The Bad Enough Mother

ABSTRACT

This is a [de]-composed conversation between the author and a few feminist writers about how a mother’s resistance to interpellating gender is an echoed call to resistance against society’s interpellation of mother. Alongside the words of a few selected 20th- and 21st-century writers, as well as a brief personal and a clinical vignette, the author illustrates ways in which the bad enough mother survives the relentless scrutiny of society—starting with experts like doctors, sociologists, politicians, and psychoanalysts. In turn, she teaches her children survival of the very interpellative tenants of culture that tried to funnel her into a binary-gendered social order.     

Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Couples About to Begin Couples Therapy: An Online Relationship Assessment of 40,681 Couples

We currently have little idea of precisely who goes for couples therapy. This is a report of the results of a validated online assessment of relationship and individual functioning based on 39,251 heterosexual, 1,022 lesbian, and 438 gay couples about to begin couples therapy. Using validated and reliable questionnaires of relationship and individual functioning, this report presents and compares, for each sexual-orientation, the percentage of couples, pre-therapy, who are coping with a variety of relationship problems. To test for the replicability of results, the sample was divided randomly into two subsamples and statistical tests were performed on each sample. Couples initiating therapy suffer from greater distress and many more co-morbidities than has been presumed in previous literature, and same-sex couples present a particular set of both strengths and challenges compared to heterosexual couples. Gay-male and lesbian couples were very different on trust and monogamy, as were heterosexual and lesbian couples. Based on this epidemiologically sized sample, the challenge to our field may be to create interventions with much larger effect sizes than we currently have.     

The understudied half of undergraduates: Risky sexual behaviors among community college students

Abstract

Objective: This study examines the prevalence and risk factors associated with risky sexual behaviors in community college students. Participants: A diverse sample of 18–19-year-old community college students (N?=?264). Methods: Baseline data from an online prevention program administered in 2015. Results: Community college students in this sample disproportionately experienced sexual assault and were unlikely to test for STIs. Higher intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors were associated with gender and sexual experience, but also with having lower intentions to communicate with a sexual partner about pregnancy and STIs, and having higher gender norm endorsement. Conclusions: Older adolescents attending community colleges may be at high risk for poor sexual health outcomes, and appropriate theory-based education should be tailored to meet the needs of these underserved students.     

Out of the ordinary: research participants’ experiences of sharing the ‘insignificant’

How do research participants feel about having their ‘ordinary’ lives researched? This article focuses on how research participants manage the sharing of details emerging out of their ordinary lives in the context of research – an activity which, for most, is outside of the ordinary. Despite two significant research turns – towards reflexivity and towards the ‘everyday’ – these experiences remain curiously neglected. Drawing on a study of small acts of help and support, I seek to push methodological debate about researching the ordinary beyond the technical challenges of surfacing or capturing the apparently mundane or ‘insignificant’. I do so by arguing that background feelings rooted in the living of, and sharing about, the ordinary are analytically important in their own right; that the ‘ordinary’ itself, therefore, has to be managed by research participants and researchers; and that Goffman’s notion of performance is a useful tool for understanding how this is done.     

Parental advice to preadolescent bystanders about how to intervene during bullying differs by form of bullying

The current study examined parental advice given to fourth‐ and fifth‐grade preadolescents who imagined being bystanders to different forms of bullying (physical, verbal, property attack, social manipulation, exclusion). We assessed the frequency with which parents advised youth to follow specific intervention strategies (stop the bully, help/comfort the victim, tell adults), and we tested whether the frequency by which parents provided each kind of advice varied by the form of bullying described. One hundred and six fourth‐ and fifth‐grade preadolescents completed an interaction in which their parent gave them advice about how to respond if they were bystanders to five hypothetical bullying situations. Each situation described a different form of bullying. Across forms of bullying, parents most frequently told bystander children to intervene by telling an adult. However, advice differed based on the form of bullying presented. Parents most frequently advised children to “tell an adult” in response to physical bullying or property attacks, most frequently advised children to “help/comfort victims” in response to social exclusion and physical attacks, and most frequently advised children to “stop the bully” in response to verbal and social manipulation bullying.     

Obfuscating Child Sexual Abuse II: Listening to Survivors

The reality of the extent and experience of child sexual abuse cannot be revealed while children are unable to ‘stand up and be counted’. Limited alternatives, lack of information and dependence on adults prevent the true scale of the problem being appreciated. Similarly, media and legal treatment of abused children also operate to suppress the truth. The expertise and knowledge of those who have suffered abuse need to be acknowledged and utilized in order that child sexual abuse can no longer be obfuscated. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family functioning and emotion socialization in Chinese two-parent households: A person-centered approach

The current study adopted cluster analysis as a person-centered approach to identify patterns of Chinese families’ functioning and parents’ emotion socialization responses and investigate their associations with children's emotion regulation and behavioral outcomes. Both parents residing in the same family were included to explore joint contributions of mothers and fathers within the family system. Participants were 204 Chinese two-parent (mother and father) households of 5- to 10-year-old children (M_age = 7.43 years, SD = .81; 98 girls). Both parents filled out online questionnaires about their perceptions of family functioning (cohesion, adaptability) and endorsement of responses to children's negative emotions (supportive, nonsupportive). Mothers also reported children's lability/negativity, emotion regulation, problematic behaviors (internalizing, externalizing) and prosocial behaviors. Five clusters were identified: poor-functioning/dismissing, well-functioning/coaching, engaged fathers, engaged mothers, and balanced/diffuse. Overall, poor-functioning/dismissing families had children with the lowest functioning and well-functioning/coaching families had children with the most optimal outcomes. The other three clusters were moderate in terms of child functioning with children of engaged fathers having less optimal outcomes than the other two. The nuanced variations among clusters and meaning of results are discussed in relation to Chinese cultural contexts. Findings support the utility of a person-centered approach for illuminating how parents’ socialization practices interconnect holistically within dynamic family systems.     

Interagency practice in children with non‐organic failure to thrive: is there a gap between health and social care?

Failure to thrive is a child protection issue that crosses the boundaries between many professional groups. It is a condition that places children at risk of negative developmental, social, physical and emotional consequences, but it has complex causal roots. Although there are known to be links between neglect, emotional abuse and failure to thrive, health and social care providers have differing responses and interventions with children who are failing to thrive. An examination of recent Scottish statistics supports the argument that there may be a gap between health and social care that some children may be falling through. Evidence from the literature regarding interagency roles and responsibilities is ambiguous, and the different, albeit overlapping, professional constructions of failure to thrive may result in a gap in care for some vulnerable children. It is only by beginning to understand the crucial links between different professions that we can contribute towards effective interagency child protection policy and practice. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The paradox of parental participation and legal representation in ‘edge of care’ meetings

This paper assesses the nature of parental participation and legal representation in pre‐proceedings meetings in England and Wales. These are called when a local authority is considering care proceedings on a child. The parent(s) are invited to a meeting to discuss the concerns, and are entitled to attend with a lawyer. The paper draws on findings from a study of the process which included a file survey of over 200 cases, observations of 36 meetings and interviews with more than 90 key informants, including parents. The aim of the process is (usually) to reach an agreement to prevent the case going to court, but the families are usually well known to children's services, and have been through many meetings and agreements before. What then are the possibilities for parental participation and legal representation in the meetings? The study shows that they may help bring a greater degree of clarity to the local authority's proposals, but are not expected to challenge them. Paradoxically, they serve to reinforce the authority's position. The meetings can help divert cases, but it is important to be realistic about the chances of change in these often long‐standing ‘edge of care’ cases.