Legal Parenthood and Continued Parent-Child Relationships—The Moral and Experiential Aspects of Parenting

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a construct of parenting which provides criteria for differential solutions in cases of child protection, i.e., confidential adoption, adoption with contact and out-of-home placements. It is proposed that the moral aspect of parenting be central in judicial proceedings regarding the protection of the child. In addition a distinction between the moral and the experiential aspect of parenting should be made. The presentation of this construct is based on the author's assessments of parents when acting as an expert witness to the court (in Israel), in three cases in which compulsory adoption was petitioned by the state. The assessment of the moral aspect of parenting is based on the parent's own evaluation of his/her own parenthood, and the assessment of the experiential aspect is based on the parent-child relationships with a particular emphasis -on the child's responses to the parent. This construct may allow experts to tread the fine line between assessing parents and accusing them and provides a base for negotiation between parents' conceptions of their parenthood and the court's.     

Progress of Rural Family

3435Progress of Rural Family     

The Use and “Abuse” of Family in Policy Matters

Family as an institution and as rhetoric appears to play an inordinate role in shaping social policy formation, implementation, and evaluation. Its impact affects the work of applied and academic sociologists in multiple ways. Given its importance and the manner in which it operates, I argue that family may be usefully studied as an ideograph. I present a detailed analysis of how family operates rhetorically to shape and constrain policy-related matters. I also illustrate how it affects and delimits consideration of some specific social concerns, and I conclude that social science practitioners should conscientiously take family into account as we do our own work.     

Making a “Real” Family

Abstract

This paper discusses the policy of matching as it has influenced American adoption practice. The word “matching” is shorthand for a set of assumptions built around the principle that when a child is “like” her or his adoptive parents, the adoption will be successful. The policy involves establishing criteria for likeness; traits upon which likeness has been based include, explicitly, race, ethnicity, and religion, and, implicity, class. My article shows how, as race became the primary criterion of likeness, matching linked adoption with broader issues in American culture and politics. Resting on a biological model, racial matching reflects changing views of racial equality and of “multiculturalism.” My paper also asks how the increasingly articulated experiences of adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoptees in the 1980s and 1990s impinge on the implementation of matching by social workers, lawyers, and other experts involved in adoption. In conclusion, I speculate on the future interconnections between racial matching, genetic engineering, and ideologies of “biological destiny” reappearing in American culture.     

“Family? … Not Just Blood”: Discursive Constructions of “Family” in Adult,Former Foster Children’s Narratives

Framed by Relational Dialectics Theory, this study explores the ways adult, former foster children discursively construct meanings of “family.” Contrapuntal analysis of 24 interviews revealed two discourses as competing to constitute family: the Discourse of Family as Irreplaceable and Inescapable (Permanence) and the Discourse of Family as Performative Kinning (Performance). Permanence was constituted by themes of biology and historical connection, reifying normative understandings. Performance, comprised of role enactment, need for tolerance, and unconditional love, challenged the Permanence discourse. Throughout the narratives, Performance competed with Permanence for dominance, illustrating the cultural pervasiveness and power of Permanence yet, in some moments, privileging the marginalized Performance discourse. This discursive competition constructed meanings of family in narratives of life before, during, and after foster care. Overall, participant’s talk constructed complex webs of family relationships, allowing access to an important social institution—family—regardless of the presence/absence of culturally valued markers of family (e.g., biology, legality).     

On “lab rats”

Experimental subjects usually self-select to the laboratory and this may introduce a bias to the conclusions derived from observing their behavior. We analyze data stored by a subject-pool management program at an experimental laboratory and speculate about the effect of individual decisions on returning. Specifically, we test whether experience and earnings in previous sessions together with demographic variables explain the decision to return to the laboratory. We find that males and (in monetary terms) well-performing subjects are more likely to participate in experiments again.     

On the limits of “wired identity” in the age of global media

Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes, and Cultural Boundaries. David Morley and Kevin Robins. London: Routledge, 1995.257pp.; $55.00 (cloth) $17.95 (paper).

Virtual Geography: Living with Global Media Events. McKenzie Wark. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.253 pp.; $29.95 (cloth) $14.95 (paper).     

Visiting a Family of Chaoxian Nationality

THE Chaoxians are a minority nationality which inhabit northeast China. The Chaoxians are a homogeneous people. Besides living in the same region, they speak the same language, work and live in the same style and have the same mental patterns which represent the same culture. Once I was lucky enough to be     

Photographer Follows Progress of Rural Family

At the 1994 Spring Festival Party held by China Central Television, a press photographer and the four large photos he had on display became one of the highlights of the event. The photos were taken in 1950, 1963, 1979 and 1994, respectively of an ordinary rural family in Zhejiang Province. They were selected from nearly 1,000 photos taken by the photographer on more than 50 visits to this family. They trace the changes of an ordinary Chinese family and vividly illustrate the historical changes that have taken place in New China. The photographer was Xu Yonghui, a senior reporter with Zhejiang Daily. In this issue we feature a few of his photos and a report which testify to those changes.     

Growing Up in a “WE” Family

SUMMARY

When couples choose to parent as a unit (the couple as WE) rather than as autonomous individuals, they and their children both benefit. The current article details some ways that parents can further expand their “couple as WE” into a “family as WE” with active parents and socially perceptive children. The article also discusses ways that family members can start and maintain a family dialogue.     

The Decline of an Imperial Family

I've called my husband "Lao (Old) Yu" since our marriage in 1964. His full name is Aisin Giorro Yuyan. China's last emperor, Aisin Giorro Puyi, granted Yuyan the title of "crown prince". Yuyan is thus known as the "Last Prince" of the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Puyi had no children and     

Work–Family Issues of Mothers of Teenage Children

This paper addresses the question of how families manage the after-school care of younger (11–14) and older (15–17) teenage children. I examine how mothers of teenage children view their after-school care, and how they coordinate their paid work and their family responsibilities to accommodate the lives of their older children. How families, particularly mothers, manage the after-school care of older children is a question that few researchers or policymakers have addressed. In this paper I argue that this is a topic which not only has important policy implications, but also raises basic issues about how work and family are structured in the United States.     

The Lies That Bind: Heteronormative Constructions of “Family” in Social Work Discourse

The social work profession has an enduring history of commitment to American families; in fact, it has often led the way in embracing alternative family arrangements. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) families are gaining more political visibility and lobbying for rights and protections from which they were previously excluded. Therefore, this study is an analysis of social work's contemporary, defining representations of LGBTQ families. Twelve LGBTQ “family” research studies were culled from the database Social Work Abstracts, and subjected to queer discourse analysis in order to illuminate how these alternative family forms are being constructed within the discipline. This analysis details the multiple ways in which heterosexual norms are privileged throughout the research studies. For example, the heterosexual family is often constructed as an unchallenged index for psychological health, appropriate partnering, and child rearing practices, social acceptability, and general normative behavior. LGBTQ relationships often earn their “family” designations by their ability to approximate these legible, heteronormative “family” characteristics. As such, this queer discourse analysis indicates that LGBTQ families are ultimately invited to join, but not to change, the traditional terms of “family,” thus making the social work research less of an exploration of alternative family forms and more of an endorsement of same-sex, nuclear families.     

May 15-International Day of the Family

THIS year is the International Year of the Family which was designated to promote global cooperation on family issues. On May 15, which was named the International Day of the Family. the Ali-China Women's Federation and the Women's Federation of Beijing organized 18 districts and counties to set