Children in the 20th-century family economy: From co-providers to consumers

The position of children in the family economy changed fundamentally from the 19th century onward. In the Netherlands, the first child labor act was introduced in 1874; compulsory schooling was established in 1901. Since then, the economic contribution to the family income by children has gradually disappeared. Until the 1960s, in working-class families, the financial contribution of adolescents to the family income remained of great importance. Young workers gave their whole wage to the family in exchange for housing, food, clothes, and some pocket money. This article describes how the economic role of teenagers has changed since then. Nowadays, children and adolescents do not contribute to the family purse any longer.     

The other breadwinners: The mobilization of secondary wage earners in early twentieth-century black families

This study examines black families' reliance on secondary wage earners in Atlanta, GA during the early twentieth century (1900 and 1936). In periods of economic prosperity and decline, two-parent black families routinely relied on the employment of mothers, children, and extended kin to supplement the family income. These other breadwinners had different positions within the black family economy, and families' reliance on them was affected by diverse, albeit complementary factors. The employment of mothers and children was affected by economic need and the demands associated with the family life cycle. The presence of working relatives in extended family households was affected by the age of relatives, household size, and, to a limited degree, the ages of the host families' children.     

The contribution of Tamara Hareven to the understanding of carework

Tamara Hareven was widely recognized for her contribution to the study of the family in the context of economic activity, but she was also a pioneer in developing an understanding of carework, the unpaid work that families, usually women, do for the young, and the dependent elderly. This article reviews her insights from interviews in Manchester and in Kyoto, where she examined family strategies for combining paid work and carework among working class families. She described how women integrated child care and economic activity in the decades when women were expected to be at home and out of the labour force. The Manchester interviews also revealed the role of the adult child providing care for the elderly parent and how this role changed rapidly between early and later cohorts of adult children born in the early 20th century. From this she developed her insights on the importance of the historical context for understanding how transitions to parent care differed for different cohorts. In the early 21st century, carework has become integral to the study of the family and of women's roles in the family. Tamara Hareven's work provides early insights as to how these issues were managed in the context of more traditional family roles in the early 20th century.     

The contribution of Tamara Hareven to the understanding of carework

Tamara Hareven was widely recognized for her contribution to the study of the family in the context of economic activity, but she was also a pioneer in developing an understanding of carework, the unpaid work that families, usually women, do for the young, and the dependent elderly. This article reviews her insights from interviews in Manchester and in Kyoto, where she examined family strategies for combining paid work and carework among working class families. She described how women integrated child care and economic activity in the decades when women were expected to be at home and out of the labour force. The Manchester interviews also revealed the role of the adult child providing care for the elderly parent and how this role changed rapidly between early and later cohorts of adult children born in the early 20th century. From this she developed her insights on the importance of the historical context for understanding how transitions to parent care differed for different cohorts. In the early 21st century, carework has become integral to the study of the family and of women's roles in the family. Tamara Hareven's work provides early insights as to how these issues were managed in the context of more traditional family roles in the early 20th century.     

Houses,heirs, and non-heirs in the adour valley: Social and geographic mobility in the nineteenth-century

“Providing for the children's future” is a problem that parents should solve by the time children reach adulthood. In the case of a peasant family, the solution involved giving children part of the estate. In the Pyrénées, landownership as well as social status were bequathed to a single heir, while the other children had to leave the family house. What became of these others and where do they go? A small village from the Adour plain has been chosen to show how the system functioned during the nineteenth century, which was replete with economic crises. The study shows that roles and the duties connected with them changed during this century: internalization of local social norms was no longer going to be as successful as in the past. Also, the meaning of the family changed. Earlier, a simple domestic group working for the House, the family began to take on more autonomy as a production unit and started a long trend towards being a haven, a protector of the weak, old and unmarried members of the family.     

Godparents,witnesses, and social class in mid-nineteenth century sweden

“Providing for the children's future” is a problem that parents should solve by the time children reach adulthood. In the case of a peasant family, the solution involved giving children part of the estate. In the Pyrénées, landownership as well as social status were bequathed to a single heir, while the other children had to leave the family house. What became of these others and where do they go? A small village from the Adour plain has been chosen to show how the system functioned during the nineteenth century, which was replete with economic crises. The study shows that roles and the duties connected with them changed during this century: internalization of local social norms was no longer going to be as successful as in the past. Also, the meaning of the family changed. Earlier, a simple domestic group working for the House, the family began to take on more autonomy as a production unit and started a long trend towards being a haven, a protector of the weak, old and unmarried members of the family.     

