Parental Abandonment Research Articles

Risk Factors Affecting the Psychological Resilience of Adolescents in Institutional Care: A Systematic Review.

Psychological resilience is defined as the resilience capacity and the power to recover in the face of stressful life events. Adolescents in institutional care have different individual, familial, and environmental risk factors that negatively affect their psychological resilience. This study aimed to comparatively examine studies that detect the risk factors affecting the resilience of adolescents living in institutional care and make recommendations regarding initiatives or specific outcomes related to this. This study systematically reviewed national and international literature databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Medline, CINAHL, EBSCO host, Psychinfo, Cochrane Library, Turkish Ulakbim, Turkish Medical Directory, and Turkish Psychiatry Directory up to December 2021. Fourteen studies were included in this study. Many significant risk factors, such as adolescents' interpersonal relationships, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-efficacy levels, problem-solving skills, empathy skills, as well as parental abandonment, domestic violence, socioeconomic poverty, a history of abuse, peer rejection, lack of social support resources, and low academic performance, have been identified and discussed at individual, familial, and environmental levels. Adolescents in institutional care were more vulnerable and had more mental and behavioral problems than their peers. This systematic review found no studies evaluating preventive programs, interventions, or interventions designed to reduce the frequency and prevalence of future adverse events for children growing up in institutional care settings. Recommends the comprehensive inclusion and evaluation of preventive programs, practices, and assessments aimed at reducing the frequency and prevalence of risk factors affecting resilience.

On the need to use baby boxes in Russia and other countries

The subject of this study is the normative legal provisions of the application and functioning of baby boxes on the territory of various states. The object is the social and legal justification of the need in the modern world for the use of baby boxes in the context of the implementation of the constitutional principle of the child's right to life. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the inalienable and inalienable right of every human being to life, and, of course, this requirement fully applies to every child. Moreover, the principle has been proclaimed at the international legal level, according to which the child is the exclusive object of protection by any state in the world and society: for example, in part 2 of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it is enshrined that infancy and childhood give the right to special care and care. The methodological basis of this study is represented by a set of such methods of scientific cognition of objective legal reality, applied during preparation and writing, as: comparative analysis, as well as the formal legal method. In addition, the methods of scientific cognition of objective legal reality used by the author also include the logical method, system-structural analysis, and the method of legal modeling. The author analyzes the main social and legal reasons for the emergence and spread of the practice of using baby boxes in a number of foreign countries and in certain regions of Russia. Ambiguous points of view on the need for legal regulation and practice of using baby boxes in Russia are also presented today at the doctrinal level: some authors talk about the expediency and effectiveness of their use, others note their uselessness and insecurity, pointing to the existence of other mechanisms for voluntary parental abandonment of newborn children established by law. In the course of the analysis, the author presents the reasons for the need to introduce the practice of using baby boxes both in the Russian Federation and in other countries, and as a result, this entails the need for legislative regulation of the relations in question.

Impact of social factors responsible for Juvenile delinquency - A literature review.

Juvenile delinquency appears to be the most widespread social issue in comparison to other social issues. Social factors and conditions have a significant impact on the prevalence of delinquency. Individuals who engage in criminal behavior before reaching the age of 18 are commonly referred to as juvenile offenders. The aim of this study is to comprehensively elucidate the research and work carried out on juvenile offenders, with a specific focus on the critical role played by social factors in all facets of juvenile delinquency. Additionally, this research seeks to investigate the social roots and influences that contribute to the criminal behavior of young offenders. This article uses a literature review methodology to analyze research on social factors influencing juvenile delinquency. It synthesizes and evaluates prior findings to understand the complex interplay between social factors and young individuals' involvement in delinquent behaviors. The study analyzed 80 articles from reputable online databases, focusing on juvenile delinquency, offenders, crime, and social factors. Out of the 80 articles, 53 were cited, meeting inclusion criteria, including publication within 2000-2023, rigorous peer-review, and reputable database indexing. As per the findings of the research, it has been observed that children who grow up in households that exhibit affection, hospitality, and encouragement are comparatively less susceptible to the manifestation of societal maladies. Children who have experienced parental abandonment are at heightened risk of developing delinquent behaviors. The presence of negative family dynamics and associations with delinquent peers are widely recognized as significant contributors to the development of drug abuse behavior. It is imperative for policymakers and preventive initiatives to have a comprehensive understanding of this complex relationship. Therefore, this literature review presented a distinct overview of the influence of social factors on juvenile offenders in India.

