Listening to Older Adult Parents of Adult Children With Mental Illness

This article uses qualitative research and narrative analysis to examine the experience of women age 55 and older who are parents caring for adult children with mental illness. Knowledge about the conflicts of older parents with dependent children is underdeveloped. In this study, analysis of women's stories about parenting in later life reveal that the women have two sets of feelings: wanting to be free from the responsibility of caregiving and feeling responsible to continue the support and protection of their adult vulnerable children. The women's conflicts are palpable and are found in the ideational themes of the narratives, as well as the structure of how the narratives are spoken. The discussion highlights the relevance of the theory of ambivalence for clinical practice when working with older women who are caregivers for their adult dependent children.     

Facilitating Participation: Adults' Caring Support Roles within Child‐to‐Child Projects in Schools and After‐School Settings

Embedded hierarchical relationships between children and adults constrain children's voice. For adults to support children's participation in decisions they need to learn new ways of working; to enable children to communicate their views, develop their ideas, make group decisions and take joint action. This article explores the different roles that caring professionals adopt when facilitating children's participation within Child‐to‐Child community health projects. It shows how even committed adults can struggle with shifting their practice and highlights the importance of facilitators adopting a reflective approach rooted in genuine dialogue with children in order to determine the most appropriate level of adult support.     

Maternal Care and Control as Mediators in the Relationship Between Mothers’ and Adult Children’s Psychosocial Problems

The current research investigated the relationship between mothers’ and adult children’s psychosocial problems through two different aspects of maternal interactions. Data were collected from family triads (N = 286), including a mother, a child, and a sibling. Mothers and their adult children completed measures of depression, loneliness, and self-esteem. The assessment of the maternal interaction variables (i.e., maternal care and maternal control) involved the perspectives of a sibling to minimize common method variance. Results partially supported the hypothesized model, wherein maternal care (but not maternal control) mediated the relationship between mothers’ depression, loneliness, and self-esteem to that of their children. Specifically, mothers who reported higher levels of psychosocial problems had children who reported that their mothers were less caring and, in turn, less maternal care was associated with higher levels of psychosocial problems in their young adult children.     

Siblings as Providers of Support and Care during Middle Childhood: Children's Perceptions

This article describes some of the findings of a study undertaken to seek the views of 69 Scottish primary school children of their sisters and brothers. The study found that siblings were perceived to be a significant source of support and help to the children. Sibling support was particularly important to children with few other supportive relationships. Sibling caretaking which was viewed primarily positively both by the caretaking and looked after children, was found to be a common experience among the nine to 12–year-old children. Negative consequences of sibling caretaking included annoying, domination and abuse by siblings. Although over a quarter of the children's siblings were not living in the Same household, the majority of children perceived siblings to hold a special importance in their lives. Issues raised for parents and professionals concern the maintenance of relationships between siblings who do not live together; how to enhance the supportive aspects of sibling relationships, while offering protection against the negative aspects of sibling dichotomy; and facing the reality of sibling caretaking. Much more needs to be known about children's everyday experiences of growing up with their sisters and brothers, if we are to understand more fully the complexities of sibling relationships.     

Examining the trajectories of children providing care for adults in rural Kenya: Implications for service delivery

Research on caregiving children tends to be limited to children's caregiving experiences of parents with a specific disease or disability. This has led to a common perception that children's caregiving is a single, uniform and often long-term experience. Whilst this is most certainly the case for many children in economically more advanced countries, this may not hold true in rural Africa, where poverty and AIDS can have significant knock-on effects on entire families and communities. This paper seeks to develop a more complex understanding of children's caring experiences by asking children whom they have cared for over time and explore the different pathways that lead to their caregiving at different stages of their lives. The study reports on qualitative data collected from 48 caregiving children and 10 adults in the Bondo district of western Kenya in 2007. A multi-method approach was adapted, with historical profiles, Photovoice and draw-and-write essays complementing 34 individual interviews and 2 group discussions. A thematic network analysis revealed that children's caregiving was not confined to a single experience. Children were observed to provide care for a number of different family and community members for varying periods of time and intensities. Although their living arrangements and life circumstances often gave them little choice but to care, a social recognition of children's capacity to provide care for fragile adults, helped the children construct an identity, which both children and adults drew on to rationalise children's continued and multiple caring experiences. The study concludes that agencies and community members looking to support caregiving children need to consider their care trajectories — including whom they care for as well as the order, intensity, location and duration of their past and likely future caring responsibilities.     

‘..It takes a lot of brain space’: Understanding young carers’ lives in England and the implications for policy and practice to reduce inappropriate and excessive care work

This qualitative study, undertaken in England, explored young carers’ perspectives on the nature of their caring responsibilities. The findings are significant, particularly in the context of England's Care Act 2014, which seeks to prevent children engaging in ‘excessive’ or ‘inappropriate’ caring. Our research placed children at the heart of the debate on what constitutes appropriate care. The findings raise key questions regarding effective implementation of contemporary child policy, duties of care towards children in caring roles and priorities for child protection and family support policy and practices, with the potential to inform thinking around child's well-being in wider contexts.     

