In recent years there has been a growing trend towards increased communication among members of the adoption triad. Although many adoption agencies are moving towards increased information sharing, there is little research evidence available concerning the consequences of this practice. This unique study investigates the consequences of openness in adoption, as practiced by several adoption agencies. Seventeen adoptive families and their corresponding birthparents were interviewed. The effects of the open adoption procedures on family life and attitudes were assessed. Included are a review of the literature on openness in adoption; a review of relevant theoretical perspectives; a discussion of agency practices; and a description of strengths and weaknesses of current research methods.

This book provides insights into the theoretical framework of 'tensions' related to care for children and the elderly. It analyzes if, and under what conditions, welfare state reforms have contributed to strengthening existing tensions, creating new tensions, or relaxing such tensions.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Bringing together the results of studies of child services from diverse countries and cultures, this book covers a broad array of topical issues and social work interventions. It examines adolescent emotional health, children of substance abusers, childhood depression and teenage suicide, children's weight and physical activity, language development in autistic children, and more. Chapters include a survey of the number of children living with substance-abusing parents in the UK, a study which helped identify several ways in which schools address adolescent emotional health issues, and a review of a program that supports parents of young people with suicidal behavior. The book also examines the role child protective services efforts play in delinquency prevention and intervention.

Influenced by news reports of young children brutalized by their parents, most of us see the role of child services as the prevention of severe physical abuse. But as Tina Lee shows in Catching a Case, most child welfare cases revolve around often ill-founded charges of neglect, and the parents swept into the system are generally struggling but loving, fighting to raise their children in the face of crushing poverty, violent crime, poor housing, lack of childcare, and failing schools. Lee explored the child welfare system in New York City, observing family courts, interviewing parents and following them through the system, asking caseworkers for descriptions of their work and their decision-making processes, and discussing cases with attorneys on all sides. What she discovered about the system is troubling. Lee reveals that, in the face of draconian budget cuts and a political climate that blames the poor for their own poverty, child welfare practices have become punitive, focused on removing children from their families and on parental compliance with rules. Rather than provide needed help for families, case workers often hold parents to standards almost impossible for working-class and poor parents to meet. For instance, parents can be accused of neglect for providing inadequate childcare or housing even when they cannot afford anything better. In many cases, child welfare exacerbates family problems and sometimes drives parents further into poverty while the family court system does little to protect their rights. Catching a Case is a much-needed wake-up call to improve the child welfare system, and to offer more comprehensive social services that will allow all children to thrive.

Between 1850 and 1970, around three hundred thousand children were sent to new homes through child migration programmes run by churches, charities and religious orders in the United States and the United Kingdom. Intended as humanitarian initiatives to save children from social and moral harm and to build them up as national and imperial citizens, these schemes have in many cases since become the focus of public censure, apology and sometimes financial redress. Remembering Child Migration is the first book to examine both the American 'orphan train' programmes and Britain's child migration schemes to its imperial colonies. Setting their work in historical context, it discusses their assumptions, methods and effects on the lives of those they claimed to help. Rather than seeing them as reflecting conventional child-care practice of their time, the book demonstrates that they were subject to criticism for much of the period in which they operated. Noting similarities between the American 'orphan trains' and early British migration schemes to Canada, it also shows how later British child migration schemes to Australia constituted a reversal of what had been understood to be good practice in the late Victorian period. At its heart, the book considers how welfare interventions motivated by humanitarian piety came to have such harmful effects in the lives of many child migrants. By examining how strong moral motivations can deflect critical reflection, legitimise power and build unwarranted bonds of trust, it explores the promise and risks of humanitarian sentiment.

Why is it important for social workers to form meaningful relationships with young children on their caseloads? And how can social workers develop meaningful relationships with these young children? This book provides a timely, invaluable resource and practical guide for social work students specialising in family and child care and for practitioners who have young children on their caseloads. Packed with real life examples of in-depth interviews conducted with young children known to social services, it outlines what can be done to improve practice in this challenging and demanding area. Building Relationships and Communicating with Young Children is the first book to bring to life the perspectives of young children and to highlight their competency within the interview process. It: explores the key ingredients required by social workers to establish, maintain, nurture and value their relationships with young children highlights what young children, within the context of meaningful relationships with social workers, can tell us about their circumstances, their perspectives, their feelings and their views uses case examples to identify best practice guidelines including methods and techniques for social workers to build meaningful relationships with young children on their caseloads makes recommendations regarding how best to positively engage and work with young children. Written by a social worker and university lecturer with 16 years experience of working in the field of child protection, this textbook is full of case studies and practical advice about how to form relationships with young children known to social services, the most appropriate methods to use and how to represent their perspectives. It is essential reading for all social work students as well as social work practitioners and other social and health care professionals.