Beyond Winning: Lived Experiences of Thriving Young Professionals Raised in Solo-Parent Families

Understanding the factors and mechanisms contributing to the success of thriving young professionals raised in solo-parent families can provide valuable insights into how these individuals overcame challenges and achieved personal and professional fulfillment. The research aimed to propose an intervention program based on the lived experiences of adults raised in solo-parent families, specifically their experiences, their views of their challenges, how they thrived despite being raised in solo-parent families, and what intervention program companies can implement for young professionals raised in solo-parent families. The study employed a phenomenological approach to analyze the participants' lived experiences and used thematic analysis to examine classifications and identify recurring themes in the data. The experiences of the participants included financial struggles, lack of understanding regarding parental separation, parental abandonment, toxic family dynamics, adverse emotions, and a fearful-avoidant attachment style during adult life. The participants viewed their challenges with a positive perspective and motivation to thrive in life. Despite being raised in a solo-parent family, they thrived through faith, a positive mindset, and grit.

« “Nous sommes biches” par vocation ». Vocation (?) d’une demi-mondaine d’après les mémoires de Céleste Mogador, de Cora Pearl et de Rigolboche

« “Nous sommes biches” par vocation ». Vocation (?) d’une demi-mondaine d’après les mémoires de Céleste Mogador, de Cora Pearl et de Rigolboche The present paper aims to explore the topic of the vocation of a courtesan in the 19th-century France, by analyzing memoirs of tree demi-mondaines of the time: Céleste Mogador, Cora Pearl and Rigolboche. Does such a vocation exist ? If yes, how can we define this notion ? The first part tries to show that prostitution isn’t chosen by women because of the their inclination to debauchery, but is the result of the failed education and parental abandonment. The second part focuses on the importance of independence in the courtesan’s life, as a part of their vocation, and the manner to gain it.

Is Rejection, Parental Abandonment or Neglect a Trigger for Higher Perceived Shame and Guilt in Adolescents?

Theories of development point out that childhood experiences are relevant across the lifespan, and that the parent-child relationship is essential for a child's physical and psychological wellbeing. The aim of this study is to investigate whether parental abandonment influences self-conscious emotions such as guilt and shame. This quasi-experiment included 230 adolescents and teenagers (M = 17.1, SD = 1.82), and data were collected via a self-reported questionnaire administered online. We used the Guilt Inventory, the Experience of Shame Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Parental Acceptance/Rejection Questionnaire. Results indicated that the child's environment was significantly associated with feelings of shame. Abuse is associated with both guilt and shame, while paternal rejection is associated with guilt. The environment in which children and teenagers develop is associated with how they perceive themselves in relation to others. This study underlines the importance of considering child development conditions and the paramount importance of social work assistance for abandoned children and teenagers.

O cuidado parental em tempos de migração laboral Culturas e tecnologias de multiparentalidade na China rural do início do século XXI

What happens when young rural couples leave their villages to work in the city? Why do they choose to leave their children in the village under the care of grandparents? Is this a form of parental abandonment, or is it a collective strategy of multiple parenting constructed around the ideal of the patrilineal multigenerational joint family? Based on two decades of longitudinal fieldwork, between 1999 and 2018, in a rural community in Guangdong province, southern China, this article shows how the labor migration of young couples to the city was sustained by the resilience of traditional socio-technical systems of intergenerational sharing of parental duties. It was the reconfiguration of these systems of multiple parenting that helped young migrant couples to find ways of dealing with the double burden of work and family, benefiting from a stable network of familial support in a context of increasing mobility and widespread insecurity. Newly emerged formations of multiple parenting continue to place a large share of the burden of care work on women and continue to depend on a parental coalition between the senior generation and the middle generation of the patrilineal joint family, but the middle generation strengthened its economic power, leading to a weakening of the patriarchal authority of the senior generation. This decline of the power of the senior generation has been accompanied by a growing trend towards the outsourcing of grandparenting to professional care workers and educators under the influence of new visions of intensive parenting and education that are increasingly dominant in urban areas.

Is Violence, Violence no Matter Where it Strikes? Adjudicated Boys, Thwarted Belongingness, Perceived Burdensomeness, and Acquired Capability for Suicide.