WORKING TO EXIT POVERTY WHILE CARING FOR CHILDREN'S HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1986, levels of urbanization, industrialization, and women's labour force participation have increased in Vietnam. This article focuses on the experiences of parents in Vietnam and how labour and social conditions affect their ability to work and exit poverty while caring for their children's health and development. We interviewed a sample of 147 parents in Ho Chi Minh City using in-depth, semi-structured questionnaires. Sixty-three percent of parents had faced loss of income or promotions or had difficulty retaining jobs because they had to care for children. Fifty-eight percent of parents lost income while caring for their sick children because they had to take unpaid leave from work to care for their children or because they had to decrease productivity if they were able to continue working. Fifty percent of parents with school-age children experienced barriers to helping with homework, to attending meetings, or to participating in other aspects of their children's education. The aftermath of the Vietnamese – American War affected parents through loss of extended family members, limiting access to a major traditional source of support. The war had affected other parents by preventing them from completing their education, which left them with job choices that offer little or no work benefits. Although Vietnam has made significant progress in providing early childhood care and education and legislating labour laws, working families’ experiences demonstrate the need to ensure that paid leave and work flexibility policies are available and implemented in all work sectors and to expand affordable, quality child care in order to help low-income working parents in Vietnam meet work demands and exit poverty while meeting their children's needs.     

A Child's Place in Society: New Challenges for the Family and Day Care

SUMMARY. Using the experience of a study of childhood in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, this article explores the now common situation of children growing up in two settings: their families and day care centres. In Denmark, where almost all mothers work and where good quality care is widely available, the family and day care centres are seen as having important complementary roles in supporting children's social development. The child learns to both integrate and separate the experience of these two worlds, more or less successfully depending on how well he or she is developing at home, and the relationship between the home and the day care centre. Day care should be seen as a positive support for family life: dual-socialisation through family and day care is, and will remain, part of the lives of most children.     

Older Parents Providing Child Care for Adult Children: Does It Pay Off?

This study examined whether past grandparental child care is related to present support from adult children. On the basis of social exchange theory, the authors expected that grandparental child care creates a debt that is repaid in the form of receiving support later in life. Using data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (N = 349 parents, N = 812 adult children), the authors found that grandparents who frequently provided child care for sons in the past more often received instrumental and emotional support from these sons approximately 13 years later than grandparents who less frequently provided child care. Investments in daughters did not pay off. Instrumental support other than child‐care provision did not predict receiving support from either sons or daughters, but emotional support did. These results support the notion of long‐term reciprocity in parent–child relationships, but its importance depends on the child's gender and the type of earlier investment.     

Sighs,smiles, and worried glances: How the body reveals women caregivers' lived experiences of care to older adults

This article reports on findings from microethnographic research that examined the lived reality of women caregivers through detailed observation of their everyday, embodied experiences. The research, which was rooted in the trend in social gerontology to emphasize subjective experience, focused on five women who were providing care to an older adult with a chronic illness or impairment. Four of the five women were caring for a spouse; one was caring for a parent. Observing the women's daily realities revealed tensions and contradictions between their subjective lived experiences and the pressures of the system in which they were functioning. The data revealed a caregiver habitus characterized by the performance of emotional labor. Performance was visible through dissonance between the caregivers' verbal and nonverbal expressions, and pointed to a high degree of emotion and body management. The women consistently put aside their own needs, in what can be considered a divestment in health capital. There was also evidence of merging between the caregiver and care receiver, made visible through tandem movements. The findings lead to implications for practice and for future aging research, including the benefits of observation for enhancing understanding of clients' experiences.     

Caring at a distance: Learning and practice issues

Emphasis on support for informal carers focuses on those who provide, in the words of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, 'substantial' and 'regular' care. Following research and policy, professional education has also developed interest in those who live with the people they support, such as co-resident spouses and children of all ages. This article considers those who probably do not define themselves as carers and are usually referred to as 'relatives' or 'family', living at a distance from an older relative. It explores their possible need for support as well as the form and level of their involvement in relation to care managed services. It describes key areas or events to draw out practice issues and concludes with a discussion of the extent to which care management can work with such relatives. In many ways caring at a distance forces an examination of what is meant by 'care' and who can legitimately claim this as an emotion or status. The rationale for such interest is therefore three-fold. If social workers and social work educators restrict the meaning and their definitions of carers to those who provide 'hands on' services, as part of the care package, they risk alienating relatives from the learning experience of students. In doing so they may neglect these highly valued supports of older people and may leave relatives distressed and disempowered by anxiety over their contract with social work agencies.     

Birth Mothers' Perceptions of Their Parented Children's Knowledge of and Involvement in Adoption

An examination of birth mothers' perceptions of the relationship between the children she is parenting and the children she placed for adoption offers unique insight into the life course of openness. In the present study, 94 birth mothers from the United States participated in a semi-structured interview, discussing their oldest parented children's knowledge of and experience with their siblings placed for adoption. Results show that 59 birth mothers have an oldest parented child who is aware of their adopted sibling, although 4 of these do not know their true relationship with the adopted sibling. Of these, 27 had direct contact with the adopted sibling, 4 had indirect contact through the birth mother, and 1 had previous contact that has since ceased. A majority of birth mothers indicated that their oldest parented child would like more contact, direct contact, or more information about the adopted youth. Implications for research and practice with birth mothers and their children separated by adoption are discussed.     

