Learning difficulties and academic competence among children in contact with the child welfare system

Children who have been in the welfare system tend to have poor social and health outcomes as adults. The aim of this study was to examine learning difficulties, as well as academic competence, among children in contact with child welfare service, and to compare this group to their same‐age peers. The material consisted of 4114 children in fifth to seventh grade, of which 101 were in contact with child welfare services. Information on learning difficulties and academic competence was obtained through questionnaires to teacher and parent/caregivers. As expected, there were significantly more children with learning difficulties in the child welfare group than the peer group; 12% of child welfare clients had general learning difficulties compared to only 0.4% of their peers, and 31% had specific learning difficulties in relation to mathematics and/or reading and writing, compared to 10% of their peers. The majority of child welfare children received assistance from pedagogical–psychological services. While more than every second child welfare client without general learning disability had low academic competence, there were also 15% who had high academic competence. The results show that although many of the children in contact with child welfare service have learning difficulties, there is also heterogeneity and potential for academic achievement.     

Parenting with Learning Difficulties: Lessons for Practitioners

Correspondence to Dr Tim Booth, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN. Summary Parents with learning difficulties form an underserved needsgroup whose numbers are steadily increasing and are likely tocontinue to do so as a result of deinstitutionalization, communitycare and the acceptance of ‘ordinary life’ principlesas a basis for service provision. This article reviews the researchliterature on parenting by people with learning difficultiesin order to draw out the lessons for practitioners and to assistthem in developing a clearer view of their aims and approachwhen working with these families. Case vignettes from an ongoingstudy of mothers and fathers with learning difficulties areused to illustrate the common themes. The authors conclude thatservice providers still have much to learn about how best theycan secure and uphold the citizenship rights of these parentsas well as protect the welfare of their children.     

Understanding exceptionality: differing perceptions of the family assistance order

This paper discusses the findings of a research project (funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) which set out to explore the ways in which family assistance orders (Children Act 1989) are used in providing help to families after separation and divorce. The research findings are based upon extensive fieldwork with family court welfare teams and members of the judiciary in eight areas with varying rates of use of family assistance orders. In particular, the paper focuses on the notion of exceptionality (given that the orders may only be made in exceptional circumstances) and the different ways that this notion is conceptualized by the various professionals involved in the process of promoting the welfare of children after the separation of their parents. We highlight the difficulties of reaching a common understanding of exceptional circumstances and the issues and problems this raises in relation to those whose responsibility it is to safeguard the welfare of children.     

A family affair? Kinship care and parental substance misuse: some dilemmas explored

Both the Children Act 1989 and the Human Rights Act 1998 support the principle that children should remain within their birth families wherever possible and that this option must be considered when children are unable to live with their parents. Where parental substance misuse is an issue, family placements, whether formally or informally arranged, are increasingly being used and the support of grandparents, in particular, has been identified as a significant protective factor for children. This paper examines some of the issues that can arise with such placements, particularly in view of the part that substance misuse may play within the wider family system, the impact of parental drug and alcohol use on attachment and child development, and the complex dynamics that can ensue. Drawing on themes emerging from parental substance misuse literature and kinship care research, some practice dilemmas will be explored. While acknowledging the complex aetiology of substance misuse and the dangers of pathologizing family systems in which it is found, some hypotheses about potential risks and challenges will be debated. It will be argued that, although such placements can often provide children with a safe haven, they may demand a specific type of support and monitoring, if children’s welfare is to be safeguarded.     

Money Isn't Everything. Fiscal Policy and Family Policy in the Child Support Act

One of the explicit aims of the 1991 Child Support Act is to ensure that parents honour their financial obligations towards their natural children to a greater extent than they have hitherto. An equally important underlying objective is that of reducing the costs to the state of supporting lone parents. This paper examines the extent to which these two objectives are compatible within the framework of the Child Support Act through an examination of the impact of the Act's implementation on lone mothers and their children. It presents some of the key findings of a study of lone mothers on means-tested benefits, interviewed almost one year after the implementation of the Act. The paper concludes that the Act is failing to meet its stated aim of increasing the extent to which parents honour their financial obligations to children, because of an excessively narrow conception of the ways in which financial obligations are met combined with too strong an emphasis on maximizing savings in state expenditure on lone parents. The implementation of the Child Support Act, far from enhancing the welfare of children in lone parent families, has brought with it considerable financial and emotional costs for children and their mothers.     

