Parental Representations Research Articles

Perceived Effectiveness of Parent Representation Social Workers by Legal Professionals Involved with Indigent Defendants

The total number of children in the U.S. foster care system exceeds 428,000. Previous research indicates that when social workers and legal professionals work together, children and their families benefit significantly. Parents who effectively engage in the child welfare system are more likely to benefit from services and reunify with their children. The present study employed a phenomenological approach to explore how a parent representation pilot, which paired social workers with public defenders to better represent the needs of families in the child welfare system, was experienced by legal professionals. Judges and family court attorneys (n = 9) found the program to be helpful in reunifying families. Public defenders were able to leverage the social worker’s skills and experience to facilitate more positive outcomes, while reducing case burden. Challenges were also identified and included a lack of interdisciplinary training, potential overlap in ethical responsibilities, and role confusion. Structured intervention programs that encourage collaboration between social workers and legal professionals may improve case outcomes for indigent families involved in the child welfare system. It is advised that social work undertake a formal multidisciplinary approach in support of public defenders, which may serve to encourage positive case outcomes.

The manifestations and correlates of dissociation amongst looked-after children in middle childhood

ObjectiveTo explore the manifestations and correlates of dissociation amongst a sample of primary school-aged children looked-after children (LAC) in the care of their local authority. MethodsIn part one, the Child Dissociative Checklist (CDC), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Relationship Problems Questionnaire (RPQ) were administered to 91 primary school-aged LAC under the care of Five Rivers (an independent fostering agency). Variables pertaining to participants’ background and placement history were examined in relation to CDC scores. In part two, a subsample of children (n=34) with identified psychosocial difficulties were administered the Story Stems Assessment Procedure (SSAP). Relationships between dissociative symptoms and SSAP constructs were explored using Spearman's correlation and K-means clustering. ResultsPart 1. Forty-one LAC (45%) scored on or above the CDC's clinical threshold suggestive of sustained pathological dissociation. Children who had experienced sexual abuse were more likely than others to display dissociative behaviours, as were children placed alone compared to those placed with a related sibling. Total CDC scores were positively correlated with SDQ total difficulties, and RPQ disinhibited and inhibited subscores. Part 2. Dissociative symptoms were negatively correlated with features of attachment security and positive parent representations in children's narratives. Three clusters were identified in the dataset: two groups showed clinically significant levels of dissociation but differed with respect to their representations. ConclusionsChildren who have suffered maltreatment are at high risk of pathological dissociation, especially those who have experienced sexual abuse. Placing LAC with their siblings may mitigate against dissociative symptoms. Dissociation covaries with psychosocial problems, yet dissociative children are a heterogenous group. High levels of dissociation may be accompanied by the relative absence of positive or negative attachment representations, or by the dominance of negative representations, including features of disorganisation.

The social representations of complementary feeding

The social representations of complementary feeding are expected to shape parents' decisions and to provide justification or legitimization for their practices. The aims of the present work were: i) to explore the social representations of complementary feeding in parents and health professionals, ii) to evaluate if the onset of complementary feeding modify social representations in parents, and iii) to compare the representations of parents and pediatricians. Three groups of participants were considered: 170 parents of children who had not started complementary feeding (1–4 months old), 170 parents of children who had started complementary feeding (7–10 months old) and 212 pediatricians. Parents were recruited in health facilities in Montevideo (Uruguay), whereas pediatricians were recruited at the National Pediatrics Conference. Participants were asked to complete a word association task with “the first meals of a baby”. All the responses provided by participants were grouped into categories using content analysis. The structure of the social representations was assessed considering the frequency of mention and the average rank of appearance of the categories. Results showed that the social representations of complementary feeding for both parents and pediatricians were extremely narrow and mainly focused on specific foods: puree and a small set of vegetables and fruits. None of the categories showed high frequency of mention and low rank of appearance, indicating that the structure of the social representations did not include any element in the first periphery. According to the theory of social representations, results from the present work suggest that the social representations of complementary feeding for Uruguayan parents and pediatricians are deeply rooted and resistant to change.

