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The context of this paper is family situations where young people are experiencing significant behavioural and emotional problems. Based on a qualitative study, it offers an empirical and theoretical contribution to the understanding of family‐related factors that promote or hinder behaviour change. Data were collected through face‐to‐face, semi‐structured group interviews with nine families (28 participants), all of them mandatory recipients of child welfare services in Croatia. Thematic analysis comprised primary coding designed to elicit information about individual family members' capacity for change and secondary coding of family‐level phenomena. The results indicated 10 phenomena that were judged to represent factors that helped or hindered change. The discussion section suggests three broad categories of capacity to change at family level (Goals and Priorities; Problem solving dynamics; and Development of role relationship). This analysis is offered as the basis for an examination of the concept of family capacity for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on data that is part of a wider evaluation of a small‐scale project that offers support to parents, children and families affected by alcohol and substance use. Using semi‐structured interviews and a focus group, the data in this paper explore mother's sense making of their substance use and their experiences of various professional interventions which have helped or hindered their personal journeys of recovery. Mothers' narratives suggested a self‐critical inner dialogue conceptualized as shame. Fear of stigma and a sense of shame derived from historical abuse and had a profound effect on how mothers perceived themselves and how they negotiated a web of professionals involved in their lives. Community projects with a focus on understanding mothers and their needs, and not the risk they posed to their children, were considered most supportive. Interventions working within a non‐judgemental and empathetic framework that fostered the importance of relationships and connection had a greater impact on mothers' long‐term recovery goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siblings are key actors in the social network of young people in care. This paper explores young people's perceptions of changes in the quality of sibling relationships and the pathways relationships follow during the transition from the biological family into care. A thematic analysis of interviews with young Norwegian people (n = 25) in care showed that, in the biological family, sibling relationships are characterized by alliances, parentification, conflicts or nonexistence. After admission to child welfare services care, sibling relationships developed along multiple pathways. Their sibling relationships reshaped into either close and supportive, conflictual or completely broken relationships. Sibling relationships were dynamic, complex, with the pathway, and its impact on well‐being, being unique to each young person. Sibling relationship quality in the biological home did not predict relationship quality after admission to child welfare services. The implications for social worker practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how social workers intervene with affluent parents when there are child protection concerns about neglect. Based on data gathered from a small‐scale exploratory qualitative study with 30 practitioners from 12 local authorities across England, this study examined three overarching questions: (a) How do social workers identify risk factors for vulnerable children in affluent circumstances? (b) Which factors inhibit or enable social workers' engagement with resistant affluent parents when there are child protection concerns? (c) What kind of skills, knowledge, and experience is necessary for social workers to effectively assert their professional authority with affluent parents when there are concerns about abuse and neglect? The findings revealed that indicators of neglect can be difficult to identify and challenging to respond to when parents are affluent. Results indicate that social workers have to navigate complex power relationships with parents who are able to use their class privileges to resist their interventions. The paper concludes with a discussion of social workers' skills and capacities for engaging highly‐resistant affluent parents in the child protection system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a contemporary context dominated by reports of the historical institutional abuse of children and young people in residential children's homes, and where the voice of workers is largely absent, this study explores the views and experiences of 26 workers in the Republic of Ireland regarding relationship‐based practice. Using an exploratory, qualitative approach and informed by 'appreciative inquiry'; semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with 26 residential care workers. The findings highlight that relationship‐based practice has not been fully understood and/or embraced in practice because of a culture of fear that has permeated the Irish residential childcare system. Using theoretical concepts associated with the sociology of fear, the paper explores their effects on practice and argues that these are amplified given the current low status of residential care workers, the impact of media reports and the influence of current discourses around professional practice in which 'objective' and 'emotionally detached' practice is viewed as synonymous with efficiency and effectiveness. The paper ends by considering implications for professional practice in residential childcare settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research on the experiences of unaccompanied asylum‐seeking young people in the UK has grown steadily in recent years, their experience of fostering and of the role played by foster carers in helping their adjustment have been neglected. This paper reports findings from the first UK study into these experiences, describing issues arising from initial assessment and preparation for fostering and the ways in which young people and foster carers adjusted to their lives together. It assesses the progress made by young people during placement, the strategies that appeared helpful to relationship building, and the extent to which young people had become integrated within the wider network of family relationships. Given that most young people first arrive as teenagers, it also considers the ways in which foster carers and social workers helped young people prepare for adult life in the context of uncertainties arising from the asylum process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research and theorizing has characterized contemporary mothering as medicalized, intensive and risky. The rate of diagnosis of children's mental health issues has grown rapidly, particularly since the 90s. This paper examines the construction of mothering in regard to children's behaviours and mental health through an exploratory and qualitative content analysis of the portrayal of advice to mothers in Chatelaine Magazine, the premier women's magazine published in Canada. The time periods chosen for comparison were 1945-1956 and 1990-2010. The first period was selected because it was a time of dramatic changes that occurred in family, occupational and domestic life for women immediately after World War II. The second represents the modern period. The findings of the paper suggest that mothering was intensive, medicalized and risky in both periods although the conceptualizations of problems differed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study into the experiences of parents who were involved in the English child protection system in 2013. Seventeen in-depth interviews were conducted involving 19 parents and/or partners, and a framework approach was used to analyse the data. There were positive experiences of individual social workers and some positive experiences of the child protection system. However, the overwhelming theme of the parents' experiences was that the system was uncaring, inflexible and for some harmful to both themselves and their children. Despite being included in the child protection process, parents felt they were not afforded the same rights as a participant, as a decision-maker or as a partner in seeking to improve the situation. The threat of consequences silenced parents who felt unable to speak out or challenge the things they disagreed with or coerced others into signing agreements they did not agree to. Such experiences related to a sense that they were being treated as 'less than human'. These findings are considered within the context of recent reforms within the English child protection system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]