This study explores treating violence against others as a precursor to self-directed violence. It tests the utility of including violence against others in the measure of acquired capability to test assumptions from the interpersonal theory of violence. Four theoretical hypotheses are assessed that are consistent with the theory: (1) thwarted belongingness (parental abandonment and rejection) and perceived burdensomeness (exposure to parental interpersonal violence and child abuse) independently increase the likelihood of suicidal ideation; (2) the interaction of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness increases the likelihood of suicidal ideation controlling for other pertinent variables; (3) the three-way interaction of thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability (violence against others and prior suicidal attempts) increases the likelihood of suicidal attempts controlling for other pertinent variables; and (4) self-harm responds to the theoretical variables and similarly, to attempts. Subjects are court-adjudicated males (ages 13-18) who were residents for up to 1year at the Ocean Tides School and rehabilitation center from 1975-2019. The data span 44years and include 2195 youth. Depression, drug/alcohol use, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and interaction terms between SES and race and SES and ethnicity are also examined. Backward conditional logistic regression analyses find mixed support for the hypotheses, but strong support for including violence against others in the concept of acquired capability. Support is also found for conceptualizing child abuse and exposure to parental interpersonal violence as perceived burdensomeness in tests of this theory as well as measures of depression. Major implications for programming in the treatment and rehabilitation of delinquent boys include conceptualizing and approaching violence against others as a precursor to suicidal attempts and other self-directed harm.

The Sleepy Analyst Struggles to Awaken: Dissociation, Enactment, Regression, and Altered States with Trauma Patients

I assert that embarrassment, shame, and concern for professional reputation have inhibited analysts from discussing their struggles with countertransferential sleepiness, a phenomenon presumably more widespread than is generally acknowledged. Analysts may thus be insufficiently armed with understanding of this vexing predicament to which our work can leave us so vulnerable—its causes, trajectories, and even, potentially, its usefulness. Building on McLaughlin’s 1975 paper on the topic, I acknowledge the analyst’s sleepiness as a defense against affect in the patient and analyst, and explore it as an enactment of parental unavailability and abandonment and a primitive communication from the patient about early states of psychological deadness and unintegration. Noting a recent trend in the relational literature toward valorizing engaged and enlivened registers, I consider the problems and potentials of dwelling in a distanced and deadened intersubjective field.

Crafty Kids: "Hansel and Gretel" and the Survival of the Cleverest

Parental abandonment, starvation, and exposure to predators are well-known motifs in The Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" (1812), which belongs to the ATU 327 tale type. ATU 327 tales pit young, vulnerable protagonists against the cruelty of parents and the brutality of strangers. These stories are usually framed as a celebration of children's craftiness and resourceful use of language. With the central theme of the power of language to persuade, various versions of the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" offer multiple ways to engage students as literary scholars and critical thinkers. This paper compares five classic ATU 327 versions with three contemporary retellings: Emma Donoghue's "The Tale of the Cottage" (1997), Megan Engelhardt "A Mouth to Speak the Coming Home" (2013), and Louise Murphy's novel The True Story of Hansel and Gretel (2003). In analyzing how the absence of home, food, and parental love and protection force Hansel and Gretel to become self-reliant in the classic versions, it is evident that contemporary retellings take a much more critical look at what parental neglect may mean for the child protagonists. Discussion of Bruno Bettelheim's interpretation of "Hansel and Gretel" in conjunction with more recent scholarship on this tale type provides perspectives on how students interpret ATU 327 stories in historical and social contexts.

Abandono escolar, pobreza e fome

Objetiva-se biografar um jovem em situação de rua na sua relação com as vivências de abandono escolar, fome e pobreza. Amparada teoricamente na história cultural do tempo presente, realizou-se um estudo científico por meio da metodologia da história oral biográfica. As narrativas orais do jovem evidenciaram uma família em situação de extrema pobreza, a vivência do abandono parental, o trabalho infantil, a evasão escolar após o ingresso tardio na educação formal e a drogadição. Esses aspectos culminaram no rompimento de vínculos parentais, na fome e na vida em situação de rua. O imediatismo da fome e a ausência de políticas públicas interventivas impossibilitava a constituição de um plano com vistas a um futuro melhor. Â

A narrative review on alexithymia in adolescents with previous adverse experiences placed for adoption, in foster care, or institutions. Prevalence, gender differences, and relations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms

