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Acquiring statutory funding to study in Higher Education brings complex difficulties for UK students under the age of 25 who are estranged from their family, but have not been part of the care system. This paper explores the experiences of 564 estranged students and their experiences of providing evidence of family estrangement in order to access statutory student financial support. It finds that those who disclosed their family estrangement to a professional found it easier to access statutory student finance. However, the stigma around family estrangement was a barrier to disclosure as participants felt shame and humiliation when approaching a professional to support their application. These difficulties led to substantial delays in receiving statutory finance for estranged students which subsequently had an impact on their retention and equitable student experience at the beginning of the academic year. The paper concludes with key recommendations for improvements to the process of proving family estrangement. It will question the parental means-testing system itself, outlining key disadvantages for students experiencing family disruption.

This article aims to review the literature published in the UK, Australia and the US during the last 10 years on adult child–parent estrangement to increase awareness among health visitors of the complexity, frequency and consequences for new parents, especially mothers. Adult child–parent estrangement encompasses a deliberate distancing between the adult child and parent, resulting in an absence of communication. By increasing health visitors' awareness of the issues, it is hoped they may be able to reduce the distress, social isolation and potential consequences for new mothers and families in their care.

Finding, funding and fitting into student accommodation brings multiple and complex challenges for young people who are estranged from their family and cannot depend on their parents for emotional, material or financial support during their time in higher education. This paper draws on the experiences of 564 estranged students in UK higher education, aged 18-25, who have broken communicative contact with their biological or adoptive parents, and who are not recognised as vulnerable by their local authority. It finds that a proportion of estranged students struggle with homelessness issues throughout the student lifecycle. Furthermore, it finds typical student accommodation can be financially out of reach, exacerbated by expectations for students to go home during the summer break. Together these factors push estranged students into a life that is often detached from the institutional community and their peers. Of particular concern is that such factors inhibit a focus on academic studies, with an impact on retention and student success. The paper concludes by outlining how key interventions from higher education providers and government departments can maximise student success for estranged students, in order to inform policy and practice for those who lack family capital and the support of corporate parenting structures.

While investigation on family estrangement is growing within the academic circles (Agllias 2015, 2016; Blake 2017; Authors), research regarding the interconnection between experiences of estrangement and higher education is still very limited. Existing literature is largely in the form of policy briefings and recommendations, in particular in relation to funding from UK bodies such as the Student Loans Company (SLC) and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) (StandAlone 2015). Moreover, most research on estranged students has been carried out by Stand Alone, a charity whose core goal is to support estranged adults generally. As such, a deeper and wider understanding of estranged students’ experiences is important in also foregrounding their voices and perspectives. Here, we report on a qualitative study on the experiences of higher education students who are estranged from their family, investigating how estranged students develop a sense of identity in the context of their academic lives. The paper borrows from Goffman’s work on stigma and identity management and Bourdieu’s work on capitals to cast a critical perspective on research participants’ accounts. The combination of Goffman’s and Bourdieu’s work makes an important theoretical contribution here as it allows for the conceptualisation of estranged students’ access to or lack of resources (capitals) in relation to what Goffman calls a ‘spoiled identity’. The scarcity of knowledge in this area impels us to hybridise different concepts as a form of achieving a greater depth of understanding (author 1, forthcoming) of the phenomenon at hand. The stigmatisation of estrangement is intrinsically connected to the logic of capitals that prevails in academia and which allows for forms of distinction and differentiation among peers. This introduction is followed by a review of literature on estrangement and its connection to higher education, followed by an outline of the methodology underpinning the study and finally, a discussion of findings as informed by combining Goffman’s concept of stigma and Bourdieu’s understandings of capitals.

Objectives This study aimed to explore the views and experiences of a group of Spanish patients suffering from new daily persistent headache (NDPH). Methods A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with patients diagnosed with NDPH. Purposeful sampling was performed among patients attending a specialized Headache Unit at 2 university hospitals between February 2017 and December 2018. In total, 18 patients (11 women, 7 men; mean age 45.3, standard deviation 10.6) with a median duration of illness of 70 months (interquartile range, 24-219) were recruited to this study. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, researchers' field notes and patients' drawings. Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes. Results Three main themes were identified: (1) the origin of the illness and seeking answers; (2) characteristics of the pain; and (3) the impact of pain on patients' lives. The patients precisely recalled the time of onset and the trigger of the pain. Pain was constantly present, although it varied in form. At the onset, pain was perceived as a sign of alarm while, over time, it became an invisible illness. The headache commonly had a major impact on everyday life and could cause lifestyle changes. In addition, pain could be emotionally disruptive and could also lead to family estrangement and a search for solitude. Conclusions Our results provide insight into how NDPH is experienced, which may be helpful in managing NDPH patients. In our cohort, patients identified precipitating events but sought answers regarding the origin of their illness and their pain. Pain was a continuous sensation that had a major impact on patients' daily lives and emotions.

