Knowledge,Attitude and Practice of Child Sexual Abuse Prevention among Parents of Children with Hearing Loss: A Pilot Study in Beijing and Hebei Province,China

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention among parents of children with hearing loss. The study involved 127 pairs of parents with deaf and hard of hearing children from three special education schools in Beijing and Hebei province, China. The findings revealed that the parents lacked knowledge about CSA prevention, such as the character of perpetrators and child victims. Parents were supportive about potential CSA prevention education in schools. Most parents told children much about personal safety, but topics on CSA prevention were still insufficient. The study also found that education level was significantly associated with knowledge and attitude. Elder parents knew more and talked more about CSA prevention. Mothers and girls’ parents were more willing to communicate with children about CSA prevention. The conclusion of the study was that parents appeared to have gained a positive attitude, but poor knowledge and practice. Their knowledge and skills of effective communication should be strengthened to promote CSA prevention practice.     

Deaf Families’ Unique Experiences and Obstacles

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on deaf children of deaf parents who grew up using American Sign Language (ASL) in deaf culture. Deaf children of deaf parents described their unique experiences of struggling with obstacles, including quality of education, low expectations from professionals, unwanted sympathy, mental health therapists’ lack of cultural competency, and not being asked for valuable perspectives or advice. The advice from deaf children of deaf parents is included in the article. By bringing greater attention to this population, mental health, school, and other professionals can increase their awareness of deaf families’ unique needs in their work environment.     

Parenting groups for parents whose children are in care

Excluding very severe child abuse cases, biological parents are usually encouraged to maintain contact with their children in care. Parent‐child contact is often considered important because it can maintain the child's psychological identity and well‐being. It can also maintain parent‐child attachment and in some cases facilitate reunification. Improving parenting skills is viewed as an important method by which contact between children and their biological parents can be enhanced. However, mainstream parenting groups are often unsuitable for parents whose children are in care for a number of reasons. There is stigma involved with having children in care, such parents have very complex lives and there are reduced opportunities to practise skills learnt with their children. Groups designed specifically for parents whose children are in care appear to be a promising approach to improving the quality of contact between these parents and their children. This paper will review group‐based approaches to working with biological parents whose pre‐school‐aged children have been placed in care. The paper will also report the findings of a research project designed to identify key facilitators and barriers to parental involvement in a group‐based programme which includes contact between parents and their children who have been placed in care. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Building good knowledge or blaming bad parents? Examining the construction of parents and parenting in a corpus of parent focussed cochlear implant research articles

Parents of deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI) report feeling pressure to adhere to a very prescribed conceptualisation of ‘good parenting’, and in some cases report feeling judged or blamed, for example, if the child's progress post-CI is slower than expected. Previous investigations of the discourses of parenting science suggest that, while parent blame is rarely expressed explicitly, that normative, moral assumptions about how ‘good parents of a disabled child’ should feel, think and act are embedded within prevalent concepts and terminology. A disproportionate focus on evaluating individual parents' personal characteristics at the expense of more external, socially located issues has also been noted. Existing critiques, together with the author's lived experience provide the impetus for this study; in which corpus linguistics methods have been used to document the types of parents and parenting attributes constructed in a 420,982 corpus of research articles. The results indicate the prevalence of many highly evaluative parenting noun-collocates within the field; successful adaptation, a positive appraisal of the situation, realistic expectations, rational decisions, high involvement and full-time use of the CI are conflated with good parenting, whilst parents who present in alternate ways are construed as problematic. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Child custody placement outcomes for mothers

Internationally there is a broad literature on risks for child custody placements. In contrast, very little is known about their outcomes on parents. The topic is relevant not only for parents themselves but also for children placed outside their homes, as many children keep contact with their birth parents or return to live with them. In a retrospective cohort study setting we analyze child custody placement outcomes (social assistance receipt, unemployment and work disability) for mothers whose children had been taken into custody between 1997 and 2004 in Finland. Data from a child placement register were merged with several administrative social insurance registers. Comparison groups of population mothers are included in the study. The procedure yielded an internationally unique database. According to the results of our study, mothers whose children are taken into custody are more often unemployed and in need of social assistance than mothers in the comparison group. Furthermore, they are also more often on a disability pension, due to mental health problems in particular, than mothers in general. While considering the results, we examine family policy and general welfare policy implications of support to families whose children have been taken into custody.     

