Family Duties Research Articles

The effects of Pilates exercise on sleep quality in postpartum women

Prolonged poor sleeping quality can decrease women's ability to perform their maternal and family duties after delivery. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a Pilates training program on sleep quality in primigravida postpartum women in a randomized clinical trial. Eighty postpartum women were randomly divided into intervention and control groups (n = 40). Home-based 30-min Pilates exercises were started 72 h after the delivery and performed five times per week for consecutive 8 weeks. Sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) prior to the intervention and 4th and 8th weeks afterwards. The intervention group showed a significant improvement in subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, daytime dysfunction and global PSQI score (P < 0.001); however, there was no difference in sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency and sleep disturbance between the groups. In conclusion, Pilates exercises appeared to improve sleep quality in primigravida postpartum women.

Editorial

For me, this month brings the familial duty of caring for a relative's beloved pet while they go on an extended vacation. Despite the inevitable worry that comes with caring for someone else's pet, it has been wonderful to observe the pure joy my daughter feels when playing, patting and ‘training’ the dog to literally jump through hoops. I think I can safely say that the dog has also gained much pleasure from being doted on by an enthusiastic seven-year-old. This observation started a stream of thought about what, if anything, we know about animals’ contributions to the well-being of children who live in out-of-home care (OHC). This, in turn, led to a brief examination of the literature on this topic, which I will share with you here.

Gender and parenthood: biological and social scientific perspectives

The essays in this collection deploy biological and social scientific perspectives to evaluate the transformative experience of parenthood for today's women and men. They map the similar and distinct roles mothers and fathers play in their children's lives and measure the effect of gendered parenting on child well-being, work and family arrangements, and the quality of couples' relationships. Contributors describe what happens to brains and bodies when women become mothers and men become fathers; whether the stakes are the same or different for each sex; why, across history and cultures, women are typically more involved in childcare than men; why some fathers are strongly present in their children's lives while others are not; and how the various commitments men and women make to parenting shape their approaches to paid work and romantic relationships. Considering recent changes in men's and women's familial duties, the growing number of single-parent families, and the impassioned tenor of same-sex marriage debates, this book adds sound scientific and theoretical insight to these issues, constituting a standout resource for those interested in the causes and consequences of contemporary gendered parenthood.

Wie heeft profijt van het overheidsbeleid? - Kinderopvang in Zweden en België (Vlaanderen)

Who benefits from government investment in childcare?.The case of Sweden and Belgium (Flanders) Childcare is promoted at the national and European level as a policy instrument par excellence to simultaneously reconcile work and family duties and increase female employment rates. As a consequence, European governments increasingly deploy resources to subsidise childcare services. The main goal of this paper is to unravel who benefits from this government investment on childcare. First, we look into the social distribution of childcare use in European countries. Second, we depart from these results to analyse which income groups are the main beneficiaries of government investment in childcare in two countries (Flanders/Belgium and Sweden), and how the policy design contributes to the outcomes. We find that in almost all European welfare states childcare use is biased against the lowest income groups. Moreover, our case studies learn that the policy design plays a crucial role in these distributional outcomes. In Flanders, government investment disproportionally benefits the higher income families while the opposite is true for Sweden.

مشكلات المصورين الصحفيين العراقيين العاملين في المؤسسات المحلية والاجنبية في العراق

The issues of journalists and media employees in general and photojournalists in particular have become important issues, especially as those issues are closely linked to the success or failure of the media process. This research deals with (the issues of Iraqi photojournalists working in local and foreign institutions in Iraq - a case study in 2012), because of the ambiguity in identifying those issues, which focused on the issues of this research. This was done through the research community of members of the Association of Iraqi photojournalists in Baghdad exclusively of (64) photographers and television photographers to identify the problems encountered in their work in the local and foreign media; and the relationship of those problems with their professional performance; and what the relationship between photographers and existing bodies, whether negative or positive; and how far this relationship affects their performance. These questions were part of the research that the researcher sought to find scientific answers for them. A preliminary questionnaire was distributed to (10 %) of photographers from the research community containing open questions about the issues facing them. After retrieval, a final questionnaire was prepared based on the answers obtained. This form was presented to a group of arbitrators to certify the truth. The ratio was sufficient to complete the research. Then, the form was distributed to the respondents when it was retrieved and unloaded in tables. Finally, the results were interpreted to interpret the results. The researcher has reached a set of results, the most important of which are: Half of the respondents confirmed that they (always) face an issue (not being involved in development courses), which has a negative impact on their work. More than half of the respondents confirmed that they (always) suffer from the administrative issue of (imposing the institution's policy on them). Most of the respondents asserted that they are always faced with the problem (mistreatment by security forces at the scene). The answers of the respondents confirmed that they were (always) looked at by (what the gunmen regard the photographers as spies). Respondents confirmed that they (always) are (neglected or away from their family and social duties).