Collaboration and conversations with children in Child Welfare Services —Parents' viewpoint

Collaboration and conversations are important in meeting vulnerable children's needs in the context of Child Welfare Services (CWS). Building on 10 qualitative interviews with parents of children in Norwegian Child Welfare Services, this paper discusses parents' views on collaboration between children and child welfare professionals. The parents stated that a constructive collaborative relationship depends on professionals' attitudes towards the child, their ability to connect with the child and their awareness of how the child's emotions and how the parents influence the child–professional relationship. A collaborative relationship is essential for child welfare professionals to meet the child's needs and to help improve relations between the child and the parents. The parents asked for more collaboration between children and child welfare professionals. The findings call for more discussion of child welfare workers' tasks and competence.     

Parental competence and parents with learning difficulties

Parental adequacy is widely seen as a function of individual parenting skills. This assumption renders parents with learning difficulties vulnerable to discriminatory treatment in child protection work. A presumption of incompetence leads practitioners to focus on the parents' deficits and intensifies concerns about the welfare of the children. Using case material from a recent study, the authors argue for a wider conception of good-enough parenting that takes into account the external pressures that impact on family functioning.     

Hope and subjective well‐being among parents of children with special needs

The current study examined subjective well‐being (SWB) in parents who raise children with special needs. Previous studies that focused on parenting children with special needs stressed increased risk of depression. This study examined parental level of hope, the significance of being involved in a partner relationship and parental perception of the seriousness of their child's disability, each a factor that may influence parental SWB. A random sample of 92 parents raising children with special needs in Israel participated in the study. They completed three questionnaires, examining parent's perception of the severity of their child's disability, parental SWB and parents' level of hope. Results revealed that a high level of hope, being in a partnered relationship, and perception of the child's disability as having some positive influence on central aspects of the parents' life, are all significant contributors to raising parental SWB. Study findings show that ‘agency’, a component of the concept of ‘hope’, is a significant factor in predicting SWB in parents of a child with special needs. Perhaps awareness of how they can improve their SWB by using certain aspects of their lifestyle to their advantage can help improve quality of life for parents of children with special needs.     

Distress among Children whose Separated or Divorced Parents cannot Agree Arrangements for Them

Correspondence to Ann Buchanan, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, Barnett House, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, UK. E-mail: ann.buchanan{at}socres.ox.ac.uk Summary This paper, based on a larger study of children and their parentswho were subjects of a welfare report for the court followingparental separation and divorce, highlights the very high levelsof distress amongst the children involved. As measured by theStrength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), 52 per cent ofboys and 48 per cent of girls had significant adjustment problemsimmediately after the proceedings and a year later, 62 per centof boys and 32 per cent of girls were still maladjusted. Childrenwere more likely to have problems where parents were also distressedand where there was domestic violence. These findings suggestthat these children should be considered ‘children inneed’ under the 1989 Children Act. and that preventiveservices need to be developed to help parents resolve the arrangementsfor the children without going to court.     

Battling parenting: The consequences of secure care interventions on parents

Secure care in Sweden is the most intrusive child welfare intervention, and children and their family members have restricted contact. For each child in secure care, there are at least twice as many affected family members and parents who must manage the consequences of this institutionalization. Clearly, it is just as important to understand how secure care affects parents as it is to understand how secure care affects children. To address this issue, we conducted in-depth interviews with 11 parents to eight children who had been placed in secure care during their childhood, focusing on the institutional and societal structures that affected these parents and their parenting. With a narrative approach, stories alluding to a metaphor of war are identified. These stories reveal how all parents (but especially single mothers) are affected by their diverse socio-economic positions and the rigid frames of family life presumed by child welfare interventions. In these narratives, parenting emerges as a social practice rather than a skill. Above all, the stories demonstrate a great deal of vulnerability and sensitivity of parenting. The findings raise critical questions about the meaning and overarching consequences of institutional interventions in a family life.     

Termination of parental rights: Which foster care children are affected?

