“At a moment,you could collapse”: Raising children with autism in the West Bank

The current qualitative study examined knowledge, attitudes, burdens and coping strategies related to caring for a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the West Bank. Based on a sample of 24 Palestinian parents, the study found that parents struggled with financial stressors, child behavioral and medical challenges, and depression. Few parents were aware of ASDs prior to their children's diagnoses. Furthermore, discrimination and stigma from extended family members and the larger community intensified parents' feelings of shame and experiences of social isolation. While some parents coped by withdrawing from the community or denying the diagnosis, others aimed to increase social interactions and access information. Religious coping was found to be partly adaptive for some of the participants. The study underscored the vital need to increase community awareness of ASDs and increase social support for parents in the West Bank.     

Engaging with Parents in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

This paper asks the question: How can child and adolescent mental health clinicians constructively engage parents as a resource in the young person's treatment? It draws from qualitative research data that explore parents' experience of their involvement in their adolescent's mental health treatment program. The paper especially focuses on challenges for clinicians in engaging with parents as part of the treatment program for young people. Clinicians' input about their perceptions of interacting with parents is utilised alongside parents' experiences of their involvement in clinical processes. The clinician data revealed key challenges were managing their reactions to parent defensiveness; broadening the focus from just alleviating symptoms in the young person; not taking sides with the young person; and resisting becoming an expert instructor. The paper discusses Murray Bowen's original family research about engaging parents in treatment with the symptom bearer and addresses how clinicians can build a positive alliance with parents that avoids blame while constructively opening exploration of the family relationship process as part of a collaborative approach.     

Children's Experiences of Time When a Parent Travels for Work

This qualitative study focuses on the different ways time is experienced by children in families who face time challenges because of a family member's job that required work travel. Data are from a family‐level study that includes interviews of all family members older than age 7. Using grounded theory methodology, this study illustrates the ways in which job demands and family processes interact. The analysis centers on 75 children's perspectives from 43 families. Holding together assessments of having enough time while wanting more time with their parents, children express emotion, generally unrecognized by parents, around the topic of family time. Children's experience of time with parents is rushed or calm, depending on the activities done in time and the gender of the parent with whom they spend time. Findings are interpreted through a feminist social constructionist lens.     

The court,the couple and the consultant: Is there room for a third position?

This paper describes assessment work for the family courts that is informed by psychodynamic understanding of parents who have abused their children. The aim of this work is to increase the Court's understanding of the parents. The author focuses on the role that she and her colleagues adopt, attempting to find a third position to facilitate curiosity and thinking, trying not to become part of a process of apportioning blame.     

Suicidal Ideation and Comorbid Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome: A Population at Risk

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of suicidal ideation and comorbid disorders (major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder) among adolescents and young adults with diagnosed Asperger's syndrome (AS). A cross-sectional study using a self-administrated mail questionnaire and a Web-based questionnaire were used. Two samples were selected for this study. The first sample used snowball sampling, starting with parents of adolescents and young adults with diagnosed AS who participated in a qualitative study conducted in 2002. The second sample consisted of a volunteer sample of parents who visited Web sites for parents and individuals with diagnosed autism spectrum disorder. The sample included 10 adolescents and young adults with diagnosed AS. Fifty percent of the sample had a clinically significant level of suicidal ideation, 20% met criteria for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, and 30% met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder.     

Mental Health Practitioners' Views of the Families of Individuals With Schizophrenia and Barriers to Collaboration: A Mixed Methods Study

Family involvement has been identified as a best practice in the treatment of schizophrenia. Yet studies show a small number of families of individuals with schizophrenia are involved in treatment. In this mixed method study, community mental health practitioners from different disciplines responded to a quantitative survey (N = 88), a qualitative structured question guide (N = 8), and open-ended questions (N = 43) that explored their views of families of individuals with schizophrenia and barriers to collaboration with them. Practitioners did not blame the family for causing their family member's schizophrenia. Barriers to collaboration were reported in three main areas: (a) time/workload barriers, (b) agency/system barriers, and (c) family barriers, while at the same time recognizing family collaboration as effective practice and reporting a desire to engage more families in the treatment process. Younger practitioners viewed organizational factors as more significant barriers to collaboration. Substance use factors emerged as a theme as a barrier to collaboration.     

The significance of fathers for inner-city African-American teen mothers

Using the accounts of family life in young women's life stories, this qualitative study examined experiences with biological fathers for a sample of inner-city African-American teen mothers and a comparable sample of young women who were not parents. Distinguishing findings emerged about the pattern of young women's residential history with fathers, activity and interactions with fathers, and feelings about fathers. These qualitative findings were discussed in terms of their implications for services, policy, and research.     

