Uusperheen voimavarat ja lasten hyvinvointi

The resources of the step family and the children’s well-being The present study investigates children's well-being in stepfamilies and fac¬tors, both external and internal, that are related to the children's well-being. Of the external factors, the study focuses on factors related to the structure of the stepfamily, parents' education, socio-economic status and factors related to work, livelihood and living conditions. The internal resources include the general functioning of the family, parenthood and parenting, family support networks and issues that the stepfamilies themselves consider important. Another important resource in a stepfamily is a functioning network of human relationships, which in the present study is approached from the maternal viewpoint. Changing family relations are considered a potential threat to the children's well-being. Therefore, in addition to looking into the stepfamily's resources, the other important goal of the study is to explore other factors potentially related to the well-being of children living in stepfamilies. In view of the stepfamily's resources, it is important to explore how the functioning of the relationships network is linked with the child's well-being. The study employs survey and interview data. The survey data (n=2236) are part of national survey data on the well-being of families and children and factors impacting them which were gathered as part of ”Origins of Exclusion in Early Childhood”, a research project carried out in 2002. The data consists of 667 stepfamilies. The interview data consists of interviews with 24 parents in stepfamilies. In the study, the analyses of survey and interview data are combined. Both descriptive statistical analyses and multivariate methods are employed. Content analysis is employed in the analysis of the interview data. The results indicate that the stepfamilies’ resources in general but their external resources in particular differed from those of the nuclear and single-parent families. The level of education and the socio-economic status of the stepfamily parents were somewhat lower than those of the nuclear family parents. The differences in relation to single-parent families were primarily related to the better economic status of the stepfamilies. The analysis of internal resources showed relatively minor differences: the stepfamilies assessed themselves a somewhat better general functioning of the family than did the nuclear families. Parenting issues caused more disagreement in stepfamilies than in nuclear families. The analysis of the functioning of the human relations in stepfamilies showed that the stepfamily mothers experienced the external relationships of the family (e.g., between the child and the absent father) as significantly more problematic than the relationships within the stepfamily. Living in a stepfamily thus challenges the functioning of the relationship between the child and the absent father. As a result of the analysis of the relationships networks in the stepfamilies, three groups were formed. One group had the nuclear family as an ideal goal, another valued an extended family composed of a variety of relationships, and the third one appreciated a strong intimate relationship between the parents. In the present study, the most common group was the multi-relationship, extended type of stepfamily. In conclusion, living in a stepfamily does not seem to pose a risk to the child’s well-being, but it may influence the family’s resources and thus have an indirect effect on the child’s well-being. In view of the resources of the stepfamily, the child’s well-being was best supported by a functioning network of human relationships in the stepfamily: there was a distinct connection with the children’s problems and the non-functioning of the relationships network. According to the mothers, the internal relationships in the stepfamily seemed to be more important than the external relationships of the family. A child’s functioning relationship with the absent father can be viewed as a positive resource, supporting the child’s well-being in the stepfamily.

Självkänsla och familjestöd hos ungdomar med olika aggressionsroll : en representativ studie bland högstadieelever i Österbotten

Objektive: To examine differences in the degree of self-esteem and family support among adolescents involved in different aggression roles from Ostrobothnia in Finland and to examine the relation between aggression role, family support and self-esteem. Method: A sample of 3512 adolescents in school at grades 7 and 9 from Ostrobothnia was considered for this study. The sample consisted of 1741 boys and 1771 girls with the mean age of 14.3 years and SD of 1.10 years. Aggression was measured with the Mini Direct Indirect Aggression inventory (Mini-DIA) by Österman and Björkqvist (2008), self-esteem was measured with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) by Rosenberg (1965) and family support was measured with the family support part from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (PSSS) by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farley (1988). Chi-square test, multivariate analysis and regression analyses were carried out. Results: The boys reported higher self-esteem and received higher family support than girls. The adolescents who were involved in aggression as victims or perpetrators reported lower self-esteem and family support than adolescents who were not involved in aggression. The regression analyses showed that family support and aggression role had significant effects on the adolescents’ self-esteem in both boys and girls. There was also an interaction effect between family support and aggression role for girls, so that the difference in self-esteem between perpetrator-victims and control group for example was higher for girls with low family support than for girls with high family support.