Exploring the cultural validity of rheumatology outcomes

In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the use of a 'core' set of treatment outcomes was pioneered to ensure that the same outcomes are measured across all clinical trials to enable comparison of trial results. However, studies have not investigated the influence of patients' ethnic and cultural backgrounds on treatment outcomes. This pilot study identified 74 treatment outcomes from female Punjabi RA patients, including 21 new ones that were not identified in previous research with white British RA patients. The social impact of RA created significant additional burden for these Punjabi women, with 'less stigmatisation' and 'improved ability to carry out family duties' generated as important new outcomes. This study illustrates a need to address cultural validity in outcome elicitation and prioritisation, to ensure that interventions are evaluated using criteria that have meaning for people with that condition.

Abstract 311: Facilitators and Barriers to Self-management of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Communities in China, a Qualitative Study

Background: Self-management has become a key strategy for caring chronic patients in community. However, little is known about peoples’ self-management experiences and their perceived cues and barriers to engagement in self-management. Objective: To explore issues patients with type 2 diabetes experienced in their self-management practices,to understand cues and barriers to engagement in self-management. Design: Qualitative study (Semi-structured interviews) Setting: 11 communities in Beijing, China Participants: Type 2 diabetes patients in community, aged &gt;18, no admission in past 90 days. Methods: 40 critical incident interviews were run during Apr to Sep in 2011 using purposive sampling (20 interviews with patients whose HbA1c well-controlled (&lt;6.5%), while 20 badly-controlled (≥8%)).Themes from interviews were identified using content analysis, which revealed cues and barriers to self-modification for diabetes management. Results: Implications for self- management practice included objectively understanding on the severity and complications of diabetes. In addition to family support such as supervision in family and fully-use of family resource, desires/duties to be responsible for whole family life as a breadwinner was emerged as a key cue to engagement in self-control. Barriers to engagement in self-management stemmed from financial burden to monitor blood glucose daily, dissatisfaction of HbA1c level after efforts, and malignant life events. It is worth mentioning that starving experience of difficult time with natural disasters in1960s- 1970s in China was identified also as a key barrier to engagement in diet management. Discussion and Conclusion: There was a strong desire for Chinese patients to comply with Chinese cultural norms; particularly those relating to family value. It was the patients’ power to be involved in self-management that they could devote their healthy life to family duty. Everyone had his/her own history so experiences in past shaped patients’ behaviors now. The findings highlighted the importance of understanding the family value and the personal experiences as facilitators and barriers to self-management of Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes living in community.

The Economic and Social Changes Faced by People with Special Needs Arising from Poverty in the South Region of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

This study was designed to tackle the issue of economic and social problems resulting from poverty of the disabled in our Jordanian society and specifically in the southern and eastern region of Jordan, The importance of the study springs from the humanitarian, developmental, social, economic and religious aspects, where of poverty and the problems associated with stand an obstacle to disabled people in the southern region in Jordan that hinders achieving their family, social and economic duties. The study sample consisted of (300) disabled of the study population in the Southern region, and the personal interview was used in the study approach as it is appropriate to the nature of the study. The researchers concluded that the impact of structural elements on the study sample is stronger than the individual and fatal factors. This is consistent with the findings of previous studies taking into account the difference in the environment and the degree of growth of the community where the study sample lives. Key words: People with special needs; Poverty