Loss of sibling relationships is a common experience across international jurisdictions for children entering public care. This is the case despite statutory guidance that emphasizes the need to place siblings together when in their best interests, and increasingly robust evidence of the protective nature of sibling relationships when children face adversity. Research on the experiences and outcomes of siblings in care has thus far focused predominantly on placement and contact patterns, particularly of siblings in care concurrently. This study extends this research by comprehensively mapping sibling networks both within and outside the care system and measuring sibling estrangement (living apart and lack of contact) over time. Drawing on administrative and case file data within the Children's Hearings System in Scotland, the circumstances of 204 children and young people from 50 sibling networks were examined longitudinally. The study found very high rates of sibling estrangement with seven in 10 relationships between a child in out-of-home care and a sibling classified as estranged and half of all siblings classified as strangers (siblings having never lived together and no record of any communication or meetings between the child and sibling). Moreover, sibling estrangement increased significantly as children moved through the care system. We argue that continued effort is needed to improve the accuracy with which aspects of sibling relationships of children in care are recorded and measured in order to assess the longer-term impact of state interventions on children's lives and the capacity of child welfare agencies to meet policy goals. Keyterms: sibling placements, sibling contact, family estrangement, permanence, sibling reunions.

Despite assumptions that families are close and intact, the prevalence of family member marginalization, parent–child alienation, and parent–child estrangement is overwhelming. Largely ignored by the research community, these three family distancing processes pose significant disruptions to the entire family system. Although some of associated behaviors lead to turmoil and decreased well-being, distancing can also be a healthy solution to an unhealthy environment. This manuscript traces the history of these three processes; offering conceptualizations, strengths, and critiques of each perspective. Specifically, we discuss the way communication researchers have influenced these processes as well as how they can contribute to this sparse body of research in the future. Finally, we compare the processes and question whether families should be considered nonvoluntary.

Critical perspectives remain largely absent from the study of family communication. To interrogate the power of discourse to construct knowledges about how family is and should be, we drew on Judith Butler’s poststructural theory of performativity to critically analyze the common experience of family estrangement. We argue that professional discourse performatively constructs the functional family binary by equating ongoing, open, and positive family communication with functional family identity, while constructing estrangement as unnatural, dysfunctional, and in need of intervention. We then illustrate how some individuals who self-identify as estranged from a family member “trouble” the functional/dysfunctional family binary by articulating their own families as functionally estranged.

Writing about one’s family, regardless of whether the family is represented in fiction or nonfiction, is oftentimes a cathartic experience for the writer. However, doing so can also intensify tumultuous family relationships, create libel and character defamation lawsuits, and result in family estrangement. Thus, many novelists, memoirists, and nonfiction writers alike struggle with genre labels and restrictions, causing them to censor their content. This censoring makes the truthfulness of their work suffer, which is doubly problematic. By examining the work of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Erica Jong, Jeffrey Eugenides, Augusten Burroughs, and other writers whose work dares to cross the genre lines of memoir versus fiction, I explore why the act of challenging these ‘life-writing’ genres is so problematic for both the writer and the reader. I also examine why life-writers, who search for authorial truth and narrative believability, often find themselves estranged from their families if they achieve litera...

Kylie Agllias argues that family estrangement can be one of the most significant and painful interruptions across the life cycle. It represents the disruption of long-term intimate relationships—fo...

