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Few studies have simultaneously looked at the relative contribution of positive and negative behaviors to understand relationship outcomes. This study examined the relative roles of perceived partner support and psychological aggression in two relationship outcomes-relationship satisfaction and the willingness to invest in the relationship-as well as the contribution of attachment anxiety as a moderator in 307 couples seeking relationship therapy. Path analyses revealed that perceived partner support was associated with individuals' own higher relationship satisfaction and willingness to invest in the relationship. Attachment anxiety moderated these associations. Perceived partner psychological aggression was not associated with relationship outcomes.

Although minimization of blaming and denials of responsibility are key components of many approaches to couple therapy, there has been little attention paid to how partners absolve themselves of responsibility and counter attributions of blame. In this study, we used thematic analysis to examine 40 videorecorded sessions of couple therapy. The study shows that injuring partners denied responsibility for harm by shifting it to sources outside of themselves, thereby justifying their own actions and minimizing negative consequences. More subtle ways of deflecting responsibility—partial or qualified admission of fault—were also observed. The implications for couple therapy are discussed. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2022-09-11

ObjectivesThe impact of grandparenting on depression is mediated by both macro- and micro-level factors, however, their combined examination between different country contexts is relatively rare. This study examined whether country level income and grandparents’ gender influenced the relationship between the transition to grandparenthood and individuals’ depression across England, Europe and China.MethodsMulti-level linear regression analyses with restricted maximum likelihood estimation were performed covering 15 countries from the ELSA, the SHARE and the CHARLS 2010-15 in order to understand cross-country differences in this area.ResultsThis study found significant cross-national variations in the effects of transitioning to grandparenthood on individuals’ depression. Transitioning to grandparenthood reduced the depression score among both men and women in lower income countries, but increased it in higher income countries. Moreover, the gender gap in the effects of becoming a grandparent on one’s depression was wider in lower income countries than higher income countries.ConclusionsPolicymakers should pay attention to the support grandparents need, and systematically integrate childcare provided by grandparents into family policies. Policies supporting older people should take into account the way in which macro-level and micro-level factors combine to affect grandparents’ well-being.

There is a dearth of research on how pervasive Western stereotypes of the ideal body affect non-heterosexual women, and this body of research shrinks even further when considering sexual minority women in the Caribbean. This study aimed to uncover how negotiations between identity, desire, and body politics are being navigated and experienced by sexual minority women in Barbados, along with examining concerns about body image, the impact of societal expectations, and the consequences of these expectations on physical and mental health. Using a qualitative methodology that employed a semi-structured guide, thirteen women were interviewed over the course of a year. Thematic analysis revealed three major themes that centered around the interconnectivity of desire and presentation as it related to body image; distancing from Western influences and grappling with local body ideals; and the ways in which layered events and identities have resulted in complicated relationships with food. A selection of identified community needs is also offered in conclusion.

Reductions in structural stigma, such as gaining access to legalized same-sex marriage, is associated with positive psychological and physical health outcomes among sexual minority adults. However, these positive outcomes may be less robust among sexual minority women (SMW; e.g., lesbian, bisexual, queer) than sexual minority men and new measures are needed to develop a more nuanced understanding of the impact of affirming policies on the health and well-being of SMW. This study assessed the psychometric properties of measures developed to assess the psychosocial impacts of legalized same-sex marriage on the lives of SMW. Participants (N=446) completed an online survey assessing the psychosocial impact of legalized same-sex marriage in five domains: 1) personal impact, 2) stigma-related concerns, 3) couple impact, 4) LGBTQ community impact, and 5) political/social environment. Psychometric properties of the scales were examined using traditional and Rasch analyses. Personal, concerns, couple, and political/social environment scales demonstrated high internal consistency (α > 0.80), and acceptable levels of reliability even when scales reduced to five items each. The LGBTQ community scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α = 0.79) and could only be reduced to 9 items. These scales may be useful in future studies of SMW health and well-being.

