Home Computers and Family Empowerment

No abstract available for this article.     

Visiting migrants: An introduction

This paper offers an overview of the origins and dynamics of the concept of migrant visits and introduces the key contributions of the special issue. We highlight the significance of visits that criss-cross many forms of migration and centre on these visits’ bilateral and multilateral nature. Furthermore, we emphasize emotional, sensory and bodily implications, which almost always shape encounters between migrants and others in such visits. The papers of this special issue contribute to a broad interdisciplinary agenda highlighting familial ties, networks and transnational spaces at the core of migration and mobility scholarship. Together, we offer new perspectives on the multidirectionality of visits and the role of relationships which drive, connect and diversify forms of migration and are facilitated by broader developments in technology, tourism and diasporic practices.     

Understanding Grandfamilies: Characteristics of Grandparents,Nonresident Parents,and Children

Using data from the Year 9 Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N ～ 3,182), we investigated the characteristics grandfamilies (grandparents raising their grandchildren with no parent present, N = 84) and compared them to other key groups, including children's nonresident parents and other economically disadvantaged families with children. Results show that grandparents raising their grandchildren were generally better off in terms of educational attainment, marital status, and economic well‐being than the child's parents. Grandparents raising their grandchildren also had characteristics very similar to other disadvantaged mothers. Academic and socioemotional well‐being were poorer among children in grandfamilies compared with those living with their mothers, but parenting practices were very similar. These findings suggest that although children in grandfamilies may be at a disadvantage academically and socioemotionally, grandparent caregivers are in many ways similar to other fragile‐family mothers. Overall, this study enhances our knowledge of an important yet understudied family type.     

Computers,People and the Home

No abstract available for this article.     

Home visiting program impacts on reducing homelessness among young mothers

In the current study, we aimed to determine the effects of Healthy Families Massachusetts (HFM), a statewide home visiting program, on young mothers’ experiences with homelessness during enrollment and after program completion. Data were drawn from a longitudinal, randomized control trial evaluation of HFM. Data collection occurred across 5 time points between 2008 and 2015 from a sample of 704 participants. The current analyses were restricted to a subsample of mothers (n?=?443) with Time 5 data (74 months post-enrollment; 59.1% program, 40.9% control), which was representative of the Time 1 sample. We used data from maternal phone interviews to assess program effects on experiences with homelessness. Young mothers who participated in HFM were less likely to experience homelessness when their children were preschool-age or older than mothers in the control group. During program participation, the number of home visits was negatively associated with concurrent homelessness when children were infants or toddlers.     

Structured Home Study Evaluations: Perceived Benefits of SAFE Versus Conventional Home Studies

Structured decision-making methods are gaining ascendance in child welfare services, in which professionals combine standardized methods of data collection and analysis with clinical judgments. This study measures professionals’ perception of a new approach to home study assessments, the Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE). Findings indicate that workers favor the use of SAFE overall. Less experienced workers are especially positive about SAFE, while more experienced workers and supervisors tend to be less positive. State-by-state differences also emerged. Open-ended responses offer areas for clarification, training, and potential improvement.     

Conserving Habitus: Home,Couplehood and Dementia

ABSTRACT

Compared to research on home in circumstances of aging, place and care, our knowledge about home in relation to couplehood is limited despite increases in the percentage of married and cohabiting older people in the UK. Specifically, our understanding of the experience and meaning of home for couples where one partner has dementia remains under-explored. This article presents a scoping review of published empirical literature to examine older couples’ experiences of home in dementia. The literature identified and reviewed through searching academic databases and Google Scholar is interdisciplinary and a thematic analysis suggests interactions of couplehood, home and dementia. To discuss these interactions, we use Bourdieu’s framework of field, capital, practice and habitus. We observe that habitus may gradually alter and fracture. But, in locating and supporting the performance of (adapted) everyday relationships and domestic practices, home has a distinct role in contributing to conserving habitus and in turn continuity of relationships and home. The gradual fracturing of habitus with the progression of dementia however also suggests that the continuity of relationships and home remain contingent, but this needs further investigation. It is an element of home futures that cannot remain invisible.     

A multi-site evaluation of Parents Raising Safe Kids Violence Prevention Program

The Parents Raising Safe Kids Program (PRSK) is a research-based manualized violence prevention curriculum designed to decrease coercive parenting behavior, encourage positive discipline, increase media violence literacy, and increase child development knowledge. This study is a multi-site pre-post comparison evaluation of PRSK's effectiveness with diverse parents, including those who are incarcerated, in drug treatment and both English and Spanish speaking. Results indicate that PRSK was successful at improving media violence literacy, positive parenting behavior, child development knowledge, anger management, and prosocial problem solving. Additionally, PRSK was especially efficacious for Spanish speaking participants, who improved more than English speakers. Due to the need for appropriate and cost-effective programs for underrepresented groups, these results add to the growing evidence base supporting the use of PRSK with diverse parents. PRSK is effective in educating caregivers about nonviolent parenting behavior and child development. It is flexible, focuses on parents of very young children, and is cost effective. The program costs a fraction of other evidence-based practices yet statistical effect sizes for change over time are comparable.     