Alexithymia is a recognized risk factor for psychopathology, showing relationships with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The prevalence of alexithymia ranges from 7-21% in low-risk community adolescents, especially girls. Further, few retrospective studies suggest a higher incidence in individuals with past traumatic experiences, but they are mostly on clinical adults. Therefore, the current narrative review aimed to examine the state-of-art of literature on alexithymia (in terms of prevalence, gender differences, and relationships with internalizing-externalizing symptoms), in non-clinical adolescents potentially at “high-risk” for alexithymia because placed for adoption, in foster care or institutions due to adverse and potentially traumatic experiences (parental abandonment, neglect, abuse, etc). The review of the literature was computed on documents retrieved through electronic databases (ProQuest, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, PubMed, WOS, Scopus, Google Scholar), included according to their pertinence and type (empirical studies). Of 6379 documents, only 6 studies (0.2%) on institutionalized adolescents met the inclusion criteria, none in adopted and foster care groups. Main results revealed: 1) higher prevalence of alexithymia in institutionalized adolescents (38-85%) compared to community peers; 2) institutionalized girls as more alexithymic, showing more difficulty in identifying and describing feelings than boys, like in community groups; 3) Higher alexithymia was related to more total, internalizing and externalizing problems through similar mechanisms of risk than in community groups. Methodological limits and future directions of research are discussed for each topic, highlighting the need to bridge the research gap on adolescents with adverse backgrounds, potentially at “high-risk” for alexithymia and its negative consequences.

Inusual mortandad de pichones y juveniles de Garza Bruja <i>Nycticorax nycticorax</i> (Ardeidae) en una nueva colonia nidificante en el centro de Argentina

Se reporta un caso de mortandad en juveniles de Nycticorax nycticorax en una colonia de reciente formación situada en una Reserva dentro de una matriz urbana lindante con el sistema de islas del río Paraná (Santa Fe, Argentina). Se monitorearon 138 nidos desde agosto a noviembre 2016. En agosto se registraron escasas muertes de pichones y juveniles. En septiembre, se registraron más de 800 pichones y juveniles muertos en el suelo, además de huevos abandonados por sus progenitores. No se evidenció mortandad inusual en otras especies de garzas que nidificaban en el área. Se tomaron muestras de seis individuos para realizar análisis de laboratorio y necropsias. Los individuos presentaron muy baja condición corporal y estómagos con escaso contenido, vesículas biliares distendidas e intestinos sin material sólido, con predominancia de contenido biliar (signo de ayuno), albúmina y otras proteínas séricas muy bajas, indicando muerte por inanición. Probablemente, esta mortandad se debió al abandono parental en edades donde las crías aún dependen de ellos para su alimentación. Se consideraron la interacción de múltiples causas, como la intervención humana, condiciones del hábitat, factores climáticos y densidad poblacional. No se conocen precedentes de tal magnitud de mortandad de aves acuáticas en el valle de inundación del Paraná Medio.

Le délaissement parental : quelles conséquences sur la régulation émotionnelle des enfants et adolescents placés en famille d’accueil ?

ObjectiveParental abandonment is part of trajectory discontinuity during the placement of foster children and adolescents. In addition to a deleterious experience suffered before placement, parental abandonment is considered as variable linked to emotional regulation (coping strategies and temperament dimensions) of children and adolescents in foster family. Population and methodsThe population is made up of 232 children and adolescents aged 7 to 16 years. Among them, 115 without maltreatment and live in their family unit (control group) and 117 victims of maltreatment and live in foster family. Of these, 97 have regular contact with their parents (not abandoned group) and 20 have had no contact for at least one year (abandoned group). Each young people answered to a scale measuring the frequency of coping strategies (Kidcope) as well as a questionnaire of temperament (Questionnaire d’auto et d’hétéro-évaluation du tempérament en sept facteurs pour l’enfant d’âge scolaire et l’adolescent). The emotional regulation of children and adolescents belonging to “not abandoned” and “abandoned” groups has been examined from the angle of the frequency coping strategies and temperament. Scores comparison was made with children and adolescents of the same age who have not been maltreated (control group). They constitute a normative reference. ResultsThe results show that absence or presence of parent/child relation is linked to temperamental aspect but not to coping strategies. The comparison of abandoned and not abandoned groups with the control group shows that social avoidance is particularly increased among abandoned children. Fear of being judged by others seems to be exacerbated. However, a strong motor activity and compliance with adult rules and a low concentration characterize children in not abandoned group. These observations could be explained by the fact that abandoned children are more likely to benefit from the placement and are more likely to take advantage of the resources provided by the foster family. It may be assumed that because of their abandonment, abandoned children allow themselves to find a stability and emotional security in the family assistant, which helps them to recover psychically and thus to adjust the representation that they make of the authority of adults. This security base helps them to overcome this abandonment situation and they can raise more. ConclusionIn the light of the theory of attachment, this study highlights the importance of trajectories favoring resource persons as a point of reference and emotional anchoring of abandoned children.