Parental Incarceration during Childhood, Family Context, and Youth Problem Behavior across Adolescence

Over the past several decades, the number of youth with parents in prison in the U.S. has increased substantially. Findings thus far indicate a vulnerable group of children. Using prospective longitudinal data gathered as part of the population-based Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT) randomized controlled trial, adolescents who had an incarcerated parent during childhood are compared to those who did not across four key domains: family social advantage, parent health, the parenting strategies of families, and youth externalizing behavior and serious delinquency. Past parental incarceration was associated with lower family income, parental education, parental socioeconomic status, and parental health, and with higher levels of parental depression, inappropriate and inconsistent discipline, youth problem behaviors and serious delinquency. The effect sizes for significant associations were small to moderate.     

Stability and change in subjective quality of life of adolescents in secure residential care

Subjective quality of life (QoL) is an outcome measure often used in the field of psychiatry. While upcoming strength-based rehabilitation theories place strong emphasis on subjective QoL, it has hardly ever been investigated in adolescents with severe psychiatric problems who are admitted to secure residential care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the stability and change of subjective QoL of adolescents with severe psychiatric problems. Additionally, the effect of discharge and re-entering society on subjective QoL was studied. In a four-wave longitudinal study, the subjective QoL of 172 male adolescents with severe psychiatric problems was examined. Five subjective QoL domains remained stable over time, while five other domains changed. A decrease in satisfaction with family relations and social participation was observed for discharged adolescents. These results warrant for continuing guidance of adolescents in order for them to positively adapt to a new life outside secure residential care.     

Understanding intra-family inequalities: The Montes de Pas,Spain, 1700–1900

This article deals with the family organization of labor in a peasant community in Northern Spain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It uses this case study to review some of the assumptions with which peasant family history is being written, namely, the idea that from historical evidence of family members “working together,” a vision of families as cooperative, i.e., egalitarian units, can be deduced. Contrary to this idea, the article argues that coresidence cannot be taken as an indicator of equal economic status for all family members. The article proposes a method to identify inequalities between family members, based on a comparison between each member's working contribution to the household and access to family resources, including income generated by each member's own work.     

Role of family factors in adolescent delinquency in an Elazig/Turkey reformatory

Family is one of the most important factors in the social and psychological progress of an adolescent. Social behavior disorders in childhood have been reported to be caused by many factors that may lead children to commit a crime. Our study included a total of 106 convicted adolescents from Eastern Turkey in a reformatory and 126 unconvicted adolescents with a similar socio-economic status. A survey form was completed during a face-to-face interview and a review of official records was undertaken. The role of family disruption, education levels of parents, the rate of imprisonment among first- and second-degree relatives, migration as a family from their place of birth, and the number of delinquent children in the family were evaluated. There was a significant difference between the conditions in the families of convicted and unconvicted adolescents. Family factors play an important role in the development of adolescent delinquency. To prevent or decrease this rate of childhood or adolescent delinquency, there needs to be an improvement in the socio-cultural conditions of families.     

试论完善个人收入分配制度

改革开放以来,我国个人收入差距日益扩大,若不改变这种状况,必然影响社会的稳定与和谐。本文从分析我国个人收入分配方面发生的四个重大变化入手,阐述了目前我国个人收入差距日益扩大的五个主要原因,进而提出了解决问题的对策措施。     

The Impact of Child Abuse Potential on Adaptive Functioning: Early Identification of Risk

Previous research has investigated the deleterious effects of child maltreatment on child development; however, little research has examined the development of children who live with caregivers who are at risk of maltreatment on child development outcomes. This study utilized self-report data from caregivers that included the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI), Parenting Stress Inventory-Short Form (PSI/SF), and Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-2nd Edition (ABAS-II) for 116 children ages 3-12 from a rural, Appalachian community. Caregivers with lower child abuse potential, children who used fewer school services, older children, and caregivers with lower household income had better total adaptive skills. Caregivers with lower child abuse potential, children who used fewer school services and older children had better functioning on the academic skills subscale. Children who used fewer school services, were older, and had lower family income had greater self-care skills. Finally, children who used fewer school services had greater communication skills. Parent-child dysfunction was not related to child development outcomes. The findings demonstrate that educators are in a unique position to intervene and support children at risk of maltreatment.     