Understanding Unique Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children: Challenges,Progress, and Recommendations

Growth in U.S. incarceration rates during the 1980s and 1990s prompted a body of research focused on understanding the diverse effects of incarceration on individuals, families, and communities. An area of particular interest has been how the incarceration of a parent may affect child well‐being. Despite what appears to be converging evidence that parental incarceration poses a significant threat to child development, this area of inquiry has yet to overcome important methodological and conceptual challenges related to selection bias. It is therefore unclear whether the difficulties that have been observed among children whose parents are incarcerated are due to the incarceration itself or to other adversities that children have experienced. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to these issues, to summarize empirical and conceptual progress in overcoming these challenges, and to suggest directions for future research.     

The effect of social anxiety,generalized anxiety,depression and substance abuse on child support payment compliance among non-custodial parents

Millions of children live with custodial parents (CPs) who have child support court orders for the non-custodial parent (NCP) to provide payments to the CP for care of the children. Unfortunately, less than half of CPs receives full child support. A key issue influencing the failure to pay child support is NCP unemployment. Despite a clear association between unemployment and several mental disorders, the nature and prevalence of mental disorders has not been investigated in the NCP population. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between mental health and substance use problems among non-custodial parents and their payment of child support. The study also investigated whether unemployment mediated the relationship between these variables.Surveys that included validated screening instruments to assess for generalized anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders were administered to a convenience sample of 633 NCPs. Survey respondents were matched with state support payment information.The results indicated that depression, generalized anxiety, social anxiety and substance use problems were present at a much higher rate than 12-month rates of these conditions found in the general population. This study also confirmed the strong association between child support payments and employment. Employment mediated the relationship between mental health problems and child support payments. The findings suggest that non-compliant NCPs, particularly those who are also unemployed, may experience clinically significant mental health conditions that contribute to unemployment and potentially, payment non-compliance. Future studies could explore if providing mental health assessment and employment-focused treatment for mental health-related barriers to employment may increase employment and child support compliance for NCPs, thereby improving children's economic stability and well-being.     

Exploring Parents' Experiences and Reactions to Adolescents' Hyperactivity,Impulsivity, and Attention Problems

Adolescents' hyperactivity, impulsivity, and attention problems (HIA) have been shown to make parents feel powerless. In this study, the authors examined whether these feelings were dependent on parents' experiences with their older children. Two models that offer different predictions of how parents make use of their earlier experiences when raising their later‐born children were explored: the learning‐from‐experience model and the spillover model. The authors used reports from 372 parents with 1 child (M_age = 11.92) and 198 parents with 2 children (M_age = 11.89 and 14.35) from a small town in a European country. The results did not support a learning‐from‐experience process. Instead, consistent with a spillover process, parents felt particularly powerless about their younger children with HIA if they also felt powerless about their older children. This study suggests that parents' experiences of raising their older children are important for their reactions to HIA in their younger children     

Abuse and deaf children: Some factors to consider

Deaf children are uniquely disadvantaged in terms of access to information on safety and abuse. This is often due to misunderstood linguistic and cultural needs which relate to the deaf community. Consequently, a greater number of children who are deaf are placed in potentially abusive situations when compared to their non-deaf peer group. A high percentage of deaf children have also acquired negative self-concepts. This is often due to external influences such as educational experiences and family communication. Many deaf children believe that abuse is part of their being deaf. The implications of this are that deaf children are at risk of neglect and abuse as well as long-term damage to their emotional development and self-esteem. A number of survivors of physical and sexual abuse have been referred to the National Centre for Mental Health and Deafness, Preston. Some of these referrals have been inappropriate and due to a dearth of local resources. Extremely little support is available for deaf people who have been or are being abused. There are few appropriately trained counsellors equipped with the necessary skills in communicating with deaf people and even fewer trained in deaf awareness. A number of risk factors have been identified and are illustrated in this article. Three case studies are described to highlight the issues involved.     