Negotiating a moral identity in the context of later life care

Strategies to maintain independence for older people have received considerable attention as a social policy solution to the financial and social impact of the ageing population. Critical scholars in gerontology have also highlighted the negative consequences of promoting independence in this way. Understandings of independence have profound implications for caring relationships as people age. To investigate the ways that older people talk about caring we interviewed 48 people aged 55–70years. A discourse analysis of these data showed that a dominant discourse of ‘independence’ was drawn upon to value self-sufficiency and construct dependence on others as burdensome. This construction of care provides a comfortable position for those who can afford to purchase professional care; however, those without resources are unable to accept unpaid help without also accepting a position of dependency. An alternative discourse of ‘being there’ constructs having others to provide personal care as a virtue and obligations to provide such care as based on family duty and affection. This discourse emphasises connections between people and a moral obligation to care which also creates difficulties for those with fewer material resources. The position for a dependent older subject in these two discourses may seem incompatible but can be reconciled by reframing independence as autonomy. Autonomy for those requiring care alongside a wider recognition of caring as the responsibility of all members of the community rather than with individual family members would support a flexible approach to later life care arrangements.

Occupational Therapy in Oman: The Impact of Cultural Dissonance

Occupational therapy theory and philosophy are broadly considered to be based on Western cultural values. In contrast, the application of theory and practice in the Sultanate of Oman, historically based on traditional Middle Eastern and Islamic cultural values, provides a case exemplar, which highlights both paradigmatic differences and cultural dissonance. Drawing on the experiences of occupational therapists working in Oman, this study found that the application of therapeutic goals aimed at patient independence and autonomy were difficult to achieve in an environment where family duty and responsibility for care were highly prized. Dressing and cooking assessments were challenging, and issues related to gender proved problematic. Therapists found the need to adapt practice to acknowledge these differences, and to adopt pragmatic problem-solving strategies, without resolving the underpinning philosophical contradictions. Occupational therapy in Oman is under-researched; further work is needed to confirm the cross-cultural validity of specific assessments and practice models.

Layoffs in China's City of Textiles: Adaptation to Change

Urban poverty among laid-off workers has become one of the major challenges confronting China due to the massive retrenchment of state employees since the 1990s. While a great deal of research has focused on the general situation or the analysis of aggregate-level data, the workers themselves have been given much less attention. Based on data from Shaanxi Province, this paper examines the current status of the former state workers and their families in the once-prosperous “City of Textiles,” a district of state-owned textile mills and affiliated residential areas where the risk of slum development and marginalisation of former state workers has increased since economic reform. These textile workers had devoted themselves to hard work, acted as communist zealots and performed family duties at the same time, believing that the government would take care of their families. However, the poverty induced by the layoff programme has not only altered their lives and deteriorated intra-family relationships, but has also pushed some laid-off workers into various illegal activities to maintain household finances and to pay for rapidly rising tuition fees and medical expenses. We contest the commonly held view that poverty faced by former state workers is of their own making and show that current government anti-poverty strategies are inadequate to deal with the problem.

A Diamond in the Desert (review)

Reviewed by: A Diamond in the Desert Elizabeth Bush Fitzmaurice, Kathryn . A Diamond in the Desert. Viking, 2012. [256p]. ISBN 978-0-670-01292-3 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-7. Tetsu is twelve when he and his mother and sister are relocated by World War II's infamous Executive Order 9066, which justified the internment of Japanese-Americans, to the camp at Gila River. His father, a leader in the Japanese-American community, is detained separately in another location, and Tetsu generally takes his responsibility as the oldest male in the immediate family very seriously. He's particularly solicitous of his younger sister, Kimi, who is so traumatized by the lack of privacy in the camp that she cannot go to the latrine without an escort and a pillowcase to put over her head. New friends and interests begin to tempt Tetsu away from his familial duties, though, and when his involvement in building a baseball field and forming a team cause him to abandon Kimi to her own devices, the little girl wanders out into the desert, where she nearly dies. Guilt-stricken, Tetsu withdraws from baseball and from his friends, until his father arrives at Gila River and rekindles his son's interest in life. A somewhat formal, even poetic tone never rings quite true to boy-speak, and the carefully orchestrated plotting, which delivers a hopeful ending for everyone from Tetsu's elective-mute buddy to Kimi's battered dog, feels a little too purposefully contrived. However, the ultra-brief chapters (often less than a page long) will make this a good choice for children seeking a quick but heartfelt introduction to the plight of Japanese Americans in World War II. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Correlates of Sitting Time in Working Age Australian Women: Who Should Be Targeted With Interventions to Decrease Sitting Time?

