Family violence in culturally and linguistically diverse communities: An evaluation of a family relationship centre

Federal legislative changes in Australia have sought to improve how family relationship centres (FRCs) can be more responsive to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities when addressing family disputes and family violence. Research on the prevalence of family violence against women from CALD backgrounds is sparse. This article seeks to contribute to the understanding of this issue by describing findings of an evaluation of the FRC at Broadmeadows conducted by the authors. The findings focus on family violence and the appropriateness of the services offered to three CALD community groups, namely Iraqi, Lebanese and Turkish. The final section provides reflections on these findings and offers suggestions about how FRC services might better cater to the family violence needs of CALD communities by developing more extensive partnerships with community groups and by expanding the range of processes they offer beyond mediation.

A cultural assessment of family dispute resolution: Findings about access, retention and outcomes from the evaluation of a Family Relationship Centre

The cultural appropriateness of human service processes is a major factor in determining the effectiveness of their delivery. Sensitivity to issues of culture is particularly critical in dealing with family disputes, which are generally highly emotive and require difficult decisions to be made regarding children, material assets and ongoing relationships. In this article we draw on findings from an evaluation of the Family Relationship Centre at Broadmeadows (FRCB) to offer some insights into and suggestions about managing cultural matters in the current practice of family dispute resolution (FDR) in Australia. The brief for the original research was to evaluate the cultural appropriateness of FDR services offered to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities living within the FRCB’s catchment area, specifically members of the Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqi communities. The conclusions of the evaluations were substantially positive. The work of the Centre was found to illustrate many aspects of best practice but also raised questions worthy of future exploration. The current article reports on issues of access, retention and outcomes obtained by CALD clients at various stages of the FRCB service.

A cultural assessment of family dispute resolution: Findings about cultural appropriateness from the evaluation of a family relationship centre

The cultural appropriateness of human service processes is a major factor in determining the effectiveness of their delivery. Sensitivity to issues of culture is particularly critical in dealing with family disputes, which are generally highly emotive and require difficult decisions to be made regarding children, material assets and ongoing relationships. In this article we draw on findings from an evaluation of the Family Relationship Centre at Broadmeadows (FRCB) to offer some insights into and suggestions about managing cultural matters in the current practice of family dispute resolution (FDR) in Australia. The brief for the original research was to evaluate the cultural appropriateness of FDR services offered to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities living within the FRCB’s catchment area, specifically members of the Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqi communities. The conclusions of the evaluations were substantially positive. The work of the Centre was found to illustrate many aspects of best practice but also raised questions worthy of future exploration. The current article reports on overall cultural appropriateness, particularly identifying barriers which may inhibit access and how acculturation may play a role in reducing perception of barriers. An earlier article reported on access, retention and outcomes for these CALD groups (Akin Ojelabi et al., 2011).

Family relationship quality and early alcohol use : evidence for gender-specific risk processes

Objective: Family characteristics (relationship quality, parental behaviors, and attitudes relating to alcohol use) are known to influence alcohol use in the mid-teen years, and there is evidence that family characteristics have different influences on mid-teen girls versus boys. This study examined child gender differences in the association of family relationship quality, parental disapproval of children's alcohol use, and parental alcohol use with early adolescent alcohol use.

Method: Grade 6 and 8 students (modal age 11 and 13, respectively; N = 6,837; 52.6% female) were recruited from 231 schools across three Australian states. Hypotheses were tested using two-level ordinal logistic regression (individuals nested within schools). The main dependent measure was lifetime frequency of early adolescent alcohol consumption. Independent variables included mother's/father's alcohol use, closeness, conflict, and disapproval of adolescent alcohol use. Control variables included sensation seeking, peer alcohol use, and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Results: The key findings were that for the young age group (Grade 6), emotional closeness to the parent of the opposite sex was protective. Family conflict was associated with females' drinking in both age groups but not males' drinking.

Conclusions: There was evidence of gender differences in the epidemiology of family relationship quality and early alcohol use. Social developmental models may need revision to account for these child gender differences. Gender-specific family dynamics may be an important consideration for family-oriented prevention strategy.

Women in gainful occupations, 1870 to 1920: A study of the trend of recent changes in the numbers, occupational distribution, and family relationship of women reported in the census as following a gainful occupation

by Joseph A. Hill ...

Career and work-family relationship among academics : An exploratory study

Despite the increase, in recent years, of women’s participation in the labour market, sex discrimination remains a reality in most work organisations. In this matter, academic organisations are no exception. Evidence of sex inequalities is well documented in the literature. At the individual level, inequalities are partly explained by family responsibilities mainly held by women. Having to spend a considerable amount of time in home and children related activities women are left with less time available for scientific work than their male colleagues. With the purpose of understanding how academics experience the relationship between work and family, 32 in-depth interviews were conducted among Portuguese academics of both sexes in one particular university. The findings confirmed that work-family conflict is stronger among female faculty than among their male counterparts. Additionally, the prejudice against maternity and the way it is compatible with a successful career appears to survive the new gender relations. Difficulties felt by female academics could be minimised by the introduction of «family-friendly» policies and the development of a positive organisational climate towards maternity and family issues.

