Search

This paper explores how digital tracking is incorporated into family life in Munich. Parents using tracking technologies found them to be useful in caring for their children’s safety and preventing violence. This paper argues that monitoring was characterised by moral friction, since parents wanted their children to be more independent and questioned whether they should control their everyday movements and online activities, but were anxious about what could happen if they did not track their children digitally. The paper reports qualitative research involving both interviews (21 with parents and 8 with children) and participant observation in home settings or community organisations. The paper also analyses children’s experiences, who found tracking to be useful in emergencies or for locating their parents, but mostly used social media sites such as Snapchat to monitor their friends or siblings. The paper discusses horizontal forms of surveillance in which children would check their parent’s or friend’s locations in real time. As such, we see multiple ways through which notions of familial care are negotiated in relation to the use of digital tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Treball Social is the property of Col·legi Oficial de TreballSocial de Catalunya and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the application of intergenerational theory as its analytical framework, this paper seeks to provide new insights into the social construction of sugar-sweetened food and food practices in the context of contemporary urban China, drawing on 16 months' in-depth qualitative research in the city of Chongqing. From an intergenerational perspective, it argues that although adults and children both typically construct sugar-sweetened food as "bad" for health based on the logic of its biological meaning, there are more generational differences in the understandings of sociocultural meanings associated with these foods, which are the main reasons may lead to intergenerational conflict. Caregivers tend to regard their control of children's sugar-sweetened food intake as a means to discipline their children's bodies and develop food moralities. However, children themselves are likely to perform sugar-sweetened food practices as a way of socializing and sometimes resisting the control of caregivers. Based on this, this paper further shows that these diverse views are rooted in the tension between caregivers' anxiety about the transmission of food moralities through intensive parenting practices and children's agency in food consumption in contemporary urban China. These findings enhance intergenerational-theoretical research and highlight the need to move beyond the analytical framework of "behaviour change" in related food and health studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on work and family life in Romania, with particular emphasis on gender, seen as a social structure. The methodology employs the secondary descriptive analysis of data drawn from NIS, Eurostat, and the European Value Survey/World Value Survey datasets. The findings show a Romanian work landscape with slow progress in embracing work fl exibility, with considerably lower percentages of remote work and part-time employment compared to EU averages. A notable gender disparity exists in the professional sector. Women exhibit a 18.8% lower participation in economic activities compared to men, a gap that increases with the number of children. Moreover, 36.5% of women, in contrast to 2.7% of men, are professionally inactive due to familial responsibilities. These results align with Nancy Fraser’s (2013) viewpoint on how the intersection between capitalism and patriarchy shapes women experiences. The lack of family-friendly work structures disproportionately impacts women, leaving them vulnerable professionally and financially. Family continues to be the most important institution for Romanians, with trends regarding age of marriage and child births mirroring previous years. While there’s a gradual decrease in unpaid household and childcare activities, it is mostly due to technological progress (Popescu, 2009) while women still work “double shifts” (Hochschild, 2012). The paper’s findings highlight that cultural norms and societal pressure compels women to prioritize family responsibilities. Creating “brave new families” (Stacy, 1990) or fostering “confluent love” (Giddens, 1992) requires post-modern cooperation between partners, backed by multi-level actions (Walby, 1989) at individual, organizational and societal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on behavior seeking to disrupt, deny, or negatively impact the parent–child relationship, sometimes labeled as parental alienation (PA), has burgeoned in recent years. Despite this proliferation, the theoretical and practical conceptualization of PA is still a highly controversial topic, not helped by the potential outpacing of academic knowledge on PA in relation to its application in socio-legal and clinical contexts. Confusion and controversy persist despite several recent reviews seeking to provide clarity on different areas of PA-related discourse (e.g., its effect on alienated children). The current narrative review, therefore, sought to synthesize learnings from those reviews (most of which were published between 2020 and 2022), with subsequently published work, in the most comprehensive and contemporaneous overview of PA to date. As a narrative review, there were no specific inclusion criteria, other than a limitation to English manuscripts and literature from the last 10 years. Snowballing was also utilized, whereby reference lists were used to identify further papers for inclusion. The resulting review outlines current understandings of (a) the key areas of controversy relating to PA, including how it is defined, its use in family court proceedings, and recommendations on intervention; (b) how PA is enacted, by whom, and in what contexts; and (c) how PA impacts on parents, children, and other family members. Crucially, urgent recommendations for further research directions are then made, particularly in relation to legal applications and therapeutic intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health visiting has been described as the backbone of early years services across the UK and the safety net around all families. This paper explores the role of health visitors and the current context in England. Health visitors lead and deliver the Healthy Child Programme which is the national preventative public health programme covering pregnancy and the first five years of life. It aims to ensure that every child has the best start in life, regardless of where they live. With child health deteriorating, more children falling behind with their development, growing concerns about invisible vulnerable children, widening inequalities and soaring costs of late intervention, there is a clear imperative to act. Health visitors provide an important part of the solution; however, the service is facing significant challenges. When sufficiently resourced, health visitors play a crucial role in ensuring that families get good, joined up support – preventing, identifying and treating problems before they reach crisis point. The benefits of an effective health visiting service accrue to numerous government departments, contributing to a whole system response to address a multitude of policy priorities for babies, children and families across health, education and social care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown in South Africa led to the closure of leisure spaces, and Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, forcing parents who were non-essential employees to work from home. This created a crisis for families, with significant consequences for family leisure time and activities. This paper explored the impact of the pandemic for parents with pre-school aged children (PSAC) and aimed to identify changes to family leisure during this period. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires (n = 140) among parents at three selected ECD centres in Cape Town. The findings indicated that participants experienced higher emotional and tiredness levels because of the pandemic-induced changes, often neglecting themselves in their attempt to balance work, life and care for their PSAC, without their traditional support structures. The findings confirm a significant impact on family leisure, with leisure activities decreasing, and switching from outdoor, relational to home and family-based activities. The study identifies the type of leisure activities and changes caused by the pandemic and the effect it had on parents' work-life balance and overall wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of REVER: Revista de Estudos da Religião is the property of REVER: Revista de Estudos da Religiao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The media today is full of violence and death, in films, world news, and in comic books. Not many citizens want their countries to go to war, but leaders and politicians spend vast amounts of money to increase the militarization of their country. The argument being to "prevent war". The separation of women and children from the men in their families. Deaths and destruction. How can we understand "the reality surrounding us, the way we interact with it, and transform it." This paper will discuss the relationship between women and war, based on various utopian and dystopian fictions, from Ruskin to today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports data from a research study and workshop about reclaiming Indigenous sign languages and cultures, and strengthening services for Indigenous deaf children and their families and communities. The purpose of this workshop was for presenters to share their lived experiences and knowledge as deaf and hearing Elders, parents, and youth, including what resources were and were not available to them. Findings revealed themes including the importance of support for accessibility and inclusion from First Nations political and community leadership; the importance of supporting children's intersectional identities; the need for greater resources for First Nations communities to access services and supports for deaf children; and youth experiences of learning about deaf culture and sign language, and attending deaf schools These findings also suggested innovative models for including deaf children and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]