Family Care Workers Research Articles

Quality foster care: who decides?

The selection of foster parents with qualities necessary to undertake care of other people's children is a difficult task. Little research has been done in identifying what the associated qualities are. This paper reports the first stage of a research study examining these qualities from the perspective of foster parents themselves and experienced family care workers. From a qualitative exercise involving 10 foster parents and 2 family care workers over 50 nominated qualities were elicited covering motivation; personal attributes; knowledge and skills with children and competencies emanating from experience. Arising from this exercise a model was constructed which identifies stages in foster parenting. This could enable differential educational strategies based on a competency approach to be developed in order to achieve a better level of quality control.

Father involvement in child care and household work in common-law dual-earner and single-earner Jamaican families

The division of chile care and household labor and beliefs about the roles of mothers and fathers were examined in 86 low-income dual-earner and single-earner Jamaican couples in common-law unions. Analysis revealed that there was a markedly gender-differentiated pattern of involvement in child care and household tasks by parents and that they held very traditional conceptions of the roles of mothers and fathers. Both mothers and fathers were more likely to spend time playing with rather than feeding or cleaning their babies. Involvement in child care did not differ as a function of the gender of the infant, but involvement in child care and household work did vary by mother's employment status. Jamican men's participation in child care and household activities was quite similar to what has been reported for men in other cultural groups. The data are discussed in terms of the commonly accepted notion of the “marginal” role of Jamaican men in the family and in the context of gender roles.

Health and Health Care in Developing Countries: Sociological Perspectives.

Introduction Peter Conrad and Eugene B. Gallagher Part I: the Social Production of Disease 1. The Social Epidemiology of AIDS in Africa: Migrant Labor and Sexually Transmitted Disease Charles W. Hunt 2. Women and Work in Rural Taiwan: Building a Contextual Model Linking Employment and Health Rita S. Gallin Part II: Seeking Medical Care 3. Urgency and Utilization of Emergency Medical Services in Urban Indonesia: A Report and Reflection Peter Conrad 4. Ethnicity, Health Behavior, and Modernization: The Case of Singapore Stella R. Quah Part III: Traditional and Medicines 5. The Contribution of Medicine in a Traditional System: The Case of Nepal Janardan Subedi and Sree Subedi 6. Traditional Medicine in Africa: Past, Present, and Future Collins O. Airhihenbuwa and Ira E. Harrison Part IV: Medicine in Developing Societies 7. Curricular Goals and Student Aspirations in a New Arab Medial College Eugene B. Gallagher 8. Family Care Work and Duty in a Modern Chinese Hospital Joseph W. Schneider 9. A Comparative Analysis of the Culture of Biomedicine: Disclosure and Consequences for Treatment in the Practice of Oncology Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Linda Hunt, Tsunetsugu Munakata, and Yasuki Kobayashi Part V: Sociopolitics of Health Care 10. Constraints on Successful Public Health Programs: A View from a Mexican Community Kenyon Rainier Stebbins 11. Implementing Health for All in Nigeria: Problems and Constraints S. Ogoh Alubo Part VI: Applying Social-Science Knowledge in Health Settings 12. Home and Hospital Birthing in Oman: An Observational Study with Recommendations for Hospital Practice Carol J. Pierce Colfer and Eugene B. Gallagher 13. Strategies for Connecting Social-Science Research to Actions for Better Health Sally E. Findley 14. Modernization and Medical Care Eugene B. Gallagher About the Contributors Index

Division of household labor and child care in dual-earner African-American families with infants

This study examined 63 middle- to lower-middle income dual-earner African-American mothers' and fathers' involvement in child care with their infant and in household work, and the degree of support they received for child care. Although analysis revealed gender-differentiated patterns of involvement in care giving and household work along traditional lines, African-American fathers were far from being distant or uninvolved in these activities. Father involvement in child care and household activities did not vary as a function of whether mothers worked full time or part time. The data are discussed with respect to possible gender role convergence in child care and household work in African-American families.

Back pain and its correlates among workers in family care.

In order to assess the prevalence of back pain problems among family care workers, and the association of back pain with selected variables, a cross-sectional survey among the 4723 employees of the largest Flemish organization for family care was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire comparable to the standardized Nordic questionnaire on musculoskeletal symptoms was distributed to all employees of the organization. The response rate was 90 per cent (n = 4256) and the study population was almost uniformly composed of females (99.8 per cent). The period prevalence (12 months) amounted to 63 per cent (95 per cent CI: 61.7-64.6) and the point prevalence to 18 per cent (95 per cent CI: 16.5-18.8). Among the respondents suffering from back pain during the past year, 72 per cent suffered from repeated episodes of pain. In 82 per cent low back pain was involved. Twenty-nine per cent of the complaints interrupted their work during the past year, yielding a total number of 23,396 days of sick leave. The mean sick leave for back pain was 36 days and the median 15 days. The frequency of back pain was found to vary according to the regional departments to which the employees belonged, some sections experiencing up to 36 per cent higher period prevalences than the units with the lowest figures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)