‘I accept my son for who he is – he has incredible character and personality’: fathers’ positive experiences of parenting children with autism

Literature in the field of autism is largely deficit driven, with a focus on the inabilities of individuals and the negative experiences of families, often characterised by reductive assumptions and tragedy model interpretations. In addition, family-orientated research has generally overlooked the views and contribution of fathers of disabled children, with positive paternal narratives especially scarce. This study explored 198 father perspectives on perceived benefits of parenting their children with autism, gained in response to an open-ended question in an online survey. Key themes relate to appreciating children’s individual qualities, valuing the strong emotional bond, fathers’ own nurturing role and their associated personal development. Findings will be discussed in relation to models of childhood disability and fatherhood.     

Carrying Firearms for Protection: A Causal Model*

The authors develop a causal model of the determinants of carrying firearms for protection. It is argued that the examination of carrying a gun as a dependent variable is methodologically more advantageous than using gun ownership as the dependent variable. Through use of path analysis, the direct and indirect effects on gun carrying behavior are identified. The results suggest most crime specific variables, e.g. fear of criminal victimization, do not directly influence the tendency to carry a gun, although these factors had minor indirect effects on the dependent variable. The most important direct influences on carrying a gun were age, gender, and the belief that the presence of guns is an effective deterrent to crime.     

Sanctions Peers,and Deviance: Preliminary Models Of A Social Control Process*

Research on sanction threat-behavior relationships has suffered because investigators, using cross-sectional data, have failed to meet methodological requirements concerning the causal order of variables and the statistical control of other relevant variables. We estimate several models of a social-control process that meet these requirements, using longitudinal panel data from a sample of 265 adolescents. Our models consider the relationships among an inhibitor (threat of sanction), a generator (peer-group influence), and a measure of deviance (use of marijuana). The results obtained from the best-fitting model indicate that sanction threat does not exert any long-term effects (at least of one year), although there was evidence that it has modest instantaneous effects on deviance. Having marijuana-using friends has the greatest effect on marijuana use. The pattern of coefficients suggests that peers may initially be selected because of their deviant conduct, and that once chosen, they exert independent generative (or causative) influence on deviance.     

Magic Love-Links: Reassurance for Children about Separations

The children of separating parents often assume they must take sides in conflicts or pretend not to miss the absent parent. Even when such assumptions are unwarranted young children have difficulty grasping parental reassurances based on the abstract concept of unconditional love. In addition, many children are unable to verbalise the complex range of emotions engendered by feared parental loss or rejection. The Magic Love-Links story is designed to help children in either difficulty.     

Consulting the Children: Interviews with Children Using Residential Respite Care Services

The Children Act, 1989, requires that services for children are provided in partnership with parents and that the wishes and feelings of the child and his/her parents are ascertained and given due consideration (sect. 22). As part of a research project assessing the quality of services to children with disabilities under the Children Act, the authors carried out evaluations of six residential respite care services. The services were used mainly by children with learning difficulties, some of whom had little or no speech. Staff at the schools attended by the children were asked to interview them, so that their views could be included in the evaluation reports. Interview schedules and aids to communication were devised to try and enable all the children to express their views. This article describes the initial schedules and the changes made in the light of experience during the research. The authors then summarise the children's responses and consider how the process of consultation could be improved in future.     

Metro/Nonmetro Residence,Nonmarital Conception,and Conception Outcomes*

Abstract Two of the most significant changes affecting U.S. society during the 20th century were transformations in family structure and the transition from a nonmetropolitan/farm society to a largely metropolitan society. In this study, classic sociological theory, developed to understand differences between metro and nonmetro society, was employed. Despite contentions that the residence variable is no longer viable, we hypothesized that nonmetro interaction patterns would result in nonmetro residents making more traditional and conservative choices relative to family formation. Analysis of data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth provided support for these contentions. Nonmetropolitan women were significantly more likely than metropolitan women to be married at the time of conception. Further, when comparing women who were not married at conception, nonmetro women were significantly more likely than metro women to get married prior to the birth of the child, and were significantly more likely to have the pregnancy result in a live birth.