A Canadian experience with an intervention programme for vulnerable families: lessons for German social work and policy

Schools are an important community resource that can foster social connections and enhance the health and wellbeing of children and families in Germany through information, health promotion and interventions. While developing social connections between the school and vulnerable families—those who are most limited in their access to other sources of information, education and intervention—is complex and challenging, it is nonetheless critical. This paper reports on the role of Families and Schools Together (F&ST), a school-based intervention aimed at vulnerable families, in building and promoting the social connections, or social capital, that strengthen families and communities. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that programme participants perceived an increase in their social capital in all three of its dimensions (bonding, bridging and linking). The paper highlights the importance of social capital in building stronger, more resilient families and of strengthening relations between parents and schools, and contributes to the sharing of experience and views on matters concerning families in Germany.     

Is the Way Young People Drive a Reflection of the Way Their Parents Drive? An Econometric Study of the Relation Between Parental Risk and Their Children's Risk

This article aims to investigate parental influence on high-risk behavior by young people. Although research on the topic of perception of risk demonstrates that it is socially constructed, the role of the family in this construction has rarely been studied. Using a French national survey of more than 1,200 young drivers between the ages of 18 and 25, and their parents, we attempt to understand the transmission of risk within families. Our econometric study shows that parents influence both the practices and representations of their children. When parental norms and values are transmitted, they are by no means accepted in a wholly passive way. Indeed, the parental model is in competition with other models that originate from both inside the family (brothers and sisters) and outside it (instructors). Furthermore, parental influence decreases over time as young people become more experienced drivers and construct their own identity with regard to risk.     

An Ethnographic Approach to Understanding Service Use Among Ethnically Diverse Low Income Families

Poverty is linked to disparity in families access to basic human services and an incapacity to fulfill basic needs. The study described in this paper uses a qualitative research design to address the ecology of service use in the family within the broader social and physical environment. While the focus of this paper relates to the methodology of the study, some substantive results are used for illustrative purposes. Through an in-depth study of families in the contexts of their neighborhoods, our task is to search for patterns and their meanings. This process may uncover the motives and beliefs underlying service use and access among the families in our study.     

浅谈计划生育法制建设

依法管理计划生育工作是国家民主法制建设的重要组成部分。本文论述了计划生育法制建设方面存在的各种问题 ,并提出了加强计划生育法制建设的一些对策     

高校马克思主义中国化教育的家庭环境问题探论

家庭环境对高校马克思主义中国化教育的影响问题还没有引起学术界的关注,但新时期家庭环境已经客观地发挥着它越来越重要的作用。我们客观地总结了目前对马克思主义中国化教育家庭环境因素认识上的偏颇,分析了家庭环境影响力增强的原因和呈现的特征,探索了借助家庭环境改进高校马克思主义中国化教育的途径。     

‘My dad hangs out of helicopter doors and takes pictures of oil platforms': Children's accounts of parental work in the oil and gas industry

