Informal kinship care in rural China : the influence of Confucianism and attachment

This article examines the role of informal kinship care in addressing the emotional needs and mental health, along with relationships, of school-age children left behind in rural China. Rural–urban migration in China has caused many rural children to be left behind in their local communities. Based on semi-structured interview data, this article explores Confucianism’s impact on Chinese kin caregivers’ understandings of children’s needs and their childrearing practices to address these needs. Through the lens of attachment theory, this study identified a close affective bond between children left behind and their kin caregivers. This relationship is underpinned by kin caregivers’ high commitment and love for children, and the Confucian concept of ‘benevolence’. It not only provides children left behind with a sense of belonging, it also alleviates their trauma/grief due to separation from their parents

Práticas educativas parentais e repertório comportamental infantil: Comparando crianças diferenciadas pelo comportamento

Identifying parental practices contingent to the behavior of children is important to support interventions. This study compares parental disciplinary practices with the behavior of children in a clinical group with behavioral problems (n = 27) and of a group of children without behavioral problems (n = 26). The criterion to assign children in the clinical and non-clinical groups was obtained from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Information concerning parents-children interaction was obtained through the application of the Parental Educative Social Skills Interview Script (RE-HSE-P), which evaluates positive and negative educational practices, context, behavioral problems and children's social skills. Qualitative and quantitative analyses (Mann Whitney's test) were used in the groups' comparison. The results indicate that behaviors that differentiate between the clinical and non-clinical groups are mainly those related to positive educational practices and children's social skills.

Práticas educativas de mães de bebês: efeitos de um programa de intervenção

This research aims to describe the effects of an intervention program focusing on parenting practices of mothers of babies by comparing pre- and post -test (intragroup comparison) performed with groups of adolescent mothers and adult mothers (intergroup comparison). Participants were 40 mothers, 20 adolescents and 20 adults. To collect data we used the Parenting Styles Inventory for Mothers of Babies (IEPMB), applied before and after the intervention, which is characterized for ten weekly meetings on topics related to the cycle of human development and parenting practices. The results showed significantly better educational practices for adolescent mothers compared to adult mothers especially in the first evaluation conducted. The intervention group was effective for most participants, adults and adolescents, who improved their parenting practices or remained appropriate. It discusses the importance of interventional groups to improve parenting practices of mothers of babies.

Images of Childhood in Mothers' Accounts of Contemporary Childrearing

This article examines how a sample of first-time mothers in the UK constitute childhood in general, and their own children in particular, in and through their talk about the mundane practices of child-care. The data analysed are drawn from a longitudinal qualitative interview study which followed a sample of mothers from late pregnancy until their babies were two years old. The analysis explores links between mothers’ representations of childhood and the actualities of their child-rearing practices. The extent to which both the representations of childhood and the practices of individual mothers are consistent or contradictory, and change or remain constant over time, is also examined.