Child-rearing Responsibilities Research Articles

Family intergenerational stress: Concept exploration and development via coping and identity management.

The sandwich generation faces dual responsibilities of supporting parents and raising children, resulting in heightened levels of stress and negative work-related outcomes. Despite a wealth of research on the sandwich generation, few studies have examined the specific nature of the multigenerational needs of the sandwich generation. Accordingly, we introduce a new concept termed family intergenerational stress (FIS), which refers to the interaction and integration of stresses from elder caregiving, child-rearing, and associated challenges with self-definition. Through the lens of FIS, we collected interview data from 137 sandwich generation employees, secondary network data, and field observation data from 21 employees. We further used grounded theory to explore employees' stress and coping responses to dual family responsibilities. Findings indicate that employees with both elder caregiving and child-rearing responsibilities experience FIS. This, in turn, threatens their identity as an ideal worker and is associated with lower work engagement. Findings further reveal that in coping with FIS, employees adopt different identity-based strategies. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluation of sleep quality in stage II and stage III colorectal cancer patients–secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background: Sleep quality in cancer patients often does not receive sufficient attention from their treating physicians and nurses. This report aims to highlight this under-researched issue among colorectal cancer patients scheduled to receive adjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data from 129 participants from a randomized controlled trial conducted to determine the nurse-led intervention’s effect on cognitive and non-cognitive functions and serum TNF-alpha levels in patients receiving chemotherapy for colorectal cancer at Tata Memorial Hospital. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to collect data on sleep quality. The study also explored potential reasons for the reported poor sleep quality in the selected cohort. Results: The prevalence of poor sleep quality was approximately 60%. Sleep was primarily affected due to poor sleep latency and sleep efficiency. Also, women were more likely to experience issues related to sleep. Patients did not consider it a significant issue to report to their treating physicians and nurses. Factors contributing to poor sleep quality included financial concerns, child-rearing responsibilities, and anxiety about disease outcomes. Conclusion: Cancer patients do experience poor sleep quality, and it is crucial to assess and address this issue promptly to prevent adverse responses to cancer therapy, which can lead to increased morbidity and mortality.

Childcare Matters and How Financial Assistance Increases Mothers’ Participation in Malaysia’s Labour Market

Malaysia is one of the ASEAN countries that is lagging behind others in terms of women’s employment level. The main reason for the lack of women in the workforce is childbearing. This study investigates the relationship between childcare matters (availability, education, quality, and cost of childcare) and mothers’ participation in the labour market. Besides, this research examined whether financial assistance relates to mothers’ employment participation. With the purposive sampling technique, the questionnaires were distributed through the online platform. Of the 513 respondents who had completed the survey, 394 were working, and 119 were not working. Besides, 276 (53.8%) respondents send their children to a registered childcare centre and 101 (19.7%) to an unregistered childcare centre. Besides, 136 (26.5%) respondents personally attend to the care of their children; this includes those who alternate child-rearing responsibilities with their partners due to differing work schedules. The binary logistic regression analysis found that childcare availability and childcare cost were significant, while childcare education and childcare quality were not. With positive and significant results, bootstrap analysis established that financial assistance is a mediator between the cost of childcare and a mother’s participation in the labour market. Based on the current situation in Malaysia, where financial assistance for childcare is limited and not comprehensive, this study suggests that the government increase the financial assistance provided. In addition, it is appropriate to conduct a study to provide evidence for the extent to which the existing financial assistance can help increase the participation of mothers in and continue to increase in the labour market.

Self-reported competence among advanced practice nursing students in Denmark, Finland and Norway: a cross-sectional multicentre study.