“We’ll Accept Anything, as Long as She Is Okay”: Italian Parents’ Narratives of Their Transgender Children’s Coming-out

The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and representations of Italian parents of TGE (Transgender and Gender-Expansive) adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria who, for the first time, attended a gender clinic for psychological consultation. This study presents findings from fifteen parents of TGE adolescents, mostly (93%) trans boys, aged 14–19. The analysis identified four main themes: Gender Dysphoria: Something Impossible to Understand, Resigned Acceptance, Strategies of social acceptance in a complex context and The Limits of Healthcare Services. Results are discussed in the light of a highly transphobic social and cultural context.

Being a good digital parent: representations of parents, youth and the parent–youth relationship in expert advice

Social concern about online behaviour and safety of children and youth has increased dramatically in the last decade and has resulted in an abundance of parenting advice on ways to manage and protect children online. The cultural context in which this is happening is one characterised by intensive parenting norms, heightened risk awareness, and growing concerns about the effects of ‘over-parenting’, especially in the teenage years. Using contemporary advice to parents on managing adolescents’ digital experiences, this study investigates the ways that parenting, youth and the youth–parent relationship are depicted. Parental roles, in this material, are portrayed as instrumental and pedagogical while youth are assumed to lack agency and judgement. Intensive parenting expectations are extended as parents face advice to be both highly vigilant agents of surveillance and trusted confidantes of their children, with an overall goal of shaping children’s subjectivity in ways that allow them to become self-governing.

Representations of parenting and the neo-liberal discourse: parents’ and professionals’ views on child-rearing practices in Italy

ABSTRACT With neoliberal ideologies having inspired social policies for families across the world, the discourse on childrearing as the sole responsibility of individual parents has become dominant. The neologism ‘parenting’ refers more and more to a de-contextualized performance, with targets to be reached, and necessary competences to be learned. Currently, discourse on parenting thus entails what has been defined as ‘parental determinism’ which in turn leads to blaming parents, often described as incompetent and in need of guidance. It is, therefore, not surprising that parents’ voices have seldom been considered and systematically explored. This paper presents a qualitative study, carried out in a northern Italian province, which compared representations of childrearing in different contexts by mothers and fathers, on the one hand, and by practitioners involved in various capacities with parents, on the other. In total, 55 mothers and fathers and 49 professionals were interviewed. The resulting data enabled the identification of common views, as well as clashes in perspectives and instances of parental resistance to dominant discourses on parenting.

Preservice teachers’ beliefs about young children’s technology use at home

Teachers’ beliefs about young children’s technology use at home are intertwined with their beliefs about parents and their parenting practices. This paper reports a qualitative study of eight purposefully selected Chinese preservice early childhood (EC) teachers’ beliefs about children’s home technology use and associated representations of parents and teachers. The participants possessed inflated positive beliefs about young children’s natural technology competence but were worried that parents would expose children to content for prolonged periods. Teachers’ role was seen as responsible guides for children and educational authorities over parents. Implications for research and teacher education are discussed.

Maternal and Paternal Representations in Assisted Reproductive Technology and Spontaneous Conceiving Parents: A Longitudinal Study.

Aim of this study was to investigate whether parental mental representations during pregnancy and after delivery differed between parents who conceived after Assisted Reproductive Treatments (ART) and spontaneous conceiving (SC) parents. Effects of specific ART variables (previous ART attempts, treatment type and cause of infertility) were also taken into account. Seventeen ART couples and 25 SC couples were recruited at Santa Maria Nuova Hospital (Reggio Emilia, Italy). At both 32 weeks of gestation (T1) and 3 months postpartum (T2) participants completed the Semantic Differential of the IRMAG, a self-report tool which measures specific domains of mental representations pertaining either individual (Child, Self-as-woman/man, and Partner) or parental (Self-as-parent, Own parent) characteristics. Results showed that ART parents had significantly more positive representations of the child compared to SC parents, while the scores at Partner dimension improved from T1 to T2 for SC parents only. With regards to ART history, scores at the Self-as-woman/man dimension were significantly less positive for ICSI than IVF parents and improved substantially from T1 to T2 only in case of mothers with previous ART attempts and of fathers at the first ART cycle. The representation of own parents increased from T1 to T2 in case of infertility diagnosis due to male factors, while a decrease emerged when infertility was due to female factors. Findings suggest the need to investigate parental mental representations after ART, in order to improve the understanding on the transition to parenthood of infertile couples and to target more specific intervention for parenting support.

