Into adulthood: a follow-up study of 718 young people who were placed in out-of-home care during their teens

In this study, national register data were used to analyse long‐term outcomes at age 25 for around 700 Swedish young people placed in out‐of‐home care during their teens. The sample consisted of 70% of all 13‐ to 16‐year olds who entered out‐of‐home care in 1991. Results revealed a dividing line between young people placed in care for behavioural problems and those placed for other reasons. Young woman and men from the first group had – in comparison with peers who did not enter care – very high rates of premature death, serious involvement in crime, hospitalizations for mental‐health problems, teenage parenthood, self‐support problems and low educational attainment. Young people who were placed for other reasons had better outcomes, but still considerably worse than non‐care peers. Young women tended to do better than young men, regardless of reasons for placement. Very high rates of hospitalizations for mental health problems were found among young people placed for behavioural problems. Breakdown of placement was found to be a robust indicator of poor long‐term prognosis.     

水环境质量改善对滨江型城市人居环境的影响分析

本文分析了水环境和人居环境的概念,探讨了水环境和人居环境的关系,提出水环境是人居环境的有机组成和重要体现。通过城市兴衰的历史考察、缘由追溯,对城市化进程和我国现时水环境问题的剖析、归纳与总结,提出滨江型城市水环境质量改善的构架包括水安全、水生态、水景观、水文化等四个方面,对典型的滨江型城市江苏省镇江市的水环境质量现状分析及水环境质量改善构成体系进行实证性的系统剖析,提出水环境质量改善对滨江型城市特色、城市发展及沿江综合开发的影响和对策。     

Residential care: an effective response to out‐of‐home children and young people?

The ever‐growing number of out‐of‐home children in Italy over the last decade has urged an assessment of the available care services. Although foster care is spreading rapidly, many young people are still housed in residential facilities. Reflection on residential care quality has intensified at both a national and an international level. This paper presents the results of a study on residential care facilities for children and young people in the region of Northern Italy (Lombardy). Four dimensions of ‘quality’ are considered: efficiency, effectiveness, participation in planning and intervention, and empowerment of children and their family relationships. The combined effects of these dimensions are defined as ‘relational quality’. The results show that residential care facilities are generally good, while Social Services resources often appear inadequate for interventions aimed at birth families (efficiency). The well‐being of children in residential care facilities is high, even if they tend to move from one facility to another, rarely returning to their birth family (effectiveness). The involvement of children and their families at different stages of the care path is limited (participative approach). Finally, the most critical element is the failure to properly involve birth families (empowerment).     

Innovations in care for children separated from parents: Transitioning from residential to family models of service

Research suggests that children develop best in families, but millions currently reside in residential care centers. Many residential care centers have transitioned their programmes from a to a family care model. Using a mixed methods design, the current study examined (1) antecedents to transition, (2) key elements in the process and (3) outcomes of transitioning models of care. Participants included 39 non-government organizations that had fully or partially transitioned to family care. Programmes collectively served 12 325 children and 29 499 families in 22 countries annually. Data revealed programmes perceived the change in the model was better for the families and children served.     

Touch in residential child care: staff’s bodies and children’s agency

This paper concerns the significance of touch in the everyday life of those living and working in residential child care. Public and professional awareness about child abuse has focused attention on the bodies of children and their vulnerability – but the same cannot be said of the bodies of staff members who touch children. This ethnographic study of a Scottish residential child care unit shows such touch to be central to the everyday participation of children and young people in care. On the basis of participant observation, the paper analyses how care workers influence the agency of children and young people by bringing their own bodies into their relationships with them. Based on a relational understanding of care, the paper elaborates on how tender and restraining forms of touch form part of care workers’ professional repertoire of actions. The analysis of various instances of touch in terms of sociology of the body shows how staff members can help to shape children and young people’s opportunities for participation with their own bodies. In conclusion, the paper therefore argues for a professional and reflexive engagement with bodies rather than a general avoidance of touch between care workers and young people.     