The health care systems in the Nordic countries and worldwide are under pressure due to increased longevity and a shortage of nurses. Providing nurses with a high level of education, such as advanced practice nursing, is of great importance to ensure effective, safe and high-quality care. The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported competence using the Nurse Professional Competence Scale Short-Form for the first time among master's students of advanced practice nursing in the Nordic countries and to relate the findings to age, work obligations, child-rearing responsibilities, level of education and clinical nursing experience. A multicentre, cross-sectional design was used in this study conducted at five universities in Denmark, Finland and Norway. The Nurse Professional Competence Scale Short-Form consisting of six competence areas was used with a maximum score of 7 per item for the analysis of single items and a transformed scale from 14.3 to 100 for analysing the competence areas (higher score equals higher self-reported competence). Descriptive and comparative statistics were used to analyse the data. The highest mean score was found for the competence area 'Value-based nursing care'. Students living with home-dwelling children (≤ 18 years) reported significantly higher competence in 'Nursing care', while students ≥33 years reported significantly higher competence in 'Nursing care' and 'Value-based nursing care'. No significant differences were found between students working and those not working alongside their studies, between students with and without further nursing-related education, or between students with long and short experience as nurses. The findings from this study might help to further develop curricula in advanced practice nursing master's programmes to ensure high-quality nursing and sustainable health care in the future. Future high-quality master's programmes might benefit from systematic collaboration between Nordic higher education institutions as also Sweden is planning master's programme. Higher age, having children at home and working while studying should not be considered causes for concern.

‘I am struggling to survive’: financial inequity in postgraduate teacher education in England

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences of individuals who are facing finance-related worries and/or a perceived requirement or desire to work, whilst training to teach. We sought to explore this issue by gathering qualitative and quantitative data from trainee teachers through an Online Survey. This elicited 438 responses from trainees across England. Our findings showed that many trainees are required to work and/or rely on support from either parents and partners or from their own savings. Financial difficulties resulted in hardship and wellbeing issues across several societal categories (students with disabilities, from lower socio-economic groups, women with childrearing responsibilities and immigrants). We conclude by calling for a socially just perspective in postgraduate teacher training and make recommendations for those working in initial teacher education and policymakers to establish a more equitable teacher training experience.

Satisfaction with parental responsibilities and disorganized attachment among infants of mothers at risk for depression.

Growing attention has been placed on examining the family environment as antecedent of attachment, including the coparenting relationship. Parents' satisfaction with the coparenting relationship may be particularly of interest when parents are at heightened risk for depression, as depression has been consistently linked to negative coparenting, poor quality of parenting, and insecure infant attachment. However, no study has examined the effects of parents' satisfaction with the coparenting relationship on attachment. The present study examined mothers' satisfaction with division of childrearing responsibilities, a component of coparenting, and its longitudinal and cross-sectional links with infant disorganized attachment, examining the quality of mothering as a mediator, in a sample of infants and mothers at elevated risk for depression (N = 234). We assessed maternal depressive symptoms at 3, 6, and 12 months of infant age, mothers' satisfaction with the division of parental responsibilities at 3 and 12 months, the quality of mothering at 6 and 12 months, and infant disorganized attachment at 12 months. Mediation analyses revealed that at 12 months, mothers who were unsatisfied with fathers' childrearing responsibilities had poorer quality of mothering, which in turn was linked to disorganized attachment in their infants. However, the longitudinal indirect association between satisfaction with childrearing responsibilities at 3 months and disorganization at 12 months mediated by maternal parenting at 6 months was not significant. Findings emphasize the importance of partner support in childrearing for mothers at risk for depression in shaping a healthy relationship between mothers and their infants, particularly as infants get older. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Characteristics of women’s careers: international studies review

Introduction. Career development has become one of the most significant areas of human resource management in modern organizations. Despite considerable progress in increasing the representation of women in various industries and also a multiplication of women holding senior positions, today, the segregation of the labour market persists. Women and men are unevenly distributed in such fields as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; there are differences in wages and career advancement. Traditional career models have certain limitations in research and, therefore, require revision and updating.Purpose. Generalization of foreign experience of gender studies in the field of women’s professional careers.Materials and methods. The scientific review is presented by a systematic analysis of foreign gender studies over the past 10-15 years.Theoretical justification. The authors describe the main methods of studies examining women’s career advancement and also consider the causes of gender segregation, such as career choice, gender discrimination in employment and the workplace, and the phenomenon of the “glass ceiling”. Factors influencing the choice of career strategies are competitiveness, self-esteem, self-efficacy, the influence of cultural perceptions of gender roles, self-stereotyping, the presence or absence of role models, the social costs of women’s careers and the possibility of their recognition by society as professionals.Discussion and conclusion. A possible way to solve the problem of women’s career advancement may be to reduce the pressure of gender stereotypes, including even the distribution of household and child-rearing responsibilities and, ultimately, contributing to the improvement of well-being and life quality in general.