In the past few years, Ecuador has experienced legal changes toward the recognition of sexual minority rights. However, lesbian and gay (LG) individuals and couples still face legal obstacles to become parents and social barriers that place their families in disadvantage compared to their heterosexual counterparts. To date, it is not known whether the legal changes reflect society’s move toward a more progressive and accepting climate. This study analyzed the attitudes toward LG parenting in an Ecuadorian online-recruited sample. Three hundred thirty-eight (338) participants answered an online questionnaire about the negative effects and the benefits of having LG parents. The strongest belief among participants was that children of LG parents would be victimized because of their parents’ sexual orientation. Analyses indicated differences in attitudes based on age, sexual orientation, marital status, education level, as well as religiosity. Finally, regression models suggested that beliefs about the origins of sexual orientation and contact with LG people predicted attitude scores. Implications of these findings are discussed. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Recent research conducted in Western countries highlights gender ideology as a multidimensional concept. Little, however, is known in East Asia about the patterns and consequences of constellations...

The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and representations of Italian parents of TGE (Transgender and Gender-Expansive) adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria who, for the first time, attended a gender clinic for psychological consultation. This study presents findings from fifteen parents of TGE adolescents, mostly (93%) trans boys, aged 14–19. The analysis identified four main themes: Gender Dysphoria: Something Impossible to Understand, Resigned Acceptance, Strategies of social acceptance in a complex context and The Limits of Healthcare Services. Results are discussed in the light of a highly transphobic social and cultural context.

Family engagement conferences are a commonly utilized strategy in child welfare to empower families to make decisions for the safety and well-being of their own children. However, there is mixed ev...

Younger women diagnosed with breast cancer express more psycho-emotional concerns than older women because younger women are facing problems with fertility, disruption to their young families, disruption to their careers, and lower libido during a time of higher sexual activity. Support groups create a place for younger women diagnosed with breast cancer to give and receive mutual aid. To meet the needs of younger women with breast cancer, an online support group was created by the Adelphi NY Statewide Breast Cancer Hotline and Support Program. A SPARC grant from the International Association of Social Work with Groups (IASWG) helped the program reduce technology barriers to the online group, and help the program promote the group to community partners. The author, in the role of the support group facilitator, created a comfortable and confidential group space by embracing the needs of the clients, including the need for a flexible virtual meeting space. The ongoing facilitation of the online group impacted the support services provided by the Adelphi NY Statewide Breast Cancer Hotline and Support Program, encouraging additional psychoeducational groups to be developed, and contributing to expanding online group services to meet the specific needs of all program clients when the program was forced to transition to online services due to the COVID-19 crisis striking the local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Social Work with Groups is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd 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.)

Dramatic changes in family formation and dissolution in East Asia are well documented (Chen & Li, 2014; Jones et al., 2009; Raymo et al., 2015; Yu & Xie, 2021). For example, in Japan and Korea mean...

Epidemiological studies suggest that more youth are identifying as gender expansive (e.g., transgender, gender nonconforming) than ever before. However, due to stressors like discrimination, gender...

This article concerns childless bisexual and gay men’s expectations of potential future fatherhood. Social context, biological prerequisites and legal restrictions have in previous research proven ...

Attachment theory suggests that parent responsiveness to infant distress predicts secure parent-child attachment and subsequent healthy child development. While much is known about microsystem factors that interfere with responsive caregiving, there is a paucity of research investigating how exosystem factors, such as neighborhood crime, affect parenting.In a sample of 200 diverse caregivers and their 5- to 21-month-old infants (Consistent with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems' theory of development, both greater exposure to individual burden indicators and greater neighborhood crime density predicted greater maladaptive beliefs about infant crying, suggesting that contextual factors outside the household are associated with parenting cognitions. Further, when accounting for the effect of crime and individual burden on parental beliefs about infant crying, participation in the ABC intervention was effective in reducing maladaptive parenting beliefs.We consider implications for multi-level intervention approaches that target family processes, neighborhood-level factors, and policy initiatives to promote community wellbeing and positive child development.

