Removing gender barriers: Promoting inclusion for trans and non‐binary carers in fostering and adoption

This paper offers a conceptually informed analysis of fostering and adoption social work and argues for more consistent inclusion of trans and non‐binary people. The conceptual framework through which we explore current policy and practice is set out to provide clarity about the ways in which we employ the concepts of trans, gender diversity, and cisgenderism (a prejudicial ideology). We employ the notion of cisgenderism as a critical lens through which to overview fostering and adoption social work within the context of trans inclusion. Focus is turned to the existing literature relevant to trans parenting, trans‐headed families, and the field of fostering and adopting. We highlight significant knowledge gaps in this regard. We then argue that if fostering and adoption social work is to embody inclusive practice with trans people, a new culture must be embedded to promote collaborative working, enhance knowledge, and improve service provision. The paper concludes by asserting that such an approach must be underpinned by an understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of people who identify as trans and/or as non‐binary.     

Parental Self‐Efficacy for Reducing the Risk of Adolescent Depression and Anxiety: Scale Development and Validation

Burgeoning research suggests that parents can reduce the risk of anxiety and depression in their adolescents and that parental self‐efficacy (PSE) may be related to parental risk and protective factors for these disorders. As there are currently no measures available to assess PSE in relation to parenting behaviors that may reduce adolescent risk for depression and anxiety, we developed and validated a measure of PSE, the Parental Self‐Efficacy Scale (PSES). Using a sample of 359 parents and 332 adolescents (aged 12–15), the PSES was found to have high reliability, confirmatory factor analysis supported its validity, and most of the hypothesized relationships between the PSES and other measures of parenting practices and adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms were supported.     

Sex Partner Type,Drug Use and Condom Use Self-Efficacy Among African Americans from Disadvantaged Neighborhoods: Are Associations with Consistent Condom Use Moderated by Gender?

Gender inequalities in sexual behavior are explored from the perspective of the theory of gender and power. This study focused on the effect of sex partner type (steady versus casual), drug use, and condom use self-efficacy regarding consistent condom use (CCU) among a community-based sample of adults. The sample included 1,357 African American men and women (M age 37.0, SD 13.1 years; 44% women, 66% men) from 61 disadvantaged census block groups in Atlanta, GA as part of a study of individual and neighborhood characteristics and HIV risk-taking. Having a steady partner decreased the odds of CCU, while higher condom use self-efficacy increased the odds of CCU. Among non-drug users, having a drug-using partner was associated with decreased odds of condom use for women only. Women with drug-using partners, especially a steady partner, were least likely to report CCU. Therefore, interventions intended to empower CCU among women need to expand beyond acknowledging the reduced control that women who use drugs demonstrate to also consider those who have drug-using sexual partners.     

Anticipating the “Ball and Chain”? Reciprocal Associations Between Marital Expectations and Delinquency

Marriage has been identified as a mechanism that may explain decreased delinquency among young adults, but whereas marriage is increasingly delayed, crime continues to decrease across the transition to adulthood. Most adolescents and young adults expect to marry one day, and these expectations may suppress delinquency. Conversely, increased delinquency may also predict decreased marital expectations. Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (N = 7,057), a sample of youth who were aged 12 to 17 years in 1997, were used to examine the reciprocal association between an expressed expectation to marry soon and participation in delinquent behavior. Results from an autoregressive cross‐lagged structural equation model suggested that greater expectations to marry were significantly associated with less delinquent activity 1 year later. Greater delinquent activity was not significantly associated with subsequent marital expectations. Youth with the greatest expectations to marry may temper their behavior even before vows are taken.     

