Preservation of life and maintenance of health and wellbeing of children: A common value among parents around the world

Abstract

Parenting is perceived as one of the most socially and culturally significant roles that an adult may play. Parenting draws meaning and is shaped by its social, cultural and political millieu, and, consequently, there are diverse parenting roles and practices in different parts of the world. Despite this diversity, most societies share a common value, namely, the preservation of life and the maintenance of the health and wellbeing of their children. In the first of eight papers in this collection, Pranee Liamputtong discusses the cultural construction of child-rearing and infant care in Northern Thailand society (2009). She shows that Thai mothers observe and practice many socially and culturally acceptable tasks to ensure the health and wellbeing of their infants. They see themselves as responsible parents and hence follow numerous rules to avoid risks that may pose a threat to the infant. This adherence to rules is used as a means to prove that they are good and moral mothers. In the second and third papers, the focus shifts to the parents of children with special needs and how these parents function as they care for a child who is living with a severe disability. Thomas Knestrict and Debora Kuchey (2009) examine the resiliency these families develop. These authors aimed to identify the key characteristics that would allow parents to not just survive but also thrive. Having the time and the ability to reflect was recognised as crucial in the development of resilience. Once this type of time was obtained, the families were able to reconstruct their vision of family, of disability and of their child. The development of resiliency was also enhanced by the development of rhythm in the family. This rhythm referred to the establishment of consistent rules, rituals and routines. In their paper, Tsibidaki and Tsamparli (2009) point to the adaptability and Cohesion of Greek families who raise a child with a severe disability on the island of Rhodes. The study compared the adaptability and cohesion between 30 Greek families raising a child with a severe disability and 30 families with children without disability. The authors found no statistically significant difference between parents of both groups on the cohesion--adaptability dimensions of family functioning, on family type and in how they wish their family functioning to be within the categories of these two dimensions. Both groups of parents wished their family to function in the 'healthy zone', as defined by the Olson Circumplex Model. The impact of divorce on children was the focus of the fourth paper. Olaniyi Bojuwoye and Orok Akpan (2009) examined children's reactions to parental divorce in personal, familial and environmental terms. The children were recruited from a senior primary school in a suburb of Durban, South Africa. The authors found varying patterns of emotional and behavioural reactions to parental divorce among the children. Their reactions to parental divorce were related to age at time of divorce, their current age, gender and their family dynamics. Lastly, differential perceptions of divorce by children contributed to their different reactions. The fifth and sixth papers in this Issue documented how violent acts between parents have a huge impact on the children who are caught in the middle. In a cross-sectional analytical study, Stefanie Jayasinghe, Pushpa Jayawardena and Hemamali Perera (2009) examined the influence of intimate partner violence (IPV) on 14-17-year-old school children in the Chilaw MOH area of Sri Lanka. It was found that IPV has a significant influence on a child's behaviour, psychological status, and school performance and attendance. The research by Masoumeh Ghasemi (2009) examined the psychological wellbeing of a community sample of children in Iran who were exposed to domestic violence, comparing them to a clinical comparison group without exposure to domestic violence. The results of this study revealed that children who were exposed to domestic violence have physical and psychological health that differs from their non-exposed counterparts. …