Objectives:Loneliness and social networks have been extensively studied in relation to cognitive impairments, but how they interact with each other in relation to cognition is still unclear. This study aimed at exploring the interaction of loneliness and various types of social networks in relation to cognition in older adults.Design:a cross-sectional study.Setting:face-to-face interview.Participants:497 older adults with normal global cognition were interviewed.Measurements:Loneliness was assessed with Chinese 6-item De Jong Gierverg’s Loneliness Scale. Confiding network was defined as people who could share inner feelings with, whereas non-confiding network was computed by subtracting the confiding network from the total network size. Cognitive performance was expressed as a global composite z-score of Cantonese version of mini mental state examination (CMMSE), Categorical verbal fluency test (CVFT) and delayed recall. Linear regression was used to test the main effects of loneliness and the size of various networks, and their interaction on cognitive performance with the adjustment of sociodemographic, physical and psychological confounders.Results:Significant interaction was found between loneliness and non-confiding network on cognitive performance (B = .002, β = .092, t = 2.099, p = .036). Further analysis showed a significant interaction between loneliness and the number of family members in non-confiding network on cognition (B = .021, β = .119, t = 2.775, p = .006).Conclusions:Results suggested that a non-confiding relationship with family members might put lonely older adults at risk of cognitive impairment. Our study might have implications on designing psychosocial intervention for those who are vulnerable to loneliness as an early prevention of neurocognitive impairments.

This paper describes a mixed method survey that was administered to a group of Australian palliative care social workers (n = 27). Specifically, it aimed to investigate the ways that social workers understood and worked with clients who were estranged from family at the end of life. Respondents suggested that estrangement potentially impacted clients emotionally, practically, and existentially. They were challenged to make clear assessments, provide emotional support, encourage news ways of thinking about estrangement, to manage practical issues, work with the client’s family, and monitor their own professional role. Theories and models of intervention and levels of training are also discussed.

This study investigated 898 parents’ and adult children’s reasons for estrangement in light of research on interpersonal attributions and the relational consequences of perspective-taking. Three primary categories emerged: estrangement resulted from intrafamily, interfamily, or intrapersonal issues. Within each category, the frequency of parents’ and children’s reasons for estrangement differed significantly from each other. Parents reported that their primary reason for becoming estranged stemmed from their children’s objectionable relationships or sense of entitlement, whereas adult children most frequently attributed their estrangement to their parents’ toxic behavior or feeling unsupported and unaccepted. Parents also reported that they were unsure of the reason for their estrangement significantly more often than did children. Examining estrangement from the perspective of both parents and adult children offers potential avenues for family reconciliation and future communication research.

This article reports on a qualitative study of adult children who were estranged from at least one parent. Twenty-six Australian participants reported a total of 40 estrangements. Of these, 23 estrangements were initiated by the participant and 16 were maintained by the participant after being initiated by the parent or occurring after a mutual lessening of contact. Participants reported three core reasons for estrangement: (i) abuse, (ii) poor parenting, and (iii) betrayal. However, estrangement was predominantly situated in long-term perceived or actual disconnection from the parent and family of origin. Most participants had engaged in cycles of estrangement and reunification, using distance to assess the relationship and attend to their own personal development and growth across time. Estrangement was generally triggered by a relatively minor incident or a more serious act of betrayal considered to have been enacted by the parent.

A través de esta caracterización de los tipos de relación entre preadolescentes con sus padres y compañeros, esta investigación pretende describir los elementos en la conexión con sus padres (en aspectos como el apego, la comunicación, la confianza, la alienación, la distancia familiar y el bloqueo parental) e identifica elementos como comportamiento agresivo o intimidación escolar (cuando está presente en la relación con sus compañeros). La muestra se obtuvo en un grupo de 70 estudiantes al azar de 5 colegios públicos en Santa Marta, Colombia; estos cursaban sexto grado, entre 8 y 12 años, con un margen de error de 10%. Los datos del estudio fueron recolectados con herramientas como el Test de Figuras Humanas (Koppitz, 1982), la Prueba Familiar de Corman (1961), el IPPA: Inventario de Apego con Padres y Pares (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987; Pardo, Pineda, Carrillo y Castro, 2006), y la Escala Abreviada del Cuestionario de Intimidación Escolar (Moratto, Cárdenas, & Berbesí, 2012). Los resultados obtenidos destacan una comunicación moderada-baja y la confianza de los preadolescentes hacia sus padres, con bajos índices de alienación y percepción de distanciamiento familiar; Además, los tipos de apego que predominan entre ellos son ansioso-inseguros, ambivalentes y evasivos. En cuanto a las relaciones con los compañeros, el índice inconsciente de agresión e impulsividad fueron pruebas, con bajos sentimientos de culpa, así como la manifestación mínima consciente de la admisión de algún tipo de intimidación escolar. Además, el estudio identifica que las prácticas más frecuentes de esta población implican signos de agresividad pasiva como exclusión, ocultamiento de cosas y ser llamado por sobrenombres.

