Family Nurture Research Articles

Outcomes of Prolonged Parent–Child Embrace Therapy among 102 children with behavioral disorders

A growing body of research in neuroscience points to the impact of variations in maternal nurturing on child development and provides a rationale for interventions that target stress adaptation conditioning through natural family nurturing. This pilot study was collected within the course of private practice to assess the progress of children with severe behavioral disorders who were treated effectively with a multiple family therapy prototype, Prolonged Parent-Child Embrace (PPCE) Therapy. Subjects were a consecutive series of 102 patient children aged 4-18 years and their families. Children and their family members were guided for 16h over two consecutive days through intense PPCE Therapy. Families were instructed to continue PPCE Therapy at home for at least 1 year. Scores were compared statistically using t-tests and analysis of variance. For 96 children scores declined on two written measures by approximately 50% between baseline and follow-up (P<0.001). Results showed that PPCE Therapy resulted in significant and prolonged improvements in symptomatic behavior in a majority of children.

Promoting healthy schools through action research

This article reports on research funded as a ‘Best Practice’ project by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) designed to use action research to progress the government agenda for healthy schools. The project involved teachers working with university researcher. The outcome is five small research reports consisting of two studies into playground behaviour management, a report on the production of a school drug policy, a review of transition from Nursery to Early Years school provision and a study of the impact of a Family Nurturing approach used with pre-school pupils. This article reviews the research process and includes reflection on methodological issues and outcomes giving voice to the teacher-researchers by drawing on the reports they have compiled. The research recommendations are for more projects which use action research to promote change in our schools.

Parenting Skills for Adoptive Parents

At the suggestion of service users, Oxfordshire Social Services recently commissioned an experimental ‘parenting course’ for their newly approved adopters. Facilitators Liz Gilkes and Ivana Klimes discuss this project, which was run for Oxfordshire Adopters by the Family Nurturing Network, an organisation now well established in Oxfordshire. The course offered a programme for parents to learn how to best support their children's development and learning, how to manage difficult behaviour and foster self-esteem, and how to care for their own needs. It was evaluated by means of a questionnaire completed by all participants. The results were so overwhelmingly positive that Oxfordshire Social Services now plan to offer these courses as a rolling programme to all their new adopters.

Mexican American family processes: nurturing, support, and socialization.

The purpose of this ethnographic study with Mexican American families was to document characteristics of Mexican American family processes of nurturing, support, and socialization. Audiotaped conversations with participants were transcribed verbatim in Spanish or English. Content analysis was used to derive characteristics of family processes. Family nurturing was characterized by being kin-based and intimate in nature. Family support was kin-based, with material support oriented toward household needs; with emotional support grounded in shared stories, problem solving, and prayer; and with informational support offered in consejos (wisdom sayings and words of advice), stories, and guidance. Family socialization was kin-based, hierarchical, and ritualistic.

Co-regulated patterns of communication in mother-infant dyads: Contributions from mothers' feelings of efficacy and infant temperament and vagal tone

Cardiac complications after premature birth are associated with negative long-term consequences to health. The Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) has been designed to support mother-infant parasympathetic calming sessions in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). FNI has shown neurodevelopmental and autonomic benefit across infant development.We tested the hypothesis that heart rate (HR) will decrease after FNI over the course of the NICU stay, compared to matched controls.We used a case-matched design. The intervention included on average four ~1-hour facilitated mother-infant ‘calming’ sessions per week. We collected 24/7 real time heart rate data from a central monitoring system and analyzed data from two time-periods.The intervention group comprised 37 infants born ~30 weeks gestational age (GA) in a level IV NICU, treated with FNI. From the same NICU and time-period, we created a contemporaneous comparison group of 32 infants who were case-matched to each intervention infant for sex, age-at-birth, singleton or twin status, month of admission and length of stay.Using generalized estimating equation (GEE) modeling, we analyzed 24/7 HR data during a 1-hour period between 4:30 and 5:30 am each day in the NICU, when all infants were least disturbed. Using repeated measures ANOVA, we analyzed 24/7 HR data during a 6-week period starting 1 week prior to the start of FNI and ending 5 weeks after start.GEE modeling of the 1-hour data from all subjects showed significant lower HR in the FNI group, compared with controls. ANOVA modeling on a subset of subjects over the five-week period showed that FNI infant HR decreased in a dose-response manner relative to SC HR.This study suggests FNI may condition lower infant HR in a dose-response manner during the NICU stay.

FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL LOCUS OF CONTROL

Sixty-seven women and thirty-six men participated in a study of the relationships between selected family environment variables and Levenson's dimensions of locus of control (Personal Control, Powerful Others, Chance). Results indicated significant bivariate and semipartial associations between perceived family nurture and Personal Control. Significant bivariate correlations were found between Powerful Others and the respective measures of perceived family nurture and control. The latter associations were not maintained in subsequent semi-partial correlation analyses. No significant findings were obtained for the Chance dimension. Sex of subject did not appear to be of importance in the various relationships.

FAMILY POLICIES, WOMEN, AND THE COLLECTIVE INTEREST IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

This paper analyzes marriage and divorce reform and family planning policies in the People's Republic of China in the context of the state‐defined collective interest. A theoretical examination of the contradictions between women's liberation and the Marxist defined economic and political concerns of the state shows that liberation cannot be achieved until the state acknowledges the values of social reproduction and family nurturance. The empirical discussion of recent reforms in family policies in China points to the continuing manipulation of women's interests by the state. The tendency of the PRC government to make policy based on narrow economic considerations results in the maintenance of a system in which women's special interests are exclude from the collective interest and thus denied legitimacy.

Masculinity-femininity in fantasy preferences: an indirect approach.

Summary Using free response reports of preferences for books and movies that are presumed to be an index of subjects' fantasy interests, content codes for these materials were developed that successfully discriminated adolescent boys and girls. In two samples boys preferred stories about (1) sports, (2) adventure themes, (3) stories of man-machine relationships. Girls preferred stories of (1) suffering, hardship, overcoming personal and interpersonal obstacles, (2) romance, (3) teenage life, and 4) religious and inspirational themes. Stories about family life, nurturance, sex, and aggression were among the codes that did not discriminate the sexes. Implications of the findings and suggestions for further development of the instrument are discussed.