Troubled Children,Troubled Marriages — Whose Problem Is It?

Therapists working in Child and Adolescent Services commonly face the dilemma of if, how and when to address marital problems when the presenting problem is with a child. This article examines the different ways that some of the central family therapy models approach this issue. The Structural, Haley-Madanes Strategic and Milan Systemic models share the assumption that the child's symptoms are reflective of underlying family disturbance, with marital problems given a central place in the hypothesising. In contrast, the Solution Focused and Narrative approaches avoid assumptions about the deeper purpose of symptoms, focusing instead on the impact of the problem on family relationships, including the marriage. This emphasis ensures that parents do not receive either a direct or indirect message that their marriage is to blame. Consequently, a safe context is provided for addressing marital disturbance and for understanding its broader social base. Therapy is about noticing and expanding solution behaviours and competencies, rather than drawing out deeper pathologies. Case examples are used to illustrate the clinical applications of a Solution Focused-Narrative approach when children's problems emerge in conjunction with marital problems.     

THE SOLUTION-ORIENTED GENOGRAM: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Developed primarily by Bowenian intergenerational therapists, genograms have evolved into largely atheoretical tools used by many therapists. Given that constructivist-based therapies have become the most popular genre of contemporary family therapies (Sprenkle & Piercy, 1992), the author examines how genograms can be used to augment a solution-oriented approach. Specific interventions, case examples, and potential problems associated with such an approach are discussed, along with potential implications for family-of-origin work.     

Abuse of children in day care centres: Characteristics and consequences

While day care sexual abuse cases share features in common with sexual abuse in other settings, many characteristics of abuse in day care settings merit special attention. These factors include the young age of the child victims, the involvement of multiple victims and multiple perpetrators, females as perpetrators, use of extreme threats, severity of the abuse, and in some instances ritualistic activities. Research findings support clinical impressions that children are negatively impacted by sexual abuse in day care. Consequences of abuse in day care include anxiety, excessive fearfulness, behavioural disturbances, sexual acting out and sleep disorders. Parents whose children are abused in day care centres also experience psychological distress with symptom profiles consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder. Abuse of children in day care settings warrants a specialized treatment approach. A major goal of treatment is to decrease symptomatology among all family members.     

Do profits “crowd out” donations,or vice versa? the impact of revenues from sales on donations to local chapters of the American Red Cross

This article examines the relationship between donations to the American Red Cross and the profits, sales, costs, and prices of health and safety classes offered by local chapters. Two important questions are examined: Do profits from sales of services “crowd out” donations to local chapters of the American Red Cross? Do managers respond to changes in donations by changing prices, output, or costs of saleable services? The results suggest that nonprofit managers should pay close attention to the potential impact on donations of any change in the prices charged for saleable goods and services, and that profits, costs, and prices of services are influenced by donations.     

TOWARD A SYNTHESIS OF FEMINIST AND DEMOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES ON FERTILITY

In explaining fertility and reproduction and emerging patterns of childbearing, both demographers and feminists have centered their thinking on women's status (economic and social), women's changing roles and life experiences (increased labor force participation, increased availability of reproductive options, declining marriage rates in many parts of the industrialized world, and the centrality of women to development), and women as agents in micro- and macrolevel changes in family, fertility, and economic change. Although demography has recently begun to integrate feminist perspectives into fertility explanations, there is not yet a synthesis of feminist theoretical insights with demographic questions. Drawing from recent thinking on global and national political and policy challenges in the less and more developed worlds, to the epistemological shifts in knowledge of reproduction/mothering, to changes in the technologies of reproduction, this article moves toward an integration of feminist and demographic perspectives on fertility.
…far from the economic dependence of women working in the interests of motherhood, it is the steadily acting cause of a pathological maternity and a declining birthrate.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Women and Economics , 1899     

Sustainable societies in the information age

This article interweaves the ideas of sustainable development, sustainable societies, and the power of advanced information technologies toward developing recommendations for social science research on information technology in society. Worldwide concern has arisen over the potentially catastrophic consequences of global climate and environmental change. As a result, sustainable development (i.e., the simultaneous protection of both the global environment and the global economy) is receiving considerable attention. Necessary for achieving sustainable development are sustainable societies, which are capable of designing, implementing, managing and evaluating long-term environmental programs. This article presents ten characteristics that describe sustainable societies and discusses how information technologies, from wireless personal digital assistants to intelligent agents to multi-media database systems, could support the evolution of sustainable societies. Topics for social science research related to designing and ameliorating the negative consequences of eight hypothetical computer-based systems are presented. Bruce E. Tonn is leader of the policy systems analysis group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and co-principal investigator of the National Center for Environmental Decision-making Research. His research interests include environmental and energy policy, computers in society, decision making, and futures studies. He is past president of the Social Science Computing Association. His research focuses on planning, assessment and evaluation, energy use and conservation, and education.     

Institutional Ethnography and Experience as Data

Experience, as concept, is contested among feminists as to its epistemological status, thus its usefulness in knowledge claims. Institutional ethnography (Smith 1987) is a feminist methodology that nonetheless relies fundamentally on people's experience. Not as Truth, nor the object of inquiry, but as thepoint d'appui for sociological inquiry. This article offers a demonstration of institutional enthnography using observational and interview data that show experience as methodologically central to a trustworthy analysis. A moment in the work lives of nursing assistants in a long-term care setting is captured by a participant observer. The analysis produces two lines of argument. One is methodological; it is argued that nursing assistants' experiences are an entry into the social relations of the setting that, when mapped and disclosed, make those experiences understandable in terms of the ruling arrangements permeating both the organization and their own experiences. The other argument is substantive; the inquiry uncovers how a quality improvement' strategy in a long term care hospital in Canada is reorganizing caregivers' values and practices toward a market orientation in which care appears to be compromised. Use of experience as data in this approach holds the analysis accountable to everyday/everynight actualities in a lived world.