Contents: Introduction: practical social work ethics, professionalism and ethical space, Malcolm Carey and Lorraine Green Part I Past and Present: Moral Practices with Children and Families: Beyond the community of persons to be accorded 'respect'? Messages from the past for social work in the Republic of Ireland, Paul Michael Garrett Secrets and lies: the ethical implications of family estrangement, Kylie Agllias and Mel Gray Is cultural sensitivity always a good thing? Arguments for a universalist social work, Gurnam Singh and Stephen Cowden To touch or not to touch? Exploring the dilemmas and ambiguities associated with touch in social work and social care settings, Lorraine Green and Ros Day. Part II Ethical Tensions? Ambivalent Ethics and Adult Social Work: Doing what's best, but best for whom? Ethics and the mental health social worker, Kenneth McLaughlin and Sean Cordell Ethical contradictions in critiques of psychiatry, John Hopton An ethics journey: ethical governance of social research with vulnerable adults and the implications for practice, Richard Ward and Sarah Campbell. Part III Contesting Modernisation: Where did we go wrong? An analysis of economic conflicts of interest, perverse financial incentives and NOMBism, Lynn Wrennall More than this? Some ethical doubts (and possibilities) regarding service user and carer participation within social work, Malcolm Carey Resistance in and outside the workplace: ethical practice and managerialism in the voluntary sector, Donna Baines Index.

This chapter differs from some of the others in that it does not deal with a particular field of practice, like mental health or child protection. Social workers encounter and work with families in all fields of practice and the issue of family estrangement is far more common than we realise. Perhaps it is most often encountered in work with the elderly when people tend to rely more on their family for support. Social workers are all too familiar with cases where the isolated elderly person has lost all contact with their family. When they dig deeper, they all too often find that relationships deteriorated over a long period of time before contact was completely severed and often the estrangement began in a bitter feud, domestic violence, abuse, or a painful divorce. This chapter provides an overview of the nature of family estrangement, which often begins with ‘secrets and lies’ as our title suggests. More specifically, it examines value issues and ethical dilemmas associated with intergenerational family estrangement in later life, from an ethical perspective.

This qualitative study examined the experiences of 25 parents who were estranged from their adult children in later life. Most participants experienced estrangement as an unanticipated, unchosen, and chronic loss for which they felt ill prepared. Most described a traumatic loss, ambiguous because of its uncertainty and inconclusiveness, and disenfranchised by societal ideologies embedded in constructs of parenting and motherhood as essential, natural, and universal. Many participants said they were subjected to the social stigma associated with tainted or devalued parenthood. In many cases, the gendered stigma accompanying estrangement positioned the female participants precariously for social rejection.

This article reports on the themes generated by face-to-face interviews conducted with 10 men over the age of 50, currently homeless and residing in an overnight homeless shelter. In-depth interviews were conducted asking these men to tell their stories, talk about their lives in the shelter, and speak about their needs, hopes, and dreams. Based on an analysis of interviews, the following themes emerged and were presented: Talk of Work, Barriers to Housing are Overwhelming, Family Estrangement, and Coping Strategies. Discussion of these themes is presented and practice, administrative and research implications are suggested.

Family estrangement is the physical distancing and loss of affection between family members, often due to intense conflict or ongoing disagreement. While the concept is rarely referred to in the research literature, it is not an uncommon issue raised in clinical practice. This article provides a brief overview of the literature pertaining to later-life intergenerational family estrangement, primarily between adult children and their parents. It then examines later-life family estrangement in relation to Boss's (2006) concept of ambiguous loss and Doka's (1989) ideas about disenfranchised grief. Finally, the article comments on the practice implications when working with elders experiencing family estrangement toward the end of life.

Family estrangement, a communication cut-off between family members, remains a neglected topic in the research literature.The purpose of the present study was to establish a prevalence rate of family estrangement, identify precipitating factors leading to estrangement, identify the relationshipsof the estranged relatives, determine the length of the estrangement, and determine the level of stress caused by the estrangement. Data concerning the above factorswere gathered from 354 undergraduate and graduate students. Overall, 154 participants (43.5%) reported experiencing an estrangement; 60 (39%, 16.9% of the entire sample) from 1 or more immediate family members (nuclear estrangement), 94 (61%, 26.6% of the entire sample)from extended family members (extended estrangement). The most frequently cited single causal factor leading to estrangement was a disagreement with the estranged relative in both nuclear and extended estrangements. Participants reporting a nuclear estrangement were estranged from fathers with the greatest frequency. Participants involved in extended estrangements were estranged from aunts and cousins with the greatest frequency. The mean length of estrangement in nuclear estrangements was 59.4 months; 52.8 months in extended estrangements. The level of distress reported by participants was greater in nuclear estrangements. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

Evidence of emotional distance between elderly parents and their adult children is taken from an anthropological study of ageing and family life. Two case studies drawn from a series of life history interviews illustrate the complex relationship between personal development, family relationships, culture and social structure. Unsatisfactory relationships are explained in terms of changing psychological needs through the life course, the cultural emphasis on independence and related values, the feminine tilt in family life, and the structure of in-law relationships. The complex interplay of these factors has implications for therapy with families experiencing estrangement.

