The objective of this qualitative research is to better understand the processes that contribute to resilience among adolescents in foster care. Twelve boys and girls (X=15.9 years), identified as resilient, participated in this study. The mean duration of the teenagers’ placement is 7.3 years. The results point to three types of turning points: action, relation and reflection. Four processes, directly or indirectly linked to the turning point, have also been identified: increase in perceived self‐efficacy, distancing oneself from the risks, new opportunities, and the multiplication of benefits.

No abstract

This article presents the results of a qualitative study examining how social stigmatization made the lives of young people in gay and lesbian stepfamilies more complex. The study focused primarily on the young people's viewpoint, which has until now rarely been taken into consideration in studies of gay and lesbian families. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents and young adults from 15 to 29 years old. The results showed that these young people experienced social stigmatization because of the family they lived in, which in turn had repercussions on their personal, family, and interpersonal lives.

In a sample of 143 parent-child dyads from two-parent and separated families, this investigation documented the links between parental psychological violence and separation or divorce, severity of parental conflict, triangulation of the child in this conflict, and polarized parent-child alliances. The unique and combined contributions of all these variables to children's behavior problems were also assessed. Participants were parents, mostly mothers, and their 10-12-year-old child. They were recruited through schools, community organizations, and newspapers. Questionnaires were administered at home. Findings suggest that separated families undergo more relational disturbances than two-parent families (more severe conflicts, more triangulation, stronger parent-child alliances), but the amount of parental psychological violence was similar in both groups. Psychological violence was associated with the severity of parental conflict, especially in two-parent families. Triangulation of the child in parental conflict was another correlate of psychological violence. Once all variables were controlled for, psychological violence remained the only significant correlate of children's externalized behavior problems. These findings raise the importance of preventing psychological violence toward children, especially in families plagued with severe parental conflicts.

Modern view of child protection services implies that to help young people, simply intervening on their behalf is not sufficient. It suggests that involving parents in the assistance process is essential in order to ensure that they are most likely to play their role as parents to their children in the fullest possible way. Although several articles have dealt with the issue of parent involvement, very few have attempted to document the practices used by practitioners to encourage such involvement. This article presents the findings of a study on child protection practices for involving parents in a child protection context. It is exploratory in nature, and uses a qualitative methodology. The study population is made up of 38 child protection service workers. An analysis of the practitioners' discourse reveals that the behaviour and attitudes used by them to encourage parent involvement are very diverse. There also appear to be key moments in securing their involvement, that is, making contact, setting objectives and means of action, and applying the case plan. In addition to corroborating earlier studies on the issue of parent involvement, our findings indicate that the majority of the caseworkers interviewed practice an approach that aims to empower clients.

No abstract

Some authors postulate that coverage of child maltreatment by the news media increases public awareness about this issue and helps individuals realize the need to report such situations. Can we therefore assert that an increase or reduction in the number of such news stories leads to a corresponding increase or reduction in the number of reports made to child protective services?This article looks at the short-term impact that the media coverage of children in need of protection had on the number of cases reported to child protection agencies. The number of reports (N = 11,646) made to these agencies in the greater Quebec City region (Canada) was tallied each week over a 24 month period. During the same period, a content analysis of the print media was conducted regarding child maltreatment and/or child protection services so as to identify and count the number of articles published (N = 1,211) and single out media frenzy events. The relation between the number of child abuse reports and the number of published newspaper articles was explored with two tools: a) a statistical correlation approach and b) an intervention time-series analyses. Two conclusions were drawn from our analysis. First, a statistically significant relationship does indeed exist between media coverage of child welfare agencies and the number of cases reported to child protection agencies. Second, media frenzy concerning child maltreatment and/or CPS does not show a statistically significant effect on the number of reports made to child protective services. Implications for practice in social services and future research avenues are discussed.

Second marriages are known to be more fragile than first marriages. To better understand the factors that contribute to this fragility, this qualitative study compared stepfamilies that stayed together with those that separated by collecting interview data from one adult in each of the former (n = 31) and latter (n = 26) stepfamilies. Data were analyzed using a general inductive approach. The analysis allowed us to identify key processes that contributed to stepfamilies staying intact or breaking up. We found that the way in which families approached problems and the strategies they employed had more influence on stepfamily survival than the nature, number, or intensity of these problems. We also outlined the role of certain elements related to family context, such as the custody of children from former unions, intrafamily communication, and each person's particular characteristics. With regard to practitioner intervention, the results highlight the importance of examining the way in which couples deal with their problems, the strategies they employ, and the effectiveness of the strategies.In the United States, it is estimated that more than two thirds of women and three quarters