济支持和生活照料两个方面对儿子和女儿的赡养行为进行系统的比较研究。结果发现,在当代中国家庭中,儿子在赡养父母时的总效应依然显著大于女儿,这主要是因为他们更可能与父母同住。一旦控制子女与父母的居住方式,儿子的直接效应就仅在经济支持方面大于女儿。在生活照料方面,女儿的直接效应已经显著超过儿子。从城乡对比来看,这种“儿子出钱、女儿出力”的性别分工模式主要出现在农村。在城市,女儿在经济支持和生活照料两个方面的直接效应都超过儿子。所以,中国传统的以儿子为核心的赡养方式虽然没有彻底瓦解,但已发生明显变化,快速的人口转变和女性社会经济地位的提高是导致这些变化的重要原因。     

Acculturation and Psychological Functioning in Asian Indian Adolescents

The objective of this exploratory study was to understand how Asian Indian immigrant families adjust to U.S. culture by examining factors that influence acculturation preferences or styles and how these styles may be associated with their children's psychological functioning, as measured by self‐esteem and academic performance. 85 U.S.‐born Asian Indian adolescents (45 girls; 40 boys) and one of their immigrant parents completed questionnaires about family demography, self‐identification, acculturation, and religiosity. Adolescents also completed a self‐perception profile. Results showed parents and adolescents had similar styles of acculturation. However, adolescents were more likely to self‐identify as ‘Indian‐American’ than were their parents. For both adolescents and their parents, integrated and assimilated acculturation styles were related to family SES, years of U.S. residence, and religiosity scores. Adolescents who had an integrated acculturation style had higher GPAs and higher scores on the self‐perception profile than did adolescents who were separated or marginalized. The findings lend tentative support for an integrated style of acculturation in promoting positive outcomes for first generation Asian Indian adolescents.     

'You'd Be Good at That': Gender Patterns in Parent-Child Talk about Courses

This study examined the parent-child dyad as a context in which children's gender-stereotyped course selections are reinforced. Fifty four children from two age groups ( M s  =  10.67 and 12.71 years) and their mothers and fathers selected courses for when children reached secondary school. Afterwards, children and parents discussed their decisions. Parents of sons selected fewer foreign language courses than mathematics, language arts or science courses, whereas parents of daughters selected fewer science and foreign language than mathematics or language arts courses. Girls selected fewer science than language arts courses, whereas boys selected fewer foreign language than mathematics or science courses. Although parents' course selections followed gender-stereotyped patterns for language arts and science, their discouraging comments were not confined to cross-gender-stereotyped domains. Instead, parents made more discouraging comments in general to daughters than to sons. Counter to the hypotheses, daughters made more encouraging comments about science courses than did sons while talking to mothers. The findings suggest that parents and children may show gender-differentiated preferences for children before children are old enough to make course decisions.     

Sons and daughters of foster carers and the impact of fostering on their everyday life

The paper presents results from a study of sons and daughters of foster carers, and the impact of fostering on their lives. Children and young people participated in focus groups and discussion groups, and 684 answered a questionnaire. Eight were interviewed in‐depth. The results from the study showed that sons and daughters of foster carers were highly involved in the fostering assignment. Most children and young people valued their relationship with foster children, but even though relations to foster children were good, fostering could imply complicated changes of everyday life. Sons and daughters of foster carers may have to cope with conflicts connected to behavioural disorders of foster children, and they gained knowledge about foster children’s problematic lives. Fostering also implied contact with natural parents of foster children. Such contact could challenge children’s and young people’s’ perception of adequate parenthood. For some respondents it was hard to become aware of the dysfunctional parenting, abuse and/or neglect to which foster children might have been exposed. The results of the study provided evidence of the need to acknowledge the contribution to fostering made by sons and daughters of foster carers, and also to recognize the impact fostering may have on their lives.     

Factors associated with placement breakdown initiated by foster parents – empirical findings from Germany

This study investigates the effects of covariates on the probability of placement breakdown in non‐kinship family foster care. Breakdowns are distinguished according to the initiator: children, carers, foster parents and the local child welfare authorities. The children concerned had entered foster care at ages ranging from 0 to a maximum of 17 years (n = 14 171). A significantly higher risk of breakdown on the initiative of the foster parents is found in male children, children whose parents receive financial support, children whose parents were removed from the register of carers, children who were between 6 and 15 years old when they joined the foster family, children who had earlier lived in a different foster family or residential care, children from patchwork families and children whose joining of a foster family was the result of disruptive social behaviour. Two‐thirds of the children from non‐kinship family foster care who stay in the foster family was ended on the initiative of the foster parents are subsequently looked after in residential care. That is three times the rate for all terminated foster relationships. Breakdowns on the initiative of the foster parents thus indicate a high risk of unstable care history developing and accordingly necessitate prevention strategies.     

