Effects of a school readiness intervention for children in foster care on oppositional and aggressive behaviors in kindergarten

One hundred ninety-two children in foster care participated in a randomized efficacy trial of a school readiness intervention, the Kids In Transition to School (KITS) Program, designed to increase literacy, social, and self-regulation skills in children before kindergarten entry. One hundred two children were randomly assigned to the KITS intervention and 90 were randomly assigned to the foster care services as usual comparison group. At the end of the kindergarten year, teachers were asked to report on the children's oppositional and aggressive behaviors in the classroom. Controlling for gender, baseline levels of parent-reported oppositional and aggressive behaviors, and level of disruptiveness in the classroom, children who had received the intervention had significantly lower levels of oppositional and aggressive behaviors in the classroom. Findings suggest that an intervention designed to increase school readiness in children in foster care can have positive effects on kindergarten classroom behavior.     

Ensuring the best interest of the child in intercountry adoption practice: case studies from the United Kingdom and the United States.

Each year, thousands of children who cross international borders are destined for homes with adoptive families. For most, this journey from their homeland brings them to loving new homes where they will thrive and prosper. For others, the journey is hazardous and the destination uncertain.     

Theorizing Inequality: Comparative Policy Regimes,Gender, and Everyday Lives

Sociological explanations of inequality are incomplete unless they fully recognize the importance of social policy regimes, the policy logics embedded within them, and how policy arrangements work to stratify and shape daily lives. In this address, I develop my arguments by examining two overlapping struggles of everyday life in the contemporary United States: balancing work and family on the one hand, and securing health‐care services, both formal medical care and informal family care, on the other. Both struggles involve care deficits that are significantly more serious in the United States than in other high‐income countries, in part because our policy regime contributes to rather than counters the gendered roots of work–family conflict. Comparative studies hold a key to better understanding the link between policy regimes and everyday lives, as illustrated by the author's own comparative research in Finland and in the United States In terms of policies and policy logics that promote gender equity, paid parental leave for fathers has received much recent attention from social science scholars. Sociologists are challenged to become aware of comparative social policy scholarship and to approach inequalities and the related daily conflicts and struggles—such as over care deficits—by including this work in their analyses.     

The Placement History Chart: A Tool for Understanding the Longitudinal Pattern of Foster Children's Placements

Despite growing concerns about foster placement instability, little information is available regarding the longitudinal patterns of placement histories among foster children. The purpose of the present study was to develop a charting system using child welfare records to facilitate a better understanding of longitudinal patterns of placement history for 117 foster children. The resulting Placement History Chart included all placements that occurred during the observed time period and accounted for various dimensions: number, length, type, and sequence of placements; timing of transitions; and total time in out-of-home care. The Placement History Chart is an effective tool for placing foster care experiences within a broader developmental context. As such, the Placement History Chart can be a valuable research tool for understanding various dimensions and variations of placement transitions among foster children by capturing sequences and cumulative risks over time. Furthermore, this chart can facilitate the development of intervention programs that are developmentally sensitive and effectively address particularly vulnerable subpopulations of foster children.     

Union wage differentials for covered members and nonmembers in Great Britain

I present the first longitudinal estimates of covered union member and covered nonmember wage differentials in Great Britain. Crosssectional estimates show that covered union members receive a premium of about 10 percent over other workers, but covered nonmembers have no significant wage differential. Longitudinal estimates that accounted for fixed effects, selectivity, and measurement error indicated that OLS estimates are downward biased. The “true” union wage differential is likely about 30–35 percent. There is a large negative selection effect to union membership. No robust estimate could be found for covered nonmembers. This paper has benefited from conversations with Martyn Andrews, Wiji Arulampalam, Alison Booth, Tim Hatton, John Hutton, George Jakubson, Costas Meghir, and Andrew Oswald. Alison Booth kindly made extensive comments on an earlier draft, which greatly improved the exposition. John Budd, Hank Farber, and Larry Katz directed me towards related work in the U.S. I am also grateful to seminar participants at the University of York University of Essex, and the CEPR Workshop on Labour Market Issues. Thanks to the ESRC Data Archive for supplying the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) data. All data, computer programs, and results alluded to in the text are available on request. The British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and FES data are available from the ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex. The Panel Study of Manufacturing Establishments (PSME) data are available from the author on request.     

Inter‐professional working in child protection with families with long‐term and complex needs

Within the United Kingdom there is growing awareness of the need to identify and support the small number of children who are living in families experiencing multiple problems. Research indicates that adverse experiences in childhood can result in poor outcomes in adulthood in terms of lack of employment, poorer physical and mental health and increases in social problems experienced. It is acknowledged that most of these children are known to child welfare professionals and that some are referred to social services, subsequently entering the child protection system. This paper reports research conducted with 28 experienced child welfare professionals. It explores their views about families known to the child protection system with long‐term and complex needs in relation to the characteristics of children and their families; the process of intervention with families; and the effects of organisational arrangements on practice. The research indicates that these families are characterised by the range and depth of the problems experienced by the adults, such as domestic violence, mental health difficulties and substance misuse problems, and the need for professionals to have good inter‐personal skills and access to specialist therapeutic services if families are to be supported to address their problems. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bargaining With Time: An Interview With Helen Pavlin

Helen Pavlin is an accredited mental health social worker and family therapist and accredited family dispute resolution practitioner in private practice in Darwin. She has been involved in social work and family therapy since the early 1970s in Australia and internationally. In 1996 she received the 50th Anniversary Commemorative Medal from the Australian Association of Social Workers. She is one of the assessors and associate editors for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. In 2007 Helen received the Journal Award for her outstanding contribution to the family therapy field in Australia. She is an accomplished writer and a member of the Australian Society of Authors. Her poems and book reviews have been published frequently in ANZJFT.