Development of an evidence‐informed in‐home family services model for families and children at risk of abuse and neglect

This paper describes the components of a programme designed to prevent child maltreatment which includes the promising practices of a continuous engagement process, cognitive‐behavioural parent and skill teaching, and development of formal and informal supports for families. The programme was also designed to be implemented wide scale. Methods for assessment of strengths and needs, individualization of goals and intervention strategies, and assessment of goal achievement are also described. Finally, preliminary results of a programme implementation fidelity and outcome evaluation are summarized. The authors conclude that this programme is ready for a more rigorous efficacy trial to continue to build the evidence base for this promising intervention addressing a prevalent social problem.     

Parenting stress and anger: the Hong Kong experience

This paper examines the relationship between parenting stress and anger. A study was done on parenting stress and anger and its form of expression among Hong Kong Chinese parents. Three measures were used in the study: Abidin's Parental Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF; 1990), the Maternal Social Support Index (Pascoe et al. 1981) and Spielberger's State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; 1991). A total of 475 parents of children in a primary school participated in the study. The Chinese PSI/SF and the STAXI showed good inter-item reliability. The study helped to provide a profile of the parenting stress and the style of anger expression of Hong Kong Chinese parents. Stress was not found to be related to the year of the children in school or the general socio-economic conditions of the family. But stress correlated positively with anger expression. Multiple regression showed that anger expression was most strongly related to Trait Anger, the Difficult Child scores and the social support available to respondents. Rather than blaming the parent or the child, it is suggested more services should be provided to enhance the anger management, problem-solving skills and social support of the parents.     

Children in permanent foster care in Sweden

The Swedish child welfare system has no permanency planning as we know it from, for example, the United States and Great Britain. Regardless of whether the child is placed in foster care with or without the parents’ consent, the law requires semi-annual reviews and there is no time limit set on reunion. Nevertheless, there are foster children who remain in the foster home throughout the whole of childhood, on terms similar to permanent foster care or adoption. This paper concerns a selection of findings from a research project entitled ‘Is there a difference in being a foster child?’. Foster children aged 10–11 were interviewed three times and the children’s perspective was focused on, complemented by the perspective of their foster parent(s). When interviewed about their relationship to their natural family as well as to the foster family, and about having a sense of family belonging and expectations for the future, 11 of the 22 children perceived their stay in the foster home as permanent and regarded themselves as belonging only to the foster family, although all of the children had contact with their birth parents. The study concerns the children’s views as well as those of the foster parents. The perception of permanency in the absence of a legal option of permanency is discussed.     

After Safety,What is the Goal of Child Welfare Services: Permanency,Family Continuity or Social Benefit?

Child welfare services have multiple goals, including child protection, family continuity, and achievement of legal permanency so children can end their involvement with child welfare services and have a lifetime family. These goals are not all achievable to the same extent in all cases. American child welfare policy has, in the last few years, become more definitive about the priority of child protection above family preservation. Now, situations which involve safety risks that are too great do not require any efforts at reunifying children to their biological homes. Less clear in American child welfare policy and practice is the value to be placed on other factors – particularly when a child cannot return home and will need an alternative adoptive family. Practitioners often emphasize family continuity – that is, the opportunity to maintain contact with the biological parent and extended family members – as a key decision making consideration. Yet, family continuity does not necessarily predict a successful transition to adulthood that is healthy for children or provides social benefits to the community. This paper explores the rationale for expanding child welfare decision making criteria by adding longer-term outcomes and the likelihood that children will eventually generate social benefits.     