Restoring and Sustaining Home: The Impact of Home Modifications on the Meaning of Home for Older People

ABSTRACT

The importance of a supportive home environment to successful aging has been well-established in the literature, with home modifications increasingly acknowledged as ways of removing barriers to function and increasing independence for older people. Home modification literature and practice primarily focus on the home environment as a physical space in which to perform tasks and on the impact of modification on competencies and function. Home, however, is much more than a physical environment. Within a transactive framework, people and places are seen as engaged in a dynamic, reciprocal relationship through which home becomes a place of significant personal meaning. Through a qualitative framework, this study examines the experience of older people living in the community who are recipients of a home modification service. It explores the impact modifying the physical environment has on their experience of home as a place of meaning and provides insight into how home modifications can strengthen the home as a place of personal and social meaning as well as improve safety and comfort for the older person at home.     

Adopted Persons' Search for and Contact with Their Birth Parents I

ABSTRACT

This article presents a critical review of different lines of empirical research on adopted persons' search for their birth parents and identifies questions and issues that are in need of further study. The review covers research on the demographic and psychological characteristics of searchers and their motives for searching. Research findings are also used to evaluate the validity of three different theoretical frameworks that have been offered as explanations for why adopted persons search for their birth parents.     

Longitudinal Prevalence and Correlates of Elder Mistreatment Among Older Adults Receiving Home Visiting Nursing

The objectives of this study were to identify elder mistreatment (EM) prevalence among a cohort of older adults receiving visiting nurse care in their homes, determine EM subtypes, and identify factors associated with EM. EM data were collected by nurses during monthly home visits for up to 24 months. It took the nurses a mean of 10.5 visits to discern EM. Fifty-four (7.4%) of 724 patients were identified as mistreated, of which 33 had enough information to subtype the EM. Of these 33, 27 were victims of neglect, 16 of psychological abuse, and 10 of financial exploitation, and 17 suffered more than one type. Among the entire sample, 11 variables were positively correlated with EM presence. Nurses visiting older adults in their homes should be aware that their patients are, as a group, vulnerable to EM, and that the factors identified here may be specific markers of greater risk.     

Home Visiting Family Therapy for Children at Risk

Home visiting has a long history in the areas of health and welfare (Baldock, 1990: 121). Early intervention through home visiting programs has been found effective in preventing abuse and neglect in many countries including the USA (Olds, 1992), Ireland (Johnson, 1993) and Europe (Cox, 1993). The success of these programs lay in their effectiveness in reducing social isolation, improving parenting skills and enhancing self esteem. This paper reports on the role of family therapy in home-based early intervention for families with newborn infants.     

Leaving Home in Europe: The Role of Parents’ and Children’s Incomes

This paper examines the role of parents’ and children’s incomes in the ‘leaving home’ decisions of young adults in Europe. Using the ECHP data on 11 European countries, results from random and fixed-effects models suggest that the leaving home decision is positively related to the child’s income. The effect of parents’ income is less clear and of lower magnitude. These patterns are broadly similar among European countries, in spite of significant differences in the institutional contexts.     

My Room,My Home,My Self

Abstract

The material culture of home cannot be supplanted in its entirety when moving into an aged care facility. When the time comes, the decision of what to take and what to leave behind is not simple. This article presents the balance between practical and emotional considerations in the choice and presence of personal objects in the rooms of residents. Intersubjective relationships between material objects in the room and the people who enter that space is viewed through a narrative lens. In this way, it is the materiality of the room-as-home for the self, which is key. Three major themes relating to the objects in the room of the older person were found to be: 1. Safety, 2. Family, and 3. Home. These themes emerged from ethnographic research in an aged care setting. Participants included residents, their families, care staff, and management of the facility. The article contributes to understandings of material objects as carriers of identity and meaning in an aged care facility.     

Caring for Children From the Same Culture: Challenges for Foster Parents

Foster parents licensed in a central Canadian province were contacted by telephone and invited to participate in a survey that included the question “What are the challenges of fostering a child with the same values, beliefs, and traditions as you?” Participants sorted all responses to the question into concepts that were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis in accordance with the concept mapping method. The final concept map included five clusters that were labeled rebuild confidence, different expectations, resistance, restore connections, and acceptance. Results were compared to the literature. Similarities and differences are presented.     

Parallel Process Issues for Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents and Their Adopted Children

ABSTRACT

This article is a case study that examines the failures of the social welfare system in failing to prevent homelessness. This article chronicles one family's homeless experience and examines the social policies and programs that affected them. The authors make recommendations for further research and policy implementation for vulnerable populations.