When a family member has an intellectual handicap

Oral histories of ten close relatives of people over the age of 50 defined as intellectually handicapped have been collected as part of the New Zealand Ageing and Intellectual Handicap study. Many of the individuals with intellectual handicap were institutionalized from an early age; some had little or no contact with family members for a very long time; others lived continuously at home. The qualitative data record over 50 years' experience of having a family member with intellectual handicap, from early childhood through to middle or old age, and outline concerns about deinstitutionalisation and the future. It is concluded that families cannot go it alone and that the full participation of people with disabilities in community life and culture depends on well-resourced public policies and programmes of inclusion.     

The Long‐Term Effects of Spousal Care Giving on Survivors' Well‐Being in Widowhood*

Objective. Previous research suggests that bereavement and adjustment to widowhood are long term and should be studied as processes rather than as static outcomes. We analyze how spousal care giving affects survivors' depressive symptoms 18 and 48 months into widowhood. Method. We use three waves of data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) Survey and estimate OLS regression equations to determine the long‐term effects of spousal care giving on widow(er)s' well‐being. Results. At 18 months, more burdensome spousal care giving predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms, while greater caregiver stress predicted lower levels. Specific characteristics of the caregiving situation were no longer significant predictors of well‐being 48 months into widowhood, although care giving itself had an ameliorative effect on level of symptoms. Conclusions. The results highlight the dynamic nature of bereavement and suggest that the effects of spousal care and characteristics of the care situation on depressive symptoms during widowhood are not linear over time. We discuss the implications of our findings for the conceptualization of the relationship between care giving and bereavement.     

The canary of the Constitution: same‐sex equality in the public sphere

Nowhere is the paradox between the ideals of the South African Constitution and lived reality more apparent than in public contestations around gender and sexuality. Gay and lesbian equality has come to occupy a symbolic place as a litmus test of the success of constitutional democracy in South Africa. And yet, because gay and lesbian equality is not widely supported, it is also one of the key moral barometers testing the gap between the Constitution and public opinion. This article looks at a series of public hearings held under the auspices of the National House of Traditional Leaders to gauge public opinion on same‐sex marriages. This is used as a case study to explore how sexuality becomes pivotal in debates about nationhood and belonging.     

Benefits of caseload midwifery to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: A discussion paper

Background

Exposure to alcohol prenatally can result in a child being diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Affected infants experience lifelong impairments that can involve, physical, cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties that impact on their functional capacity. Effective prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is critically needed in Australia. Reduction in the prevalence of this disorder will only be possible if we prevent alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

Parenting Coordination as an Antidote for High-Conflict Divorce and Court Relitigation

The effects of high-conflict divorce and parental separation on couples and their children are explored along with the costs of ongoing relitigation of these cases in the family court system. Parenting coordination is discussed as an intervention to assist high-conflict divorcing and separating parents to effectively communicate and parent their children following marriage dissolution. It is also presented as an alternative to reduce instances of recurring legal battles. According to the literature reviewed, positive outcomes of decreased relitigation include less expense for the divorcing and separating parents, the family court system, and society as a whole. Implications for practice and research are presented.     

Exploring community stress and empowerment among stakeholders and youth in an urban community

ABSTRACT

Community-level stress, such as pervasive substance abuse and violence, can yield negative health and mental heath outcomes for youth from disadvantaged communities. Community empowerment is a process whereby community members work together to increase control in their community. This qualitative inquiry analyzed in-depth interviews with adult stakeholders (n = 17) as well as focus group interviews with token youth (n = 85) to explore perceptions of community stress and empowerment in one disadvantaged locale. Each of the 102 total participants helped interrogate the research questions: What does it mean to live in a stressed community? How might youth and adults perceive themselves capable of impacting a stressed community’s quality of life? Emergent themes, which include a nod to the utility of coalition building, are explored. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are also discussed.     

The Role of Worker Support and Religious Support in African American Special Needs Adoption: The Bennett Chapel Experience

Between 1998 and 2003 members and friends of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in rural East Texas adopted 70 African American special needs children. Data from surveys of 113 Texas and Louisiana adoptive families, including 14 Bennett Chapel families, found that the amount of anticipated worker support influenced the decision to adopt, particularly for Bennett Chapel families, and actual worker support was significantly related to positive adoption impact on the family. Comparisons of Bennett Chapel with other families highlight the uniqueness of this initiative. Findings underscore the importance of worker support for facilitating adoptions in faith and rural communities and increasing adoptions of African American children.     

Information,ancillarity, and sufficiency in the presence of nuisance parameters

The Fisher information about parameters of interest (P-information) is invariant with respect to nuisance parameters, and induces an information inequality associated with likelihood factorization. This information inequality provides a natural basis for measuring information loss due to using only a sublikelihood function for inference. In contrast with the global reparametrization of some previous concepts in the literature, the concepts of P-ancillarity and P-sufficiency proposed in this article are characterized by the notion of no pointwise information loss with respect to the parameters of interest. A conditional version of P-sufficiency is also proposed. The asymptotic efficiency of likelihood inference under P-ancillarity or P-sufficiency is outlined.