Are At-Risk Parents Getting What They Need? Perspectives of Parents Involved with Child Protective Services

This qualitative study explores the perspective of 24 parents who were at risk for having their children placed in foster care but ultimately retained custody of their children. We asked participants to reflect on their parenting needs prior to Child and Protective Services involvement and if and/or how they implemented parent education skills post-intervention. Parents most frequently cited stressors such as financial strain and single parenthood as contributing factors associated with their involvement with the child welfare system. Many parents stated that they wanted help with their parenting practices and provided their thoughts about time-out and physical punishment. Implications include assessing parental stress at the onset of services, seeking to understand the unique needs of families, evaluating the impact of length of time services are offered, and helping parents utilize age-appropriate discipline strategies.     

An investigation of the needs of grandparents who are raising grandchildren

Evidence suggests that children in out‐of‐home care function better when placed in kinship compared with foster care. Less is known about the functioning of children in the unique form of kinship care where grandparents are caring full‐time for their grandchildren in informal care arrangements. As grandparent carers are increasingly taking on this role, it is timely to investigate the functioning of the children in this form of care and the characteristics of the grandparents themselves. We compared the functioning of children in the two types of care. We also investigated carer characteristics, including the relationship between child functioning, social support and daily hassles on carer stress. One hundred fourteen cares and 180 children were assessed on a range of demographic and clinical measures. Children in grandparent care were displaying better behavioural and adaptive functioning than children living with foster carers. Grandparent carers reported higher levels of distress in the carer role. Predictors of carer stress included severity of child behaviour problems and daily hassles. Both group of carers and the children in their care would benefit from increased support from treatment services.     

Recruitment and Retention in a Parenting Intervention: A Case Study with Parents Aging Out of the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

Parenting interventions are efficacious in reducing child maltreatment and negative child behaviors, yet the recruitment and retention of parents, especially vulnerable parents, in such interventions can be challenging. Prior research identifies several ways to improve recruitment and retention including laying the foundation for the intervention, fostering relationships with parents, ensuring fit of the intervention with the intended population, and identifying barriers to parents’ participation. This case study presents a process of recruiting and retaining a vulnerable group of parents, specifically parenting youth aging out of the child welfare system. In addition to outlining the strategies used, lessons learned are highlighted. Parents expressed interest in the parenting intervention, experienced significant needs, negotiated great instability in their lives, and valued the social connections facilitated by the group intervention. Despite the research team following best practices and investing significant time and resources, recruitment and retention remained challenging. Implications for future work in this area are presented.     

The social impact of the global financial crisis in Australia

The Australian economy has weathered the storm that followed the global financial crisis (GFC) better than most other OECD countries. The reasons for this are complex, although the fiscal stimulus measures introduced by the federal government in 2008 and 2009 boosted domestic consumption and investment and helped to sustain economic growth. However, even with these measures, concerns have been raised over the social impact of the financial crisis, with a number of studies suggesting that those with lowest incomes and/or reliant on welfare services for support were most adversely affected. This paper presents new estimates of the social impact of the GFC using data from two national surveys, conducted in 2006 and 2010 – before and after the crisis hit Australia. The impact is assessed using a range of different approaches, including people's own perceptions of the impact, changes in their subjective wellbeing, reported changes in financial stress and changes in deprivation and economic exclusion. The results suggest that the social impact of the crisis has been small, although some evidence suggests that those already facing the most severe levels of social disadvantage were most adversely affected. In this sense, the GFC may have led to greater inequality in living standards, at least in some dimensions.     

A Game-Theoretic View of Voting

Two game-theoretic arguments for the potential rationality of voting are presented. The first argument suggests that people make choices that allow the most favorable forecasts. People choose to vote inasmuch as they project their own choices between voting and abstaining more strongly onto members of their own political group than onto members of other political groups. Relevant evidence is reviewed and extended by new findings in a simulated public-goods dilemma. The second argument suggests that people preview how they will feel about each of the four possible scenarios generated by the conjunctions of their own choices (to vote or to abstain) and the election outcome (victory or defeat). They choose to vote inasmuch as they feel their own vote will not be wasted. The implications of both arguments for efforts to increase turnout are discussed.     

Strengths of farming communities in fostering resilience in children

The cultural context in which rural farm children are raised has a significant effect on their lives. Researchers have traditionally viewed rural environments from a deficit perspective. Yet many children demonstrate resilience even in the face of significant adversity. This article focuses on strengths of rural farming communities in providing a cultural context that supports healthy development in children. It also notes practice considerations for child welfare in small agricultural communities.     

Assistance to Aging Parents and Parents‐In‐Law: Does Lineage Affect Family Allocation Decisions?

In this analysis we used data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine how couples organize transfers of assistance to aging parents and whether the flow of assistance is structured by family lineage. We found evidence of a tradeoff between types of assistance and a unilineal pattern of assistance. Few couples provided both time and money, and few assisted parents and parents‐in‐law. The determinants of assistance varied by type of care, recipient, and patterns of parental survival. Couples were more responsive to the needs of the wife's parent(s) and were less likely to exclude her parents from care even under circumstances of competition. Controlling for resources, African American and Hispanic couples were consistently more likely to provide assistance.