A Big Brother: New Findings on How Low-Income Fathers Define Responsible Fatherhood

I interviewed 57 low-income fathers about how they define responsible fatherhood. Unlike findings from previous research, their definition did not include financial provision or daily caregiving. Instead, their definition included six dimensions, some of which resemble a “Big Brother”: spending time in non-caregiving activities; avoiding harm by voluntarily distancing from the child when it is in the child’s best interest; acknowledging paternity in non-legal forums; spending money on gifts, joint activities, and special needs; monitoring the child’s home for trouble; and minimizing absences in the child’s life. Because these fathers do not emphasize traditional breadwinning or primary caregiving, their responsible fathering beliefs and behavior may be unappreciated by academics, practitioners, and policy makers.     

An instance of reverse heaping of ages

This note reports on an interesting example of reverse heaping of ages for data from the Saudi Arabian social insurance system. Peaks occur for the number of workers at ages corresponding to years of birth ending in zeroes and fives, while there are troughs at such ages for the average monthly wages. Such troughs almost certainly are the result of workers with less education using a rounded year of birth, and, correspondingly, such workers would tend to have lower earnings.     

A signs of safety approach to assessing children with sexually concerning or harmful behaviour

The Junction is a Barnardo's children's service based in northern England that provides assessment and intervention in the lives of children and young people who have sexually concerning or harmful behaviour. It is developing methods of assessment that move away from more established approaches to provide a service that attempts to address more comprehensively the circumstances of individuals and families, utilizing a Signs of Safety approach. The principles and methods of this approach are outlined with examples of practice. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The black bourgeoisie and reference group change: A content analysis ofEbony

Qualitative Sociology - This study is an analysis of the racial group identification pattern among the black bourgeoisie for the years 1950 through 1979. It is argued that the militant ideology of...