The COVID‐19 Pandemic and Families in Japan

This paper, which is authored by members of the Japanese Association of Family Therapy (JAFT), describes the COVID‐19 pandemic in Japan from a family systems perspective. The authors are active members of JAFT and include current and past presidents and officers. We describe the course of the pandemic and the ways in which government policies to mitigate the pandemic have affected Japanese families. Challenges that affect Japanese families include the inability to participate in family and social rituals, prescribed gender roles that specifically affect women, high suicide rates, and prejudice against those who are at risk of spreading the infection. The need to shelter in place has also forced family homes to function as a workplace for parents, classrooms for children, and day care services for frail elders, which has resulted in psychological distress among individuals and conflicts among families. We discuss ways that therapists have worked with Japanese families using online therapy.     

机器学习视角下中国去产能产业的识别

随着中国环境压力的增加,政府提出了供给侧改革,去产能是改革的主要内容,但是由于产业特征的实时演变,需要对政策进行完善。文章运用模糊C均值算法和支持向量机算法分析现阶段需要进行去产能的产业,结果发现在现行去产能政策中大部分行业是需要去产能的,但煤炭开采和洗选业以及铁路、船舶、航空航天和其他运输设备制造业已不适合继续去产能,同时将化学原料和化学制品制造业加入去产能行列中。     

Community care for adults with severe mental disorders in rural China: A case study

In China, family care is the dominant form of care for people with mental disorders. Since 2004, the government has been developing a community‐care model that places more responsibility on community organisations and the local governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels for the provision of formal care. As a large number of people with severe mental disorders live in rural China, this case study was conducted in a rural county in order to examine the development of community care. It was found that, although family care remains dominant, families’ need for formal care is increasing. Community services have improved, but their development is constrained by several contextual and micro factors. In this study, it is argued that the community‐care model introduces a process of reconfiguration of the relative responsibility for care among the family, social organisations and the government, but progress depends on further administrative and fiscal reforms.     

Because they were there: Access,deliberation, and the mobilization of networks for support

When people need help, what is the process through which they decide whom in their network to turn to? Research on social support has described a process that is deliberative in nature: people determine their needs, assess who in their network has the needed attributes—such as skill, trustworthiness, intimacy, and accessibility—and then activate that tie. Nevertheless, research in behavioral economics and other fields has shown that people make many decisions not deliberatively but intuitively. We examine this possibility in the context of social support by focusing on one factor: accessibility. Although researchers have argued that people weigh the accessibility of potential helpers as they do any other attribute, accessibility may be not only an attribute of the helper but also a condition of the situation. We develop a framework to make this question tractable for survey research and evaluate competing hypotheses using original data on an analytically strategic sample of ∼2000 college students, probing concrete instances of social support. We identify and document not one but three decision processes, reflective, incidental, and spontaneous activation, which differ in the extent to which actors had deliberated on whether to seek help and on whom to approach before activating the tie. We find that while the process was reflective (consistent with existing theory) when skill or trustworthiness played a role, it was significantly less so (consistent with the alternative) when accessibility did. Findings suggest that actors decide whom in their network to mobilize through at least three systematically different processes, two of which are consistent less with either active “mobilization” or explicit “help seeking” than with responsiveness to opportunity and context.     

Protective factors and risk factors of being a victim of couple violence in women and men / Factores de riesgo y protección de ser víctima de violencia en la pareja en mujeres y hombres

The aim of this study is to determine the risk factors and protective factors of being a victim of couple violence, considering cultural conventions, coping, social support, external attribution and violence in childhood. A non-probabilistic sample of 223 women and 177 men was used. The risk factors in the sample as a whole were being male, the coping strategy of accommodation, violence in childhood and external attribution, while the protective factors were partner support and an active coping style. The study concludes with suggestions for interventions and research.     

现代激进主义文化思潮中的家庭重建——以《女铎》小说中的婚姻家庭观为视角

《女铎》是创刊于1912年,停刊于1951年的一份较有影响的妇女刊物。除了宣扬基督教义,还致力于提高妇女道德及普及新知识。《女铎》发表的小说多展示普通人日常生活中的温馨,所关涉的主题多为呈现于婚姻家庭中舍己的爱,这种爱又多是经历生活的艰难及双方的摩擦后而得的,因而显得愈发可贵。其中的女性常常不是软弱无力或哀怨愁苦,而是具有自尊自立自强的人格、直面人生困境的勇气以及对家庭邻舍的责任等美德。小说呈现出对女性生命价值的尊重,以及个体生命成长与贡献社会之间的平衡意识,揭示出新女性在个人与他者、感情与事业、社会与家庭等方面的调和努力,并本着建设的目的给出解决问题的答案,因而是对现代女性争取恋爱及婚姻自由之后道路的继续探索的体现。较之那些止于冲破旧家庭的新女性的塑造之作,无疑是一种深入;较之很多新文学作品中灰暗失败的新女性生活,也是一种积极的婚姻家庭模式的建造。     

Creating the Next Wave of Family Therapy

This article is an exploration of family therapy in Australia based on interviews with seven leading Australian family therapists: Max Cornwell, Carolyn Quadrio, Ron Perry, Laurie MacKinnon, Brian Stagoll, Banu Moloney and Jim Crawley. It explores the attributes and qualities of what makes a good family therapist and seeks to understand how the next generation of therapists can generate a new enthusiasm for family therapy.