In this article I examine some issues involved in researching vulnerable populations and sensitive issues, and the challenges and risks of researching issues of a deeply personal nature. Participants might have complex needs and vulnerabilities, but they also have many resources to ensure their own well-being. I ask researchers to move beyond the minimum standards espoused by human ethics committees, and utilize participant strengths to further reduce the risk of harm. My reflections on a study of older people who were experiencing family estrangement highlight some of the actions that participants used to increase their personal safety. I discuss the usefulness of “strengths” questions in assessing risk and facilitating participant strengths to minimize harm. Finally, I propose a three-way model for reducing risk that involves the “lessons learned” from ethics committees, researchers, and the participants themselves.

This case study research assesses the social impacts of inadequate transport facilities on the people of the city of Dhaka using the qualitative content analysis method. From livelihood to the urban communities' mobility, all life-related matters are directly or indirectly related to public transport. However, the transport system in this city is one of the worst in the world. Hence, there is an absolute necessity to examine the inadequate transport facilities of the present transit system and their social effects on the people living in this city. Vanclay's Social Impact Assessment was integrated to investigate the impact. In six specific gateways of Dhaka, in-depth interviews with 1800 respondents were carried out to know about the social impacts of insufficient public transport facilities. The social impacts of inadequate transport facilities create problematic conditions specifically for the low and middle-income communities of Dhaka, aggravating traffic danger, absence of protection and safety, social isolation, reduced mobilities, loss of social capital, cultural deprivation, absence of social interaction, family estrangement, travel cost, deficiency of transport accessibility. In the future, it will have serious repercussions for its residents.

En este trabajo se analiza con especial atención la Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo de 24 de mayo de 2022, dado que con ella el TS ha venido a perfilar su doctrina sobre la falta de relación y de afecto familiar como causa de desheredación de hijos y descendientes. Desde hace ya años, se trata de una causa que está siendo invocada por padres y abuelos para privar a sus hijos y nietos de la legítima, y que ha encontrado apoyo en la doctrina emanada de algunos pronunciamientos de nuestro Alto Tribunal, entre los que destaca la sentencia de 27 de junio de 2018. El propio TS reconoce que, aunque sigue siendo necesario expresar una justa causa de desheredación para privar de la legítima a los legitimarios, la sala ha admitido una interpretación flexible de las causas de desheredación para adaptarlas a la realidad social del momento en que vivimos. No obstante, nuestro derecho vigente no permite configurar una nueva causa autónoma de desheredación por vía interpretativa. Ahora bien, el TS reconoce que la falta de relación familiar continuada e imputable al legitimario desheredado, en la medida que haya provocado daños en la salud física o psicológica del causante, puede reconducirse a la causa legal del “maltrato de obra” prevista en el art. 853.2ª CC. This paper analyses with special attention the Supreme Court Judgement of 24 May 2022, given that with it the Supreme Court has come to outline its doctrine on the lack of relationship and family affection as a cause for disinheritance of children and descendants. For years now, this has been a cause that is being invoked by parents and grandparents to deprive their children and grandchildren of their legitimate share, and which has found support in the doctrine emanating from some pronouncements of our High Court, among which the judgment of 27 June 2018 stands out. The Suprem Court itself recognises that, although it is still necessary to express a just cause for disinheritance in order to deprive the legitimated beneficiaries of their legitimate share, the court has admitted a flexible interpretation of the causes for disinheritance in order to adapt them to the social reality of the times in which we live. However, our current law does not allow a new autonomous cause of disinheritance to be configured by way of interpretation. However, the Supreme Court recognises that the lack of a continuous family relationship attributable to the disinherited legitimated beneficiary, insofar as it has caused damage to the physical or psychological health of the deceased, can be brought back to the legal cause of “mistreatment by deed” provided for in Art. 853.2ª CC.