Telling the Story of Stepfamily Beginnings: The Relationship between Young-adult Stepchildren's Stepfamily Origin Stories and their Satisfaction with the Stepfamily

The current study adopts a narrative perspective in examining the content of 80 stepchildren's stepfamily origin stories. Results reveal five types of stepfamily origin stories: Sudden, Dark-sided, Ambivalent, Idealized, and Incremental. Results support the hypothesis that story type would predict differences in family satisfaction; stepchildren who described their stepfamily origins as Idealized were more satisfied than those whose origins were Dark-sided or Sudden. Overall, participants framed their stepfamily identity more positively when their stepfamily beginnings were characterized by closeness, friendship, and even expected ups and downs, rather than when they were left out of the process of negotiating or forming the stepfamily and when the beginnings were tainted by issues they considered to be dark. Stepparents or practitioners may benefit from these findings by examining the means by which stepparents may involve stepchildren in the process of stepfamily courtship, facilitate closeness, and set up realistic expectations for negotiating stepfamily life.     

Linking Childhood Maltreatment With Girls' Internalizing Symptoms: Early Puberty as a Tipping Point

Earlier physical maturation may often be preceded by a range of adversities and life stressors. This study investigates childhood maltreatment, internalizing symptoms, and pubertal timing in girls residing in foster care (N = 100, M = 11.54 years old at Time 1). Girls were assessed at two time points 2 years apart. There were no direct effects of maltreatment on internalizing symptoms; rather, childhood sexual abuse predicted earlier pubertal development which, in turn, was associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms concurrently and longitudinally. This distinctive role for early pubertal timing suggests that the heightened sexual circumstances of puberty may be especially disturbing for girls whose lives have already been disrupted by inappropriate and unwanted sexual experiences.     

Social Movement Engagement over the Long Haul: Understanding Activist Retention

This article offers a broad review of the scholarship of the ‘retention’ of social movement activists, examining it from the individual, social relational, and organizational levels of analysis. The following contribute to the likelihood that a participant sustains their engagement: accommodation of individual needs and motivations, a social network to reinforce attachment to activism, and a successful organization that promotes its members' empowerment. The conclusion considers the insights gained from the scholarship so that organizations might increase activist persistence and notes gaps that merit further study, particularly regarding the emerging effects of ‘internet communication technology’ (ICT).     

Migration,technology and care: what happens to the body?

Migration is a social phenomenon impacting upon family life and conceptualisations of care. Simultaneously, technological advances allow families to stay connected. Care issues in the context of disability and aging may affect family relationships and how families develop. What is little understood is how these issues in migrant families affect a ‘family life course’. We use the case of a South African family with a daughter who is deaf and has other impairments. We argue that when communication is foregrounded and other, embodied, aspects of family care are relegated to the background, we lose the opportunity to understand family care patterns. We relate our discussion to broader theoretical questions regarding the body and care in disability studies.     

Mental health issues: a comparison of lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women

This study examines mental health issues among women of different sexual orientations. An anonymous survey was administered at 33 health care sites across the United States; the sample (N = 1304) included lesbians (n = 524), bisexual (n = 143) and heterosexual women (n = 637). Not only did sexual orientation influence the probability of experiencing emotional stress, but also whether a bisexual woman or lesbian had disclosed her sexual orientation (was "out") impacted the likelihood of having or having had mental health problems. Bisexual women and lesbians experienced more emotional stress as teenagers than did heterosexual women. Bisexual women were more than twice as likely to have had an eating disorder compared to lesbians. If a bisexual woman reported being out she was twice as likely to have had an eating disorder compared to a heterosexual woman. Lesbians who were not out and bisexual women who were out were 2-2.5 times more likely to experience suicidal ideation in the past 12 months. Lesbians and bisexual women who were not out were more likely to have had a suicide attempt compared to heterosexual women. Lesbians used psychotherapy for depression more commonly than did heterosexual or bisexual women. This is one of the few studies that compares lesbians, bisexual and heterosexual women. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Importing Western Childhoods into a Chinese State-Run Orphanage

Since the early 1990s the Chinese government has allowed foreign humanitarian non-governmental organizations to aid children residing in official state-run orphanages. As one aspect of a larger research project on child abandonment and forms of orphanage care in contemporary China, this article examines an innovative state-civil society partnership of a Western infant special care unit housed within a large official state-run institution. The “Tomorrow’s Children” special care unit, funded and managed by middle-class Western volunteers, uses First World medical practices and universalistic ideologies of children and childhood to care for the institution’s most severely ill and disabled children. This article utilizes ethnographic methods to discuss conflicts over children’s best interests that arise between Western volunteer employers and the local working-class and poor Chinese caregivers who are expected to implement the imported practices. I contend that disagreements over appropriate childcare hinge on cultural and class-based understandings of childhood and differential access to social and financial resources. This research grounds discussions of globalization in a detailed case study by exposing the tensions and negotiations that occur at the local level in processes of transnational exchange.     

Decline and fall: Unemployment among Britain's non-white ethnic communities 1960–1999

The declining employment fortunes of Britain's non-white communities, relative to whites, are explained. To achieve this comparison, some historical official sources of unemployment data are reviewed. The earliest known official time series on unemployment of non-whites dates back to 1960. This historical context is explored, especially the reluctance to make the early data more widely known. An unemployment series for non-white males and females from 1970 to 1999 is derived in two separate ways by splicing together official sources. These series are compared with unemployment of whites to demonstrate a relative increase in unemployment of non-whites.     

When vocabularies of motive fail: The example of fatal child abuse

Many social theorists emphasize people's capacity for empathic understanding, shared meanings, and forgiveness. They argue that norm violators can achieve social redemption by offering excuses and justifications. The findings from this study show that this is not always true. Evidence from the case records of caretakers accused of killing their children showed that the majority did not try to explain their actions by invoking excuses and justifications. They either pretended they had no idea what happened to the child or constructed a fictional cause of the child's death which made themselves appear innocent. The minority who attempted to explain why they killed a child received little or no forgiveness. These findings show that some norm violations cannot be translated into acceptable vocabularies of motive.I wish to thank Carl J. Couch for his genenous assistance.