Women and Parapsychology 2022 – An Online Survey

In 1991, the Parapsychology Foundation organized an international conference on the topic "Women and Parapsychology," held in Dublin, Ireland. The survey aimed for an assessment of the situation in parapsychology 30 years after this conference. Our team asked women active in the research field of parapsychology and related areas about their scientific careers, authoring articles, contributions to the field and gender-specific experiences. We distributed the link to the extensive online questionnaire on several e-mail lists and websites and also sent the link specifically to individuals. 30 women completed the questionnaire. We got a selective, non-representative sample, with a high average age and level of education. Due to these limitations, the survey did not provide complete clarity as to whether parapsychology differed from other disciplines with regard to the status and situation of women. Several aspects are comparable to the situation of women in other research fields. As is generally the case in academia, women tend to be paid less. They have to make greater efforts to be taken seriously by male colleagues, which can slow down their careers, in addition to career interruptions due to raising children, greater difficulties balancing work and family life, and the like. We found a relatively low proportion (10 women who reported sexual intimidation or harassment in the field of parapsychology. General funding problems in parapsychology are even greater for women because of the additional childrearing responsibilities and less institutionalized research. Some findings lead us to the thesis that it is not necessarily the gender aspect that is responsible for rude and inappropriate behavior on the part of male colleagues, but rather a tendentially greater openness on the part of female researchers for worldviews and heterodox research subjects outside of the scientific mainstream. This thesis must be validated in further studies.

Has “Who Comes Back” Changed? Teacher Reentry 2000–2019

Studies of early-career teachers in the 1970s–1990s find that one-quarter to one-half of teachers who left the classroom eventually returned and that returning was associated with teachers’ gender and their child-rearing responsibilities. However, much has changed in the last forty years. Women are more likely to continue to participate in the labor force after having children, and teacher labor markets have been impacted by federal policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top) and the Great Recession. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), I find that only one-fifth of teachers who exited the profession from 2000–2019 returned. This is a substantially lower rate of return compared to similar work using a previous cohort of teachers from NLSY79. Furthermore, I do not find evidence that teacher reentry is associated with gender or child-rearing status. These findings have implications for teacher labor markets, as reentering teachers can expand the pool of experienced teachers.

The experience of unmarried mothers raising their children in residential facilities: a phenomenological qualitative study

BackgroundBirth outside of marriage has been gradually increasing in Korea. However, social perception of unmarried mothers is still negative, and a number of them are not accepted by their family. Therefore, the Korean government has implemented a policy to provide financial aid and communal residence to unmarried mothers who cannot raise children with their family, or afford residence. Unmarried young mothers who rely on this government policy have low economic independence and social adaptation skills. Additionally, they have a high chance of encountering numerous challenges in raising children due to their living conditions in residential facilities and social prejudice. This study was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experience of unmarried mothers raising children in residential facilities.MethodsData were collected through in-depth interviews with nine unmarried mothers living in residential facilities with their children. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted to analyze the data.ResultsThe findings revealed that unmarried mothers struggled with various difficulties given the limitations of living in the facility, but attempted to navigate their uncertain future with the determination to be good mothers. Three main themes and eight sub-themes emerged: (1) adaptation to the identity of “unmarried mother”, (2) willingly undertaking the heavy burden of childrearing, (3) indispensable but insufficient supports from facilities. Participants had childrearing responsibilities, and tried to be good mothers for their children while struggling to adapt to their new identities. However, their self-doubt as a “good mother” and the absence of the child's father made them feel sorry for their child. Their daily experiences raising children and simultaneously preparing for their own independence were exhausting. The supports from the facilities were helpful but unsatisfactory and led to various psychosocial difficulties such as anxiety, depression, fear, guilty, and anger in unmarried mothers.ConclusionsBesides information and resources for parenting and independence, active approaches are needed to improve the psychological stability of unmarried mothers raising their children in facilities, and sustain a long-term socioeconomic support system. Thoughtful services tailored to mothers and children are also needed, instead of standardized services.

