Leaving the door open for “tune ups”: Challenging notions of ending working relationships in family work

The working relationship is considered a central feature of direct practice with human services clients. There are many challenges when it comes time to end a working relationship, yet limited guidance for workers on successful relationship ending. This paper aims to increase understanding of the process of the ending phase of the working relationship for parents and workers working with families where child neglect is an issue. The paper draws on data from a small‐scale qualitative Australian study of perceptions of parents, family workers, and supervisors involved in eight parent‐worker relationships. Using semistructured interviews, participants were asked to explore how they experienced the relationship. The findings illuminate important aspects about the ending phase of the relationship; in particular, challenging the idea that parents' returning to services for support is a sign that the service has not provided a successful intervention. The paper challenges social workers to consider recurring parent–worker relationships similar to other professional relationships where there are episodes of service but the relationship is there to be reactivated where needed.     

Sexual intercourse,romantic relationship inauthenticity,and adolescent mental health

Numerous studies indicate sexual intercourse, especially when it occurs early in adolescence, increases youths' risk of mental health problems. However, no research has examined whether the association between sexual intercourse and mental health varies by romantic relationship inauthenticity, or the level of incongruence between thoughts/feelings and actions within romantic relationships. Using data from a subset of romantically-involved Add Health respondents, we measured sexual involvement in romantic relationships and applied sequence analysis to reports of ideal and actual romantic relationship to measure inauthenticity within adolescent romances. Regressions of depression symptoms indicate that the magnitude of the positive associations between sexual intercourse and girls' mental health is most pronounced in relationships characterized by high levels of relationship inauthenticity and that there is no association between sexual intercourse and girls' depression at low levels of relationship inauthenticity. Having sexual intercourse is positively associated with depression symptoms among boys, but relationship inauthenticity does not alter this association. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on adolescent sexuality and programs aimed at enhancing youth sexuality development.     

Family Matters: Research on Family Ties and Health, 2010 to 2020

Family ties have wide-ranging consequences for health, for better and for worse. This decade review uses a life course perspective to frame significant advances in research on the effects of family structure and transitions (e.g., marital status) and family dynamics and quality (e.g., emotional support from family members) on health across the life course. Significant advances include the linking of childhood family experiences to health at older ages, identification of biosocial processes that explain how family ties influence health throughout life, research on social contagion showing how family members influence one another's health, and attention to diversity in family and health dynamics, including gender, sexuality, socioeconomic, and racial diversity. Significant innovations in methods include dyadic and family-level analysis and causal inference strategies. The review concludes by identifying directions for future research on families and health, advocating for a “family biography” framework to guide future research, and calling for more research specifically designed to assess policies that affect families and their health from childhood into later life.     

The Moral Obligations of Some Debts

If given the opportunity to reduce your debt, albeit at some financial risk, would you take it? Interviews and observations in two debt settlement firms show that debt settlement clients tend not to calculate financial risks in deciding which debts to try to settle. Rather, they treat their relationship with their creditor as a reciprocal and ongoing one. If the service provided by their creditor was inadequate, clients feel justified in trying to settle their debt. Otherwise, they believe that they must pay back the debt in full. In line with recent work in economic sociology, we show that economic transactors are bound by the moral requirements of the relationship they are in. But debt settlement clients invent those relationships in at least two ways: turning a debt to an impersonal agency into a relationship with a person, and turning a relationship of inequality into one of equality. Clients may preserve some sense of autonomy in a disempowering relationship by conceptualizing their relationship with their creditor as one between equals. But there is a cost: As a result of the relational schemas on which they operate, they often refuse to try to settle debts that might be settled without lasting financial repercussions.     

论政府问纵向关系视角下的一票否决制

一票否决制是我国政府间纵向关系的一种表现形式，是上级政府对下级政府行使的一种特殊的强制命令权，是压力型体制的极端形式，是上级政府事权下移的体现。一票否决制存在的基础是下级政府自由权的扩大和上级政府权威的削弱，以及各级政府间相对独立利益的客观存在。在其产生以来的20多年间，一票否决制不断地扩散，导致基层政府不堪重负，同时也导致一票否决制的权威下降，间接损害了上级政府的权威。应当通过规范上级政府和下级政府的事权关系，规范一票否决制的使用范围，从而规范我国政府间的纵向关系。     

Relationships and identity of gay men in Mexico: A qualitative approach

Relationships are a fundamental element of human and social interactions because they provide us with meanings around physical and abstract objects that allow us to make sense of our reality and identities. There is little Mexican research regarding how gay men construct a sense of identity through their social interactions. This article describes the relationships that gay men in Mexico City have within their families, with their friends, and with their partners. Fifteen in-depth interviews are analyzed through elements of Grounded Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis. Results show that family reproduced homophobia with participants that taught them that their gay identity is socially unaccepted. This is deconstructed through friendships with other gay men. Partner relationships are lived as one of the last milestones in the construction of a gay identity. Some men question hegemonic values around sexuality through polyamorous and polygamous relationships. Conclusions show the importance of these social relationships for gay men's emotional well-being, but that their relationships are often impacted by cultural and interpersonal homophobia.     

Steps Together: Children’s Experiences of Participation in Club Activities With the Elderly

The amount of time that children and elderly people spend alone has grown in recent years in Finland. Based on sociocultural theory, children’s development and learning occur in close interaction with the surrounding society, place, and time. The aim of this study is to research children’s experiences of participation in club activities for children and the elderly. The qualitative research data were collected by observing activities and interviewing children. The key factors in supporting children’s participation were common interests in rewarding activities. A warm atmosphere and humor during activities were also found to be important elements in creating positive interactions between children and the elderly.     

Life Events, Sibling Warmth, and Youths' Adjustment

Sibling warmth has been identified as a protective factor from life events, but stressor-support match-mismatch and social domains perspectives suggest that sibling warmth may not efficiently protect youths from all types of life events. We tested whether sibling warmth moderated the association between each of family-wide, youths' personal, and siblings' personal life events and both depressive symptoms and risk-taking behaviors. Participants were 187 youths aged 9-18 (M = 11.80 years old, SD = 2.05). Multiple regression models revealed that sibling warmth was a protective factor from depressive symptoms for family-wide events, but not for youths' personal and siblings' personal life events. Findings highlight the importance of contextualizing protective functions of sibling warmth by taking into account the domains of stressors and adjustment.     

The UNCRC and Social Workers' Relationships with Young Children

In the UK, The Munro Review of Child Protection (2010, 2011a, 2011b) has recently highlighted that among the failings in safeguarding children known to social services is the lack of meaningful relationships between social workers and children. In her final report, Munro (2011b) has made recommendations for a more child‐centred system anchored on two themes – the child's journey and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This article illustrates by way of practical examples how the UNCRC, together with the detailed advice and guidance contained in the UNCRC general comments numbers 5, 7 and 12, provides the best framework for developing effective social work relationships with, and safeguarding, young children. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Citing Literature

Number of times cited according to CrossRef: 14

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• Cheryl McCormack, Marie Gibbons, Caroline McGregor, An Ecological Framework for Understanding and Improving Decision Making in Child Protection and Welfare Intake (Duty) Practices in the Republic of Ireland, Child Care in Practice, 10.1080/13575279.2019.1685464, (1-17), (2019). Crossref
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• Karmen Toros, Anne Tiko, Koidu Saia, Child-centered approach in the context of the assessment of children in need: Reflections of child protection workers in Estonia, Children and Youth Services Review, 10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.03.011, 35 , 6, (1015-1022), (2013). Crossref
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Volume 20 , Issue 6 November/December 2011

Pages 395-406