Increasing secure base script knowledge among parents with Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up.

This study evaluated whether Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), a parenting intervention, altered the attachment representations of parents (average age of 34.2 years) who had been referred to Child Protective Services (CPS) due to risk for child maltreatment when their children were infants. Approximately 7 years after completing the intervention, parents who had been randomized to receive ABC (n = 43) exhibited greater secure base script knowledge than parents who had been randomized to receive a control intervention (n = 51). Low-risk parents (n = 79) exhibited greater secure base script knowledge than CPS-referred parents who had received a control intervention. However, levels of secure base script knowledge did not differ between low-risk parents and CPS-referred parents who had received the ABC intervention. In addition, secure base script knowledge was positively associated with parental sensitivity during interactions with their 8-year-old children among low-risk and CPS-referred parents. Mediational analyses supported the idea that the ABC intervention enhanced parents' sensitivity 7 years later indirectly via increases in parents' secure base script knowledge.

Enhancing Caregiving in Traumatized Families: An Attachment-Centered Approach to Working with Parent Groups.

This paper outlines a model of attachment-centered group interventions to enhance caregiving among parents suffering from early trauma and/or social hardship. Groups are understood as an essential source of experiences that may restore traumatized adults' relational security, and enhance their parenting capacities, in face of biographical and contextual factors that compromise caregiving. The model is especially suited for intervention within social service/child protection contexts and with families that struggle to establish trusting alliances with professionals and institutions. Proposed intervention strategies are oriented toward making the group function as an attachment figure that meets parents' attachment and exploration needs and enhances parental sensitivity. Group therapists facilitate two sets of group processes: on the one hand, a sense of togetherness, emotional containment, protection and comfort (related to attachment needs); on the other hand, the development of parental mentalization, the revision of parental representations of the child, and the consolidation of parenting competence (related to exploration needs). A theoretical rationale for working with parent groups from an attachment-centered perspective, the basic intervention principles and specific strategies of the model are presented and illustrated.

Exclusion Expected? Cardiac Slowing Upon Peer Exclusion Links Preschool Parent Representations to School‐Age Peer Relationships

Attachment theory proposes that children's representations of interactions with caregivers guide information-processing about others, bridging interpersonal domains. In a longitudinal study (N=165), preschoolers (Mage =5.19years) completed the MacArthur Story Stem Battery to assess parent representations. At school-age (Mage =8.42years), children played a virtual ballgame with peers who eventually excluded them to track event-related cardiac slowing, a physiological correlate of rejection, especially when unexpected. At both ages, parents and teachers reported on peer and emotional problems. During exclusion versus inclusion-related events, cardiac slowing was associated with greater positive parent representations and fewer emerging peer problems. Cardiac slowing served as a mediator between positive parent representations and peer problems, supporting a potential psychophysiological mechanism underlying the generalization of attachment-related representations to peer relationships.

Las relaciones de otredad, alteridad e inclusión identitaria cultural de estudiantes inmigrantes en espacios escolares municipalizados en la región metropolitana

The article describes the findings of a doctoral thesis aimed at interpreting the cultural integration of immigrant students in two Chilean schools, as well as representations of teachers, managers, classroom teachers, non-teaching professionals, parents and/or guardians and students on the relations of Otherness, appreciation of Otherness and Cultural Identity. Findings: Both schools the relations of Otherness with the immigrant student are of superficial character, lack to deepen the own characteristics of differentiation such as: Psychosocial and Sociocultural. In relation to the Otherness, both institutions, there is not installed the understanding of the change in the reciprocal alternation of the cultures that recognizes the different one as a valid interlocutor in a dialogical, ethical and political project. Finally, the valuation of the Cultural Identity, in both institutions prevails an assimilating approach of cultural adaptation, which implies submission and identification to the system of values of the culture that receives.

ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕННОСТИ ОТЦА И МАТЕРИ КАК ОСНОВА ПРЕОДОЛЕНИЯ ЖИЗНЕННЫХ ТРУДНОСТЕЙ

The problem of overcoming life's difficulties is one of the most actual problems of psychology. In this regard, one of the significant factors that determine success is the peculiarities of the representation of the father and mother as the first human communities, whose values and strategies permeate almost the entire system of human relations with the world. A great contribution to the analysis of this problem was made by the psychoanalytic direction, which considers parents as a "window to the world", providing a painless overcoming of problems at different stages of psychosexual development, the development of a" grandiose Self " that believes in its own potential for perfection and overcoming. Special significance, along with the mother in the early stages, is given to the father, the measure of identification with which affects both the development of a sublimating, overcoming personality, and co-dependent, with violations of gender-role identity (homosexuality) of a person. Positive representation of the father and mother is the basis for productive coping methods. Negative representation of parents is self-doubt, increased anxiety, unproductive coping strategies, reaching its extreme expressions-parricide

Predictive and Incremental Validity of Parental Representations During Pregnancy on Child Attachment.

Parental pre-natal representations predict the interactive patterns that parents will put in place after childbirth. Early interactions defined by high parental emotional availability (EA) influence the development of security in children. To date, research on the predictive role of parental pre-natal representations on child attachment is still poor. Moreover, investigations on pre-natal representations have mainly focused on mothers. This study aimed at: investigating the criterion validity of the Interview of Maternal Representations During Pregnancy-Revised (IRMAG-R) and of the Interview of Paternal Representations During Pregnancy (IRPAG), using EA, parental attachment, and child attachment toward both parents, as criteria; testing the incremental validity of the IRMAG-R and IRPAG in the prediction of child attachment, controlling for other covariates, such as depressive and anxious levels during pregnancy, EA, and parental attachment; evaluating the possible mediation role of EA on the relationship between parental representations during pregnancy and child attachment. Fifty couples of primiparous parents were recruited during pregnancy, when the IRMAG-R and IRPAG were administered to mothers and fathers. At 6–9 months after childbirth, the mother–child and father–child interactions were coded by means of the EA Scales (EAS). At 14–18 after childbirth, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered to parents, and the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) was carried out to assess children's attachment toward mothers and fathers, respectively. The results showed significant correlations between parental pre-natal representations and EA, parental attachment and child attachment. As regards the prediction of child attachment, the IRMAG-R/IRPAG categories showed: a significant and large unique contribution for maternal representations; a close to be significant contribution for paternal representations (with a higher effect size for mothers than fathers). Moreover, while the indirect effect of pre-natal representations in the prediction of child attachment was not significant for mothers, it was instead significant for fathers. The results of this study confirmed the criterion validity of the IRMAG-R and IRPAG, and supported the incremental validity of the IRMAG-R and IRPAG in the prediction of children's attachment categories. Finally, the mediation models revealed that EA did not mediate the relationship between maternal pre-natal representations and child attachment, while it totally mediated the relationship between paternal pre-natal representations and child attachment.