The crying infant: understandable only in a multidisciplinary perspective

The parents' perception of how much their infant cries does not always correspond to the objective amount. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between the parents' perception of the infants' crying and the objective amount of crying and to explore the factors of conceivable importance to the perception of infant crying as well as to the measurable amount of crying. The group studied consisted of 122 infants and their parents. According to the mothers' perception — responses to a questionnaire — 86 of these were non-crying and 36 crying infants. According to the mothers, 22 non-crying infants cried as much as or more than those who were considered as crying. Nine categorized by their mothers as crying infants cried less than those categorized as non-crying. Thus, there was a mismatch between subjective and objective crying and non-crying. One factor found to be relevant for the mother's experience of the infant's crying was the explanations the parents gave about crying in their infant. Objective crying differed significantly between the families who had 0–1 siblings and those who had two siblings or more. Correlated with objective crying were the father's age, the father's perception of his wife's recent delivery and the mother's emotional feelings recorded in diaries during the observation weeks. Correlated with subjective crying in the infant were pain relief during delivery and the mother's emotional feelings.     

Positive Connections: a programme for children who have a parent with a mental illness

Mental health professionals working with parents who suffer from a mental illness often overlook the children within the family. Children whose parents are mentally ill face numerous obstacles to their own emotional development and these children are at higher risk for developing mental illnesses than other children. These risks can be decreased if protective or positive interventions are available for the children. This article will describe the development and implementation of Positive Connections, an effective intervention programme specifically designed for children whose parents have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The effectiveness of this programme has been evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative research strategies, and the results are presented.     

Family relations, adjustment and well-being in a longitudinal study of children in care

The article reports on a longitudinal study of children placed in a children's home during the first two years of the 1980s. The 26 children placed when younger than 4 years of age and staying more than 4 weeks were followed up 3 and 9 months after leaving the children's home and 5, 10, 15 and 20 years later. The children's family relations, including early attachments and later parental relationships and the perception of who is their family, have been one of the predominant themes in the recurrent studies. None of them had lived with both parents after leaving the children's home and 20 of them had been in foster care for periods or permanently. At the time of the last study the children were young adults, aged 20–25. They are categorized in three rather distinct categories, one for those with a ‘good’ and one for those with a ‘moderate’ social adjustment and well‐being and one for those with a ‘bad’ social adjustment and well‐being insofar as involvement with drugs, criminal behaviour and legal sanctions are concerned. Their contacts and relationships with birth parents and foster parents and the perception of who is their family are analysed by use of attachment theory and developmental psychopathology.     

Depressive Symptoms among Former Spousal Caregivers: Comparing Stressors,Resources, and Circumstances of Caregiving Cessation among Older Husbands and Wives

Little research focuses on the mental health of caregivers (CGs) who stop providing care to their community-dwelling spouse. We examine depressive symptoms of former primary CG spouses who stopped caregiving over a two-year follow-up period when the care recipient (CR): (1) no longer has functional problems; (2) continues having functional problems; or (3) dies. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000–2014), we located 2,370 couples who were both 50+ at baseline and where one partner provided help with ADL and/or IADL limitations but did not do so two years later. OLS regressions stratified by gender indicated that both male and female former spousal CGs whose CR died had significantly more depressive symptoms than those who ceased caregiving when their spouse did or did not still have functional problems. Former wife CGs who were older and whose husbands had more baseline ADLs had fewer follow-up depressive symptoms; wife CGs whose husbands had a nursing home stay had more depressive symptoms. Former husband CGs who had provided longer monthly hours of care had fewer follow-up symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of targeting mental and physical health services to both former caregiving husbands and wives, especially after spousal death.     

Cash‐for‐care policy in Sweden: An appraisal of its consequences on female employment

In 2008, Sweden introduced a cash‐for‐care benefit consisting of a flat‐rate sum paid by municipalities to parents whose children were between the ages of one and three and who did not use publicly subsidised childcare. The main object of the reform was to increase parents’ ‘freedom to choose’, but the policy was criticised because of its potentially negative effects on gender equality and mothers’ employment. This study focuses on the effects of cash‐for‐care on female employment in Sweden. The study shows that the adoption of this policy had negative effects on female employment, although primarily in rural areas. Cash‐for‐care was abolished in Sweden in 2016. To evaluate the effects that the policy had on female employment during the time it was in place is important as it indicates what may happen if the policy is introduced again.     

What factors may assist social workers to promote life satisfaction and personal growth among first‐time grandfathers?