While there is emerging evidence that sedentary behavior is negatively associated with health risk, research on the correlates of sitting time in adults is scarce. Self-report data from 7724 women born between 1973-1978 and 8198 women born between 1946-1951 were collected as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Linear regression models were computed to examine whether demographic, family and caring duties, time use, health, and health behavior variables were associated with weekday sitting time. Mean sitting time (SD) was 6.60 (3.32) hours/day for the 1973-1978 cohort and 5.70 (3.04) hours/day for the 1946-1951 cohort. Indicators of socioeconomic advantage, such as full-time work and skilled occupations in both cohorts and university education in the mid-age cohort, were associated with high sitting time. A cluster of 'healthy behaviors' was associated with lower sitting time in the mid-aged women (moderate/high physical activity levels, nonsmoking, nondrinking). For both cohorts, sitting time was highest in women in full-time work, in skilled occupations, and in those who spent the most time in passive leisure. The results suggest that, in young and mid-aged women, interventions for reducing sitting time should focus on both occupational and leisure-time sitting.

Językowa kreacja matki w Nad Niemnem Elizy Orzeszkowej

A content analysis of the E. Orzeszkowa’s Positivist novel Nad Niemnem [On the Niemen] makes it possible to indicate a number of different mother-types featured in the book and created by its author, namely: the Polish Mother, the caring cat mother, the cuckoo-type mother, the mother in absentia and the willow mother. The type of the Polish Mother (an ideal of patriotic motherhood, Polish: Matka Polka, the Polish Mother was the secular equivalent of the Holy Mother) is epitomized in Maria Kirłowa, earnestly and wisely devoted to her children. She runs and manages the household single-handedly, is a guardian of the home, and all alone raises her children and prepares them to live in the society of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Another mother, Andrzejowa Korczyńska, a proud Polish patriot, makes a rather monumental figure. Living a life full of ideals and rich promises, this widow seems to provide a model of proper motherhood to be followed, but, being alienated in thefamily and her social environment, is eventually a failure and she fails in life. Her son takes advantage of her, knowing that she is ready to do everything for him no matter what happens, like a cat-mother. The mother-cuckoo is represented by Starzyńska, who chooses her personal interests over the importance of family and her children, Janek and Antolka, and lets somebody else raise them. The reason behind her behavior is the need for remarrying, apparently stronger than her maternal feelings. The mother in absentia, i.e. one that is virtually non-existent in the process of the education and development of her children, is self-concentrated and self-obsessed Emilia. In this particular case, the role of Witold and Leonia’s mother is taken over by Marta, who – like a willow-mother – raises them, feeds them, educates, consoles and pampers them, not forgetting, however, about being a demanding and controlling guardian. Most of all, however, she is always there and is always ready to assist them. The novel, set in the complicated reality of the challenging second half of the nineteenth century, is a moving reminder how restrictive women’s standing was and how this situation influenced the woman’s family duties as well. These responsibilities were viewed and executed by contemporary mothers differently and had a different meaning for them, which is very eloquently presented in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s realistic novel.

Women managers' career progression: an Asia Pacific perspective

PurposeThe increase in general managerial roles held by women has failed to translate into senior management positions in many countries. The paper aims to focus on the experiences of two groups of female and male managers in two diverse countries and how these groups of employees view career advancement and how this perspective may relate to the lack of women in senior managerial roles.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts deductive reasoning to understand social practice as a means by which and how senior management identities are perceived and whether these roles are attainable. A survey was administered to female and male managers in Malaysia and in Australia.FindingsThe findings indicate that women in two countries studied still have significant responsibilities for performing family duties, and bringing up children. In particular, the Malaysian respondents viewed family and personal responsibilities as their greatest impediment to attaining senior management positions. Hence, they are unable to contemplate both careers and families, a view strongly supported by the Australian women as well.Originality/valueSocietal expectations on women in certain cultures are still strongly entrenched because they believe that they are required to comply with the social roles by prioritising marital obligations over any desire for senior management careers.