Parenting E-book: Coping Early Childhood Education Problems During Learning from Home

Parenting E-book: Coping Early Childhood Education Problems During Learning from Home

James Oles, ed., Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey

Reviewed by: Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey ed. by James Oles Merrill Krabill (bio) James Oles, ed., Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey. University of Texas Press, 2019. Pp. 256. Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey is a catalog that accompanied an exhibit by the same name at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in the spring of 2019. It is a beautifully designed and printed volume of more than 250 pages. The catalog and exhibit defined their scope broadly using gaps, indicated with underscores, between Art, Latin, and America to open up multiple possibilities for the relationships between each of the words. "'Art_Latin'—expands the range of art we were willing to include: art from Latin America, art of Latin America, and art [made] in Latin America" (9). The editor of the catalog and curator of the exhibit, James Oles, then also offers possibilities for the gap in Latin_America. So the exhibit and catalog parallel the broad mixtures and blends, the mestizaje, that Tomás Ybarra-Frausto describes as fundamental to Latino art.1 Latino/a art is also included in the Art_Latin_America exhibit. [End Page 175] The catalog is broken into eight thematic units: Identity and Territory, War and Loss, Protest and Propaganda, Farmers and Workers, Rural and Urban, Saints and Rituals, Models and Mothers, Gesture and Geometry. Some of the pairs overlap and some are antithetical. All of them generate relationships between artworks that give new possibilities for interpretation and understanding. Each unit starts with an introduction by Oles that clarifies connections between the artists included in the thematic pair. Sometimes that connection is easy to see and sometimes it is unexpected. For the artists chosen, there are images from the museum's collection, many from the exhibit itself, and a page-long essay. Many of these essays are by Oles, but forty other leading scholars, curators, and artists also wrote entries for the catalog. Given the authors' rich understanding of their subject, these are sophisticated and detailed explications of the work and the perspectives of the artist or group of artists. The entries often reveal content relating the artist to the theme, but their focus is not to highlight that connection. The focus is rather to build an understanding of the artist. One of the greatest strengths of the volume is the depth of insight offered in these relatively short essays with their illustrations. The quality of the photographs and the printing makes this library of images an important component of the ideas communicated in the text. As the title indicates, this catalog is not a survey. A student would not come away with a traditional understanding of the evolution of work coming out of different regions in Latin America. But a reader who already has some exposure will find new relationships between artists that they already know and connections to new artists they have not yet encountered. All readers will find informed, articulate writing and wonderful illustrations showcasing artists from the Davis Museum's extensive collection of Latin American art. Reflecting the values of Wellesley College, the representation of women as artists and as authors for the catalog makes the publication an important resource. The role women have played and are playing in the cultures represented is visible here in a way that it too often is not. [End Page 176] Merrill Krabill Goshen College Merrill Krabill Merrill Krabill is Art Department Chair at Goshen College, Indiana. He teaches courses integrating art and other disciplines and classes in ceramics and photography. His work is in the Maarer Collection at Scripps College (California) and at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Center (Japan). A chapter in Natal Signs: Cultural Representations of Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting focuses on his work. Footnotes 1. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, "A Panorama of Latino Art," American Latinos and the Making of the United States: A Theme Study (Washington, DC: National Park Service Advisory Board, 2013), 138–59. Copyright © 2020 Trustees of Indiana University

Infant removal and the lack of representation for parents

AbstractThis paper throws a spotlight on the systemic disadvantage experienced by parents who have their children removed from their care. With data drawn from the annual reports of the Legal Aid of Western Australia, the child protection agency in Western Australia, and the Productivity Commission, the authors illustrate the disconnection between the agency’s policy to reunify children once removed from their birth parents; the resources made available to support families to overcome their difficulties; and how the gap is further widened when parents without financial means and who are disempowered face legal proceedings on their own. We profile the increasing numbers of infants who are removed, the decreasing numbers of these infants who are discharged from care, and the shortfall of grants of legal aid that are provided to parents when they go to court. For this group of parents, permanent loss of their children is a reality. The aim of the paper is to capture the extent to which there is a fundamental blemish on the principles of due process and fairness, and once statutory processes are triggered, the best interests of the child and the support of parents are contingent, with poverty being the key mediating factor.

