‘Do you want to do some arm wrestling?’: children's strategies when experiencing domestic violence and the meaning of age

The aim of this study is, by analysing children's and young people's discourses, to investigate their strategies in response to domestic violence episodes, in relation to their age. The empirical data come from individual interviews with children and young people (ages 8–20 years) who had experienced domestic violence and lived at refuges for abused women. The thematic analysis shows that the children describe a wide range of strategies before, during and after a violent episode, that all children act regardless of age and that strategies vary according not only to age but also to situation and context. The theoretical framework used is the sociology of childhood, and the analysis engages with theoretical concepts of age, agency and positioning.     

Substance‐dependent women becoming mothers: breaking the cycle of adverse childhood experiences

Parenting may be particularly challenging for substance‐dependent mothers who have grown up with parents who themselves had substance use disorders (SUDs). The aim of this study was to explore how substance‐dependent mothers describe their childhood experiences with substance‐abusing parents and the association between these earlier experiences and their own role as caregivers. Using purposeful sampling, mothers admitted for 1 year to a family ward at a substance abuse clinic were approached. Through in‐depth, qualitative interviews, nine substance‐dependent mothers described their lives in the form of present, past and future tense. The findings indicate that substance‐dependent women, who have experienced SUDs in their families of origin, face several major challenges when they become mothers. Some describe having lived their whole lives ‘on the edge of society'. This makes their rehabilitation process more complex. All mothers work to abstain from substances, process traumatic experiences and integrate their family into society. They need help to build supportive social networks and to establish a safe and predictable family environment for themselves and their children. The therapeutic implications of these findings will be discussed.     

On the margins of the child protection system: creating space for relational social work practice

In the UK, a threshold divides between two categories of children, child protection (CP) and child in need. Each category tends to be treated as a homogeneous entity, despite containing heterogeneous levels and forms of risk and need. CP practice, accompanied by regulation, protocols and procedures, aspires to achieve a coordinated multi‐agency response to identified concerns with available resources targeted towards this category. However, it is well known that those children assessed as falling just below the CP threshold can still have high levels of need and risk, requiring a level of social work involvement beyond the low‐resource and low‐oversight model that generally accompanies a child in need categorisation. This paper probes an approach to practice, which divides levels of risk within the child in need category enabling adequate, coordinated support and oversight to be provided for children and families with complex needs. Evidence from our study evaluating this approach suggests that a simple protocol provided a clear process within, which social workers and agency partners felt confident and safe to practice outside of the formal CP framework. The protocol prevented drift and helped to create a space within, which relational social work practice flourished.     

Improving outcomes for children in out‐of‐home care: the role of therapeutic foster care

How best to support children and young people in foster care remains a challenge for child welfare. There has been little Australian research on the outcomes for children and young people placed in therapeutic foster care (TFC). This article aims to address this knowledge gap, presenting the evaluation of a state‐wide model of TFC known as the Circle Program operating in Victoria, Australia. Data sources for the study were case assessment analysis; surveys of foster carers, program workers and other stakeholders in the sector; and both focus groups and individual interviews with foster care workers. The evaluation found that the Circle Program lessened the number of unplanned exits of children from foster placements compared with generalist foster care. Another important finding was that the Circle Program positively influenced foster carers' decisions to stay in the carer role. Key components perceived as contributing to outcomes of the Circle Program included enhanced training of foster carers, intensive carer support, specialist therapeutic support to the child and carer, therapeutic service to family members and a network of services to provide support to the child.     

Staff Member Reactions to Same-Gender,Resident-to-Resident Sexual Behavior Within Long-Term Care Facilities

The current study assesses ageism and heterosexism relating to older adult sexual activity within long-term care facilities. To assess caregiver reactions, 153 residential care facility staff members read one of three vignettes. Each vignette described a scenario in which a staff member walks in on two residents (male/female, male/male, or female/female) engaging in sexual activity. Although no main effects were discovered for vignette type, exploratory analyses revealed that the facility where participants were employed was significantly related to their ratings of approval. Furthermore, an interaction effect between vignette and facility types was also discovered for caregivers’ approval of sexual activity among residents. Additionally, a strong overall approval rating of older adult sexuality was reported by staff members. The results of this study warrant that further research is necessary regarding older adults’ perception of caregiver bias, as well as further investigation of caregivers’ perceptions of older adults’ sexual activity.     

Responding to teen dating violence: Perspectives from mothers who have been abused and seeking services in domestic violence shelters

ABSTRACT

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health problem, but we know little about how mothers who have been abused respond to TDV. This article analyzes qualitative data from three focus groups conducted with 17 mothers who had experienced abuse. Mothers responded to four hypothetical scenarios of their child reporting TDV to them. Mothers reported that their approach to children’s reports of TDV would entail engaging in varying levels of authoritarianism, considering the gender of the child, and exercising caution in their responses. In response to the scenarios, mothers stated that they would ask questions, educate their teens, contact the perpetrator and/or parents, share their own experiences, and call for outside help. The study’s findings may assist prevention educators working with mothers who experienced abuse in responding to their children’s disclosures of incidents of TDV.     

Generalized simultaneous confidence regions for regression coefficients and their ratios

This study constructs a simultaneous confidence region for two combinations of coefficients of linear models and their ratios based on the concept of generalized pivotal quantities. Many biological studies, such as those on genetics, assessment of drug effectiveness, and health economics, are interested in a comparison of several dose groups with a placebo group and the group ratios. The Bonferroni correction and the plug-in method based on the multivariate-t distribution have been proposed for the simultaneous region estimation. However, the two methods are asymptotic procedures, and their performance in finite sample sizes has not been thoroughly investigated. Based on the concept of generalized pivotal quantity, we propose a Bonferroni correction procedure and a generalized variable (GV) procedure to construct the simultaneous confidence regions. To address a genetic concern of the dominance ratio, we conduct a simulation study to empirically investigate the probability coverage and expected length of the methods for various combinations of sample sizes and values of the dominance ratio. The simulation results demonstrate that the simultaneous confidence region based on the GV procedure provides sufficient coverage probability and reasonable expected length. Thus, it can be recommended in practice. Numerical examples using published data sets illustrate the proposed methods.     

Comparison of methods for analyzing binary repeated measures data: A simulation-based study (comparison of methods for binary repeated measures)

In this study, some methods suggested for binary repeated measures, namely, Weighted Least Squares (WLS), Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE), and Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) are compared with respect to power, type 1 error, and properties of estimates. The results indicate that with adequate sample size, no missing data, the only covariate being time effect, and a relatively limited number of time points, the WLS method performs well. The GEE approach performs well only for large sample sizes. The GLMM method is satisfactory with respect to type I error, but its estimates have poorer properties than the other methods.