Discursively Constructing a Family Identity After an Autism Diagnosis: Trials,Tribulations, and Triumphs

The present study addressed the question: How are families communicating to construct a family identity in the face of a child’s autism diagnosis? Interviews with 19 parents of children, teens, and adults with mild, moderate, and severe autism highlighted the discursive construction of family identity. Findings reveal that families construct an internal family identity that is marked by unified usage of the name “autism,” emotive and mundane daily discussions, narratives that serve functional purposes, and normal/structured rituals. Externally, families communicate about autism to outsiders to help others understand, to educate others about autism, to show their loyalty and protection for their family, and to highlight their family’s normalcy. These findings illustrate that the discourse-dependent practices are useful not just for constructing membership in families that differ structurally from societal expectations, but also for constructing identity in that face of unique family functioning resulting from a chronic health concern.     

Custodial Citizenship in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding

In contemporary processes of citizenship, parents and other caregivers often must make claims to the state on behalf of children with disabilities. In this article, we draw from data on the Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP), which were a series of hearings in 2007 and 2008 in which parents of children with autism attempted to receive compensation from a federal program for vaccine injury. During these hearings, parents and their attorneys obfuscated the children's subjectivity and instead showcased the children's physical suffering in order to claim that their children had suffered a legitimate injury from vaccines that warranted compensation. We develop the concept of custodial citizenship to account for the process by which a legible rights‐bearing subject appropriates the bodily suffering of the injured party in order to gain citizenship rights on behalf of that individual. In doing so, we trace the slippages of harm that occur in the lived experience of disability among family members and caregivers, in contrast to the individualizing rights‐granting framework of the court system.     

Time for work,commuting, and parenting? Commuting parents' involvement with their children

For most Australian parents, there is continuing tension between work and family commitments. This tension is exacerbated by the need not only to have sufficient time available to children in the family but also for that time to be characterized by nurturance and guidance. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored how 21 part-time or full-time working parents, who also commute 10–15 hours a week to work, manage both the quantity and quality of their time with their young children (0–5 years). The study revealed the difficult conditions of commuting and the importance of social support to parents' well-being, as well as a significant pattern of parent–child interaction which we have described as ‘attentive parenting.’ Parents felt these activities contributed to the parent–child bond and their children's well-being in spite of an acknowledged lack of interactive time.     

Family Resilience Resources in Coping With Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify resources of family resilience that help families cope with child sexual abuse. Data were collected from a purposeful sample of parents representing nine poor families living in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The narratives of the participants were analyzed thematically. The results indicate that the families, despite adverse situations, utilized internal and external resilience resources. Internal resources were the parents’ relationship with their children, their own emotional functioning and attitudes, the children’s ability to cope with the abuse, boundaries in the family, insight into their children’s emotional needs, and sibling relationships. External family resources were the support of extended family members, friends, and a local community-based nonprofit organization working with child sexual abuse and schools. The empowering role of the identified resources for family resilience should be enhanced in interventions, while future studies could further explore these aspects in families confronted with child sexual abuse.     

A Comparative Analysis of Adoptive Family Functioning with Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Parents and Their Children

Abstract

The objectives of this comparative study were to examine adoptive family functioning with a sample of gay, lesbian, and heterosexual adoptive parents and their children. The results suggested that parent sexual orientation is not a significant predictor of adoptive family functioning, adopted child's behavior, and parent's perceptions of helpfulness from family support networks. Furthermore, a regression analysis suggested the following variables were associated with higher levels of family functioning: adoptive parents who were previously foster parents and children who had more previous placements prior to adoption. Lower family functioning was associated with children adopted through CPS; with children who had mental health diagnoses, learning disorders, or other handicapping conditions; and with children who were in a higher grade in school. The results of this comparative study of adoptive families support the need for more methodologically rigorous research that includes gay and lesbian adoptive parents along with heterosexual parents.     

