Attitudes of Arab and Jewish mothers towards punitive and non‐punitive discipline methods

This study used data from 234 Jewish and Arab mothers in Israel to determine the association between cultural and socioeconomic factors on their views of punitive and non‐punitive discipline behaviours. Mothers highly approved the use of nonpunitive disciplines. For example, all mothers supported to explain to the child what the rules are to try to prevent misbehaviour; however, their support of punitive disciplines was not negligible. For instant, 15.32% approved spank, slap, smack or swat children; one out of 10 mothers endorsed using an object such as a paddle, hairbrush, belt, etc. on children. Mothers with lower levels of education (completing high school or lower) and Arab mothers approved the use of corporal punishment and psychological aggression more than others. More support and training are required for these families.     

Assessing Racial and Ethnic Differences in Attitudes towards the Use of Physical Discipline in Parenting: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Using a concurrent nested mixed-methods approach, this study assessed racial and ethnic differences in attitudes towards the use of physical discipline in parenting based on data recently collected in Nebraska. Relative to Non-Hispanic White parents, African American parents were more likely to approve the practice of physical punishment to correct misbehavior of children, whereas Hispanic parents were less likely to support physical punishment. There was a positive relationship between acculturation and approval of physical discipline among Hispanic parents. Understanding these differences can help inform the design and implementation of future parenting education programs for parents of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.     

China’s Changing Family Structure and Adolescent Development

This paper examines the relationship between family structure and junior high school students’ educational and psychosocial development and its intermediate mechanisms. Our findings show, firstly, that family structure affects children’s development, and children living with both parents have better educational and psychosocial development than those without one or both parents. Secondly, family structure affects children’s development to some extent through the two mechanisms of family socioeconomic status and parental participation in education. Thirdly, fathers and mothers play different roles in children’s development. Mothers are more important to children’s educational development, while fathers are more important to their psychosocial development. In addition, the distribution of family structure shows marked group heterogeneity, and families lacking both parents tend to be groups with a lower socioeconomic status. Since adolescent development is closely related to the acquisition of socioeconomic status in adulthood, the negative impact of parental absence on children’s development should not be neglected by academics and policy researchers.     

PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT IN THE HOME IN NEW ZEALAND

Results are reported for a national opinion poll of 1,000 adult New Zealanders which focussed on two questions: what are New Zealand parents currently doing to discipline their children, and what are the current attitudes of New Zealanders towards physical punishment in the home? Changes appear to be occurring in the attitudes and behaviour of New Zealanders toward physical punishment in the home. Although smacking with the hand is still both approved and used as a common parental response to the misbehaviour of children of all ages, anything more severe is no longer part of the repertoire of most parents or the experience of most children. Further evidence of change is provided by data on difference among the groups in the sample. Younger parents, current parents and the more highly educated are less likely to report using and endorsing the more severe forms of physical punishment that those who are older, have never had children or who have less education. Unlike the reported child-rearing practices of 30 years ago, parents today appear to be making use of a range of non-physical responses to misbehaviour and are more frequently explaining or discussing matters with their children.     

Does corporal punishment erode the quality of the mother–child interaction in early childhood?

Corporal punishment is believed to exert its influence partially on children's externalizing behavior by undermining the quality of parent‐child relationships, but empirical evidence for this belief is lacking. Thus, the goal of this study was to explore longitudinally whether the use of corporal punishment by mothers was associated with declining quality in parent‐child interactions and whether these declines mediated the links between corporal punishment and later externalizing behavior. Based on data from the NIHCD SECCYD, the findings from this study indicated that the links between the quality of parent‐child interaction and corporal punishment were bidirectional: high quality parent‐child interaction was associated with less use of subsequent corporal punishment by mothers, and maternal use of corporal punishment at 36 months was associated with declines in the quality of parent‐child interaction at 54 months. There were not significant indirect effects of corporal punishment at 36 months on grade 3 aggression through 54 month parent‐child interaction quality, however, which suggests other mechanisms might account for the links between early corporal punishment and later externalizing problems.     