From walls to homes: Child care reform and deinstitutionalisation in Ghana

In 2006, the Ghanaian government, in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), began to reform the child welfare system. The main aim of this reform was to provide a sustainable and culturally appropriate system of care for children without parental care by shifting from an institutional‐based model to a family and community‐based one. Drawing on existing peer‐reviewed and grey literature, this article provides an overview of the major components of the reform, including reintegration with the extended family, foster care and adoption. In addition, the article discusses the prospects and challenges involved in achieving the reform's intended component. Key Practitioner Message: ● Use community development techniques to raise the resources needed to provide family support services for vulnerable families; ● Social work practitioners partner with non‐governmental organisations to train community members as para‐social workers; ● Social workers, especially in developing countries, understand the challenges they face when embarking on deinstitutionalisation.     

Urbanization in China and the Coordinated Development Model—The case of Chengdu

China's urbanization faces two greatest difficulties of creating non-farm jobs to “landless farmers” and providing required amenities and social services to urbanites-to-be. In the earlier phase of development, TVE employment had provided important relief to the job pressure. Later, the “Small-city Strategy” that emphasized forming towns and small cities around where rural population resided successfully deterred rural population's entry into large cities. Today, China is implementing a Coordinated Development between the urban and rural sectors, aiming to reach a balanced development between the two sectors by making not only large cities more welcoming to rural migrants but also the small cities, towns, and areas where rural population now reside harder to leave. At the core of the coordination are three concentrations of rural residents, farmland, and firms, intended to help rural residents to settle in large cities, small cities and towns, as well as new residential areas in the countryside, to de-segment land to realize economies of scale, and to gather firms of a same industry in organized industrial areas to gain agglomeration economies and create non-farm jobs. This article examines the trajectory of China's urbanization, analyzes the working mechanism of the Coordinated Development model, and investigates Chengdu's practice of the Coordinated Development, which will help to provide insights into the new developments in China's urbanization.     

Coresidence With Elderly Parents: A Comparative Study of Southeast China and Taiwan

Using recent survey data from the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) on 1,655 married persons born in 1964-1976 in southeastern China and Taiwan, we studied coresidence with elderly parents using a multinomial probit model for coresidence type and an ordered probit model for residential distance. The study yielded four findings: (a) Patrilocal coresidence was more prevalent in Taiwan than in China; (b) matrilocal coresidence was more prevalent in China; (c) practical factors mattered in both places; (d) in Taiwan only, a couple's economic resources facilitated breaking away from patrilocal coresidence. The findings suggest that, although economic development does not necessarily result in less traditional familial culture, personal economic resources may enable individual couples to deviate from tradition.     

Transition secured? A follow-up study of adolescents who have left secure residential care

Many adolescents who make the transition to adulthood experience problems after their departure from secure residential care. Research suggests that these young people are often in need of support after they have left secure care. Little is known about the experiences and perceptions of adolescents during and after this transition. The aim of this article is to assess these experiences for a group of 24 adolescents in the Netherlands that have left secure residential care. The results show, in line with previous studies, that many adolescents experience problems during their transition from secure care, especially with regard to finances, school and employment, and living arrangements. In contrast to other studies, a majority of the adolescents reports to have received support in the year following their departure. Relatively few adolescents move to independence after their departure, which suggests that many adolescents are not ready for making a true transition into adulthood yet.     

从市民形象塑造看老舍的文化心态

老舍的小说构筑了一个独特的现代市民社会。透过老舍笔下市民社会的世态人情和世事变迁,可以看出老舍对"市民形象"的清醒认识,也可以看到老舍在人物形象塑造方面独特的文化心态。他一方面深感民族的愚弱而神往古老民族在现代意识的拯救下获得新生,一方面又对古老文明在现代文明冲击下的衰败表现出难以按捺的焦灼;他既站在现代意识层面上重新审视传统文明,又从传统文明的角度批评现代文明带来的人性沦丧;他既抨击古老民族血液中的沉淀物,又力图让传统美德溶进时代潮流中去,从而显示出他在新旧交替时代的觉醒和困惑。