Child- and Family-Centered Practices in a Post-Bureaucratic Era: Inherent Conflicts Encountered by the New Child Welfare Professional

Various child welfare organizations are changing services by adopting child- and family-centered approaches and moving away from redundant bureaucracy, top-down strategies, and fragmented networks. This shift inevitably poses challenges. This article uses the case of intensive family case management in the Netherlands to explore conflicts perceived by professionals and associated coping strategies. Findings are that internal conflicts (leading to a relapse into old routines or to misinterpretation of purpose) and boundary conflicts (leading to a relapse into old collaboration agreements) cause challenges. Pioneering organizations need to provide support for learning and reflection between professionals, seeking alignment between accountability and learning.     

Italian Feminisms

The article focuses on the politics of representation in Kosova since the United Nations took over ‘peace management’ in 1999. It uses UN propaganda posters (political pedagogy) and local nationalist political advertising as a way to read the multiple gendered discourses of representation. It shows how gender is used relationally between competing forces – the ‘international community’ and nationalists – as a tool to ensure UN's imposition of Western policies and norms and as a mechanism for local politicians to consolidate their domination of the domestic/private sphere. Moreover, it discusses the price paid to mimic the West: how Kosovar politicians have sought to ‘undo’ national identity in favour of a Western self-representation through a gendered abnegation of Islam. Thus, as an intrinsic part of the discourse of ‘peace-building’, these images represent the site of power production, domination, negotiation, and rejection, involving the collaboration of different actors, institutions, and individuals. Three specific points will be made: first, the article seeks to show that a Western political modernization discourse has, paradoxically, reinforced patriarchal relations of power and traditional gender roles in Kosova through the subjugation of women. Second, it explains the inability to resolve competing Albanian narratives – one relying on the legacy of peaceful resistance and the other on the armed struggle against Serbian domination during the 1990s. Third, through the intermeshing of international peace-keepers and local nationalist patriarchs, it will show how the militarization of culture is perpetuated through, and in relationship to, gender.     

Utopian visions of schizophrenic adolescents

Twenty-four normal and 24 hospitalized schizophrenic adolescents described an ideal society for an imaginary island. The normals usually tried to establish a functional democracy. The schizophrenics seemed more sensitive to basic biological needs, but their main goal was to create a personal paradise, a place in which every need and desire would be met. In their search for paradise, the schizophrenics often introduced themes that had a Jungian, archetypal flavor — e.g., themes from antiquity, God, sex, homes, animals, opposites (such as love and hate), birth, and death.Received his Ph.D. in human development from the University of Chicago. Main interests are in developmental theory and schizophrenia.Main interest is in clinical psychology.     

Effects of Positive Impression Management on the Psychopathic Personality Inventory

The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; S. O.Lilienfeld & B. P. Andrews, 1996) is a self-report test that has shown considerable promise as a screening measure for psychopathy. A current limitation of the PPI is that no data exist regarding the impact of response sets such as positive impression management. Although the PPI contains a validity scale (Unlikely Virtues) designed to identify response biases such as faking good, its utility has not yet been assessed. In this study a repeated measures analogue design was employed in which 186 respondents completed the PPI both under standard conditions and with specific instructions to create a favorable impression of themselves. In the fake good condition, participants were able to appear significantly less psychopathic, with those who obtained higher scores in the standard instruction condition showing the largest decreases in their PPI scores. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses indicated that, although the Unlikely Virtues scale significantly differentiated between fake good and honest protocols (area under the curve = .73), a considerable number of misclassifications occurred. The clinical and forensic implications of these findings are discussed.     

An evaluation of Montana's child welfare court pre-hearing conference pilot project

Pre-hearing conferences are a form of alternative dispute resolution that have been implemented into the child welfare court process. Montana recently piloted a pre-hearing conference model to occur before the first hearing on the case. The goal of the pilot was to increase discussion and resolution of contested visitation, placement, and service issues and to better engage parents in the process. Data were collected across multiple years to explore the effectiveness of the pilot in improving outcomes for children and families. Analysis of the data revealed a positive relationship between program implementation and timelier permanency. Parents who attend and have higher levels of participation in the pre-hearing conference are also more likely to reunify.     