Early socialization of hostile attribution bias: The roles of parental attributions,parental discipline,and child attributes

The goal of this study was to examine child and parent predictors of children's hostile attribution bias (HAB) with a particular focus on exploring the associations between parents’ early attribution of child misbehavior and children's HAB in the transition to school age. Participants were 241 children (118 girls) of middle‐income families who were at risk for school‐age conduct problems. Multi‐method, multi‐informant data were collected on maternal attributions of child misbehavior, parental use of corporal punishment, and child attributes (i.e., verbal IQ, effortful control, theory of mind, and emotional understanding) at 3 years, and child HAB in ambiguous situations at 6 years. Results indicated that mothers’ internal explanations for children's misconduct may either reduce or increase children's later HAB depending on the specific content of attributions, such that mothers’ belief that children misbehave because of their internal state (i.e., emotional state or temperament) was associated with lower levels of child HAB, whereas attributing power‐based motives (i.e., manipulative, controlling intentions) in children was associated with higher levels of HAB. The findings are discussed with respect to appreciating the complexity of parents’ explanations for children's behavior, and considering parental cognition as a potential target for early identification and prevention of child HAB and related problems.     

A Comparative Study of Child Abuse Risk Assessment in the United States and Korea

The perceptions and judgments of social workers who interview the child and family are especially significant factors in child abuse assessment process. The current study describes and compares child protection workers’ assessment processes in Korea and the USA through the use of case vignettes and in‐depth interview. The responses from social workers in these two countries were compared and discussed in the areas of: risk assessment; perception of the main problems; tolerance of corporal punishment; and judgments about appropriateness of interventions. Most revealing was that Korean social workers determined abuse based on their child abuse definition and the US Army FAP social workers determined abuse based on their definition, which was affected by legal standards and cultural differences. Korean social workers are more likely to remove a child from the home, even in mild cases, but US FAP social workers would recommend child removal from the home as a last option. The social workers that participated in this survey play a vital role in the safety of children in child protective services. Both countries can benefit from sharing information to improve the child protection services delivered. Social workers' professional judgment leads to objective and consistent outcomes and are less likely to compromise child safety in the decision making process.     

The Swedish Myth: The Corporal Punishment Ban and Child Death Statistics

Sweden is widely believed to have an exceptionally low incidenceof child maltreatment deaths. Since Sweden is also the firstcountry to have outlawed all forms of corporal punishment, proponentsof a total ban on corporal punishment, in the UK and elsewhere,haveargued that this demonstrates that such a ban prevents fatalchild abuse. While not taking sides on the corporal punishmentissue, this paper demonstrates that the argument is misleadingon several counts. The available evidence suggests that Swedenhas a low, though not uniquely low, incidence of child maltreatmentdeaths. Widely cited statistics suggesting that Sweden is inan entirely different league from other countries are, however,seriously misleading. Nor does the evidence really allow usto conclude that Sweden’s relative success in this areais attributable to the ban on corporal punishment. Other countrieswithout a corporal punishment ban also have low or lower childmaltreatment death rates; the figures that are commonly citedin any case pre-date Sweden’s corporal punishment banand there are a number of other important variables, other thana ban on corporal punishment, that could account for internationalvariations. The article concludes with some thoughts about theselective use of evidence in debates of this kind.     

文化资本与社会地位获得(英文)

文化资本是影响个人教育获得和社会地位获得的重要因素。基于2008年上海市社会结构调查数据,从广义文化资本出发,分别测量父母和子女文化资本对地位获得的作用。研究发现：父母和子女文化资本存量越高,子女受教育年限越长;子女文化资本对地位获得具有显著影响;在控制性别、父亲职业等变量后,文化资本越多,越有可能进入更高阶层;教育、家庭文化氛围和文化投资对地位获得具有持续且稳定的作用;文化资本是社会下层实现向上流动的有效手段。     

拼爹重要,还是拼搏重要？当下中国公众对绩效分配原则的感知

在现代社会,个人根据其能力、素质和专业技能等资质获得职业和社会地位的绩效主义原则已经被广泛认为是符合经济公平正义的主要分配原则。然而,鲜有研究关注公众是如何看待绩效分配原则的。本文利用中国家庭追踪调查2010年基线调查数据（CFPS2010）,对公众关于绩效分配原则的认同状况进行了初步探讨。研究发现：第一,社会经济地位越高的成员越认同绩效分配原则;第二,成长于改革开放时期的年轻人更加认同绩效分配原则;第三,地区收入不平等状况在一定程度上降低了社会地位较低的群体对绩效分配原则的认同感。本文的发现在一定程度上表明,当前中国公众之所以对收入不平等表现出较为宽容的态度,主要是因为大部分公众相信教育和个人努力是取得社会成就的重要影响因素,但应注意,公众对绩效分配原则的认同感与其客观社会经济地位存在密切关系。     

Are Quasi‐markets in Education what the British Public Wants?

