How Single-Parent Children Speak About Poverty and Social Exclusion: Policy Implications From a Comparative,Qualitative, Cross-National Project

This article presents some of the key findings from a comparative, qualitative research study carried out in the United Kingdom, Greece, and Cyprus. The main goal of the study was to investigate single-parent children's experiences and understandings of poverty and social exclusion in their everyday lives and to make relevant policy recommendations. The article highlights children's voices and illustrates the utility of integrating them in efforts to develop sensitive policies which meet their needs as these stem from their own experiences of poverty and social exclusion while also making the case for the utility of comparative, qualitative, cross-national research.     

Florence and Rosamond Davenport Hill and the Development of Boarding Out in England and Australia: a study in cultural transmission

The adoption of boarding out by state children's departments across Australia is often attributed to the influence of English social reformers Florence and Rosamond Davenport Hill, whose visit to the colonies in the early 1870s coincided with a period of growing dis-ease with existing provisions for neglected children. However, after their return to Britain, they used their experience in the colonies to castigate English authorities for being too slow to adopt a similar course. This article complicates existing theories of cultural transmission in relation to ideas about child welfare. It analyses the ways in which the Davenport Hill sisters laid claim to their expert speaking position, and argues for the importance of informal networks in the development of child welfare policy in the years before the rise of transnational children's rights organisations.     

Ethnic Identity Formation of Immigrant Children and Implications for Practice

The issue of immigration is especially controversial in the United States as immigrants today have not only increased in number but constitute a more heterogeneous population. Unlike the earlier waves of immigrants, which were predominantly of European origin, the post-1965 migration trend from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean has tremendously altered the demographic characteristics of the U.S. population. In-depth exploration of various contextual factors affecting ethnic identity formation can offer insights that help social work practitioners and policy planners overcome the difficulty in working with immigrant populations and their descendants. This article reviews significant contextual aspects influencing immigrant children's ethnic identity formations and proposes practice recommendations that help facilitate the children's adaptation in the host society.     

Differentiated childhoods: impacts of rural labor migration on left-behind children in China

This article draws on data from research that includes 400 children who lived separately from their migrant parents in 10 rural communities in China, to explore the deep impacts of rural parents' migration on the care-giving and nurturing of children left behind. It shows that parent migration has brought about multiple impacts, mostly negative, on the lives of children, such as increased workloads, little study tutoring and supervision, and above all the unmet needs of parental affection. Children's basic daily care and personal safety could become problematic since surrogate caregivers, mostly elderly, are usually exhausted with livelihood maintenance. With illumination on the family dysfunction in children's development due to migration-induced family separation, this article highlights the social cost to rural families of parental migration. Urbanization in developing countries is obtained at the expense of rural migrants and their families, especially children left behind. Further attention is required to improve left-behind children's well being within split family structures and interregional migration.     

‘I DON'T WANT HER TO BE OVERWEIGHT LIKE I WAS AS A GIRL’

Widespread concern about a childhood obesity ‘epidemic’ has focused attention on the bodies, weight and food behaviours of mothers and their children. In childhood obesity-related discourse, mothers' bodies are framed in relation to the bodies of children, most directly in claims that fat mothers produce fat babies. Drawing on data from a qualitative study involving interviews with mothers of pre-school aged children, this paper examines how the blurring of body boundaries between women and children are translated into responsibilities in feeding. We argue that in the contemporary stigmatisation of fat, the external auditing of maternal feeding and children's bodies connects the bodies of mothers and children in detrimental ways. By focusing on the ways women are held responsible for both their own and children's bodies, we draw attention to how bodily aspirations, conflict and failure, shame, self-surveillance, judgement and guilt connect women to the bodies of their children. We stress the embodied significance of mother/child relations in early childhood nutritional care and we argue that a punitive anti-fat ethic threatens positive health outcomes for mothers and children.     

The Effects of Single Parenthood on Educational Aspiration: A Comparative Study of Children in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong

Using data collected by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment in 2003, this study examines the gap in the educational aspirations of children from single-parent families and two-parent families in the United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong. Consistent with previous research on the relationship between cultural orientation and academic motivation, our analysis shows that children in the UK have statistically significant lower levels of educational aspiration than those in Hong Kong. Moreover, children from single-parent families in the UK and Hong Kong are found to have statistically significant lower levels of educational aspiration than those from two-parent families. Further analyses indicate that family capital and school experience are important factors for understanding the negative effects of single parenthood. Finally, we observe that single parenthood has a less negative effect on educational aspiration in the UK than it does in Hong Kong, which can be explained by differences in government family policy and family capital between the two regions. Based on the outcomes from the current analysis, we put forward several policy and service recommendations for improving children's educational aspiration and enhancing family well-being.     