Child-to-Parent Violence in Adolescents: The Perspectives of the Parents,Children, and Professionals in a Sample of Spanish Focus Group Participants

This study explored the characteristics of child-to-parent violence (CPV) in Spain based on the narrations of adolescents who perpetrate this kind of violence, their parents, and the professionals who work in this area. A qualitative design was used. Focus groups were asked about the risk factors associated with CPV, such as exposure to family violence, discipline, and psychological characteristics of the adolescents. Interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and reviewed independently by each investigator to identify and group distinct comments into categories with specific themes. Results suggest that CPV is mainly linked to exposure to marital conflict and family violence, permissive discipline, emotional disengagement in the father-child relationship, and symptoms of emotional stress and substance consumption in the children. Lastly, acts of CPV seem to be an attempt by the children to gain power in the context of family relations in which the parents display their incapacity to establish control. As several family and personal characteristics appear to be involved in CPV, it is recommended that family and individual approaches be considered for treatment.     

Parent–child contact problems and family intensive interventions: The crisis of adolescent suicidality and the role of social media

Although clinicians, educators and parents have been alarmed by the decline in the mental health of children and adolescents commensurate with the Covid-19 pandemic, statistics indicate there has been a downward spiral over the last decade. This has been evident in the overall increase in suicide rates for young people. For legal and mental health professionals working in the Family Court system, this has provided unique challenges. Most vulnerable has been those children and adolescents embroiled in high conflict divorces, especially those exhibiting parent child contact problems. This article focuses upon that population exhibiting parent child contact problems, and their treatment, specifically Family Intensive Intervention. Building Family Resilience is an Intensive family treatment program that has had to address this deterioration in child and adolescent mental health and increase in suicidality. The role of social media in both exacerbating and/or ameliorating mental health issues is explored.     

The Contribution of Family Relationships to Child-to-Parent Violence

Child-to-parent violence is a social problem that is qualitatively different from other types of family violence, since adolescents direct their violence toward those who should represent authority and provide for their welfare. One of the goals of this study was to analyze the importance of the quality of family relationships and different strategies of family discipline with regard to violent or prosocial behavior of adolescents toward their parents. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test a model of violent behavior towards parents. Participants were 585 children aged between 12 and 18 from eight schools in the Basque Country (Spain). Positive family discipline and supervision were not associated with lower levels of violence against parents. Family relationships had direct effects on child-to-parent violence, and power-assertive discipline showed a mediating effect in that association. It seems that affectivity and quality of family relationships are the most important aspects for preventing violent behaviors.     

Regional Differences in the Economic Correlates of the Urban Homicide Rate

This article examines regional differences in the economic correlates of the urban homicide rate. On the basis of cultural variations between the South and other parts of the country, the proportion of the population below the poverty line and the level of income inequality are hypothesized to have stronger positive effects on the homicide rate in nonsouthern than in southern cities. Regression results for a sample of 256 nonsouthern cities and a sample of 91 southern cities do not support the hypothesis for the measure of income inequality, however. The Gini coefficient of family income concentration has no significant effect in either region. In contrast, the results for the poverty measure are consistent with expectations. The proportion below the poverty line has a significant, positive effect on the homicide rate only in the nonsouthern sample. These findings suggest that the impact of economic deprivation on rates of violent crime is likely to vary appreciably depending on the general cultural context.     

Guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents in pediatric HIV infection--HRSA. Request for comments

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is requesting comments from all interested parties on the following document: "Guidelines for Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Pediatric HIV Infection". The document was developed by specialists in the care of HIV-infected infants, children and adolescents, family members of HIV-infected children, and governmental agency representatives at a meeting on July 9 and 10, 1997, convened by the National Pediatric and Family HIV Resource Center (NPHRC) and HRSA. While the pathogenesis of HIV infection and the general virologic and immunologic principles underlying the use of antiretroviral therapy are similar for all HIV infected individuals, there are therapeutic and management considerations that are unique to HIV infected infants, children and adolescents. These include acquisition of infection through perinatal exposure for many infected children; in utero exposure to zidovudine (ZDV) and other antiretroviral medications in many perinatally-infected children; differences in diagnostic evaluation in perinatal infection; differences in immunologic markers (e.g. CD4+ lymphocyte count) in young children; changes in pharmacokinetic parameters with age due to the continuing development and maturation of organ systems involved in drug metabolism and clearance; differences in the clinical and virologic manifestations of perinatal HIV infection secondary to the occurrence of primary infection in a still-developing, immunologically naive individual; and special considerations related to treatment adherence in children and adolescents. This document addresses the pediatric-specific issues related to antiretroviral treatment and provides general guidelines to physicians caring for infected children and adolescents.     