This book provides an overview of the core professional issues in the field of child and youth care practice. The author explores themes ranging from relationships and the exploration of Self to career building and field-specific approaches to management. The book is written from a pragmatic perspective, and serves both to advance current thinking in the field about professional issues as well as to provide the student of child and youth care practice and practitioners with practical and accessible approaches to developing a strong and sustainable professional identity. All of the themes in this book are explored within a context of ethical decision-making and practice approaches informed by a commitment to children's rights and empowerment. Throughout the discussions, concepts and themes are considered in relation to four specific lenses: the power lens, the diversity lens, the language lens and the transitioning from theory to practice lens. These lenses serve to ensure that the reader adopts a critical understanding of the professional issues in the field and is able to develop his or her own professional identity while mitigating the power and identity issues necessarily associated with being a practitioner in a helping profession. This book was published as a special issue of Child and Youth Services.

In this poignant book, Lisa Cherry brings together a collection of candid and personal reflections on the care system in the UK, offering alternative ways of thinking about the care experience, supporting better ways of working, and providing justification for a trauma-informed lens to be applied to all forms of work with those in care. Through personal insights and reflections, the book brings often-unheard stories vividly to life, beginning with the author's own. These are stories about love and pain; hurt and isolation; the depth of lived experience that makes up a life; how we live our lives through our relationships with others and where we feel we fit in. In this thoughtfully compiled third edition, original contributors look back on their own reflections from the lives that they live now, new stories bring new perspectives, and discussion points provide the opportunity to consider the realities of the care experience as well as life beyond. Whilst each story is unique, shared themes reveal the truth of the care system and, coming at a time where there is a real opportunity for change, the narratives in this book are ultimately stories of hope and connection. This is crucial reading for policy makers, those working in social work, education and adoption, as well as care experienced adults.

As they intervene in families to reduce the risk of harm to children, child protection social workers around the world are confronting increasingly high levels of hostility and aggression from some parents. Investigations into the deaths of children known to social services have accused social workers of failing to use their professional authority to challenge parents. This much needed book analyses public inquiries and serious case reviews to reveal the dynamics of hostility and aggression which contribute to the failure to protect children. These can occur within the office environment and between social workers and parents or their partners. The book details applied theories of aggression in conjunction with the skills required for dealing with anger, conflict and aggression. A set of tools and reflective exercises assists the application of theory to day-to-day child protection practice. This indispensable and practical text is ideal for social work students, practitioners, trainers and academics specialising in child protection.

Successful Prevention Programs for Children and Adolescents presents a wide variety of exemplary programs addressing behavioral and social problems, school failure, drug use, injuries, child abuse, physical health, and other critical issues. The validity and generality of each study's results are given special attention, and outcomes involving actual behavioral change are emphasized. A special appendix lists resources on prevention, including other texts, special journal issues, national clearinghouses, resource centers containing videos and curriculum materials, and Web sites.

Leading scholars summarize the current research on risk, protection, and resilience in the context of youth violence and its implications for practice with children and families. It describes an emerging framework for understanding social and health problems and for developing more effective programs for interventions. This book describes resilient children by examining risk factors for violence and explores the factors that lead some children to resist or adapt to risk.

The concept of resilience has been applied to family, school, neighborhood, and organizational contexts. Educational, family, and community resilience are used as the framework to describe social systems that possess risk factors. By understanding why some systems with risk factors are adaptable, information for assessment can be applied to service plans, that will be more effective in treating children at risk of antisocial, aggressive behavior.

This book is revised to reflect the latest standards, legislation, frameworks and practice, so students have the up-to-date information they need to succeed. It is extended to provide the greater depth and criticality that students need at Levels 4 and 5. It is written in the same accessible language as the first edition and designed for quick and easy reference. It is packed with recommendations for further reading, making it the perfect starting point for any line of early years research. It is ideal for sector-endorsed Early Years Foundation Degrees, NVQ/SVQ Level 4 in Children's Care, Learning and Development and other comparable qualifications.