In the context of inconclusive evidence on the extrinsic successes of quasi‐markets, policy defences of school choice and competition in education have often discussed the intrinsic, empowering value of choice for consumers, arguing that school choice for parents is ‘what people want’. Discourses often imply that choice is desired for its own sake rather than merely as a means by which families can escape what are deemed to be poor quality schools. Support for an idealistic, abstract notion of ‘choice’ is also taken to imply support for quasi‐markets overall and is not considered alongside possible competing values that people may hold at the same time as they value choice. Additionally, views of parents are often examined without considering possible differences in views between parents and non‐parents. Contributing to debates about how far a public desire exists for quasi‐markets in education, this article draws on data from newly designed questions fielded as part of the 2010 British Social Attitudes survey. The article finds that while choice ‘in the abstract’ is supported widely by both parents and non‐parents (albeit slightly more so by parents), a valuing of choice among the British public appears to be more instrumental than intrinsic – potentially problematic given evidence on the extrinsic benefits of quasi‐markets is mixed. Support for choice is tempered among parents and non‐parents by clear opposition to vouchers, school diversity, government spending on transport costs to facilitate choice and by strong support for the idea of sending children to the ‘nearest state school’.     

Parents' perceptions of their children in a context of shared political uncertainty

The study describes the differences and similarities between parents’ feelings and their perception of their children’s feelings in a politically uncertain situation. The study focuses on Israeli families living in Judaea and Samaria (the West Bank) during two periods: the Intifada and the post‐Oslo Agreements years during the first phase of the peace process with the Palestinians. The research combines qualitative and quantitative methods. The results show that most of the feelings evoked by the uncertainty are negative emotions, such as fear, anger, hate, the desire for revenge, and avoidance. These emotions are experienced by parents and, according to the parents’ perceptions, by their children as well. In addition to the correlation between parents’ own experiences and their appraisal of their children’s, the children were perceived as having more negative feelings than the parents. Systemic analysis of the results indicates that the children are often a channel for expression of their parents’ emotions. Based on this finding, suggestions are made regarding intervention with children that takes family processes into account. Some direction for applying the findings of this specific study in other contexts of shared political uncertainty, such as Northern Ireland, are suggested.     

Parenting: Can Skills be Learned?

The effectiveness of parent education courses conducted in the northern suburbs of Sydney was assessed in terms of Hereford's Parent Attitude Scale after norms for this area had been established. The results indicated that on completion of these courses participants had greater confidence in their abilities as parents, were more aware of the influence of environment on their children and had a more trusting relationship with their children. Kavanagh doubted the relevance of a course such as PET to parents of lower socioeconomic status—these parents have also been shown to score lower on the PAS. However in this study participants who scored lowest initially improved most, showing that the course is reaching those who are not very well informed about childrearing.     

Do Young Children's Representations of Discipline and Empathy Moderate the Effects of Punishment on Emotion Regulation?

This study examined whether children's representations of parenting (perceptions of authoritative discipline and empathy) moderated the association between harsh punishment—including corporal punishment (CP) and verbal punishment (VP)—and children's emotion regulation at the age of five years. Participants were 559 low‐income mother‐child dyads. Maternal self‐reports and home observations were used to measure punishment. Children's representations were assessed using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. Children's emotion regulation was assessed by observer rating via the Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that children's authoritative disciplinary representations moderated the effects of both VP and CP on children's emotion regulation. Empathic representations moderated the effects of VP only on children's emotion regulation. The current findings highlight the role of children's internal representations as potential protective factors in the context of harsher forms of punishment.     