This Voices article presents emerging findings from research investigating the consequences of Covid-19 on individuals engaged on employability programmes in the United Kingdom. It outlines the challenges presented by ‘lockdown’ restrictions, as introduced to reduce the spread of Covid-19, on the delivery of employability programmes. Individuals engaged on such programmes experience a wealth of needs that have been compounded by Covid-19, resulting in new, emerging needs relating to personal wellbeing, social isolation, and confidence. Without effective and innovative support, individuals experiencing unemployment and economic inactivity will undoubtedly experience increased inequality; this inequality impacts on family, with individuals experiencing isolation from such, which in turn reduces wellbeing and stimuli, and indeed work, with Covid-19 compounding challenges in securing employment.

The purposes of this study were to develop a Likert type of scale on attitudes toward divorced women (ADW), and to test its associations with hostile sexism (HS), benevolent sexism (BS), and demogr...

There is a dearth of literature related to the formation and sustainability of centers of excellence, particularly in social and child welfare. This study was conducted to explore the concept of a ...

The current study examined the efficacy of Pathways to Permanence 2: Parenting Children who have Experienced Trauma and Loss© (Pathways), a trauma-informed curriculum designed for resource (adoptiv...

Trauma informed care (TIC) emphasizes the importance of professionals maintaining an emotionally regulated state. We interviewed eight staff members in a residential care unit for children and adolescents where TIC had been implemented, about situations wherein they experienced difficulty regulating their own emotions. We identified three major narratives in informants’ descriptions: (1) “Are we doing the right things?”, (2) “My childhood issues surfaced”, and (3) “Missing togetherness with trusted others.” The narratives illustrate the emotional strain that can be evoked when working in residential child welfare settings, and within TIC frameworks, and point to potential challenges to resolve when implementing TIC in similar organizations. publishedVersion

This article examines the discursive construction of parents’ decision-making connected with screen media practices. Drawing on a dataset of 51 parent interviews conducted in 3 states in the US, th...

Nigeria is home to the highest number of older adults in Africa. The country will continue to experience an upward trend in the size of this sub-population, yet there are limited government measure...

We investigate the association between women’s educational levels and housework participation across cultural contexts and through different stages in the life-course. In testing the suggestion from previous research that women with higher levels of education spend less time on housework than do women with less education, we found that this argument holds true for single women in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Our results also indicate that for all American women and for single and married Taiwanese women without children, their numbers of years of education correlate inversely with their daily hours of domestic labour; however, this correlation does not exist for married Taiwanese women with children. Similarly, the educational levels of married Japanese women—with or without children—have no bearing on their housework participation.

Non-marital romantic relationship breakups (RRBs) frequently occur among university students. These RRBs constitute stressful events but are conventionally not thought of as traumatic. Current rese...

The current study develops and evaluates the psychometric properties of a tool to assess resource parents’ (the collective term used to refer to kinship/foster/adoptive parents) knowledge, percepti...

Domestic work constitutes a large sector, with more than a million women working as domestic workers. In South Africa, it is a norm that whites employ black women as domestic servants, but with the...

This paper reflects the collective experiences of fourteen internationally based social group work educators who met weekly and virtually for seven months during the transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic The meetings functioned as a mutual aid support group sponsored by the International Association of Social Work with Groups (IASWG) The paper discusses the group’s perceptions of the essential components of effective online group work education It begins with a review of the history of online social work education It then outlines the key components instrumental in the planning and developing of engaged online group work classes Topics include pre-course preparation, norm setting, and building community in the online classroom Considerations related to the video conferencing platforms, course formats, activities, managing online fatigue, screen sharing, handling chat features, cameras, and break out rooms are interspersed throughout The paper concludes with a discussion of the use of mutual aid groups as online teaching tools and highlights the online group work teaching experiences of two members in New Zealand and Nambia Despite initial hesitancy to teach group work virtually, the authors recognize that this can be done effectively but requires additional planning and, ideally, peer and institutional support [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Social Work with Groups is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd 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 )

This article presents practical interpretation of an institutional ethnography, which examines the organization of young disabled children and their families. The article begins with an understandi...