Condoms and Connection: Parents,Gay and Bisexual Youth,and HIV Risk

The family has long been considered a powerful influence on youth's high‐risk behaviors. However, little is known about preventive family influences for gay and bisexual youth, a group at high risk for HIV infection. For this study, qualitative interviews from a sample of 38 gay and bisexual youth and their parents/guardians underwent a thematic analysis. Youth described parent–child closeness, parental warnings, and urgings to use condoms as influences. Youth denying family influence came from families in which parent–child relationships were disrupted or HIV‐related discussion was lacking. Most families reported discomfort discussing HIV risk. These findings, along with a case example, suggest how family therapists can enhance parental influence by helping these families strengthen their relationships and discuss this important topic. Video Abstract     

The Influence of the Extended Family on the Involvement of Nonresident African American Fathers

This study investigates the extent to which the extended family provides support to African American nonresident fathers and its influence on their involvement with their children. The data for this study were collected from 278 African American nonresident fathers as a part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The findings revealed that increased support from the child's paternal extended family was associated with higher levels of father involvement. However, increased support from the child's maternal extended family was associated with lower levels of father involvement. Implications for social work practice are included.     

A Phenomenological Examination of Sibling Relationships in Emerging Adulthood

A growing area of research has focused on the role played by siblings throughout the life span. However, limited work has been conducted on the sibling relationship dynamics of emerging adults specifically using qualitative methods. The current study is a phenomenological examination of the nature of sibling relationships in emerging adults using a sample of 52 students, 36 women and 16 men, between ages 18 and 23 years (M = 19.85, SD = 1.16) from a large northeastern U.S. state university. Participants were interviewed using semistructured questions about various aspects of family environment. Results were analyzed using the phenomenological method. Themes emanating from the interviews were as follows: (1) change in the relationship due to time and transitions, (2) variability due to family constellation, (3) difficulties due to divorce and blended families, (4) older sibling blame and responsibility, (5) parental punishment during sibling dispute and disengagement as the siblings aged, and (6) differences between parents in sibling dispute intervention. Findings highlight the diversity in experiences with siblings and the transitory nature of this relationship during the first year of college.     

Immigration and the Family Circumstances of Mexican‐Origin Children: A Binational Longitudinal Analysis

Using data from the birth cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (n = 1,200) and the Mexican Family Life Survey (n = 1,013), this study investigated the living arrangements of Mexican‐origin preschool children. The analysis examined children's family circumstances in both sending and receiving countries, used longitudinal data to capture family transitions, and considered the intersection between nuclear and extended family structures. Between ages 0–1 and 4–5, Mexican children of immigrants experienced significantly more family instability than children in Mexico. They were more likely to transition from 2‐parent to single‐parent families and from extended family households to simple households. There were fewer differences between U.S. children with immigrant versus native parents, but the higher level of single parenthood among children of natives at ages 0–1 and the greater share making transitions from a 2‐parent to a single‐parent family suggest ongoing erosion of children's family support across generations in the United States.     

Visitation Orders,Family Courts,and Fragile Families

Despite proposals to make parenting time a part of all new child support orders, limited research has examined why some unmarried are more likely than others to establish legal visitation agreements. This mixed‐methods study draws on qualitative data collected from unmarried mothers and fathers living in New York (N = 70) to develop hypotheses about the contexts in which parents set up visitation orders, which are then tested in a large sample of unmarried parents living apart (N = 1,392). Both qualitative and quantitative findings show that disengagement, cooperation, and conflict in the coparenting relationship postseparation influence unmarried parents' decisions about whether to establish a legal visitation agreement. The qualitative data further illustrate how parents' distrust of the court system, preference for informal agreements, and uncertainty about the custody of nonmarital children inform their decisions. The article concludes by considering approaches for helping low‐conflict coparents set up visitation agreements outside of family court.     

What Do You Mean My Child Is in Custody? A Qualitative Study of Parental Response to the Detention of Their Child

This qualitative study involved in-depth interviews with 11 parents whose children had been taken into custody. The initial reactions and responses of the parents to the detention of their children were examined, as well as these parents' thoughts and feelings about theprocess and their involvement in the juvenile justice system. The following major themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) feeling frustrated and confused, (b) a perception of the system as being fair, (c) the juvenile system assuming a parental role, and (d) the influence of detention on family dynamics. Findings highlight the personal experiences of the parents as they attempted to navigate the juvenile justice system.     

Family matters: a discussion of the Bangladeshi and Pakistani extended family and community in supporting the children's education

This paper looks beyond an individualised type of parental involvement and discusses the role of the extended family in relation to school. We draw on the different social capital theories to explain its implications and also to discuss its efficacy. Our focus is on the Bangladeshi community and the Pakistani community in two towns in the North East of England. British South Asian parents are variously accused of having too high educational expectations of their children or not being interested at all and that Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents in particular have no or limited relationships with their children's schools. In this paper we demonstrate that parental involvement in these two communities resides not simply in the hands of the parents but within the wider family. We challenge the deficit model of British South Asian families as indifferent to the education of their children and we identify the potential resource of the extended family.