Black‐White Biracial Children's Social Development from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade: Links with Racial Identification,Gender, and Socioeconomic Status

In this study, we investigated trajectories of Black‐White biracial children's social development during middle childhood, their associations with parents’ racial identification of children, and the moderating effects of child gender and family socioeconomic status (SES). The study utilized data from parent and teacher reports on 293 US Black‐White biracial children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS‐K). Growth curve models suggested increasing trajectories of teacher‐reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors between kindergarten and fifth grade. Parents’ racial identification of children predicted child externalizing behavior trajectories such that teachers rated biracially identified children's externalizing behaviors lower relative to those of Black‐ and White‐identified children. Additionally, for White‐identified biracial children, the effect of family SES on internalizing behavior trajectories was especially pronounced. These findings suggest that in the USA, how parents racially identify their Black‐White biracial children early on has important implications for children's problem behaviors throughout the elementary school years.     

Extending pension coverage in Cambodia: The governance and investment challenges of the Social Security Investment Fund

Rapid economic growth, declining fertility and changes in family structures have encouraged the Kingdom of Cambodia to reform its old-age pension system. The Government of Cambodia reached an important milestone in 2019, when the Law on Social Security was promulgated. The Law includes provisions for a compulsory defined benefit pension scheme, establishing a sound framework for extending compulsory pension coverage beyond the public sector to formal private-sector workers. As a future step, the compulsory pension scheme should be extended to informal workers. To accompany the reform, the investment policy for the pension scheme’s reserve funds, including the supervisory regime and investment strategy, will be essential for the modernization of the Cambodian social security system. In this regard, Cambodia has successfully sought policy advice. However, the country should continue to seek further advice, and to act on this. Otherwise, the necessary and increasingly pressing policy ambitions of Cambodia to develop an adequate and sustainable social protection system may not be fully realized.     

Paternal and Maternal Experiences in Caring for Chinese Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Hong Kong

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study that (i) identified parental stress and competence, parents’ perception of their children's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and the parent‐child relationship in caring for children with ADHD; (ii) compared paternal and maternal experiences in these areas; and (iii) examined the effect of children's ADHD behavior on paternal and maternal experiences in Hong Kong Chinese parents. Seventy‐two (59.5%) mothers and 49 (40.5%) fathers participated in the study, in which data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The results showed that: (i) mothers’ level of parental stress was higher than fathers’, but paternal and maternal competence in child‐rearing did not significantly vary; (ii) mothers perceived the child's ADHD behavior more seriously than fathers; (iii) both mothers and fathers had positive perceptions of their parent‐child relationship; and (iv) gender, employment, ADHD symptoms, and parental satisfaction explained the significant variance in parental stress but did not explain the significant variance in parental competence. Implications for social work practice and service development are discussed.     

Looked after children's right to contact with birth parents: An Australian study

In Australia, there are more than 46 000 children in out-of-home care (OOHC). Most of these children have been in OOHC for more than 2 years. Similarly, there are more than 407 000 children in the United States and over 80 800 in England who are ‘looked after’ with approximately one third of these children being in OOHC for more than 2 years. This paper concerns ‘looked after’ children's rights to contact with their birth parents. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) requires child protection systems to recognize the rights of children to maintain contact with their families except where this is not in the child's ‘best interests’. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study conducted in Australia exploring legal and family support practitioners' perceptions of barriers to contact between children in OOHC and their birth parents. The thematic analysis identified four themes: These were as follows: a focus on systems driven responses; lack of cultural recognition and responsiveness; carers' disconnection from birth parents; and parents' exclusion. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and recognizing children's right to contact with birth parents.     

Optimism as a Mediator of the Relation Between Perceived Parental Authoritativeness and Adjustment Among Adolescents: Finding the Sunny Side of the Street

Authoritative parenting has been associated with positive outcomes for children and adolescents, but less is known about the mechanisms responsible for such effects. Two longitudinal studies examined the hypothesis that the relation between authoritative parenting and adolescents’ adjustment is mediated by adolescents’ level of dispositional optimism. In Study 1, university students’ perceptions that their parents were authoritative predicted higher self‐esteem, lower depression, and better university adjustment during the students’ transition into, and throughout, university. Importantly, these relations were mediated by students’ levels of optimism. In Study 2, high school students’ perceptions that their parents were authoritative predicted higher self‐esteem and lower depression six years later when they were young adults, and these relations again were mediated by students’ level of dispositional optimism.