Rural Housing Adequacy and Civic Structure

One persistent problem that many small rural towns face is housing adequacy, which encompasses interior and exterior structural conditions; assessments of heating, cooling, and sanitation systems; and residence size relative to space needs. The creation and reproduction of vibrant rural communities is grounded in the capacity of citizens to solve local housing problems. We posit that towns with strong norms of mutuality, high information flows, and inclusive behaviors have a civic structure that produces the capacity to frame and resolve housing concerns. We find that perceptions of civic structure are a significant factor in explaining the variation in rural housing adequacy, net of income, age, and tenure. This implies that the social and political environment is an important influence on the quality of housing stock found in rural places.     

Reconciling Children's Policy and Children's Rights: Barriers to Effective Government Delivery

Countries which have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, have committed to implementing its principles in law and policy. This article explores the challenges for securing children's rights through policy, drawing on a research project conducted for the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, which sought to identify barriers to effective government delivery for children and young people from the perspective of key stakeholders. The research concluded that, while some barriers (such as delay and availability of data) are not child‐specific, they can be accentuated when children and young people are the main focus of policy development and more so when seeking to adopt a child rights‐compliant approach to policy development and implementation.     

The Relationship Between Parent and Child Reports of Parental Supportiveness and Psychopathology of Sexually Abused Children

This study examined the relationship between parent and child reports of supportiveness of intrafamilially sexually abused children and levels of child psychopathology. Fifty-four intrafamilially sexually abused children completed a revised version of the Family Subscale of the Survey of Children's Social Support and the Child Assessment Schedule. Fifty-four parents completed a version of the Family Subscale of the Survey of Children's Social Support, modified for use in parental reporting of their own supportive behaviors. Satisfactory reliability levels were obtained for the revised measures. This study of 54 sexually abused children and their non-offending parents found that although most non-offending parents were supportive of their children, the children reported considerable distress. Although there was no significant difference in mean levels of support reported by parents and children, the two measures were not significantly correlated. This suggests that parents and children perceive supportive behavior differently, although both constructs are of importance. Multiple regression analysis found that both child and parent reports of parental support were predictive of levels of child psychopathology, but that child estimates were a stronger predictor.