Preventing child sexual abuse: parents' perceptions and practices in urban Nigeria

This study examined parents' perceptions of child sexual abuse as well as prevention practices in an urban community in southwest Nigeria. Questionnaires were collected from 387 parents and caregivers of children younger than 15 years of age. Results showed that many parents felt CSA was a common problem in the community, and most parents disagreed with common child sexual abuse myths. In addition, almost all parents ( >90%) reported communicating with their child(ren) about stranger danger. However, about 47% felt their children could not be abused, and over a quarter (27.1%) often left their children alone and unsupervised. There were no significant variations in the perceptions of child sexual abuse and communication practices. The implications of findings for child sexual abuse prevention are discussed.     

PARENTS' AND CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF A FAMILY SUPPORT INTERVENTION FOR CHILD BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS

The aim of this study was to establish the perceptions of children and their parents following a Family Support intervention for child behavioural and related difficulties. One hundred parents and 22 children aged 5–12 years participated in structured interviews, following the intervention. A framework approach to thematic content analysis was used. Themes, categories and subcategories were established. Parents discussed the usefulness of the intervention and the service in relation to therapeutic work (behavioural techniques and advice), support, practical help, and liaison with other agencies. They also identified service gaps. A number of factors were identified as responsible for improvement, both directly arising from and independently of the intervention. Despite their young age, children had good understanding of the interventions and their role in them, and expressed their wish for active involvement. The intervention was underpinned by a solution‐focused therapy model, combined with behavioural techniques. Families' perceptions indicate that they predominantly applied behavioural strategies, while some parents and children generated solutions in other areas of their lives. Family support has an important preventive role and should consist of an integral component of inter‐agency services for children with a broad range of behavioural and emotional difficulties and their families, and have close links with child mental health services.     

Comparison of Role Demands,Relationships, and Child Functioning in Single-Mother,Single-Father,and Intact Families

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the impact of divorce on parents and children, but most of these studies have been restricted to single-mother families. This study compared differences in role demands, relationships, and child functioning using the responses of parents and children in 30 single-mother, 30 single-father, and 30 intact families. Single fathers had better resources than single mothers, more positive parenting than married fathers, and relied more on friends than the married parents. Single mothers had less education, less prestigious jobs, lower incomes, and more economic strain than the other parents. They also had fewer social resources and more difficulty than married parents with the parenting role. Despite these disadvantages of single mother families, children in these families were no different than children in other families on most measures of well-being. The only problem that was identified in the functioning of children from single-parent families was with their behavior. These findings can be used to develop strategies to reduce risks and enhance the existing resources and strengths of single-parent families.     

Factors affecting post-permanency adjustment for children in adoption or guardianship placements: An ecological systems analysis

Despite a growing body of research on post-permanency adjustment for children adopted from public child welfare agencies, many studies lack a systematic review using a theoretical framework. To develop promising post-permanency services for adopted children with special needs and their families, the first step is to examine risk and protective factors affecting adoption or guardianship adjustment. This study systematically reviews and synthesizes current empirical studies investigating post-permanency outcomes using an ecological systems analysis, with an integration of family theories. A search of five electronic databases and relevant child welfare books identified 36 empirical studies on post-permanency adjustment. Risk factors include some individual factors such as caring for a child with special needs, raising children with a multiple placement or maltreatment history and involving parents with no parenting experience. Living in a family experiencing boundary ambiguity and lacking social support are also risk factors. Protective factors include having adoption preparation and having a child living with married parents, as well as a high level of adoption openness and the availability of formal and informal social support. Implications for child welfare practice and policy also are discussed.     

Child care quality and affordability: Are they compatible?

Mothers have traditionally been the primary caregivers of children under school age in the United States. Increasing numbers of parents are seeking part-time or full-time alternatives for assistance with parenting and child care outside of the home. The variety of types of child care arrangements has greatly increased in the past 50 years. This paper addresses quality child care, child care options and cost. Despite the increase in child care provided outside the home, parents often have difficulty distinguishing quality care from less than quality care. Two prime considerations are quality and affordability. This paper addresses the need for a comprehensive spectrum of policies and child care programs for families in various cultural, economic, and social environments.     