The Lived Experience of Codependency: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Codependency is a complex and debatable concept, which has been used over the years by mental health professionals to inform their practices. Researchers have attempted to identify the main problems associated with codependency; however, their evidence is still inconclusive. This is the first time that interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) has been used to explore the lived experience of codependency from the perspective of self-identified codependents. Eight participants recruited from local support groups for codependency in the UK, offered in-depth information about their subjective experiences, and embedded in their lifeworld. Data was gathered through interviews and a visual method. The shared experience of codependency was portrayed by the participants as a complex but tangible multidimensional psychosocial problem in their lives. It incorporated three interlinked experiences: a lack of clear sense of self, an enduring pattern of extreme, emotional, relational, and occupational imbalance, and an attribution of current problems in terms of parental abandonment and control in childhood.

Betwixt and Between: Negotiating Parental Abandonment and Family Life in Sade Adeniran’s Imagine this

Using African feminist and post-colonial theories, this paper examines the representation of the institution of family in Sade Adeniran’s Imagine This, in order to explore the character’s creation of a third space – one that is ambivalent and traumatic – in her context of divorce and family abandonment. As depicted in the narrative, a major reason behind such family tragedies is an overlap between patriarchy and the postcolonial state. Thus, through the protagonist’s troubled identity and traumatic experience due to her family’s dynamics, the narrative questions the role of a child in reconnecting fragmented family bonds. This heroine’s traumatised hatred of her culture and of the institution of motherhood raises questions about the future of African feminism. If this ideology marginalises culture and renders motherhood as an institution no longer centrally important to contemporary African women, then it requires critical engagement. I explore how the literary genre inspired by African feminism enters established socio-cultural spaces critically and interrogates family dynamics ruthlessly. And I query whether it offers any solutions to the dilemmas of women that are uncovered and illuminated thereby. I will argue that the child protagonist in this narrative is presented not merely as a victim of circumstance – existing as she does betwixt and between family identities that are simultaneously familiar and strange – she is also depicted as attempting valiantly to reconnect the fragmented family bonds.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Criminal Extremity: New Evidence for Sexual Homicide.

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with a wide range of behavioral, health, and psychiatric deficits and have recently been used to study the development of serious offending careers. Unfortunately, this research paradigm has largely ignored forensic populations. This study utilized the adverse childhood experiences framework to examine the associations between exposure to violence, victimization, and total adverse childhood experiences on sexual homicide using a sample of 616 incarcerated adult male sexual offenders from Canada 85 of whom committed sexual homicide. Epidemiological tables of odds revealed that a gradient of adverse childhood experiences was associated with sexual homicide, but that the most significant risks were for offenders who had the most extensive abuse histories. In adjusted models, exposure to violence, victimization, and total adverse childhood experiences increased the odds of sexual homicide by 334%, 249%, and 546%, respectively. These effects intensified in models adjusted for childhood enuresis, cruelty to animals, parental abandonment, deviant sexual behaviors, poor self-image, and sexual problems to 559%, 326%, and 849%, respectively. The adverse childhood experiences framework is a systematic way to organize the criminogenic developmental sequela in sexual homicide.

Inhibited attachment disordered behavior in institutionalized preschool children: links with early and current relational experiences

ABSTRACTInhibited attachment disordered behavior (IADB) is characterized by difficulty in establishing an attachment relationship with a primary caregiver; is associated with persistent social and emotional problems; and is observed most frequently in contexts of pathological care such as institutional rearing. Here, we seek to enhance understanding of the conditions that give rise to IADB among institutionalized children by examining prior family experiences of neglect and deprivation and concurrent relational experiences at the institution. The sample is comprised of 146 children, between 36 and 78 months. IADB was assessed using a semi-structured interview administered to the child’s primary caregiver. Results revealed that both pre-institutionalization experiences (e.g. parental abandonment) and current relational ones (e.g. low quality of child–caregiver relationship) predicted IADB. Findings are discussed in light of the need to promote conditions which foster the establishment and maintenance of the child’s selective attachment to a caregiving figure.