Alleging Psychological Impairment of the Accuser to Defend Oneself Against a Child Abuse Allegation:

This paper discusses a group of divorced or separated parents who are in conflict over custody and/or visitation with their children. In each case, a mother alleges that the father has been sexually or physically abusive to the couple's children, and the father alleges that the mother's own abuse during childhood produced a psychiatric disturbance that forms the basis for her pathological need to project accusations of abuse onto him. The authors found that a satisfactory analysis of the competing parental allegations and a recommendation about the children's subsequent guardianship could not be developed until they explored the hypothesis that wife battering had contributed to the family's distressing circumstances.     

生育与养育：女性农民工子女随迁的工资惩罚——基于核心家庭样本的分析

在农民工群体规模不断增长且家庭化迁移趋势日益凸显的背景下,妥善解决子女随迁带来的系列问题愈发重要。本研究聚焦子女随迁造成的女性农民工工资收入降低问题,基于母职工资惩罚理论,将女性农民工群体承担母职角色造成的工资惩罚分为生育惩罚与养育惩罚,利用2018年流动人口动态监测数据进行检验。研究发现：生育惩罚会降低女性农民工工资的2.4%,养育惩罚会显著降低女性农民工工资收入的11.0%;在一孩家庭中,幼儿园年龄段的子女随迁对新生代受教育程度较低的女性农民工造成的养育惩罚最为严重;在二孩家庭中,婴幼儿年龄段的子女随迁对新生代受过高等教育的女性农民工造成的养育惩罚最为严重,且二孩家庭婴幼儿年龄段的子女随迁对工资造成的负向影响是独生子女家庭同年龄段子女随迁的4倍多。研究建议,要加强二孩家庭的托育服务供给,如提供在农民工家庭支付能力内的日间照料、托管、家政等服务,进一步释放流动人口带来的劳动力资源,促进劳动力市场的性别平等。     

Psychological Symptoms Linking Exposure to Community Violence and Academic Functioning in African American Adolescents

African American adolescents are exposed disproportionately to community violence, increasing their risk for emotional and behavioral symptoms that can detract from learning and undermine academic outcomes. The present study examined whether aggressive behavior and depressive and anxious symptoms mediated the association between exposure to community violence and academic functioning, and if the indirect effects of community violence on academic functioning differed for boys and girls, in a community sample of urban African American adolescents (N = 491; 46.6 % female). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the indirect effect of exposure to community violence in grade 6 on grade 8 academic functioning. Results revealed that aggression in grade 7 mediated the association between grade 6 exposure to community violence and grade 8 academic functioning. There were no indirect effects through depressive and anxious symptoms, and gender did not moderate the indirect effect. Findings highlight the importance of targeting aggressive behavior for youth exposed to community violence to not only improve their behavioral adjustment but also their academic functioning. Implications for future research are discussed.     

A Psychoecological Model of Academic Performance Among Hispanic Adolescents

Although the number of students who complete high school continues to rise, dramatic differences in school success remain across racial/ethnic groups. The current study addressed Hispanic adolescents’ academic performance by investigating the relationships of parental involvement, culturally responsive teaching, sense of school belonging, and academic self-efficacy and academic performance. Participants were 478 (51.5% female) Hispanic 7th graders in the US-Mexico borderlands. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, a structural model was tested. Results showed that the proposed model was supported by demonstrating significant indirect effects of parental involvement, culturally responsive teaching, and sense of school belonging on academic performance. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy was found to mediate the relationships between parental involvement, culturally responsive teaching, and sense of school belonging and academic performance. The current study provides a useful psychoecological model to inform educators and psychologists who seek to meet the needs of Hispanic students.     

Endings and Beginnings …

How women remember, represent and write about their own lives and each other's lives is a central problem in the field of feminist auto/biography. Eglantyne Jebb (1876–1928) did not live long enough to write her own life story, but she is known as the founder of the Save the Children Fund in 1919 and as the author of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924. Women who had a great deal invested in the telling of Jebb's life story provide the only accounts we have of her life. This article contributes to the field of feminist auto/biography by providing a fuller depiction of the life of Eglantyne Jebb. Today, the value of Jebb's private writing lies in its wit and honesty. Her letters and diaries illustrate the familiar hard and heroic struggle to accommodate to the ordinary and extraordinary demands of family relationships, the search for adult intimacy, the desire for a meaningful career and the acceptance, in the final years of her life, of new challenges and possibilities whereby Eglantyne Jebb became a notable humanitarian and children's rights activist.     

