The plight of international child support enforcement

Arising from the landscape of global development and fueled by the demographics of increasing rates of mobility and divorce, the international enforcement of child support is a challenging and growing problem. Current initiatives to rectify this critical problem cut across geopolitical divides and have resulted in the creation of uniform procedures for child support enforcement that are awaiting ratification in the USA: the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. In the following paper, we will trace the evolution of these efforts and extrapolate a framework for social work practice illustrated by examples drawn from a case study of a family's plight with international child support enforcement. While thousands of families are impacted by this issue, there is a gap in the social work literature about this critical issue.     

Adoptive Parents’ Attitudes toward Adoption and Domestic Adoption Development in Korea: Adoptees’ Specific Needs for Origin

This study aimed to find out how Korean adoptive parents were carrying out their adoptions in Korea and to see if adoptive families truly understood the meaning of adoption and their adopted child's specific needs to know about his genetic roots. This understanding on the adoptive parents’ part is needed to help the child to form a self‐identity for his well‐being. The study sample of 352 adoptive parents may be the largest study ever done involving families currently raising their adopted children in Korea. Results showed that families did not seem to understand adoption with its characteristics well. Though families’ satisfaction with the adoption was very high, it appeared that their satisfaction was limited to when their adoptees were young, not being extended to when children became old enough to know of their adoption. For adoption development in Korea, however, it was encouraging that parents’ participation in local (regional) meetings with other fellow adopters from self‐support groups appeared to be the most significant consistent factor in contributing to the families’ understanding of adoption and their positive attitudes for the adoptees’ well‐being and to their satisfaction with the adoption.     

Emotion Socialization in the Context of Risk and Psychopathology: Maternal Emotion Coaching Predicts Better Treatment Outcomes for Emotionally Labile Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

We examined whether maternal emotion coaching at pretreatment predicted children's treatment response following a 12‐week program addressing children's oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms. A total of 89 mother–child dyads participated. At pretreatment, mothers and children engaged in an emotion talk task. Mothers also reported their beliefs about emotions at pretreatment and their child's disruptive behavior symptoms, emotion regulation, and emotion lability/negativity at pre‐, mid‐, and post‐treatment. Clinicians reported children's symptom severity at pre‐ and post‐treatment. Children's emotion lability/negativity moderated effects of maternal emotion coaching on children's post‐treatment ODD symptoms, with stronger benefits of emotion coaching for children high in emotion lability/negativity. Results suggest that emotion coaching may promote treatment response for children with ODD who are especially at risk due to their emotionality.     

Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: The Role of Parent Emotion Socialization and Children's Emotion Regulation Abilities

Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is a traumatic life event. Almost 50 percent of IPV‐exposed children show subsequent post‐traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and they are at increased risk for depression. We examined maternal emotion socialization and children's emotion regulation as a pathway that may protect IPV‐exposed children from developing PTSS and depression. Fifty‐eight female survivors of IPV and their 6‐ to 12‐year‐old children participated. Results showed no direct relations between maternal emotion socialization and child adjustment. However, several indirect effects were observed. Higher mother awareness and acceptance of sadness and awareness of fear predicted better child sadness and fear regulation, respectively, which in turn was related to fewer child PTSS. Similar indirect pathways were found with child depression. In addition, mothers’ acceptance and coaching of anger was associated with better child anger regulation, which related to fewer depression symptoms. Implications for prevention and intervention with high‐risk families are discussed.     

生命哲学视域下父母参与孩子社会化过程的审思

孩子成长的过程实质就是一个有机生命施展冲动、克服阻碍、不断创造从而得到生命和谐的过程。作为父母如果想参与这个过程，想对孩子获得社会性有所辅益，就必须了解孩子蕴涵生命绵延性质的三条人生主线，就必须适应孩子六个成长阶段的生命律动，就必须清除孩子融入社会洪流的困惑和阻碍，真正用生命的交融去关照孩子，去体验孩子，去帮助孩子，与孩子一起成长，一起生成，创造幸福，一起超越生命，获得生命的圆融。     

