What do we know about the social networks of single parents who do not use supportive services?

The role that social support and social networks play in mediating isolation and stress experienced by vulnerable families is well established. However, a major issue facing supportive human services is to find and engage families with limited social networks and link them to supports that could improve outcomes for their families. This paper reports on the results of in‐depth interviews with 20 sole parents with children aged under 5 who were not well connected to services. It documents their social networks with the use of a social network map. Using a social capital lens, the analysis attempts to differentiate the different relationships in the participants' lives. Most participants were not satisfied with their informal networks, with conflicted or ambivalent reliance on family, absence of support and community engagement and fragility of informal networks. Although this group of isolated mothers does encounter the formal service system, the opportunities to increase and strengthen their networks do not eventuate. Better understanding of the nature and extent of social networks can inform practitioners and policy‐makers of the critical factors needed to increase service use for parents with limited resources.     

幼儿园大班家长焦虑状况特征及类型分析

运用自编《幼儿园大班家长焦虑状况量表》对471名幼儿园大班家长进行调查,结果发现：幼儿园大班家长因幼儿入园产生的焦虑情绪主要表现为教育焦虑、安全焦虑和生活适应焦虑。整体而言焦虑水平中等偏上,但不同维度得分之间差异较大,教育焦虑层面上的分值明显更高,而安全焦虑的分值水平相对最低;幼儿园大班家长焦虑在角色、年龄、所在地、家庭年收入、学历、胎次等人口学变量上存在显著差异,整体来看母亲焦虑更多,在教育焦虑和生活适应焦虑方面,城市家长焦虑水平高于农村家长,安全焦虑上农村家长焦虑水平高于城市家长。低收入、低学历、首胎家长焦虑水平较高。通过聚类分析,可以将大班家长分为教育适应焦虑型、安全焦虑型以及中等焦虑型三种类型。针对幼儿园大班家长焦虑问题,应特别关注教育及生活适应焦虑的解决,重视母亲、低社会经济地位及首胎家长的焦虑调节,提高家长的心理调节与适应能力,帮助其做好幼小衔接。     

Adult children of parents with mental illness: Family stigma and coping on sense of self

Family stigma is associated with persistent negative outcomes among adult children of parents with mental illness (ACOPMI). Loss of sense of self has been reported by ACOPMI; however, the role of family stigma on sense of self remains unclear. Additionally, research suggests coping behaviour (i.e. adaptive or maladaptive) influences the effect of stigmatization on sense of self. This study investigated the impact of family stigma and coping on sense of self among ACOPMI (N = 134, 63.4% female). As hypothesized, high family stigma was associated with weak sense of self (p < 0.001), and ACOPMI who endorsed adaptive coping demonstrated higher sense of self than those who coped maladaptively (p < 0.001). Further, coping moderated the relationship between family stigma and sense of self (p < 0.001). Unexpectedly, this relationship was only significant for ACOPMI with adaptive coping skills (p < 0.001). At higher levels of stigmatization, post hoc analysis revealed coping styles did not exert an influence on sense of self. Results suggest family stigma contributes to loss of sense of self among ACOPMI, with adaptive coping being protective only at lower levels of family stigma. Findings highlight the need for a systemic approach to eradicate family stigma.     

从曾国藩科举观看其家教思想

在对待科举的观念上,曾国藩迥异于当时的主流教育观念。对弟弟们和长子曾纪泽的科举,曾国藩表现出不必学科举、不强求中举、得失不足挂怀的观念;对次子曾纪鸿的科举,他表现出始于重视终于释然的观念。曾国藩的弟弟和两个儿子都未中举,曾国藩并没有让他们困在科举的泥潭里,而是引导他们另辟蹊径,使他们最终在各自擅长的领域取得了一定成就。曾国藩的科举观不仅仅是简单的教育观念,背后蕴含了丰富的家教思想,诸如读书非功利、得失随缘、笃立大志、孝友传家、因材施教、开明务实等思想,这些思想对家族成员产生了潜移默化的影响,使曾家成为享誉中外的百年家族。曾国藩的家教思想历久弥新,在当下的读书考试、升学就业和家风传承等方面仍有启示意义。     

Parents' Experiences During the Family Reunification Process: A Chinese Context

Family reunification is always an integral part of a permanency plan and is a preferable outcome for children in care. However, reunification is not straightforward, involving many subsequent negotiations between parents, children, and social workers, sparking various emotions and struggles among the involved parties. Current research on parental experiences of family reunification is predominantly of a cross‐sectional nature, and rarely reflects the parents' experience throughout the process. This paper reports the results of a qualitative panel study aimed at exploring the experiences Chinese parents have during the process of children returning home from care. Seven parents were recruited. Data was collected at three time points and informants narrated their experiences from both a retrospective and prospective perspective. The findings showed that all parents struggled to become competent caregivers. Three salient themes were identified: inferiority, adjustment, and challenge. The parents' experiences revealed the prevalence of stigmatization among social work professions toward parents. This study recommends re‐focusing the policy direction and intervention strategies of out‐of‐home care from family coercion to family support.     

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.