In 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was passed with a primary goal of expediting the process of placing foster children with permanent or adoptive families. In order to meet this goal, ASFA requires states to terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months. Prior empirical research on foster care dependence supports the provision in ASFA to expedite the discharge process because over time children are progressively less likely to be discharged from foster care. However, very little research has examined what impact terminating parental rights will have on this goal. One of the first steps is to examine which children are most likely to see the rights of their parents terminated and how these children differ from those children who are returned home. Using a competing risks hazard model we find many differences between the children who are sent home and those children whose parents have their rights terminated.     

An investigation of foster parent training needs

The training foster parents receive in America, pass the initial training required to certify them to take children into their homes, is not standardized. The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (H.R. 3443) requires prospective foster parents to be trained, but it provides only general guidelines for the training content. The training offered differs by state. This research examines what a group of foster parents attending a state foster parent association conference felt they needed in the area of training, to help them fulfil their role. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Foster parents were surveyed and ranked their training needs based on 10 pre‐identified needs. They also responded to an open‐ended question about their training needs. Foster parents ranked training to enhance their ability to help the child adjust in their homes and manage challenging behaviours as most needed. The qualitative data suggested that foster parents have additional needs and some are not related to training, such as the need for respite services.     

Jumping through hoops – the cost of compliance on sole parents

Australian governments along with other western countries have made significant changes to the welfare system with a focus on encouraging sole parents on social security payments to move into paid work. This paper reports on in‐depth interviews with 48 sole parents about their experiences with the welfare‐to‐work process and with a range of other services. Although parents reported some positive encounters, they also described a range of negative experiences, including how they needed to repeatedly prove their entitlement to help, leaving them feel as if they were undeserving of support. The study has demonstrated that it is often the most vulnerable parents who feel under close scrutiny and who have to work extra hard to get the help they need. These experiences can also see them disengaging from services. The findings show how the current policy environment adds to the complexity of sole parents' lives reinforcing their disadvantage.     

Services for disabled children: integrating the perspective of social workers

The paper addresses questions about the appropriate focus and direction of social work with disabled children, by triangulating parental views with those of social workers. Previous studies concerning services for disabled children have concentrated either on the views of parents or, less often, on those of service providers. This study adds to the picture by linking the two together and allowing service providers to comment on the views of service users. Parents of nine disabled children were inter-viewed following the introduction of a specialist disability team in an inner city borough, following the implementation of the Children Act 1989. The interviews took place over a 9-month period in 1995, and the comments of parents were then shared with social workers both from the borough concerned and from elsewhere. The parents' views reflect confusion about service provision, ignorance of their children's legal (as opposed to moral) rights, a preference for proactive service provision and the need for emotional as well as material support, the last framed variously as counselling, advice and someone to listen. There was little evidence that the Children Act, which could have facilitated improvements in all these areas, had made any discernible difference. Social workers' comments on these findings, with which they identified strongly, revealed a lack of confidence in their own abilities, a lack of clarity in their role and increasing disillusion with the services of their organizations. It is argued that in order to meet parents' expressed needs, service providers require a confident and fundamental shift in emphasis back to the role of social worker as provider as well as enabler.     

Research Review: Parents' service experience – a missing element in research on foster care case outcomes

A large body of child protection literature focuses on termination of parental rights, family reunification, and children's re‐entry into care as outcomes for children in foster care. Studies have investigated child, placement, family, and parent variables as predictors of case outcome. However, one important group of variables remains largely unstudied: factors related to parents’ service experience. Parents’ service experience includes parents’ perceptions of and involvement in the various services in which they must participate in order to recover their children from foster care (e.g. mandated treatment programmes such as substance abuse rehabilitation, parenting skills classes, etc.). The parental perspective on the foster care process is a critical element in the life of a child protection case, and its influence on case outcome must be explored. A brief review of the current literature on case outcome predictors is provided and parents’ service experience is highlighted as an area in need of investigation. Suggestions for the measurement of parents’ service experience are also offered.     