Effectiveness of the International Child Development Programme: Results from a randomized controlled trial

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP), a group-based parenting programme used internationally and implemented nationally in Norway. We used a cluster randomized controlled trial in which 81 groups were randomly assigned to either the intervention or waitlist control condition after the baseline data collection. A total of 590 parents completed at least one of three questionnaires (administrated before and after ICDP and 4 months after completing the intervention). Primary outcomes included parental self-efficacy, parental emotion sensitivity and positive involvement with their child. Secondary outcomes included parents' perceptions of their relationship with the child, child-rearing conflicts and the child's psychosocial health. We found significant effects favouring the intervention arm following the intervention and at follow-up on two primary outcomes (parental self-efficacy and emotion sensitivity). For the secondary outcomes, we found a significant reduction in child-rearing conflict at the 4-month follow-up, increased closeness to the child, reduced child internalizing difficulties and increased prosocial behaviour immediately following the intervention. However, ICDP seems to have limited effects on parent-reported changes in children. We conclude that ICDP as a universal preventive programme offered to parents in groups can be effective in strengthening parental self-efficacy and improving parental emotion sensitivity.     

Learning from the experience of parents in poverty: The power of recognition

This study aims to contribute to the literature exploring the parents' perspective on what parenting in poverty means in their everyday life and how they are able to cope with the challenges that arise from a condition of economic deprivation. Forty parents living in different Italian regions had been interviewed. Data gathering and data analysis were conducted as a simultaneous and iterative process, oriented by the constructivist grounded theory. Our findings provide a clear picture of the parents' constant struggle to protect their children from an environment in which structural conditions and dominant narratives lead to normalize and personalize disadvantages. Parents described enabling and disabling processes that interplay at a material, relational and symbolic level, influencing their movement along a continuum that depicts different experiences in different moments of their lives, as the output of processes where vulnerabilities and strengths are combined. The parents' knowledge helps to explain the wider social processes and the day-to-day social interactions that influence the flow along this continuum. The final purpose is to allow their voices to be heard and to learn from their perspective, as it is essential in designing policies and services that are supposed to help them.     

Pathways to parenting stress reduction among parents in South Africa

Parenting stress has a range of effects on parents and their children. Despite existing evidence on the effectiveness of family-based interventions on reducing parenting stress, little is known about the mechanism of change that contributes to its reduction. This study investigates the mechanism of change in a parenting programme (Parenting for Lifelong Health [PLH]) on reducing parenting stress among parents of adolescents in South Africa. A pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted among a total sample of 552 parents and primary caregivers (aged, M = 49.37; SD = 14.69) who were recruited from 40 communities in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. A mediation analysis was performed to investigate direct and indirect effects using PROCESS macrostatistical software. The findings of the study indicate that parenting stress reduction operates via three significant mediators: improved parent–child relationship (β = 0.058, P < 0.000), reduced parental depression (β = −0.103, P < 0.000) and reduced family financial strain (β = −0.049, P < 0.000). The findings of the study highlight the importance of considering child, parental and contextual factors in the design and development of interventions aimed at reducing parenting stress in families in low- and middle-income settings.     

Nowhere to go: Housing pathways of college students with foster care and homelessness experience

This study builds on previous research to understand longer term housing experiences in late adolescence and early adulthood for vulnerable college students. Using a biographical, qualitative method, we study high school and college housing and family circumstances for 27 students with homelessness or foster care experience enrolled in 4-year colleges in Georgia. We identified three different housing pathway types in high school—family homelessness, unaccompanied youth and foster care. Housing instability and frequent moves were common in high school among all housing pathway types. In college, students who were able to find low or no-cost housing and those who identified a foster care pathway in high school achieved greater housing stability. Others students experienced a continuation of housing instability that began in high school. Additional funding to cover the cost of on-campus housing would likely contribute to increased stability. Additional strategies, such as rental assistance programmes tailored for college students, may be needed to address housing instability for vulnerable college students. More research on the unmet housing needs and the consequences of housing instability during college for homeless and foster youth is needed to further a housing policy agenda that focuses on practical solutions.     

离婚单亲家庭青少年眼中的家庭变故:风险与对策

父母离异的家庭变故对青少年的个体生活际遇带来了什么样的影响?通过对20位离婚单亲家庭青少年和18位双亲家庭青少年深度访谈资料的分析,研究发现:相对于双亲家庭的同龄人,父母离异为青少年带来了一系列风险效应:不对等效应、双向排斥效应和同化效应。