Cross-Cultural Validation of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory in Finland: Preliminary Findings of the Study Among Parents Expecting a Baby

ABSTRACT

In order to decrease physical child abuse, measures to recognize parents' abuse potential are needed. In this article, cross-cultural validation of the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory, an American measure was used to screen child abuse potential in families. Data were collected in 2012 from Finnish families expecting a baby at maternity and child welfare clinics. The data come from 380 families, including 375 mothers and 303 spouses. The validation was conducted separately for mothers and spouses and was based on basic psychometric properties, such as reliability estimates, abuse scale construct validity, and the abuse scale factor structure. The internal consistency of the abuse scale was high among both the mothers and the spouses. There were some differences in abuse construct validity and the abuse scale factor structure compared to the original measure, which was written in English and tested in an American sample. Those differences were, however, similar to those found by other studies that used translated versions of the inventory. In summary, the CAP Inventory was found to be a valid screening tool for professionals to assess parents' child abuse potential in Finnish service settings, and therefore its implementation is recommended in maternity and child welfare clinics. The validation supports the cross-cultural use of the CAP Inventory and future research on the subject.     

‘She is Too Young for These Chores’ — Is Housework Taking a Back Seat in Urban Chinese Childhood?

The child in contemporary urban China is experiencing an increasingly exclusive focus on academic achievement at the expense of non‐academic activities, particularly housework. In‐depth interviews with caregivers (including grandparents and parents) from 9 three‐generational families (n = 34) and parents from 10 nuclear families (n = 20) were conducted. Results show that although children from both family types were low in housework participation, children in three‐generational families were perceived by their caregivers to be less competent in performing self‐care and family‐care tasks. They were also less frequently assigned regular tasks as compared with children from nuclear families. Unlike caregivers from western societies, where children's participation in housework is seen as either a means of socialisation or a source of domestic labour, Chinese caregivers consider housework as a distraction, at best an addendum to academic work.     

父母共情水平与幼儿安全感的关系研究

为了了解父母共情水平与幼儿安全感的现状,探究父母共情水平与幼儿安全感的关系,采用台湾地区学者吴静吉等人引进并且修改而成的“中文版人际反应指针量表”和洪艳丽编制的“3-6岁幼儿安全感量表”对随机抽取的河北省400名幼儿和幼儿父母进行了测量,最后得到有效问卷371份(92.75%),所得的数据使用SPSS 23进行了统计分析。主要发现:1)父母共情总体水平(M=3.67)和幼儿安全感总体水平(M=3.56)均处于中等偏上水平。2)父母共情水平在父母性别(t=-5.54,P<0.001),幼儿年级(F=15.33,P<0.001),幼儿是否由祖辈抚养(t=4.81,P<0.001)和幼儿是否为独生子女(F=3.42,P<0.05)上有显著差异;幼儿安全感水平在幼儿性别(t=-4.19,P<0.001),幼儿是否由祖辈抚养(t=3.82,P<0.001)和幼儿是否为独生子女(F=4.35,P<0.05)上有显著差异。3)父母共情总体水平与幼儿安全感总体水平之间呈显著的正相关(r=0.153,P<0.01)。基本结论:幼儿父母共情总体水平越高,幼儿安全感总体水平就越高。因此,提高父母的共情水平是有效增强幼儿安全感的重要途径。     

幼儿家长对幼儿园家教课堂指导期待的调查研究 ——以呼和浩特市公立幼儿园为例

幼儿园是为学龄前儿童实施保育和教育的机构,一方面承担着对幼儿实施全面发展教育的任务,另一方面要服务家长。幼儿家长对幼儿园家教课堂指导的期待是幼儿园调整家园工作的重要依据。本研究主要采用问卷调查法,通过向呼和浩特市13所公立幼儿园的幼儿家长发放近3000份问卷,向幼儿家长了解对家教课堂指导频率、时间、主讲人、内容、形式等有着怎样的期待,在此基础上为幼儿园有针对性地开展家教课堂提供实证依据并提出相应的建议,从而促进家园更好的合作,最终促进幼儿的全面发展。