‘Similar but Different’ Conversations: Working with Denial in Cases of Severe Child Abuse

This article describes a particular aspect of a service called ‘Resolutions’ that has been developed at the NSPCC Child and Family Centre in Bristol, England. The Resolutions service works with families where parents and/or carers are disputing responsibility for serious abuse of their children, but where child protection agencies deem at least one of them culpable on a balance of probabilities. The service's general approach to developing partnerships with families is briefly considered, but the article concentrates on a particular approach. This is where parents and/or carers who are disputing abuse of their children roleplay a ‘similar but different’ family. This enables key issues in relation to child abuse to be discussed by the parents and/or carers. It also facilitates the gaining of greater understanding that helps them ensure the future safety of their own and other children.     

Subsequent child protection contact for a cohort of children reported to child protection prenatally in one Australian jurisdiction

Repeated reporting to child protection is common. One approach to early intervention is for jurisdictions to receive and respond to child protection concerns raised before children are born. Despite this, little research has comprehensively examined subsequent child protection contact for those first reported prenatally. This study aimed to examine the subsequent child protection contact for up to a two-year period for a cohort of children who were reported about prebirth. Child protection administrative data were extracted for 640 children reported for a concern about an unborn child in a single jurisdiction during 2014. Data about child protection contacts included reports, investigations, substantiations and out-of-home placements for children reported prenatally. Of the 640 children, 79% reported about prenatally also had contact with child protection between birth and age two. From birth and up to age two, children reported prenatally had between zero and 21 reports. Twenty-two per cent of the children reported prenatally were removed from their birth parents and placed in out-of-home care prior to age two. These findings highlight the importance of intervening and supporting families prior to and during pregnancy to reduce harm to children and reduce the need for contact with child protection.     

Socioeconomic causes of child labor in urban Nigeria

Drawing on interviews with 1,535 children (aged 8–14 years) in urban Nigeria, this study introduces two new measures of child labor—child's ownership of business and control over earnings—to supplement the conventional use of a child's hours of work and to create a wider understanding of child labor. It examines the causes of child labor and how these measures vary by parental socioeconomic status. Study of this relationship is important for a deeper understanding of the varying patterns of child labor, as well as for clarifying the cultural and economic socialization of children. Our findings show that children of parents with higher socioeconomic status are more likely to own businesses rather than assist parents. These children are also more likely to keep and spend their work earnings. Our results also offer strong support of the poverty hypothesis and the socialization theory, which are often used to explain child labor in developing societies. Furthermore, our results indicate that children of parents with higher levels of socioeconomic status work fewer hours. These findings have implications for regulating child labor and for alleviating its consequences.     

Disability and Discrimination in Statutory Child Protection Proceedings

Families headed by parents with intellectual disability [1] are among the most vulnerable in the community. Poverty, social isolation and the lack of adequate support services all threaten their well-being. People with intellectual disability who are parents must also contend with out-of-the-ordinary treatment in statutory child protection proceedings. Legal scholars writing mainly in the North American context cite cases in which the children of these parents have been removed despite lack of evidence of abuse or neglect, or when evidence was refuted or, indeed, even when the parent was shown to be providing adequate care. In cases of substantiated abuse and/or neglect, support has not been given to the parent or parents before their children were removed. In this paper, we describe these discriminatory actions and discuss the political, social and institutional conditions that have lead to such extreme consequences for people with intellectual disability who also happen to be parents.     

The Voice of the Child in Parenting Coordination: Views of Children,Parents, and Parenting Coordinators

This article examines the views of children, parents, and parenting coordinators (PCs) on child inclusion in the parenting coordination process. Participants in a parenting coordination pilot project in Montréal, Quebec—10 children (ranging in age from 8–17 years old), 14 parents, and 2 PCs—were interviewed at the end of the project. The goal was to understand their perceptions of child participation in parenting coordination interventions. Overall, a vast majority of children and parents agreed that children should be given a forum in parenting coordination and their voices heard. Feedback from PCs on their child inclusion experience also provided rare insight into this practice. Results confirm the importance for children of being heard in postseparation interventions, even when parental conflict is high. These findings add to the growing literature on the participation of children in postseparation interventions.