The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India: A Review

This paper examines the size, growth, salaries, per-pupil-costs, pupil achievement levels and cost-effectiveness of private schools, and compares these with the government school sector. Official data show a steep growth of private schooling and a corresponding rapid shrinkage in the size of the government school sector in India, suggesting parental abandonment of government schools. Data show that a very large majority of private schools in most states are 'low-fee' when judged in relation to: state per capita income, per-pupil expenditure in the government schools, and the officially-stipulated rural minimum wage rate for daily-wage-labour. This suggests that affordability is an important factor behind the migration towards and growth of private schools. The main reason for the very low fee levels in private schools is their lower teacher salaries, which the data show to be a small fraction of the salaries paid in government schools; this is possible because private schools pay the market-clearing wage, which is depressed by a large supply of unemployed graduates in the country, whereas government schools pay bureaucratically determined minimum-wages. Private schools' substantially lower per-student-cost combined with their students' modestly higher learning achievement levels, means that they are significantly more cost-effective than government schools. The paper shows how education policies relating to private schools are harmful when formulated without seeking the evidence.

The Eye Divine Measuring

The Eye Divine Measuring Carol Denson (bio) House of Sugar, House of Stone Emily Pérez The Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado Sate University www.upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/2893-house-of-sugar-house-of-stone 88 Pages; Print, $16.95 House of Sugar, House of Stone casts its spell wide into the darkness at the heart of mothering, as if to reduce the power of that darkness by naming it. The first poem, "Lullaby," in the tradition of Rock-a-bye Baby, is not especially comforting, beginning the book with the lines: "Where is the girl who hid in the woods / when wolves came." We get the sense there will be no sentimentality in this book. Emily Pérez uses all the old gifts of poetry—repetition, alliteration, rhyme and meter—to help us navigate the ferocity she approaches. Listen to how the second poem, "Under the Roof," begins: and continues on in one long sentence for nineteen lines, her syntax sluicing over line breaks, urged on by repetition and alliteration, slowed by rhymes. I want to follow this beauty even as we come under "the eye divine measuring / each gasp and murmur" onto what "lies shut, / what's still / beneath each breath and shudder." Pérez warns us that she will not look away from the difficult truths to which her poetic craft leads her. Under the roof, the shingled roof, nounder the eaves, the leaf-clawed eaves,no, under the clouds collecting slowsloughing glass, glitter missives nowunder the evergreens that growover the snow where wolf feet go Many of Pérez's poems witness the damage we do even as we try to protect. In Mother Love, the nature show pans away from a chick that doesn't survive the adult penguins' attempt to save it, but Pérez refuses to look away. "I know that in my life the camera keeps on rolling, leaving a de-feathered thing, held close too long, in focus, limp and quivering." Pérez approaches mothering's darkness by reimagining the archetypal fairy tale of parental abandonment, weaving poems spoken by the characters of Hansel and Gretel through the book. In "A New Mother Discovers Emptiness," the speaker inhabits both a contemporary mother and the stepmother of the old story as she says, "That winter I resigned my role as hope" and then seeks solace in the "darkness of the woods" and the "distance of the stars" and tries to share that solace with the children by pushing them toward the door, locking them out, and the poem ends: and to those who wonder what ifthey're trembling with fear?I say, then at last they're full. Thus, she returns to the hope she resigned at the poem's beginning, albeit now a mother's painful hope that whatever she has given her children, good or bad, will somehow serve them. In another poem, a grown-up Gretel seeks to forgive her step-mother, recognizing that "perhaps she cut / to motherhood's first care—to endure, / to hone that sharp surviva…." Though Pérez understands the abandoning mother, she doesn't forget the violence, continuing with "fingernails to the board, / teeth to the clean, white bone." In the fairy tale, the children's situation goes from bad to worse, from abandonment by one woman to the threat of being eaten by another. In "Hungry," the witch speaks about deboning a chicken: "to snap a skeleton, to separate / a skull's rope-bridge from the fine / cervical spine, a shoulder-ball / from glove-like socket, / …to feel the force / that throbbed inside my slender thumbs …" This precise description reminds us, most of whom have experienced tearing apart a chicken, that this violence is disgusting, even horrifying, and yet somehow pleasurable, and it leads us to an uncomfortable identification with the witch when she says: "I was not the first / to learn to love is to create / but also to consume." Not all the poems are this dark and self-incriminating. Pérez also shows us the amazement, the terrifying joy, of motherhood. In "Nose Tip," the speaker addresses...