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This article explores the transition of cooperative co‐parenting during the divorce process. Eighteen parents, representing eight co‐parenting pairs and two individuals who had just undergone mandatory mediation for parents applying for separation, participated in the study. Through in‐depth interviews with parents who were classified as cooperative during the mediation process, we examined how they reason and the struggles they face during the divorce transition. The study applied a sociocultural perspective, focusing on the cultural ideals of equal parenthood, and used the concepts of boundaries and shared care as analytical tools. A main finding is that maintaining cooperative co‐parenting requires hard work, even in no‐or low‐conflict divorces, but the parents do it for their children. The results showed that the transforming process involved efforts to (1) continue established parenting practices, (2) shield the children and (3) deal with their own emotions. The underlying premises for successful co‐parenting are trust in each other's ability to take care of the children and their own knowledge of the emotional bonds between the children and each parent. In turn, these premises motivate parents to manage their own emotional turmoil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This in-depth follow-up study of 15 foster youth shows the importance of an 'open foster family', open to letting the foster youth into the family life and to cooperating with the adolescent's birth family. Previous findings about the importance of negotiations, mutual rituals, and having fun together in foster families for the creation of social bonds and belonging are strengthened in the follow-up interview. A lack of these mutual practices is observed prior to disruptions. Most adolescents still living with the same foster family feel a sense of belonging to both their foster and birth families, especially when both families cooperate. This is most evident in kinship families. Over time, adolescents in traditional foster families have also strengthened their social bonds to the foster family, which makes the difference to youth in network foster families less pronounced than in the previous study. Despite life changes, above all changing schools and peers, most adolescents reveal personal agency by still coping with their situation. However, therapeutic support is now more common than 1 year ago, for girls in particular. Methods used are interviews, network maps and text responses ('beepers'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Child welfare conversations in cases of suspected sexual child abuse are often slow and complex processes in which professionals and clients proceed cautiously. These conversations may best be considered as negotiations between professionals aiming at classifying clients in or out of problem categories, and clients distancing themselves from these categories or downgrading them. In a case study of a conversation between a child welfare worker and a 15-year-old boy who is the likely victim of sexual abuse by his stepfather, this process is demonstrated by an interactional analysis. It is shown that the client is not co-operating in a co-operative way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper examines the issue of parental engagement where children's services have brought court proceedings to protect children, from the perspective of specialist lawyers who represent parents. It draws on an in-depth, qualitative study of parents' representation conducted between 2008 and 2010. Parental non-co-operation with children's services is a common feature in these cases. Lawyers are partisans with duties to follow clients' instructions. They seek to build a trusting relationship and keep clients engaged in the process by giving advice, taking instructions and providing emotional support. Lawyers accept that parents have an absolute right to contest but use their power and authority to encourage their most vulnerable clients to concede. They are largely successful in keeping clients engaged in proceedings but parents rarely make the necessary changes in parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper takes an ecological approach to understanding engagement of parents with services when children may be at risk of abuse/maltreatment. Gaining parental cooperation is a fundamental factor affecting social work interventions, treatment and decision-making. Based on a review of current literature, the paper adapts the Multifactor Offender Readiness Model to the child welfare context, using insights from other theoretical and empirical work. Parental engagement with child welfare services is portrayed as having behavioural, attitudinal and relationship components, and is determined by internal (service user) and external (policy, programme and worker) factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper discusses findings from an evaluation of an advocacy scheme for parents whose children were subject to child protection proceedings including a pilot project where co-operation between parents and professionals was an issue. Encouraging findings of parents' experiences of being heard, being able to listen, and, in some cases, to act on concerns about their children's welfare are outlined. Three case studies offer accounts of practices that are gendered and occur against a backdrop of ethnic disadvantage. The paper suggests that current debates about reform need to recognize the need to support parents to manage intimidating systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Shemmings et al. on neurobiological research on empathy and mentalisation, one by Platt on engagement and one by Turney on the moral and ethical aspects of relationship-based practice with involuntary clients.