The effect of working conditions on the family, daily and social lives of the nurses employed at ukurova University, Balcali Hospital

This study is performed in order to specify the working conditions and the issues of the nurses working in Adana City of Turkey at Cukurova University BalcalA± Hospital; and to examine the effects of these on their family, daily and social lives. This was a descriptive study applied by distributing the survey form on 15.02.2008 to 238 nurses, which was prepared by benefitting from the literature; and by asking them to fill in the form voluntarily and recollecting the forms back. 55.9% of the nurses are married, 45.4% have license degree, 37.4% have associate degree and the average age is 39.4±5. Their term of employment is 10.09±7.45. Nurses stated that standing on duty effected their family lives (62.6%), social lives (60.9%), daily lives (60.5%), and they had problems from the point of children (76.5%). The most common reasons of complaint from the nurses during their daily lives were determined as follows: very tiring (76.5%), promotion facilities are limited (50.4%), needs extreme attention (42.4%), the given responsibility does not match with the level of the authority (40.8%) and there is a conflict between the working life, family duties and responsibilities (36.1%). The marital status of the nurses and its effect on the daily life (p<0.005) and on the social life (p<0.005) were found meaningful. The working conditions of the nurses need to be improved. Advanced researches may be suggested in order to meet the expectations of the nurses they have before starting their professions. Key words: Family life, working on shift, occupational problems, nursing

(Not) Kramer vs. Kumar: The Contemporary Bollywood Remake as Glocal Masala Film

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Interestingly, this final moment was a last-minute addition. In a recent interview, Robert Benton claims that preview audiences who saw Ted and Joanna get on the elevator together assumed they would get back together. To underscore the anti-romantic implications of the film, “in the re-shoot, [they] left him outside” (qtd. in Lichtenstein 73). 2. McMullen even argues that Kramer vs. Kramer begins this backlash trend and marks “an important turning point in film treatments of changing attitudes toward feminism and the strategies popular culture developed for containing it” (30). 3. Hossain's film was among the few sued by Warner Brothers for copyright violation, although the lawsuit did not go far. 4. Dominic Alessio and Jessica Langer even argue that Koi … Mil Gaya might be “read as a postcolonial SF text in the sense that it contests colonialist, orientalist assumptions about the ‘backwardness’ of the colonies” (227). 5. Even texts that analyze cross-cultural remakes focus mostly on Western cinema, particularly the long-standing relationship between Hollywood and French cinema, as seen in Carolyn Durham's Double Takes and Lucy Mazdon's Encore Hollywood. 6. Drawing on these films, Jonathan Auerbach does a wonderful job of showing how “early filmmakers imitated each other's most successful efforts, quickly spawning entire sub-genres of films (the fire run, the phantom train shot, boxing matches, and military parades) in an effort to figure out and then duplicate what the public most wanted to see” (97). 7. Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai's edited collection, East Asian Cinemas, offers a wonderful example of the kind of work that needs to be undertaken in cross-cultural film studies. 8. In fact, Johar even considers the entire first half of the film a recreation of the Archie triangle, where “Shahrukh plays Archie, Rani Mukherjee plays Veronica and Kajol plays Bettie” (qtd. in Mazumdar 133). 9. Wright calls this a kind of “reverse-colonialism,” which enables Hindi cinema to fulfill “a secret fantasy of switching places with its ‘white-man’ colonizer” (202). I’m not convinced Kaante works this way, but I agree with Wright that by copyingHollywood's aesthetic so closely, Gupta's film and other remakes do resist its hegemony. 10. See Manoj Kumar's Purab aur Paschim (1970) for a perfect illustration of this dichotomy. 11. Kraidy's concept of critical transculturalism is intended to critique and move beyond the cultural imperialism and cultural pluralism models of globalization. “In terms of the relation between structure and agency,” he contends, “cultural imperialism sees it as a dialectical determination of the latter by the former, and cultural pluralism as a dialogical interaction between the two, whereas critical transculturalism conceives it as a lopsided articulation in which the dialogical aspects of communication must be analyzed concurrently with its dialectical dimensions” (149). Thus, Kraidy attempts to overcome the cynicism of cultural imperialism as well as the naivety of cultural pluralism when thinking about transcultural exchanges. 12. The final sequence of KKHH, where Aman withdraws from his engagement with Anjali on their wedding day, so that she is finally free to marry Rahul, appears to be the most potent example of the reaffirmation of Indian values. Reading its traditional architectural space, Mazumdar sees it as a nostalgic “return to a pristine past that isuncontaminated by thecontemporary speed of change” (135). However, the fact that love wins out over sacrifice or family duty makes this scene ambivalent. 13. Meyers's film itself is a remake of David Swift's 1961 film of the same name. And this is not an uncommon Bollywood narrative: R. Krishnan and S. Panju's Do Kaliyan (1968) is typically regarded a direct remake of Swift's film, whereas Rahul Rawail's Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001) is a more recent adaptation of the same theme, although the twin daughters are adult women.