Réflexions autour de la notion de fonction réflexive parentale dans l’adoption

While the literature on international adoption has mostly focused on children's outcomes, studies focused on international adoption are now increasingly focusing on the subjective experience of parents and the relational processes at work in adoptive families. BackgroundIn that perspective, the aim of this study is to explore the representations of adoptive parents in order to initiate a reflection about the impact of parents’ reflective functioning (PRF) in the experience of adoptive parenthood. Defined as the parent's ability to assign a meaning to his or her own behavior and to his or her child's within their relationship, PRF plays a key role in relational parent-child adjustment and in the development of secure attachment in children. This parenting ability presented as a considerable protective factor in parent-child relationships and as a major resilience factor in stressful and traumatic situations, has been little studied in the context of intercountry adoption. Yet adoptive parenthood exposes both parents and children to specific risk factors and stresses that can affect relationships. Based on the speeches of adoptive parents, this qualitative study aims to consider the influence of PRF on the specific experience of adoptive parenthood. Population and methodTen French parents who adopted at least one child abroad participated in two semi-structured interviews. The first one covers their experiences specifically related to adoption; the second interview is the Parent Development Interview (PDI), which explores parents’ representations of themselves as parents, of their child, and of their relationship with the later. The interviews are analysed using the qualitative method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. ResultsThe interviews’ phenomenological analysis highlights three main types of representations influencing the experience of our participants’ parenthood: the representations of the first parent-child meetings, the representations of life with this particular child, as well as the place of adoption as a filial particularity. ConclusionA developed PRF appears to be an important protective factor for adoptive parenthood. The capacity of the parent to give a meaning to his or her own experience and that of his or her child in the context of the relationship ensures in fact a mediating function on the representations forged during the first and subsequent relational experiences with the child by promoting positive representations of themselves as a parent, of the child and of the relationship. The PRF then supports a positive experience of parenthood despite the difficulties encountered, as well as the building of strong bonds of affection and parenthood to the child.

Parental Illness Representation of Intellectual Disability and Parental Emotional Distress and Coping

While there have been studies exploring the relationships between parental representations of their child’s illness, parental emotional distress and coping, there is lack of research on parents of children with intellectual disability (ID). The present study explores relationships between parental illness representations of their child’s ID, parental emotional distress and coping. Ninety-one parents of children with ID completed measures of the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R), the Brief COPE scale and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Correlation, regression and mediation analyses were conducted for all variables. Emotional distress correlated negatively with ‘identity’ (r = − .23) and positively with self-blame and substance abuse (r = .51), ‘consequences’ (r = .34), perception of child’s symptoms as ‘cyclical’ appearing and disappearing (r = .29) and maladaptive coping such as behavioural disengagement (r = .27). Negative illness representations such as consequences and perception of symptoms as ‘cyclical’ uniquely predicted about 9% of parental emotional distress after accounting for self-blame and substance abuse and behavioural disengagement together explaining nearly 30% of the outcome. Lastly, self-blame and substance abuse mediated the relationship between ‘illness coherence’ and ‘emotional distress’ as well as the relationship between ‘consequences’ and ‘emotional distress’. The study has identified that certain parental coping methods and illness representations that parents have of their child’s ID are associated with parental emotional distress.

Understanding the effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare

Prior research demonstrates that the interdisciplinary law office approach to parental representation in child welfare, used in the New York City Family Court, speeds up the time to permanency for children in foster care with no effect on child safety. Interrogating these findings further, this study utilizes a qualitative interview-based design to understand how the model works in practice to impact the outcomes of families’ cases. We interviewed 42 practitioners in the New York City Family Court and 17 parents who had had a recent child protection case in the New York City Family Court. Practitioners included judges, court attorneys, attorneys who represent parents in these cases, attorneys who represent children in these cases, and attorneys for the child welfare agency. Based on our analysis of these interviews, we identify three elements critical to the success of the interdisciplinary law office case practice approach: [1] uniform high-quality representation, [2] interdisciplinary practice, and [3] paying attention to the client’s well-being. These results shed light on why interdisciplinary law office parental representation effectively hastens reunification for children in foster care as compared to a solo practitioner attorney.