Família e educadores da infância: um diálogo possível

A creche vem sendo afirmada como espaço de educação para a infância, complementar à família. Devido à idade das crianças que frequentam a creche, o diálogo entre educadores e famílias têm sido valorizado, pois as atribuições de cada um são bem próximas. O objetivo desta tese foi investigar o processo de construção da relação creche-família, em um período de três anos (estudo longitudinal), através de oito aspectos desta relação. São eles: (1) expectativas e opiniões das famílias sobre a creche e vice-versa; (2) os motivos para o diálogo, (3) estratégias utilizadas, (4) dificuldades no diálogo, (5) negociações sobre o cuidado e educação à criança, (6) a inserção à creche, (7) a opinião de famílias sobre o desenvolvimento da criança, e (8) a creche como parte de uma rede de apoio. Esses aspectos foram definidos com base no referencial teórico sobre o tema e nos encontros da autora com educadores da creche onde a pesquisa foi realizada. Essa creche é pública municipal da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Os sujeitos foram as famílias e os educadores de crianças que entraram em 2009 e permaneceram na instituição até 2011. O referecial teórico foi norteado pela perspectiva sociohistorica do desenvolvimento, com estudos sobre família e sobre a relação desta com a creche. Os intrumentos utilizados foram: entrevistas, questionários, diário de bordo, videogravação e um bonequinho de pano artesanal. A análise contemplou dados qualitativos e quantitativos que foram organizados em oito eixos, correspondentes a cada aspecto que pretendeu investigar. Os dados evidenciaram que famílias e educadores buscavam o diálogo, através da empatia gerada entre eles e de negociações sobre a educação da criança. Por outro lado havia queixas de educadores quanto às expectativas de famílias por um trabalho individualizado ou a falta de valorização profissional. O bonequinho atingiu a finalidade de promover o diálogo entre famílias e educadores, especialmente no período da inserção das crianças. Os oito eixos de análise constituiram aspectos a serem aprofundados em futuras investigações sobre a relação creche-família. A pesquisa, ao acompanhar famílias e educadores durante três anos, propiciou momentos de reflexão sobre suas crenças e práticas, promovendo experiências e oportunidades de desenvolvimento qualitativamente diferentes para ambos e para as crianças. Novos significados sobre a relação educadores e famílias foram produzidos para esses sujeitos, transformando a história dessa relação.

The Impact of Relationship Conflict on subjective Family Firm Valuation

The present paper empirically investigates the impact of family relationship conflict on subjective firm valuation by family firm owner managers. Drawing on the emerging socioemotional wealth perspective of corporate ownership, we find a U-shaped relationship between relationship conflict inside the family firm and subjective family firm valuation. This finding suggests that negatively valenced emotions induced by the conflict, at low levels of conflict, lead to emotion congruent withdrawal behavior and hence lower valuation. With conflicts gaining in fervor and severity, owner-managers start endowing and pricing sunk costs related to the conflict. This finding suggests that emotions do indeed have spill-over effects on monetary value perceptions and that negatively valenced emotions induced by relationship conflict are not linearly appraised. Rather, to understand the impact of negative emotions on corporate ownership appraisal and attachment it is required to reconcile the emotion congruency with the prospect theory perspective.

‘A picture of who we are as a family’: conceptualizing post-adoption contact as practices of family display

Social work has a central role in negotiating and supporting birth family contact following adoption from care. This paper argues that family display (Finch) offers a useful conceptual resource for understanding relationships in the adoptive kinship network as they are enacted through contact. It reports on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of adoptive parents' accounts of open adoption from care that revealed direct and indirect contact to be contexts in which they and birth relatives performed family display practices: communicating the meaning of their respective relationships with the adopted child and seeking recognition that this was a legitimate family relationship. The analysis explores how family display was performed, and the impact of validating or invalidating responses. It aims to illuminate these social and interpretive processes involved in adoptive kinship in order to inform social work support for contact. The findings suggest that successful contact may be promoted by helping adoptive and birth relatives validate the legitimacy of the other's kin connection with the child, and through arrangements that facilitate family-like interactions.