This study examines the trajectories of hedonic and eudaimonic forms of happiness across college life. Analyzing the Beijing College Student Panel Survey, we find that: (1) Academic performance, ex...

In many welfare regimes, families and communities are often considered as social policy solutions to the extent that they are called into action to provide support and care services The resort to ‘family’ and ‘community’ seems to contrast the atomization of today’s society, but it entails two risks: first, the privatization of welfare;second, the exclusion of the most fragile and needy people, as well as individuals without a network The COVID-19 pandemics have made these risks even more evident: the crisis has exacerbated the centrality of informal networks in producing welfare services and helps These are the reasons why it is necessary to reflect on the need to primarily develop an individual – rather than a family and community – welfare [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Community, Work & Family is the property of Routledge 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 )

Meeting work and family demands can be challenging for all families, and even more challenging when raising a child with special health care needs. This current qualitative study interviewing 16 wo...

Birthparents remain the most neglected focus of the adoptive triad in terms of practice, research and policy. Previous research has highlighted how the needs of parents who have their children remo...

Numerous variables, including emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal factors, may influence the level of marital conflict. The aim of this study was to determine the predicting role of abandonment...

The period of transition from foster care to independent living is frequently associated with poor outcomes. While some studies have conveyed patterns of resilience among transition-age foster yout...

In order to more fully prepare clinicians for the challenging individual and familial dynamics inherent in non-suicidal self-injury cases, this article reviews the literature concerning family fact...

To advance understanding of Chinese international student (CIS)’ psychological adjustment, we examined the role of parents in CIS’s loneliness and stress. 167 college students (Mage = 21.2 years) f...

In 2018, the Ethiopian Parliament closed its intercountry adoption program. Momentum to end the program followed reports of adoption-related exploitation including the abduction and sale of childre...

This study examined sex differences in child friendship networks relative to summer care programs and associations with self-reported physical activity (PA) across summer. Children (n = 182; mean a...

The work of caring for children and youth in residential care is a type of “mental demand,” in Kegan’s phrase, and in this study we used Kegan’s constructive developmental theory to interpret the m...

Family systems theory suggests that the family is an organized system in which different subsystems influence each other within and across levels, such as across dyadic and higher-order family-leve...

Sexual minority individuals (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual) are at increased risk to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to heterosexual individuals. When working with these couples ...

This feminist-informed study examined the ability of the Biobehavioral Family Model (BBFM; Wood, 1993) to explain connections between heterosexual couple processes, health, and the influence of gen...

With neoliberal ideologies having inspired social policies for families across the world, the discourse on childrearing as the sole responsibility of individual parents has become dominant. The neo...

There is a need for more research on the experiences of affirming parents of pre-adolescent transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) children. This study explores how parents conceptualized adv...

The purpose of this study was to contribute information to service delivery gaps within the intervention literature related to the expense and inaccessibility of evidence-informed interventions for...

Existing studies on the impact of orphanhood on wasting in sub-Saharan Africa were historically conducted in East and South Africa. These studies have been interested in understanding how close kin...

Child welfare-involved parents provide an important perspective on service needs and program impact. Similar to other vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, challenges exist to engaging child we...

Employing eight data sets from national surveys conducted between 1988 and 2008, I examine earnings returns over time to tertiary education relative to upper secondary education in urban China. A t...

Taking advantage of changes in college admissions and the labor market in post-revolution China, this study sheds light on the institutional conditions under which a college degree may “equalize” t...

The study engages with several lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual and queer (LGBTPQ) identifying youth in South Africa to explore their perceptions and realities regarding coming out to...