扶上马再送一程:父母的帮助及其对子女赡养行为的影响

以往关于中国家庭代际关系的研究往往侧重于分析子女对父母的赡养,而很少讨论父母对成年子女的帮助,以及这种帮助对传统赡养关系的影响。本文在分析“中国老年社会追踪调查”在2012年的试调查数据后发现,现在中国父母正在从经济和小孩照料等方面向他们的成年子女提供各种形式的帮助,而且父母的帮助（特别是小孩照料）对是否能够得到子女赡养和赡养的水平均有显著影响。分城乡的比较研究发现,父母的帮助对子女赡养行为的影响在城市表现得更加明显,这在一定程度上说明,随着社会现代化程度的提高,中国家庭养老赖以维持的基础已经发生了改变。     

打工子弟学校社会工作的实践与反思——以北京市打工子弟学校教育援助项目为例

打工子弟虽然大多已有条件接受基础教育,但他们普遍存在社会适应、城市融入、人际交往的能力差以及亲子沟通障碍等问题。为了解决这些问题,帮助打工子弟在大城市健康成长,我们尝试在两所北京市打工子弟学校运用学校社会工作的方法开展了一系列服务,包括个案、小组和社区教育等。通过这些服务,服务对象在个人卫生习惯、人际交往等方面比以前有了显著改善,不少打工子弟尊重和关心他人的意识增强,架设了学校、打工子弟、打工子弟家长三位一体的沟通桥梁。但是,我们的服务也暴露出了一些不足,比如个案工作开展得不够深入、社会动员不够等。导致这些问题的原因包括实习学生经验不足和未能充分利用社会支持系统等方面。以上问题,希望在今后进一步服务过程中能够加以避免和克服。     

Families on the brink: the effectiveness of family support services

This paper presents findings from a study of the costs and effectiveness of family support services offered to 40 families with a high level of need, in two neighbouring local authorities in North Wales. It describes the level and type of services offered by different agencies in each of the authorities, estimates the costs of these services, and assesses outcomes for the families receiving them after three months. Information is also provided about families’ experience of the support they received, and the kind of help they would have liked. Parents’ well‐being and family functioning were found to improve over the intervention period in both authorities, although only to a limited extent. Improvements were greater among those who were living with partners, and less among families identified by social workers as having financial difficulties or problems with drug or alcohol abuse. Respondents who rated their problems as very severe showed less improvement. The pattern of service provision and the costs involved turned out to be similar in both authorities, so it was not possible to reach conclusions about the relationship between services and outcomes. However, a number of themes emerging from the data are discussed, including the role of day care services in supporting families with young children, the impact of poverty and deprivation on parents’ ability to provide good care for their children, and the importance of an interagency response to children's and parents’ needs. The article also includes a discussion of problems encountered in undertaking comparative outcomes‐based research and cost‐effectiveness analyses in the social welfare field.     

Differing Conceptions of a Child's Needs: Some Implications for Social Work with West African Children and their Parents

Summary The 1975 Children Act implies an increased statutory involvementof local authority social workers with West African childrenwho are fostered, and with their parents. The Act gives a newurgency to the need for a greater understanding of West Africanculture if effective social work help is to be given and suchwork should help to prevent legal disputes concerning the custodyof these foster children. A general discussion of variablesthat influence child-training is followed by a more specificconsideration of West African and British approaches. Importantdifferences are noted and areas of possible misunderstandingindicated. The mediating role that the social worker could playin this cross-cultural fostering is emphasized. Attention isdrawn to limitations in our present knowledge and the need forfurther research is stressed. Not only would this have practicalvalue but, it is suggested, it could increase our knowledgeof socialization processes in general.     

Parenting style,competence, social network and attachment in mothers with mental illness

Severe mental illnesses (SMIs) can affect parents' ability to provide an adequate environment for their children. Little has been written about the different factors that affect these abilities in individuals with SMI. In this study, we explored a number of relationships that have been found in the literature to be related to parenting styles. Our main hypotheses were that the participants' secure attachment with their parents is positively correlated with high levels of social support; social support is positively correlated with the experience of having good parental competency; lack of parental competency is negatively correlated with problematic parenting styles. This correlational and cross‐sectional study was conducted with 60 mothers with SMI. Results suggest a strong relationship between parental style, sense of parental competency, social support and attachment style of the parent. Negative parental styles were found to be negatively correlated with parental competence. Overactive and hostile parenting styles were found to be correlated with the interviewees' parental overprotecting attachment style. Positive correlations were found between parental competence and high social support. The results of the study may help in developing future multidimensional interventions for parents with SMI, to improve their parenting skills and reduce any negative influence on their offspring.