Father Involvement and Childhood Injuries

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children in the United States. Parental supervision is a key factor in preventing injuries, but little is known about the role of fathers. Today, one quarter of children live with a single mother, and another third live with a mother and her new partner, resulting in tremendous diversity in the amount and type of paternal involvement in children's lives. The authors examined the effects of involvement by resident biological, nonresident biological, and resident social fathers on the risk of injury among children from birth to age 5 using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,352). They found that living with a social father and social fathers' more frequent engagement with children increase risk of injury, but only for the youngest children. Higher levels of fathers' cooperative parenting reduce children's risk of injury regardless of fathers' biological or residential status.     

Family Ties and Young Fathers' Engagement in Cape Town,South Africa

Young South African fathers are often engaged in their children's lives even if they do not live together. Using longitudinal data on children (n = 1,209) from the Cape Town area, the authors show that although only 26% of young fathers live with their children, 66% of nonresidential fathers maintain regular contact, and 61% provide financial support. The father–child relationship, however, is embedded in broader family ties. The type of father–mother relationship is strongly associated with whether fathers coreside with their children but not with fathers' contact with nonresidential children. Close mother and maternal grandmother bonds reduce the likelihood that fathers live with their children, whereas close ties between fathers and paternal grandmothers increase the chance that fathers visit nonresidential children. Family ties do not affect fathers' financial contributions, which are driven by men's current economic situation. These findings illustrate that father–child relationships are best understood in the context of interacting family systems.     

Contact Between Birth and Adoptive Families During the First Year Post-Placement: Perspectives of Lesbian,Gay, and Heterosexual Parents

Despite growing visibility of lesbian- and gay-parent adoption, only one qualitative study has examined birth family contact among adoptive families with lesbian and gay parents (Goldberg, Kinkler, Richardson, & Downing, 2011). We studied adoptive parents’ (34 lesbian, 32 gay, and 37 heterosexual; N = 103 families) perspectives of birth family contact across the first year post-placement. Using questionnaire and interview data, we found few differences in openness dynamics by parental sexual orientation. Most reported some birth mother contact, most had legally finalized their adoption, and few described plans to withhold information from children. We discuss implications for clinical practice, policy, and research.     

中国父母在华裔儿童汉语保存与双语发展中的困惑及作用——以英国华裔儿童为例

在全球化格局的影响下,如何帮助海外华裔儿童实现汉语保存与双语发展已成为海外华人群体,尤其是中国父母最为关注的话题之一。以英国华裔儿童为例,父母在儿童汉语保存与双语发展过程中可以在社会文化、语言知识和认知发展方面起到重要作用。在社会文化方面,父母应在增强子女对中国和汉语认同感的基础上,创建和谐的家庭氛围,增强与英国当地学校之间的沟通。在语言知识方面,父母应采用与英国学校相一致的生动的词汇教学策略,“先语后文”的语音学习策略,同时帮助子女构建内部语法。在认知发展方面,父母应引导子女在良好发展好一种语言的基础上,发展第二语言,实现英汉双语平衡发展。     

大学生家庭教养方式、自尊水平与 职业决策自我效能感的关系研究

为了探讨大学生家庭教养方式、自尊水平与职业决策自我效能感间的关系,采用家庭教养方式量表、自尊量表以及职业决策自我效能感量表,对黑龙江省8所高等院校的456名大学生进行调查,调查结果显示:大学生家庭教养方式、自尊水平、职业决策自我效能感分别在是否为独生子女、性别、年级上对应差异显著;自尊水平、职业决策自我效能感这两个变量均与父母情感温暖与理解呈显著正相关;家庭教养方式可以显著地预测职业决策自我效能感,父亲过度保护因子、家庭教养方式总分能够显著的预测自尊.     

Building ‘community’ for different stages of life: physical and social infrastructure in master planned communities

As cities around the world struggle to cope with increasing populations, major new master planned housing developments are being undertaken to meet the demand for housing. Such urban developments are influencing workforce, household, and community relations, which in turn drive health and well-being outcomes, and affect social capital and labour market participation. This paper reports findings from the first phase of data collection for the Work, Home and Community Project. Fourteen focus groups were conducted with 68 men and women who live and/or work at newly developed master planned communities in South Australia and Victoria. Findings indicate that familiarity, availability, and the enabling of social bridges contribute to the development of community and social capital in these residential areas. For individuals at different stages of life these factors were facilitated or inhibited by specific physical and social infrastructures in the residential area and the workplace. At a time when concerns are being raised about the ability of people to combine work, home, and community these findings shed some light on the physical and social infrastructures that can enable or constrain the building of healthy communities.     

Influence of Parenting Behavior on Psychosocial Adjustment in Early Adolescence: Mediated by Anger Regulation and Moderated by Gender

Emotion regulation (ER)—one of the most important developmental tasks in early adolescence—has been proposed to mediate the relation between parenting and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of parental psychological control and autonomy support on adolescents’ problem and prosocial behavior (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), as well as to examine the mediating role of adolescents’ anger regulation and the moderating effect of gender. We collected three‐year longitudinal questionnaire data from N = 923 parents and their (at first assessment) 9‐ to 13‐year‐old children. Path‐analysis results mainly support the mediating role of adolescents’ adaptive and maladaptive anger regulation and suggest parental autonomy support to be beneficial for regulatory abilities and psychosocial adjustment, whereas the opposite was found for psychological control. Gender differences were found for parent report data, but not for adolescent report data. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

孝道视野下当代“傍老族”现象的反思

随着时代的发展,当代中国存在着日益庞大的"傍老族"群体,"啃老""傍老"的现象屡屡见诸各类媒体,引起了全社会的普遍关注.家庭教育的偏差,学校教育的破坏,社会二元结构的夹击,是当前青年群体"傍老"的主要原因,中国人历来重视孝道,秉承中国的传统孝道文化,走出"傍老"误区刻不容缓.     

Changes in Motivation for Adoption,Value Orientations and Behavior in Three Generations of Adoptive Parents

ABSTRACT

It is hypothesized that in this century a pattern of three generations of adoptive parents has developed: the traditional-closed generation, the open-idealistic, and the materialistic-realistic generation. These three generations differ considerably in motives and attitudes concerning adoption. Changes in the adoption field are connected with important changes in society. Adoption has lost its taboo character, domestic adoption is decreasing or has almost vanished (Scandinavia, The Netherlands) and interracial adoption has started. Several figures illustrating changes in adoption patterns during the period 1960–1995 support the hypothesis.     

Happily Ever After? The Journey From Foster Care to Adoption

Providing the foster child with a forever family through adoption is often seen as a happy ending to the long and painful journey through foster care. This qualitative study explores this complex journey from foster care to adoption from the perspective of 30 young adults aged 18 to 25 who were adopted from the foster care system after the age of 8. The results indicate that the foster and adoption experience for these youth cannot be compartmentalized when trying to understand the impact adoption has had on their overall sense of self. Implications for future research to explore the emerging concept of foster/adoptive identity for older youth adopted through the foster care system are provided.