Drawing on positive psychology and the perception of families as systems, the current study examined the contribution of variables regarding first‐time grandfathers and their sons, who have become first‐time fathers, to grandfathers' life satisfaction and personal growth. In addition, the association between the frequency of meetings between grandfather and grandchild to grandfathers' life satisfaction and personal growth was examined. The sample consisted of 106 pairs of first‐time Jewish Israeli grandfathers and their sons (n = 212). The grandfathers completed questionnaires relating to personal variables such as narcissism, family relations and frequency of meetings with the grandchild, and reported on their sense of life satisfaction and personal growth. The fathers completed questionnaires relating to personal variables, narcissism and family relations. Higher levels of grandfathers' life satisfaction were associated with their own perception of good family relations; higher levels of grandfathers' personal growth were related to their narcissism. The grandfather's perception of the frequency of meetings with the grandchild was found to moderate between the father's narcissism and the grandfather's life satisfaction and personal growth. The findings point to the crucial role social workers may play in enhancing life satisfaction and enabling personal growth through dedicated intergenerational interventions.     

An account of the experiences of 51 families involved in an initial child protection conference

This paper reports on one part of a research project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, to evaluate the effects of involving parents in 83 initial child protection conferences in a northern city between May 1991 and June 1992. The experiences of two groups of families are recounted and compared, those who attended the conferences and those who did not An analysis was made of the degree to which the parent's participation in the conference affected their overall attitude to the intervention. There were differences between the two groups with regard to their feeling fairly treated, and in their relationship with their social worker. The factors most strongly associated with attitude were whether the child had been removed from the family or statutory action was recommended, and whether the parents agreed abuse had taken place. The fear of removal of the child had an independent influence on the overall attitude, irrespective of whether or not the parents attended the conference. The parents who attended were glad they had gone but found the experience emotionally difficult Although their positive feelings of involvement did not extend to a conviction that they had influenced the decisions, their on-going relationship with their social worker was less likely to have been impaired where they had been invited and attended.     

国外农业发展的公共政策与启示

农业是关系国计民生的大问题,如何保障农业发展,公共政策系统起着至关重要的作用。正因为公共政策显得如此重要,世界各国尤的是大国其政治和经济体系已经发展了一种精细而复杂的公共政策,以推动农业发展。国外的许多经验对于我们解决农业问题有借鉴作用。     

Towards Establishing School Social Work in Malaysia

This paper calls for the introduction of school social work in Malaysia. Many industrialized countries have introduced school social work, partly because teachers are not able to tackle students' personal and social problems. Teachers are burdened with teaching tasks and are not trained to handle social problems. The introduction of school social work in these developed countries was an admission that there was only so much teachers could do in addressing the problems of school children. Even with school counselors, the problems have not decreased. Many parents in Malaysia perceive schools to be incapable of providing sufficient education to excel in the major exams. The existence of many private tuition institutions and private teachers is a testimony to that perception. If society has already deemed these teachers to be incapable of providing quality education, to expect them to look after students' social problems is presumptuous on society's part. The need for school personnel who understand the social ills of the community is urgently needed, and it is the contention of this paper that school social workers are best equipped for that responsibility.     

城市计生家庭的养老模式与养老储备

本文采用问卷调查的方式,考察计生父母对养老的看法,主要研究现阶段的养老储备、对未来养老的担心方面、养老意愿以及老年自养观念的倾向。从而进一步研究现阶段城市计生父母对未来养老的意愿,并发现其中所面临的问题和主导的养老趋势,更好地为今后的养老问题做决策。     

Maternal Employment: Does it Affect the Children When They Grow Up?

Using data on a random sample of young adults in Melbourne, this paper examines the effects of maternal employment during their childhood and adolescence on their educational attainment, relationship with their parents, premarital sexual behaviour, and attitude towards working mothers. Maternal employment has little effect on the characteristics of the son, although men whose mothers work during their adolescence were more likely to have had premarital sex than those whose mothers did not work. Maternal employment has more effect on daughters but the effects were mainly positive rather than negative.     

Jumping through hoops – the cost of compliance on sole parents

Australian governments along with other western countries have made significant changes to the welfare system with a focus on encouraging sole parents on social security payments to move into paid work. This paper reports on in‐depth interviews with 48 sole parents about their experiences with the welfare‐to‐work process and with a range of other services. Although parents reported some positive encounters, they also described a range of negative experiences, including how they needed to repeatedly prove their entitlement to help, leaving them feel as if they were undeserving of support. The study has demonstrated that it is often the most vulnerable parents who feel under close scrutiny and who have to work extra hard to get the help they need. These experiences can also see them disengaging from services. The findings show how the current policy environment adds to the complexity of sole parents' lives reinforcing their disadvantage.