Framing and dominant metaphors in the coverage of North Korea in the Australian media

Through the selective allocation of attention, framing and metaphors in covering foreign affairs and countries, media narratives often act to delegitimise, marginalise and demonise international actors. Focusing on Australian reportage of North Korea in The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2012, this paper explicates how the framing mechanisms utilised in media point to media complicity in reinforcing a negative, adversarial orientation towards North Korea. It also discusses implications for how Australians view the North Korean people, Australian–North Korean relations, and policy pertaining to Northeast Asia more broadly.     

Healing Families: Outcomes from a Family Drug Treatment Court

Family drug treatment courts (FDTC) have been acknowledged as a promising intervention for substance‐abusing parents involved in the child welfare system. Over the past decade, the number of FDTC programs has grown substantially, yet questions remain regarding the efficacy of these courts. This study examines the ability of the Snohomish County (WA) FDTC to address the three main goals of the Adoption and Safe Families Act. Utilizing propensity score matching, this study found that participants were more likely to have their children returned, experienced stronger treatment completion rates, and had less use of foster care. Implications for replication and further analysis are discussed.     

Recent Trends in Child Maintenance Schemes in 14 Countries

Changes in family formations in western industrialized countriessince the 1960s have not been reflected in cross-national researchin the area of child maintenance. This article outlines childsupport regimes in 14 countries, considering the locus of formaldecision making, the determination of child maintenance obligations– highlighted by way of national informant responses totwo fictitious vignette scenarios – and the enforcementand penalty provisions used in the event of non-compliance.The article concludes that while some broad trends can be identifiedacross countries, there is diversity in how countries respondto family change.     

Predicting Institutional Violence among Death Row Inmates: The Utility of the Sorensen and Pilgrim Model

The (Sorensen and Pilgrim, An actuarial risk assessment of violence posed by capital murder defendants. J Crim Law Criminol 90:1251–1270, 2000) actuarial model was developed to predict institutional violence among life-sentenced murderers. However, despite its presentation at capital sentencing, the model has not been validated on death row inmates specifically. This study examined the association between Sorensen and Pilgrim model scores and five types of institutional violence (serious assaults, minor assaults, verbal assault/threats, prison order offenses, and non-violent infractions) among a sample of 155 individuals who had been incarcerated on death row in Texas. Results revealed that risk scores performed better for non-violent infractions than for serious assaults, calling into question the utility of this measure for capital sentencing evaluations.

Developmental Alcohol-Specific Parenting Profiles in Adolescence and their Relationships with Adolescents’ Alcohol Use

Previous studies on general parenting have demonstrated the relevance of strict parenting within a supportive social context for a variety of adolescent behaviors, such as alcohol use. Yet, alcohol-specific parenting practices are generally examined as separate predictors of adolescents’ drinking behavior. The present study examined different developmental profiles of alcohol-specific parenting (rule-setting, quality and frequency of communication about alcohol use) and how these patterns relate to the initiation and growth of adolescents’ drinking. A longitudinal sample of 883 adolescents (47?% female) including four measurements (between ages 12 and 16) was used. Latent class growth analysis revealed that five classes of parenting could be distinguished. Communication about alcohol appeared to be fairly stable over time in all parenting classes, whereas the level of rule-setting declined in all subgroups of parents as adolescents grow older. Strict rule-setting in combination with a high quality and frequency of communication was associated with the lowest amount of drinking; parents scoring low on all these behaviors show to be related to the highest amount of drinking. This study showed that alcohol-specific rule-setting is most effective when it coincides with a good quality and frequency of communication about alcohol use. This indicates that alcohol-specific parenting behaviors should be taken into account as an alcohol-specific parenting context, rather than single parenting practices. Therefore, parent-based alcohol interventions should not only encourage strict rule setting, the way parents communicate with their child about alcohol is also of major importance.