Integrating distributed generation and Smart Grids into single-family house

This study examines Smart Grids and distributed generation, which is connected to a single-family house. The distributed generation comprises small wind power plant and solar panels. The study is done from the consumer point of view and it is divided into two parts. The first part presents the theoretical part and the second part presents the research part. The theoretical part consists of the definition of distributed generation, wind power, solar energy and Smart Grids. The study examines what the Smart Grids will enable. New technology concerning Smart Grids is also examined. The research part introduces wind and sun conditions from two countries. The countries are Finland and Germany. According to the wind and sun conditions of these two countries, the annual electricity production from wind power plant and solar panels will be calculated. The costs of generating electricity from wind and solar energy are calculated from the results of annual electricity productions. The study will also deal with feed-in tariffs, which are supporting systems for renewable energy resources. It is examined in the study, if it is cost-effective for the consumers to use the produced electricity by themselves or sell it to the grid. Finally, figures for both countries are formed. The figures include the calculated cost of generating electricity from wind power plant and solar panels, retail and wholesale prices and feed-in tariffs. In Finland, it is not cost-effective to sell the produced electricity to the grid, before there are support systems. In Germany, it is cost-effective to sell the produced electricity from solar panels to the grid because of feed-in tariffs. On the other hand, in Germany it is cost-effective to produce electricity from wind to own use because the retail price is higher than the produced electricity from wind.

An Infant with Food Allergy and Eczema in the Family – The Mental and Economic Burden of Caring

Allergic diseases including food allergy and eczema in an infant in combination with the everyday activities of caring for a family will pose challenges to parents. Only fragments of these challenges are revealed to health care professionals. Families have varying mental, social and economic resources to help them care for an allergic infant, and all such resources are important in determining how families succeed in meeting these challenges and the quality of the infant’s care. This study evaluated the whole burden to the family caused by an infant's allergic disease during the first 24 months of life. As the primary caregiver during this period is usually the mother, her perspective was considered important. Ecocultural theory, which considers families as capable of modifying the positive and negative forces facing them, was taken as the frame of reference. Data were collected as part of an ongoing prospective mother-infant study, and the methods included severity scoring of atopic dermatitis, dietary records, health-related quality of life measurements and assessments of the use of health care services and medications for treating the infant’s eczema, food allergy and asthma. Interviews with mothers were analysed by deductive content analysis on the basis of ecocultural theory and the family empowerment model. The theme “Living an ordinary family life” guided the organization of family activities essential for treating the infant's food allergy and eczema. These activities were sources of both strain and support for the mothers, the allergy-related supporting factors being the mother’s own knowledge of the allergy, hopes for an improvement in the infant’s condition, social support and work. An infant’s food allergy at the age of one year caused considerable strain for the mother in cases where the introduction of new foods into the child’s diet was delayed. This delay was still causing the mother additional strain when the child was 24 months of age. The infants waking at night at the ages of 12 and 24 months because of itching related to eczema caused strain for the mothers. The infants’ health-related quality of life was impaired at ages of 6 and 12 months compared with healthy infants. The principal reasons for impairments were itching, scratching and sleep disturbances at 6 and 12 months and treatment difficulties at 6 months. Problems with getting to sleep were reported at all stages irrespective of eczema and were also present in healthy infants. The economic impact of the treatment of allergic diseases on families during the first 24 months was 131 EUR (2006 value) in cases of eczema and 525 EUR in cases of food allergy. From the societal perspective, the costs of food allergy were a median of 3183 EUR (range 628–11 560 EUR) and of eczema a median of 275 EUR (range 94–1306 EUR). These large variations in costs in food allergy and eczema indicate that disease varies greatly . In conclusion, food allergy and eczema cause extra activities and costs to families which arrange these disease-related activities in such a way that they support the leading family theme “Living an ordinary family life”. Health care professionals should consider this thematic character of family life and disease-related activities in order to ensure that new treatments are sustainable, meaningful and tailored to daily activities. In addition, those mothers who are experiencing difficulties with food allergic infants or infants with eczema should be recognized early and provided with individual encouragement and support from health clinics. In the light of the present results, early detection of symptoms and effective parental guidance can contribute to the well-being and health-related quality of life of the child and family.