The Young Lives project is a long-term study of childhood poverty in developing countries. International experts follow two groups of children in poor communities in four countries as they grow into young adults with five rounds of surveys, interspersed with on-going participatory research with a smaller number of the children, planned to cover a period of 15 years. This book represents the engagement of Young Lives with researchers and debates in the field, reflecting on the first two rounds of data coming from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, with supporting material from Tanzania and South Africa. Topics include the ethics of research, the long-term causes and consequences of childhood poverty, and the resilience and optimism shown by children and their families. The authors also look at the dynamics of childhood poverty -- how and why some families move in and out of poverty as well as learning, children's timeuse and life transitions -- focusing on children's daily lives, their families and communities.

This book presents and brings together research on child sexual abuse from various countries and cultures in the Arab Region. It addresses the multiple types of Child Sexual Abuse Exploitation and Trafficking (CSAET) and responds to the expanding burden of its diverse presentations. The book identifies appropriate structures for efficient programs that are to be accepted and developed by diverse cultures in the region, in order to develop an action plan to combat sexual violence against children. It studies the gathered to date child sexual abuse protection systems in the Arab region, covering issues such as children's rights, challenges of protection and advocates for peaceful, safe, healthy and happy environments for children and their families.

This collection centres on the experiences of disabled children and young people and aims to develop theories about their childhoods. The powerful first-hand accounts by disabled children, family members and reflections by disabled adults are aimed to inspire the reader to think and, perhaps, act in positive and productive ways about all children's lives. The authors oppose the historical global imposition of problematic views of disability and childhood and offer open discussion of responsive and ethical research approaches. New ways of thinking about disabled children's childhoods in a global context demand poverty reduction and approaches that support families and communities to recognise the contributions disabled children make.

This study of children's participation in decisions about their care draws on recent work in sociology and anthropology, psychology and legal philosophy in order to understand this challenging area of social life. It also reports on original and groundbreaking research into children's views of decision-making processes. The book has important theoretical implications and important lessons for social welfare policy and practice. It will be of interest to those involved in childhood studies or in qualitative research methods, as well as in social welfare provision.

Recently, many political voices have indicated a strong desire to track down absent fathers who have absconded without fulfilling child support obligations to their biological or adopted children. This renewed interest in deadbeat dads has resulted from a recognition that the social welfare programs, which pick up the tab for abandoned children, are contributing significantly to an ever-increasing federal budget deficit. Meanwhile, in a large number of cases, there simply isn't enough money for an absent parent to maintain his own separate support and fulfill the support obligations that the law requires. This book explores the history, reforms, and consequences of child support in America. The authors have included case studies as well as discussions on the psychological consequences of separating families, effects of divorce laws on the award of child support, contested paternity, and child custody alternatives. They conclude with a discussion on economic responsibility and the deadbeat epidemic. The book is intended to empower the larger number of parents who are caught in the midst of overworked agencies, discouraging tales, and the lack of information that keeps them paralyzed from acting on their own behalf.

This book deals with the implementation and application of the "in the best interests of the child principle" in research and practice. With contributions by authors from nine different countries (United States, Belgium, France, Norway, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Israel, Ireland, Canada) an international perspective is adopted. After the outline of the theme given in the introductory chapter, the first part illustrates the search for theory-driven and empirically-based models to deal with the complexity of parenting. In the second part illustrations about the implementation and application of the best interests principle in child and youth care practice are given. Part three is focusing on the organization of child and youth care systems according to the best interests principle.

In recent years increasing attention has been paid to issues of social exclusion and the problematic transition from youthful dependence to adult independence. Often this has had severe consequences, ranging from under achievement and disruptive behaviour in school, through the misuse of alcohol and drugs, to serious or persistent offending. Seeking to address these issues has become a major focus of public policy and a variety of forms of intervention with disaffected youth have been set up. One of the most talked about forms of intervention with disaffected youth has been 'mentoring'. This book, based on a large-scale research study, examines the lives of a large group of 'disaffected' young people, and considers the impact that involvement in a mentoring programme had on them. In doing so it fills a large gap, providing empirical evidence on the effectiveness of mentoring programmes, providing at the same time a vivid insight into the nature of such disaffection, the realities of contemporary social exclusion among young people and the experience and outcome of mentoring.