Single Types of Family Violence Victimization and Externalizing Behaviors Among Children and Adolescents

Prior research has provided substantial evidence that child maltreatment and exposure to physical intimate partner violence (IPV) are associated with increased externalizing behavior problems among children and adolescents. However, little is known about the effects of exposure to psychological IPV and exposure to the physical abuse of a sibling. Using a total sample (N = 2,572) and subsample (n = 441) of children ages 3–18 years old, the purpose of this study was to assess whether cumulative types of family violence lead to higher mean externalizing behavior scores and to examine the effects of single types of indirect and direct family violence on children’s mean externalizing behavior scores. Results confirmed that children who experienced any type of family violence victimization had higher mean externalizing behavior scores compared to children with no history of family violence; however, few differences in externalizing behavior scores were found as the number of family violence types increased. Children who experienced indirect types of family violence (e.g., exposure to the physical abuse of a sibling) had higher externalizing behavior scores than children who experienced direct maltreatment (e.g., child physical abuse). Findings from this study suggest that researchers and service providers should adopt a broader conceptualization of family violence victimization and increase the amount of services provided to children who are indirectly victimized.     

“If this be living I'd rather be dead”: Enslaved youth,agency and resistance on an eighteenth century Jamaican estate

By the late eighteenth century, enslaved children and young adults had become vital components in the reproduction of Caribbean slavery. Yet the experiences of enslaved children and adolescents have rarely been the focus of scholarship. Indeed, the near-absence of scholarship on enslaved children and youth within the historiographies of slavery, childhood and family history is striking. While we know much about the structure of family life, gender roles, courtship, marriage, and parenting among the enslaved, we know far less about the material worlds of enslaved youth and adolescents. Childhood and adolescence represented critical stages in the lives of enslaved children for it was during these life-stages that young people were inculcated with the racialised ideologies of the wider social order, gained insight into the value systems of their society, were socialized into acceptance of their status as unfree peoples, and prepared for their future roles as labourers. Hence, their experiences of slavery were qualitatively different from those of adult slaves.This paper explores some aspects of adolescent life on the Jamaican estate of Thomas Thistlewood in the late decades of the eighteenth century. Thistlewood, manager of a slave-pen, early recognised the importance of young people in furthering his ambitions to become master of his own estate, and his purchases of young people reflect that market-rational strategy. Thistlewood’s preference for a youthful labour force stemmed from his conviction that young people could be more easily made to submit to his authority than adult slaves. Yet, Thistlewood’s belief in the greater tractability of enslaved youth was often undermined, as his adolescent labour force frequently and forcefully tested the limits of his mastery and asserted their rights to freedom. Thistlewood’s journal not only offers rich insights into the processes of transformation of enslaved children to adolescents and mature adults, but it also sheds light on enslaved youth and their negotiations with, manipulations of, and resistance to the master–slave relationship. This paper argues then, that far from being the passive objects of planter mastery, enslaved youth were active agents in the shaping of their own histories. In exploring these issues, this paper reveals much of the contradictions and ambiguities of enslaved childhood, youth and adolescence.     

“If this be living I'd rather be dead”: Enslaved youth,agency and resistance on an eighteenth century Jamaican estate

By the late eighteenth century, enslaved children and young adults had become vital components in the reproduction of Caribbean slavery. Yet the experiences of enslaved children and adolescents have rarely been the focus of scholarship. Indeed, the near-absence of scholarship on enslaved children and youth within the historiographies of slavery, childhood and family history is striking. While we know much about the structure of family life, gender roles, courtship, marriage, and parenting among the enslaved, we know far less about the material worlds of enslaved youth and adolescents. Childhood and adolescence represented critical stages in the lives of enslaved children for it was during these life-stages that young people were inculcated with the racialised ideologies of the wider social order, gained insight into the value systems of their society, were socialized into acceptance of their status as unfree peoples, and prepared for their future roles as labourers. Hence, their experiences of slavery were qualitatively different from those of adult slaves.

This paper explores some aspects of adolescent life on the Jamaican estate of Thomas Thistlewood in the late decades of the eighteenth century. Thistlewood, manager of a slave-pen, early recognised the importance of young people in furthering his ambitions to become master of his own estate, and his purchases of young people reflect that market-rational strategy. Thistlewood’s preference for a youthful labour force stemmed from his conviction that young people could be more easily made to submit to his authority than adult slaves. Yet, Thistlewood’s belief in the greater tractability of enslaved youth was often undermined, as his adolescent labour force frequently and forcefully tested the limits of his mastery and asserted their rights to freedom. Thistlewood’s journal not only offers rich insights into the processes of transformation of enslaved children to adolescents and mature adults, but it also sheds light on enslaved youth and their negotiations with, manipulations of, and resistance to the master–slave relationship. This paper argues then, that far from being the passive objects of planter mastery, enslaved youth were active agents in the shaping of their own histories. In exploring these issues, this paper reveals much of the contradictions and ambiguities of enslaved childhood, youth and adolescence.