Against the backdrop of the acceleration in pace of work and family life over the last decade, and the accompanying intensification of the work-family debate, this paper argues for the need to include children as stakeholders in the work-family debate. The ethnographic study on which this paper is based brings together children, family, work and community to explore interrelationships between workplace change, parental employment and family life in the oil and gas industry in Scotland. This paper focuses specifically on children's accounts of parental work and the work-family interface. Children, aged 8-12, were seen in schools and at home. Eight focus groups were conducted in two primary schools with 33 children. Nineteen of the families of these children participated in follow-up home interviews, in which 21 focus group children and a further 21 children (siblings, cousins and friends) were seen at home. Multiple methods were used: pictures and photographs of 'work', drawings, a poem, vignettes, word games, and a 'life mode technique'. The paper discusses children's concepts of 'work'; children's knowledge of parental work and the oil industry; children's perceptions of the impact of work on their parents; children's accounts of the effects of parental work on them and the importance of 'family time'; children's own work aspirations; and children's views and values about involvement, communication and decision making regarding parental work. Similarities and differences between children's accounts are highlighted. Sobre el telón de fondo del aumento de paso del trabajo y de la vida familiar en esta última década, y la intensificación del debate 'trabajo/familia' que lo acompaña, este artículo aboga por lo necesidad de incluir a los niños como partes interesadas en tal debate. El estudio etnográfico sobre el cual se basa este artiículo reune a los niños, la familia, el trabajo y la comunidad para explorar las interrelaciones entre el cambio de lugar del trabajo, el empleo de los padres y la vida familiar en la industria petrolera y del gas natural en Escocia. Este artículo se centra específicamente en las cuentas de unos niños del trabajo de los padres y de la interrelación entre el trabajo y la familia. Se entrevistaron a unos niños de 8—12 anos de edad en la escuela y en casa. Se realizaron ocho grupos de enfoque con 33 niños en dos escuelas de estudios primarios. De las familias de estos niños, 19 participaron en entrevistas de seguimiento, en las cuales 21 niños de los grupos de enfoque y 21 niños más (hermanos, primos y amigos,) fueron entrevistados en casa. Se emplearon múltiples métodos: ilustraciones y fotografías de ‘trabajo', dibujos, un poema, estampas, juegos con palabras y una ‘técnica modo de vida'. El artículo trata de los conceptos de los niños del trabajo; los conocimientos de los niños del trabajo de los padres y de la industria petrolera; las percepciones de los niños del efecto del trabajo en sus padres; las cuentas de los niños de los efectos del trabajo de los padres en los mismos niños y de la importancia del ‘tiempo para la familia'; las propias aspiraciones del los niños acerca del trabajo; y los puntos de vista y los valores de los niños sobre la participación, la comunicación y la toma de decisiones acerca del trabajo de los padres. Se ponen del relieve los elementos en común y las diferencias entre las cuentas de los niños.     

机构改革背景下的中国计划生育新去向

结合实践对机构改革背景下的中国计划生育未来走向进行了探讨。认为:中国人口形势的根本性变化、计划生育负效应逐渐显现、法外职能拓展过度及职能交叉与计划生育工作特色渐失、自我封闭和思想僵化、未对变化了的人口形势适时作出政策回应是导致人口计生部门被撤并的主要原因。人口计生部门多对突然降临的机构改革缺少必要的心理准备,思想上出现一时混乱实属必然。伴随着机构改革,人口计生工作被弱化、卫生与计生冲突不可避免。而计划生育政策调整以及伴随而来的历史遗留问题的消解是国家卫生计生委与国家发改委将面临的无法回避的新问题。     

Family Work in Oncology: Trusting the Narrative

The author describes her work with a dying patient, work that extends from the patient to his wife and adult offspring, and has transformative benefits for the family.     

The Significance of Shift Work: Current Status and Future Directions

This paper provides a review and synthesis of research literature on the effects of shift work on workers’ physical health, mental health/well-being, and family life. The focus is on current knowledge, unanswered questions, and new directions for future research. The selection of research literature is guided by a general conceptual framework that identifies predictor variables, moderating variables, and outcome variables. The paper concludes with a discussion of the variables that should be incorporated into an agenda for future research.     

Parents’ income and children’s school drop-out at 16 in England and Wales: evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study

This paper investigates the effect of parents’ income on children’s drop-out from school at age 16 using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). Unlike previous papers using the same data set, we use a continuous measure of income derived from the grouped income variable available in the BCS70, we employ instrumental variable techniques to address the issue of endogeneity of family income and take account of the potential endogeneity of income response with respect to a child’s education by jointly modelling the school drop-out decision and response to the family income question. Our estimates show the exogeneity of response to the income question with a child’s education and are in line with the previous literature finding a statistically significant small negative effect of family income on school drop-out at 16. On the contrary, other non-pecuniary parental effects, such as parental education and social class, turn out to be both significant and of a sizeable magnitude. Early versions of this paper benefited from presentations at the University of Warwick, the ZEW Summer Workshop 2002 on Human Capital, the European Society for Population Economics 2002 Conference and the European Economic Association 2002 Conference and comments by Martin Andrews, Lorenzo Cappellari, Charlotte Lauer, Derek Leslie, Jeremy Smith, Mark Stewart, and two anonymous referees. The BCS70 data were kindly provided by, and used with permission of, the UK Data Archive (UKDA, University of Essex). Funding from the ESRC is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.