The present of forgetting: diasporic identity and migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong

Against current privileging of diasporic identity as the (trans)migrants’ challenge to the normativity of national identity and belonging, this paper considers the case of contract migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong to explore the critical potential of diasporic identification in challenging hegemonic national discourses outside much-discussed European and American contexts. While acknowledging the transnational connections and linkages migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong maintain with their home communities, the paper argues the significance of attending to the simultaneous importance of forgetting in their own understanding and representation of their situation. In light of the common refrain of forgetting observed among these migrant women, the paper elucidates the politics of diasporic identification in their situation, especially the dependence of diasporic identification on consolidating national identity and allegiance through the mediation of gendered norms of family duties.

Work situation of women in the gravidic-puerperal cycle

&#x0D; Objective. To characterized the work situation of women in the gravid-puerperal cycle. &#x0D; Methodology. Transversal study, performed in 2005 in a maternal unit in Riberirao Preto- Brazil that attends exclusively patients from the Unique Health System. 122 postpartum women who were in the labor market during pregnancy participated. &#x0D; Results. 52.5% of the participants had remunerated activities, of which 45.3% were informal activities. Pregnancy was the reason for firing 79.3% of the women. When they finish their maternity license, women will have to assume their domestic and family duties beside the ones from the remunerated work ones. &#x0D; Conclusion. Work situation of the studied population is not always favorable to the exercise of civil rights what ends in unemployment and work desertion.

Female immigrant entrepreneurship

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to explore how entrepreneurial opportunities are used by the rapidly increasing immigrant Indian female population in Japan. Given that a majority of Indian women are housewives and grew up in conservative family backgrounds, this analysis seeks to provide an insight into the situations that aided them and the challenges they faced in their entrepreneurial business ventures far from home.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes the form of a case study analysis through a semi‐structured questionnaire designed on the concept of “Life cycle of minority owned businesses” to track enterprise activity from beginning to end.FindingsThe analyses show that although respondents began their stay in Japan as housewives, they shed their image with time, used their talents and diversified into a different role without sacrificing family duties, while also creating employment opportunities for both natives and immigrants. Major hindrances faced due to socio/cultural influences, lack of government initiatives and support facilities were identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe research analysis has been done on three case studies only as most available respondents were in the birth phase of their enterprises. More research is required on issues like capital availability, native employee and ethnic owner relationships, legal challenges and institutional support.Practical implicationsThe paper draws attention to problem areas where changes in governance structure and social acceptance can create a more viable environment for immigrant entrepreneurs in Japan.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that explores and evaluates the status of Indian female immigrant entrepreneurs in Japan. As Indian immigrants in entrepreneurial activities in Japan are increasing every year, the paper can contribute in restructuring opportunity creation and facilitate maximum advantage.