Academic Lionesses

Vivid Dreams

Michèle Roberts, Flesh and Blood, London: Virago, 1994, £14.99 (paper 1995, £6.99).

Living and Losing

Stevie Davies, Closing the Book, London: The Women's Press, 1994, £12.99, £6.99 pbk.

Secondhand Roles: What's So New about Fetishism ?

Lorraine Gamman and Merja Makinen, Female Fetishism: A New Look, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1994.

De‐mystifying Mysticism

Karma Lochrie, Margery Kempe and Translations of the Flesh, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Sarah Beckwith, Christ's Body. Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings, London: Routledge, 1993.     

Does child care quality matter? A comparison of children's developmental outcomes across classrooms with different quality standards

It has long been an established view that children who attend high-quality early learning programs are more likely to be school ready. However, some studies have found that program quality is not as important to child outcomes as is participating in some form of early learning. This study aimed to compare 2 early learning classrooms in the same school with different quality standards to determine whether the differences in quality significantly affected children's developmental gains during the academic year. Results indicated no significant differences in the developmental outcomes of children on the basis of classroom type. One possible explanation for the lack of differences is that both classrooms were in the same school. Other studies have found that child care programs benefit from partnerships with programs that have higher quality standards. The findings demonstrate a need for further research about the benefits of child care program partnerships.     

Colonial counterparts: the first academic women in Anglo-Canada,New Aealand and Australia

During the early years of the twentieth century, women first gained permanent academic positions in most universities across the Western world. This article considers the first academic women in Anglo-Canada, New Zealand and Australia as colonial counterparts. It argues that these women's experiences were shaped by a colonial setting that was infused with powerful gender-, race- and class-specific codes concerning knowledge and the institution of the university. The first academic women were simultaneously situated as ‘insiders’, as supporters of the institutions in which they worked, and as ‘outsiders’ because of their sex and the patriarchal attitudes of the time. In recovering some of their lives and experiences, it is shown how such a positioning shaped the careers of academic women, as well as how these women attempted to subvert and change their place within the university. As a group, the first academic women in Anglo-Canada, New Zealand and Australia were much more concerned with advancing the place of women in higher education than they were with critiquing the colonial knowledges that were a part of their various institutions.     

Personal and Ecological Assets and Academic Competence in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Role of School Engagement

Although the role of school engagement in influencing children’s academic competence has been recognized in past theory and research, how school engagement may mediate the relationships between ecological and personal resources and academic competence remains largely unknown. Using structural equation modeling procedures, the present study was aimed at examining the role of school engagement in mediating the associations between ecological and personal assets and academic competence. Data from 960 participants (45.6% boys) who took part in the Grades 5 and 6 assessments of the longitudinal, 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development were used. Evidence was found for a model positing two distinct school engagement components, Behavioral and Emotional, and for the role of these facets of school engagement in the relationships between developmental assets and later academic competence. Personal and ecological assets had indirect effects on later academic competence, via behavioral and emotional school engagement. Behavioral and emotional school engagement predicted academic competence differently. Emotional engagement was indirectly linked to academic competence, via behavioral engagement. Behavioral and emotional engagement also had different individual and contextual antecedents. Implications of the findings for evaluating the role of behavioral and/or emotional school engagement in academic competence and positive youth development are discussed.     

Gendered Academic Adjustment among Asian American Adolescents in an Emerging Immigrant Community

Research on the academic adjustment of immigrant adolescents has been predominately conducted in large cities among established migration areas. To broaden the field’s restricted focus, data from 172 (58% female) Asian American adolescents who reside within a non-traditional or emerging immigrant community in the Southeastern US were used to examine gender differences in academic adjustment as well as school, family, and cultural variables as potential mediators of gender differences found. Results suggest that girls report significantly higher educational goals, intrinsic academic motivation, and utility value of school compared to boys. These gender differences are statistically mediated by ethnic exploration and family processes, most prominently, family respect. School connectedness and perceived discrimination are also associated with academic adjustment at the bivariate level, suggesting that academic success may be best promoted if multiple domains of influence can be targeted.