“I'm Not Going to Leave Her High and Dry”: Young Adult Support to Parents during the Transition to Adulthood

The transition to adulthood is a critical time in the life course, and the role of parental support during the transition has been one of the most prominent discussions in this literature. Yet while research has focused attention on the support passed from parents to young adult children during the transition, it has generally ignored the support that young adults may provide their parents. Utilizing qualitative interviews, this article explores the types of support one group of young adult children provide to their families during this time in the life course. It then examines how this assistance to parents intersects with young adults' ability to meet their own social and human capital goals.     

Sibling caring roles and responsibilities when a child suffers from a chronic illness

Siblings' lives and well-being are potentially affected in profound ways when their brother or sister suffers from a chronic illness in childhood. The shift in the care of chronically ill children from the hospital to the home in recent years has had an impact on family relationships and interactions. Whilst studies on caregiving have focused on the parental care of children who are chronically ill; siblings may nevertheless take on some caring roles and responsibilities. This article intends to make a novel contribution to the sociological literature on siblings, caring, and chronic illness by presenting a review of the literature addressing siblings' caring roles and responsibilities in families of children with a chronic illness. Knowing about the caring roles and responsibilities undertaken by siblings when a brother or sister has a chronic illness, may be beneficial to healthcare professionals and influence their caring practice. In addition, this work may contribute to a better understanding of family relationships and further improve healthcare policies.     

Between love and behaviour management: the psychodynamic reflective milieu at the Mulberry Bush School

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a qualitative research study of the Mulberry Bush School (MBS), a therapeutic residential primary school caring for children with severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The article notes the challenges of working with children who have experienced traumatic relationship breakdown, and reviews ideas and practices developed at MBS to support the children’s development. There is a discussion of the research study’s methodology and main findings. The researchers argue that the therapeutic milieu at MBS maintains a creative tension between a secure, playful context and one where emotional disorder and disturbance are not suppressed. The study describes how a particular psychodynamic model of reflective practice has been successfully instituted at MBS to create a ‘staff therapeutic milieu’ supporting the group living and group learning through which therapy principally occurs. The article closes with comments on the applicability of this model to residential child care practice generally.     

Evaluation of a multi-site program designed to strengthen relational bonds for siblings separated by foster care

Sibling relationships in foster care settings have received increased attention in recent years. Despite growing evidence regarding the protective potential of sibling relationships for youth in care, some sibling groups continue to experience foster care related separation, and few programs exist to address the needs of these youth.This study describes and evaluates Camp To Belong, a multi-site program designed to provide short-term reunification to separated sibling groups through a week-long summer camp experience. Using a pre-test post-test survey design, this paper examines changes in youth ratings of sibling conflict and sibling support across camps located in six geographically distinct regions of the United States. The effects of youth age, number of prior camp exposures, and camp location were tested using multilevel modeling procedures.Findings suggest that participation in Camp To Belong may reduce sibling conflict, and improvements in sibling support are noted for youth who have had prior exposure to the camp’s programming. Camp-level variance in the sibling support outcome highlight the complex nature of relationships for siblings separated by foster care, and suggest the need for additional research. Lessons learned from this multi-site evaluation and future directions are discussed.     

Caring children: exploring care in post-divorce families

This article draws on information from in‐depth interviews in addition to a survey from a Norwegian ‘Families after divorce’ study, in which the perspective of children and younger people are emphasized. We describe the complex relations between care‐giving and care‐receiving among children and adults in post‐divorce families and challenge and nuance the traditional western picture that emphasizes children as the receivers of care and adults as care‐givers. Inspired by the notion of ‘caringscapes’, the article seeks to incorporate the spatial and the temporal into the analysis of care and caring, and three ‘caring routes’ are identified: i) the ‘money squeeze route’, ii) the ‘emotional considerations route’ and iii) the ‘time squeeze’ route. The three routes are verified by the interview data as having both direct and indirect effects on the phenomenon of caring. We argue that children's care‐giving should be further investigated both empirically and theoretically and that a caringscapes approach might provide insight and departure for further research.     

The role of child care social work in supporting families with children in need and providing protective services—past,present and future

This article examines the way in which child care social work with deprived families has changed and developed since the inception of Children's Departments in 1948. It is argued that between 1948 and 1970 child care social workers enjoyed a fair measure of social support. A variety of reasons are considered for explaining this—specialization, smallness of size, privacy and a consensus about the needs of children. From the early 1970s it is argued that broader societal changes, including a shift away from social solidarity towards individualism, organizational changes and the advent of child abuse as a public concern, resulted in con?icting demands on child care social workers and a subsequent loss of credibility and con?dence. The 1990s have seen a return to emphasis on family support policies which has been further accelerated in the new millennium by New Labour's stated commitment to eliminating child poverty and creating better life opportunities for all children. The implications of these new developments for child care social workers engaged in meeting the needs of children living in highly disadvantaged families are considered. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.