Consequences of an abusive system and possibilities of breaking the cycle

The totalitarian system in Romania survived for 45 years through generalized and repeated cycles of physical and mental abuse directed towards the population as a whole. Today's parents show all the signs of abuse, from denial, minimizing, rationalizing and selective memory to anger, fear and shame. They are also experiencing the aftereffects of abuse, such as suspicion, resentment, hopelessness, low self-esteem and the tendency to continue the abusive cycle. The parents and educators, who represent the essential part of a child's small universe and who should be able to shelter them from the effects of economic depression and lack of certitude and security which characterize the transition period, have all been victims of abuse. The abusive cycle is difficult to break, because one of the ways of survival and self-protection during the past communist regime was acceptance, compliance and lack of change. The paper presents some of the positive steps which could break the abusive cycle, such as: confession, physical and mental separation from the past, designating the guilty and a positive attitude towards oneself and towards society. These steps could help the adult to handle more easily the sad realities of the transition period and to reduce the impact of its unhealthy climate on children.     

Working with Signs of Safety: Parents' perception of change

Signs of Safety (SoS) is an approach used to work with families involved with children's services that was developed in Australia during the 1990s. Despite the fact that it has been adopted by countries across the globe, the evidence for its effectiveness in relation to improved outcomes for children has not been established. This study attempted to take an initial step in measuring the impact of SoS on families. In the course of evaluating SoS in 10 areas across England, the authors collected data from social workers using the approach and from families with whom they were working who also gave permission for their case records to be examined. Where social workers were more confident about using SoS and had consistently applied its elements, more families reported improvements in their lives. Families with social workers who had higher confidence in using SoS were also more likely to say that they had achieved more than expected against their earlier stated goals and were more likely to report positively against self‐defined goals.     

Postdivorce Parent–Child Contact and Child Well‐being: The Importance of Predivorce Parental Involvement

Frequent parent–child contact after divorce is generally assumed to be in children's best interests, but findings are mixed. This study extends the small body of research about the conditions under which parent–child contact is more beneficial or less beneficial by examining the role of predivorce parental involvement. It is argued that the more a parent was involved in child rearing in the past, the more important postdivorce parent–child contact is for child well‐being. Data from the Netherlands (N = 3,694) show that when children live with the parent who was not the primary caretaker, child well‐being is lower. Similarly, the more the father used to be involved in child rearing, the more beneficial nonresident father–child contact is for children. These findings suggest that it is not so much the frequency of contact per se that matters for child well‐being but, rather, the extent to which postdivorce residence arrangements reflect predivorce parenting arrangements.     

Poverty,Consent, and Choice in Early Marriage: Ethnographic Perspectives from Urban Tanzania

The assumed inability of adolescents to voluntarily consent to marriage is a key definition of child marriage. Using ethnography, this study approaches consent, self-determination, and fulfillment as dependent on the ability to make choices, not only between actual alternatives but also between perceived alternatives. In contexts of severe poverty, more attention is needed to the lack of viable alternatives open to families, and their motives in this context. In this study, 171 persons were interviewed in two majority-Muslim neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam. Some girls reported wanting to marry early, since poverty forces them to become adults capable of supporting themselves at roughly age 15–16, regardless of the personal wishes of their parents or guardians. Prior research tends to assume that early marriage prevents girls from continuing their education. This study suggests that educational opportunities are often closed off to girls before marriage. Policy recommendations given here are that organizations can more effectively address early marriage by (1) shifting the focus from legislation to urban poverty alleviation, (2) creating more employment opportunities for the poorest women in the city, (3) campaigning for more gender-equal attitudes in the informal employment sector, and (4) reducing financial costs of secondary schooling for adolescents.     

对特殊儿童家长参与学校教育的思考

特殊儿童家长参与学校教育是现代特殊教育的重要议题之一。与世界发达国家相比 ,我国特殊儿童的家长参与学校教育的问题在理论和实践上都还显得很不深入。以笔者的第一手研究材料为基础 ,参照西方学者关于“参与模式”、“家长需求”、“家长角色”和“家长的心理压力”的理论论述 ,对“家长参与”这一世界性的重要议题可以进行切合实际的探讨和思考 ,并由此提出了促进家长参与的几项策略。     

长沙东牌楼东汉简牍《光和六年自相和从书》研究

长沙东牌楼所出东汉简牍《光和六年自相和从书》是有关亲属间诤田并最终达成和解的文书案卷,在一定程度上展示了当时民事诉讼与和解的实态,学界在对此文书的文本解读方面颇有分歧。但从该文书的结构和内容来看,本文书应该与"列言"文书相类;原释文存疑的"娨(?)取"之"娨"字,应是"娉"字,"娉取"即"聘娶";李升的身份为"民",而非"赘婿"。     

农村婴幼儿家长托育服务需求的影响因素

三胎政策背景下,农村家长的生育需求是否增加与托育服务满意度有很大联系,了解家长的需求有利于完善相关政策法规,促进早期教育发展。采用扎根理论的方法,以80名农村家长为研究对象,深度挖掘家长托育服务需求影响因素,得到112个初始概念、10个范畴、3个主范畴,构建了农村家长托育服务需求的影响因素的理论模型,主要包括国家层面、家庭层面和机构层面,其中家庭层面是影响托育需求最主要的因素。     

离婚后父母对子女的探望权问题探析

修正后的《婚姻法》规定了有关父母对子女的探望权问题 ,填补了我国婚姻家庭立法上的一个空白。但是这一规定仍有不尽完善之处 ,特别是对子女是否享有探望权、探望权能否放弃等问题没有作出规定。本文建议在今后修改《婚姻法》或制定《民法典》时 ,应对子女探望权等相关问题作出明确的规定 ,以进一步完善我国婚姻家庭立法。