The Aggregation of Political Rhetoric in Zeitoun

While the initial literary and cultural response to 9/11 consisted mostly of domestic narratives of trauma and mourning that avoided explicit political discourse, narrative representations of Hurricane Katrina, from the beginning, have been highly political. This is a profound, if simplistic, inversion: an act of political violence is de-politicized by its cultural response, while a natural disaster is overtly politicized. While the politicization of Hurricane Katrina is clearly, in part, down to the many accusations of negligence and racism that were immediately leveled at the American government after the post-Katrina flooding of New Orleans, this article argues that a major politicizing factor is and was the de-politicization of 9/11. Many narratives of Hurricane Katrina, therefore, are loaded with an aggregation of dissent and political discourse that relates not just to Katrina but also to 9/11 and the War on Terror. This article focuses specifically on Dave Eggers’s narrative non-fiction account of Katrina, Zeitoun (2009) and the way it responds to the domestication of 9/11 in these early instances of 9/11 fiction, and, in particular Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). It argues that Zeitoun responds to The Road’s conservative, messianic allegory, its retrograde formulation of frontier masculinity and unlikely recourse to the domestic. Eggers’s narrative non-fiction account of Katrina is also a migrant story and it is able to both dramatize the social realities of the War on Terror and build a surprising and affecting narrative of community and pluralism in the wake of disaster. Ultimately, this comparative analysis illuminates a wider and revealing departure from the cultural representation of 9/11 in the cultural response to Hurricane Katrina where texts like Zeitoun, are overtly political and loaded with the weight of two catastrophes.     

Promise or Problem? A Review of the Literature on Men Working in Early Childhood Services

Few men care for, or teach, young children. The 1991 UK census found that less than 1% of nursery nurses were male, while 14% of nursery/primary teachers were male. A similarly gendered picture can be found across European, North American and Australian studies of early childhood services, such as childcare centres and early education. The practice and prospect of men early childhood workers are both encouraged and resisted. The aim of this article is to review the international literature relevant to men working in early childhood services with pre‐school‐aged children. The case for male early childhood workers is reviewed: two pertinent themes from the related field of men working in non‐traditional occupations are highlighted. The review considers how these are applied to the specific context of men and early childhood services. Four aspects of the debate about men and early childhood work are examined: gender stereotypes; senior positions; gendered motives; and risks, allegations and protection. The literature suggests that men's careers have much to gain from working in early childhood services, but that, certainly in the Anglo‐American literature, a recurring theme is the representation of men early childhood workers as a source of suspicion.     

The AART of Ethnography: A Critical Realist Explanatory Research Model

Critical realism is a philosophy of science, which has made significant contributions to epistemic debates within sociology. And yet, its contributions to ethnographic explanation have yet to be fully elaborated. Drawing on ethnographic data on the health‐seeking behavior of HIV‐infected South Africans, the paper compares and contrasts critical realism with grounded theory, extended case method and the pragmatist method of abduction. In so doing, it argues that critical realism makes a significant contribution to causal explanation in ethnographic research in three ways: 1) by linking structure to agency; 2) by accounting for the contingent, conjunctural nature of causality; and 3) by using surprising empirical findings to generate new theory. The paper develops the AART (abduction, abstraction, retroduction, testing) research schema and illustrates its strengths by employing a Bourdieusian field analysis as a model for morphogenetic explanation.     

Getting Under the Skin: Children’s Health Disparities as Embodiment of Social Class

Social class gradients in children’s health and development are ubiquitous across time and geography. The authors develop a conceptual framework relating three actions of class—material allocation, salient group identity, and inter-group conflict—to the reproduction of class-based disparities in child health. A core proposition is that the actions of class stratification create variation in children’s mesosystems and microsystems in distinct locations in the ecology of everyday life. Variation in mesosystems (e.g., health care, neighborhoods) and microsystems (e.g., family structure, housing) become manifest in a wide variety of specific experiences and environments that produce the behavioral and biological antecedents to health and disease among children. The framework is explored via a review of theoretical and empirical contributions from multiple disciplines, and high-priority areas for future research are highlighted.     

Promoting quality parent–child visits: the power of the parent–foster parent relationship

Parent–child visits for children in foster care are often fraught with tension, particularly between foster parents and parents. Qualitative interviews with 42 social workers, foster parents and parents revealed more positive relations when foster parents recognized parent fears and shared power over parenting decisions with them. Social workers can support the process by clarifying visiting expectations and encouraging foster parents to reach out to parents.