The impact of sterilisation on family relationships

The major objective of the researcher was to assess the gains or losses in relationship between spouses after sterilization of the wife. The second objective was to gauge the impact of sterilisation upon parent—child relationships. Factors that were responsible in motivating women to accept sterilization were subjected to enquiry with the conviction that the information would give insight into the inadequacies of the official Family Planning Programme, offering prospects for feasible and salutary changes. The report is arranged under six chapters. The first chapter, Introduction, has three parts. The global and natural dimension of the problem of population is considered in Part I; The Importance of the topic studied namely sterilisation is discussed in the second Part: and Part III explains the background and methodology %f the study. The second chapter is a description of tubecto~ mized women who were the respondents. Their personal and family data, economic, social, educational and demographic profilesform its contents. The direct and indirect influences that were-responsible to make women decide in favour of sterilization are dealt with in the Third chapter. The Fourth Chapter is an analysis of the interspouse relations pre and post—operatively and an assessment of gains and losses in the area subsequent to sterilisation. How children have benefitted physically and emotionally as a consequence of improved care/attention from parents post~operatively constitutes the analysis attempted in the Fifth chapter.

Individual, school-related and family characteristics distinguish co-occurrence of drinking and depressive symptoms in very young adolescents

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Alcohol misuse and depressed mood are common during early adolescence, and comorbidity of these conditions in adulthood is associated with poorer health and social outcomes, yet little research has examined the co-occurrence of these problems at early adolescence. This study assessed risky and protective characteristics of pre-teens with concurrent depressed mood/early alcohol use in a large school-based sample. DESIGN AND METHODS: School children aged 10-14 years (n = 7289) from late primary and early secondary school classes in government, Catholic and independent sectors participated with parental consent in the cross-sectional Healthy Neighbourhoods Study. Key measures included depressed mood, recent alcohol use, school mobility, family relationship quality, school engagement and coping style. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to identify school and family-related factors that distinguished those with co-occurring drinking and depressive symptoms from those with either single condition. Gender and school-level interactions for each factor were evaluated. RESULTS: Co-occurring conditions were reported by 5.7% of students [confidence interval (CI)95 5.19, 6.19]. Recent drinkers were more likely than non-drinkers to have symptoms consistent with depression (odds ratio 1.80; CI95 1.58, 2.03). Low school commitment was associated with co-occurring drinking/depressive symptoms (odds ratio 2.86; CI95 2.25, 3.65 compared with null condition). This association appeared to be weaker in the presence of adaptive stress-coping skills (odds ratio 0.18; CI95 0.14, 0.23). CONCLUSIONS: We have identified factors that distinguish pre-teens with very early co-occurrence of drinking and depressed mood, and protective factors with potential utility for school-based prevention programmes targeting these conditions. [Salom CL, Kelly AB, Alati R, Williams GM, Patton GC, Williams JW. Individual, school-related and family characteristics distinguish co-occurrence of drinking and depressive symptoms in very young adolescents. Drug Alcohol Rev 2015].

Unraveling the role of forgiveness in family relationships

Testing the idea that the process of forgiveness is intrinsically different across diverse relationships, this study examined the role of forgiveness in different family relationships. In 2 laboratory sessions 1 year apart, 114 families (each including 2 parents and 1 child) completed a new measure of family forgiveness and many individual-level, relationship-level, and family-level variables that have been previously linked with forgiveness. After validating the measure of family forgiveness in cross-sectional analyses, investigators performed longitudinal analyses to examine the role of forgiveness in each family relationship over the 1-year interval. Results indicated many important positive consequences of forgiveness on individual traits, aspects of each family relationship, and general family environment. However, there were also important asymmetries in associates of forgiveness across parent-child and parent-parent relationships, demonstrating the relationship-bound nature of forgiveness.

Factors associated with the wish to hasten death : a study of patients with terminal illness

Background. There is considerable debate regarding the clinical issues surrounding the wish to hasten death (WTHD) in the terminally ill. The clinical factors contributing to the WTHD need further investigation among the terminally ill in order to enhance understanding of the clinical assessment and treatment needs that underlie this problem. A more detailed understanding may assist with the development of appropriate therapeutic interventions. Method. A sample of terminally ill cancer patients (N=256) recruited from an in-patient hospice unit, home palliative care service and a general hospital palliative care consulting service from Brisbane Australia between 1998–2001 completed a questionnaire assessing psychological (depression and anxiety), social (family relationship, social support, level of burden on others) and the impact of physical symptoms. The association between these factors and the WTHD was investigated. Results. A high WTHD was reported by 14% of patients. A discriminant function analysis revealed that the following variables were associated with a high WTHD (P<0·001): higher levels of depressive symptoms, being admitted to an in-patient hospice setting, a greater perception of being a burden on others, lower family cohesion, lower levels of social support, higher levels of anxiety and greater impact of physical symptoms. Conclusions. Psychological and social factors are related to a WTHD among terminally ill cancer patients. Greater attention needs to be paid to the assessment of psychological and social issues in order to provide appropriate therapeutic interventions for terminally ill patients.