The experience of sole mothers balancing paid work with care for a child with a disability

There are increasing numbers of families in Australia headed by sole parents, but little is known about the experiences of those who also care for a child with a disability. Additional caring responsibilities have previously been shown to impact on the work participation of parents. This study involved qualitative analyses of interview data conducted with sole mothers with school‐aged children with disability (N = 11). Thematic analysis revealed four themes that enabled and supported participation in the workforce: social support; managing appointments; characteristics of the workplace; and the role of the school. Results suggest the importance of practical help from family and friends in facilitating participation in paid employment. Additionally, the importance of flexible appointment scheduling on the part of service providers was highlighted, as well as the importance of workplace flexibility and supportive workplace cultures. Such factors were important in supporting sole mothers to balance work with care, with important implications for personal and family wellbeing.     

无序和虚空:后现代伦理存在的破碎

后现代伦理存在从主体性虚空到社会的道德虚空,无一不表现着破碎的样子,建立在封建纲常基础上的旧有伦理秩序被废弃、符合新时期社会期望的伦理存在方式还没有成熟。伦理主体存在着,却以没有主体的方式存在,存在以身体的呈现模式承载着自我和社会的破碎状态,以渴望和探索的姿态正在生成,主体理性也在不断的反思和对话中,拯救着迅速蔓延的虚空。     

Engagement strategies and change: an intentional practice response for the child welfare worker in cases of domestic violence

In order to engage mothers who are victims of domestic abuse, the child welfare worker needs to be challenged to develop an intentional practice response that includes knowledge and skill concerning the complexities of domestic violence, as well as the process of change. Developing a supportive relationship, understanding the stages of change (SOC) and engaging mothers as leaders in the change process are essential to successful child protection outcomes. Within the context of the SOC model, this practice‐based paper focuses on the importance of engaging mothers who are victims of domestic violence in conversations about their own unique dilemmas, challenges and barriers regarding change. Through the inclusion of engagement strategies such as signs of safety, active listening and cost/benefit analysis, in concert with the SOC theory, the child welfare worker would be equipped with an approach to successfully assist mothers through their change journey, ultimately keeping children safe.     

Anger Expression and Persistence in Young Children

This study investigated anger expression during toy removal (TR) in 92 young Chinese children, two to five years of age, and its relations to their persistence in responding to obstacles during two challenging tasks with highly desirable goals [TR and locked box (LB)] and one challenging task with a less desirable goal [impossible perfect circles (IPC)]. Anger expression during TR was positively associated with persistence during TR and LB but not during IPC. The results highlighted the positive effects of anger in the development of persistence.     

How Mood and Task Complexity Affect Children's Recognition of Others' Emotions

Previous studies examined how mood affects children's accuracy in matching emotional expressions and labels (label‐based tasks). This study was the first to assess how induced mood (positive, neutral, or negative) influenced five‐ to eight‐year‐olds' accuracy and reaction time using both context‐based tasks, which required inferring a character's emotion from a vignette, and label‐based tasks. Both tasks required choosing one of four facial expressions to respond. Children responded more accurately to label‐based questions relative to context‐based questions at the age of five to seven, but showed no differences at the age of eight, and when the emotional expression being identified was happiness, sadness, or surprise, but not disgust. For the context‐based questions, children were more accurate at inferring sad and disgusted emotions compared with happy and surprised emotions. Induced positive mood facilitated five‐year‐olds' processing (decreased reaction time) in both tasks compared with induced negative and neutral moods. Results demonstrate how task type and children's mood influence children's emotion processing at different ages.     

Knowledge and Skills of Sexual Abuse Prevention: A Study on School-Aged Children in Beijing,China

To examine the level of child sexual abuse prevention knowledge and skills in a sample of school-aged children, a total of 559 children from first to fifth grade were recruited from one primary school in Beijing, China. Participants were asked to finish a questionnaire surveying their knowledge and skills of child sexual abuse prevention. Results showed that accurate rate of knowledge on child sexual abuse prevention were between 44.0% and 80.0%. Percentage of participants having applied the self-protection skills of “saying ‘no,’” “going away,” and “telling adults” properly in hypothetical situations was 57.4%, 28.3%, and 48.3%, respectively. Third-to-fifth graders had a better performance than first-to-second graders, and girls performed better than boys. Findings suggest that Chinese school-aged children are in need of knowledge and skills related to child sexual abuse prevention, and education programs should be developed as soon as possible.     

Children's participation in foster care placements

This article presents results from a study of the birth children of foster carers and their experiences of growing up with foster siblings. Data were gathered from focus groups (17 participants), discussion groups (16 participants), a questionnaire (684 responses) and eight individual interviews. The children's participation in the fostering placements is in focus. Accounts from the children show that several of them participate in care-giving activities in everyday life. Their participation in the official assignment is however limited and can lead to children taking on responsibility with no support from adults. The tension between children's agency and position in society is addressed. The study shows how power relations between children and adults come into play, how both children and adults (re)-produce positions where children's rights to have a say in questions that concern them are not reflected within fostering processes.     

Connections and Constraints: The Effects of Children on Caregiving

This article assesses the effects of children on parents' involvement in caregiving. On the basis of interviews with 273 respondents, we address the effects of having children on care given to kin and nonkin; assess the effects of children's characteristics, especially age and gender, on the help mothers and fathers provide; and examine how these vary with mothers' employment. Overall, we find that the presence of children connects parents into networks of care more than it constrains them. The effects vary depending on the characteristics of the child (including age and gender) as well as characteristics of the parent (like gender and employment).     

Children's Expression of Emotional Meaning in Music Through Expressive Body Movement

Recent research has demonstrated that preschool children can decode emotional meaning in expressive body movement; however, to date, no research has considered preschool children's ability to encode emotional meaning in this media. The current study investigated 4- (N = 23) and 5- (N = 24) year-old children's ability to encode the emotional meaning of an accompanying music segment by moving a teddy bear using previously modeled expressive movements to indicate one of four target emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, or fear). Adult judges visually categorized the silent videotaped expressive movement performances by children of both ages with greater than chance level accuracy. In addition, accuracy in categorizing the emotion being expressed varied as a function of age of child and emotion. A subsequent cue analysis revealed that children as young as 4 years old were systematically varying their expressive movements with respect to force, rotation, shifts in movement pattern, tempo, and upward movement in the process of emotional communication. The theoretical significance of such encoding ability is discussed with respect to children's nonverbal skills and the communication of emotion.     

No sign of harm: issues for disabled children communicating about abuse

While all children may be the victims of abuse, disabled children are particularly vulnerable. This paper explores the views of professionals working with children using alternative/augmented communication systems on the issues relating to communication about abuse. Interviews were carried out with 20 staff from eight establishments for disabled children across Scotland. It describes the range of alternative/augmented communication systems used and the barriers to communication about abuse. Staff generally accepted the importance of providing the appropriate vocabulary in augmented communication systems, but systems that provide such vocabulary were not widely used. Staff considered that a major difficulty concerned the level of understanding disabled children might have about concepts of abuse. They were unsure how the appropriate vocabulary could be introduced in a natural way and how links could be made between the signs and their meanings. Staff saw themselves as those most able to protect the children, but it was felt that discovery of abuse was more likely to come from them noticing physical signs, behaviour or mood changes than from the child communicating explicitly about abuse. The need for appropriate training and increased coordination between social work, health and education is highlighted. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.