After the Male Breadwinner Model? Childcare Services and the Division of Labor in European Countries

Fundamental reforms in childcare services appear to have eroded traditional
support to the male breadwinner model across European states. There has been a strong debate about the direction of these changes, and the ways in which childcare services can alter the division of labor and promote gender equality. This paper deals with these issues by using fuzzy set ideal-type analysis to assess the conformity of childcare service provisions in European economies to Fraser’s four ideal typical models: male breadwinner, caregiver parity, universal breadwinner, and universal caregiver. We find that there is resilience of traditional gender roles in the majority of European countries, while there are different variants of the universal breadwinner shaping different forms of childcare policies. The more equalitarian universal caregiver model maintains its utopian character.

Collectively coping with contact: The role of intragroup support in dealing with the challenges of intergroup mixing in residential contexts

The social identity approach to stress has shown how intragroup support processes shape individuals' responses to stress across health care, workplace, and community settings. However, the issue of how these 'social cure' processes can help cope with the stress of intergroup contact has yet to be explored. This is particularly important given the pivotal role of intergroup threat and anxiety in the experience of contact as well as the effect of contact on extending the boundaries of group inclusion. This study applies this perspective to a real-life instance of residential contact in a divided society. Semi-structured interviews with 14 Catholic and 13 Protestant new residents of increasingly mixed areas of Belfast city, Northern Ireland, were thematically analysed. Results highlight that transitioning to mixed communities was fraught with intergroup anxiety, especially for those coming from 'single identity' areas. Help from existing residents, especially when offered by members of other religious denominations, signalled a 'mixed community ethos' to new residents, which facilitated adopting and sharing this identity. This shared identity then enabled them to deal with unexpected intergroup threats and provided resilience to future sectarian division. New residents who did not adopt this shared identity remained isolated, fearful, and prone to negative contact.

The Influence of Child Protection Orientation on Child Welfare Practice

This article reports the findings of the second part of a two-part research project examining the potential for social workers to make changes in their work with families and children. While social workers in the United Kingdom have been encouraged to shift from a child protection to a child welfare orientation in their practice, such changes have been hampered by professional and organisational concern to manage risk. The research explores the influence of a child protection orientation on practice in child welfare cases. The findings, from two file analyses and interviews with twenty-six social workers, indicate that such an influence is indeed apparent. This is evidenced in two ways; firstly patterns of practice in child welfare cases are similar to those in child protection cases. Secondly, while the majority of social workers express an attitudinal desire to move towards a child welfare orientation, they still prioritise the management of risk in their practice. It is argued that social workers need permission from their employing organisations to make changes in their practice. This, in turn, requires such organisations to state clear goals in line with a child welfare orientation and develop holistic strategies to achieve these.

Determinants of Child-Parent Agreement in Quality-of-Life Reports: A European Study of Children With Cerebral Palsy

OBJECTIVES: The differences between child self-reports and parent proxy reports of quality of life in a large population of children with cerebral palsy were studied. We examined whether child characteristics, severity of impairment, socioeconomic factors, and parental stress were associated with parent proxy reports being respectively higher or lower than child self-reports of quality of life. METHODS. This study was conducted in 2004–2005 and assessed child quality of life (using the Kidscreen questionnaire, 10 domains, each scored 0–100) through self-reports and parent proxy reports of 500 children aged 8 to 12 years who had cerebral palsy and were living in 7 countries in Europe. RESULTS: The mean child-reported scores of quality of life were significantly higher than the parent proxy reports in 8 domains, significantly lower for the finances domain, and similar for the emotions domain. The average frequency of disagreement (child-parent difference greater than half an SD of child scores) over all domains was 64%, with parents rating their child’s quality of life lower than the children themselves in 29% to 57% of child-parent pairs. We found that high levels of stress in parenting negatively influenced parents’ perception of their child’s quality of life, whereas the main factor explaining parents’ ratings of children’s quality of life higher than the children themselves is self-reported severe child pain. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the factors associated with disagreement are different according to the direction of disagreement. In particular, parental wellbeing and child pain should be taken into account in the interpretation of parent proxy reports, especially when no child self-report of quality of life is available. In the latter cases, it may be advisable to obtain additional proxy reports (from caregivers, teachers, or clinicians) to obtain complementary information on the child’s quality of life.