Improve services for children and youth with new concepts, different perspectives, and up-to-date information! How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children: For Better or for Worse? explores the positive and negative impacts of social institutions on child and adolescent well-being. Experts in the fields of social work and child welfare provide a broad perspective on how to improve outcomes for children and adolescents who receive institutional services either directly or indirectly. This book contains innovative strategies for reducing the negative outlook for children and families in shelters, foster homes, and residential treatment centers. This book offers improvements for care services at such locations as: residential institutions state custody and foster homes schools youth development organizations urban public housing developments homeless shelters In How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children, you'll discover current case studies that show how certain groupssuch as minorities and economically challenged children and familiesare stigmatized by the current child welfare system. You'll also find new evidence of the detrimental effects that can occur as a result of institutionalization and the need to find alternatives to removing children and adolescents from family-style environments. This book contains tables to clarify the findings of these case studies, references to further your reading, and detailed descriptions of plans and programs that you can implement in your own social work practice. How Institutions are Shaping the Future of Our Children presents new ways to create positive environments for children and adolescents, including: strengths-based approaches to practice with children with severe emotional and behavioral disturbances custody planning for the children of HIV-infected women discipline-specific education for child protection caseworkers creating supportive staff-youth relationships within all institutions multiple family group interventions which help to strengthen homeless families in preparation to transition to permanent housing the School Development Program, Child Development Project, and Comprehensive Quality Programminginterventions for preventing school drop-outs Life Plans for post-institutionalized youth

Continuing his ongoing social critique, Henry Giroux looks at the way corporate culture is encroaching on the lives of children by exploring three myths prevalent in our society: that the triumph of democracy is related to the triumph of the market; that children are unaffected by power and politics; and that teaching and learning are no longer linked to improving the world. Looking at childhood beauty pageants, school shootings, and the omnipresent nihilistic chic of advertising, Giroux paints a disturbing picture of the world surrounding our children. Ultimately, he turns to the work of Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and Stuart Hall for lessons on how we can reinstitute a realistic childhood for our children.

This compendium provides an orientation to basic issues of child and family policy. It includes an overview of the recent history of child and family policy in the United States; an exploration of several political economic conditions underlying changes in these policies; a historical survey of policies toward dependent children; and case studies of selected local, state, and federal policies. The case study approach helps to discern patterns in successful and unsuccessful policies, clarify assumptions and values that underlie them, and develop evaluation criteria. Policy formation is the focus in analyses of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act; family support initiatives in Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland; and municipal policies for homeless families in Atlanta, Denver, and Seattle. Examinations of the federal Baby Doe regulations and AIDS education policy in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, public schools highlight policy implementation. An account of the Massachusetts Day Care Partnership Project concentrates on the third phase of policy analysis: policy evaluation. The concluding chapters stress the importance of considering race, class, and gender in defining social problems, setting policy agendas, and structuring and evaluating policies and programs. They then provide an analytic framework for assessing future responsibilities for U.S. child and family policy.

Families need child care more in the 1990s than ever before. Those hours surrounding school time are particularly troublesome for working parents. In this new edition of a pioneering work, Seligson and Allenson explore the challenges that child care providers will encounter as the 21st century approaches. The authors skillfully balance a practical business operations text with an investigation into the meaning of social obligation. The central theme of partnership in offering care underscores each of the 12 chapters. These general planning elements form guidelines designing and managing a caring program for children aged 5-12.

Topics covered include administration, curriculum, legal issues, budgeting, and assessment. Careful consideration is given to an outline for human resources development. The authors take an in-depth look at the day-to-day operation of a center--detailing concerns from behavioral and medical to scheduling and transportation. The concept of a child care professionalism which reflects respect, partnership, and caring, is sustained throughout this practical manual. An important contribution to the research and practice of child care, this volume draws providers and practitioners together in a process of self-reflection in order to effectively respond to the needs of today's--and tomorroW's--families.

Where is feminist state theory today? This book offers novel insights into social science debates by analyzing feminist theories of the state. It argues that we need feminist tools for analyzing states and focuses on two debates, domestic violence and childcare, as areas where feminists discursively construct the state. These themes are developed within a comparative perspective. Focusing on devolution in Scotland and the European Union, the book further explores how feminist state theories conceive multi-level governance.

This book considers the responses of states to migrant girls who are separated from family and enter state care systems as unaccompanied or trafficked young people. The book draws on research with girls and social work practitioners in the UK to explore what can happen when separated girls encounter professionals at borders and within care systems. It considers how separated girls adapt to different ideas of what it means to be a girl in destination countries, and how this is affected by their other intersecting identities. The book identifies how girls can feel welcomed, but also how young migrants can be seen in excluding ways. It argues that narratives of the fragile 'refugee child' are unhelpful ways to understand individual girls. Using theories and clear language relevant to both academics and practitioners, the author fills a gap in the research on migrant and trafficked young women who frequently represent the minority in care systems globally.