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.     

The organisational identity of science centres

This paper presents an empirically grounded mapping of the organisational identity that science centres in the UK are trying to carve out for themselves against the backdrop of developing organisational strategies and multiple external pressures, expectations and perceptions. I attempt this through a relational analysis that views the science centres’ organisational identity formation as constituted by and through a dialectic of autonomy and heteronomy that subtends the differential relationships science centres seek to cultivate vis‐à‐vis what I describe as the ‘parent’ fields – namely, science, formal education, the leisure industry and the museum. Science centres seek to stage a unique encounter of these four parent fields – an encounter that appropriates many significant dimensions of these fields without duplicating them. Through my analysis I hope to capture some of the key tensions and dilemmas that science centres and their organizational actors have to grapple with, the balancing acts they have to perform, and the complex organisational identity that is being forged in the process.     

Policy recommendations for rare disease centres of expertise

AimRare diseases are a serious public health concern and are a priority in the EU. This study aims to develop policy recommendations for rare disease centres of expertise (CoEs) in order to improve standards and quality of care.Subject and methodsA modified 3-round Delphi technique was used. Participants included rare diseases patients, carers, patient representatives and healthcare professionals (HCPs) from CoEs in two countries—Denmark and the UK.ResultsThe results suggest the need to make improvements within current CoE environments, access to CoEs and the need for coordination and cooperation of services within and outside CoEs. It is recommended that CoEs are not overly ‘medicalised’, while at the same time they should be established as research facilities. The importance of including patient representatives in CoE performance management was also highlighted. Raising awareness and provision of appropriate training amongst non-specialist HCPs is seen as a priority for early and correct diagnosis and ensuring high quality care. Similarly, provision of targeted information about patients’ illness and care was considered essential along with access to social assistance within CoEs.ConclusionsPolicy recommendations were developed in areas previously recognised as having gaps. Their implementation is expected to strengthen and improve current care provision for rare disease patients. In member states where national plans and strategies are being developed, it is recommended to replicate the methodological approach used in this study as it has proven to be a helpful tool in rare disease centres of expertise policy development.     

Child-Focused Family Therapy: Behavioural Family Therapy Versus Brief Family Therapy

We examined the effectiveness of behavioural family therapy (following the treatment agenda outlined in Fleischman, Horne and Arthur, 1983) and brief family therapy (following the procedures outlined in Fisch, Weakland and Segal, 1985), in the treatment of child psychological disorders. The parents of the 49 children referred to the outpatient unit of a children's hospital completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach and Edelbrock, 1983). Three scales of the CBCL were examined to assess the effectiveness of the two therapeutic approaches pre- to post-treatment. Significant pre- and post-treatment differences were found for behavioural family therapy on the Internalizing, Externalizing, and Sum T scales and for brief family therapy on the Internalizing and Sum T scales. Sum T scales represent the sum of scores across all sub-scales of the CBCL. Neither treatment was found to be more effective than the other.     

Family Problem Solving and Family Stress

No abstract available for this article.     

Family Social Work/Family Therapy

The author responds to Witkin's (1993) comparison of family social work and family therapy. The author argues that family social work and family therapy share important commonalities. He challenges Witkin's characterization of family therapy as outdated. Instead, family therapy is characterized as having contributed important writings about gender and culture to its practitioners. The paper ends with reflections on the implications of social justice for clinicians.     

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,Social Capital and Family Associations

Social capital (SC) is a concept variedly defined and object today of great attention at an international level: it concerns trust among people, the ability to activate nets, solidarity, and civic engagement in the public sphere.

The SC constitutive character makes it producible only in original and fundamental relationships (in primis the family), where trust is developed and the code of solidarity is current.

Nevertheless, the increasing fragmentation and individualization of the family seem to consume SC, rather than to increase it. This leads to the question about the nature of SC today as constituted by the family. Some phenomena, for example family associationism, show that the family is still a patrimony irrefutable for social life: when families constitute family associations, they produce primary and secondary SC.     

Family Therapy Process in a Family Therapy Seminar

The interaction between leaders and members in a year-long family therapy seminar is systematically compared to the process that unfolds between therapist and family during the course of family therapy. A five stage developmental process common to both is postulated and described: (1) Battle for Structure, (2) Naive Enthusiasm, (3) Conflictual Frustration, (4) Task Orientation, and (5) Mutuality. The dynamic elements of each stage are analyzed and factors affecting their development are identified. It is concluded that this five stage process occurs in all similar groups, but that the content of each stage may vary widely from group to group.     

Work/Family Policy Stratification: The Examples of Family Support and Family Leave

In the past decade the United States Congress has debated and passed legislative policies concerned with women's work, both in the family and in the labor force. The Family Support Act of 1988 and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 fall into this category of legislative policy. A comparative study of Congressional testimony in each case reveals that these two pieces of legislation are excellent examples of how federal policies—and the debates which fashion these policies—maintain and promote a system of policy stratification that perpetuates differences based on gender, race, class and marital and occupational status.     

Family reunification

The author explores the problem of family reunification in the context of international migration. The focus is on international and national legislation, policies, and provisions concerning family reunification. The need for international cooperation to resolve the problems arising from international migration and the desire to reunite families is noted. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Family Planning

In the past two decades, several fertility variables have been shown to have an effect on marital stability: presence or absence of children. child spacing, birth timing, and total number of children. Only one paper can be found that directly implicates the planning component of fertility, and then only from a theoretical perspective. This paper studies the effect on marital sta. bility of the planning of fertility. The research upon which this paper is based was done in Spokane County in Spring 1977. A random sample of divorced persons(N = 165) was compared to a matched group of persons who had not divorced (N = 102). It was found that it was not possible to predict marital stability from knowledge of number of children, presence or absence of children, or timing of childbirth in relationship to marriage date. A significant predictor of marital stability, however, was found to be whether or not the children were planned. Several implications of these findings for social work practice and for family planning clinics are discussed.     

Depression,the Family,and Family Therapy

The potential contribution of family therapists to the treatment of depression remains underdeveloped. Family therapists need to articulate how changes in family functioning might benefit depressed persons, as well as how other problems in the families of depressed persons tend to go unrecognised. Furthermore, family therapists need to be alert to how undetected depression in adults and children may interfere with their ability to meet their goals with families who seek therapy for other persons. This article provides family therapists with (1) an overview of the nature and experience of depression; (2) an introduction to antidepressant medication; (3) a summary of research findings relating depression to its family context and (4) a brief overview of developments in the marital and family treatment of depression.