Family Duties and Job Flexibility: Tradeoffs for Chinese Urban, Educated Mothers with Toddlers

Drawing on survey and interview data from mothers of 14-month infants in Nanjing, China, we explore women’s job trajectories as they juggle work and family responsibilities. Four profiles that emerge among our sample of 371 mothers (high stability, rapid cyclers, high-paid wage-growth, and intermittent) reflected not only their work career trajectories but also their different strategies of managing work-family balance. High-stability mothers were more likely than the other three groups to work in state-owned enterprises and experience a negative work climate. They illustrate how China’s changing economy shape work preferences of mothers who value interest and self-fulfillment, but pursue stability to accommodate their childrearing responsibilities.

Reasonable Efforts? Child Maltreatment Investigations and Service Referrals of Parents With Ascribed Cognitive Impairments in Canada.

Parents with ascribed cognitive impairment (CI) are more likely than parents without CI to have their children removed by child protective services (CPS). Inequitable access to parenting and family supports and services is thought to be a contributing factor. Utilizing data on a 3-month sample of 15,980 child maltreatment investigations across Canada, including 1,244 cases featuring parents with CI, this study investigated service referrals and non-referrals. The results of this secondary data analysis suggest that, relative to need, parents with CI are less likely to be referred for matched services, including home based\reunification services post child removal. It is unclear whether disparate rates of referral are driven by a lack of inclusive services, and/or the conflation of parental CI with perceived parenting deficits. When perceived parenting deficits are attributed to parental CI, CPS may wrongly assume that these are irremediable. The findings highlight the need for building inter-sectoral service pathways in order to render appropriate assistance to parents with CI in the performance of their childrearing responsibilities.

Impact of parenthood on burnout in members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology

Objective: There are few data on the impact of parenting on burnout in physicians, although several studies demonstrate increased rates of work-family conflict and work-life imbalance among female physicians, presumably because of increased household and child-rearing responsibilities. In this study, we sought to explore the impact of parenthood on burnout and determine whether gender plays a role in differences among parents.

Parenting during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020: academia, labour and care work

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic instigated fundamental challenges and changes to parents’ working lives in Britain. This viewpoint article reflects upon the experience of balancing childrearing responsibilities with academic work across the Spring and Summer of 2020. It positions the removal of formal and informal childcare networks within the history of feminist demands around childcare and sets it against the background of the recent history of women and reproduction within Higher Education in Britain. Drawing upon feminist literature, personal experience, academic parents’ testimony and emerging studies of the gendered effects of the crisis, the article explores some of the critical challenges that balancing childcare and academic work presented and offers some preliminary reflections on the experience of the concurrent ‘double shift’ the lockdown engendered.

All Women Should be Screened for Anxiety, Federal Panel Says

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical & ResearchFull AccessAll Women Should be Screened for Anxiety, Federal Panel SaysKatie O'ConnorKatie O'ConnorSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:13 Aug 2020https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.7b6AbstractAPA was integral to the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative’s first recommendation for universal screening for anxiety, which applies to women and girls over age 13.All women and girls over 13 years old should be screened for anxiety, according to the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI), a federal panel tasked with developing recommendations for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services.The recommendation was published June 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This is the first recommendation related to universal screening for anxiety that WPSI has issued.The recommendation that all women and girls over 13 receive anxiety screenings will draw attention to a condition that is often underdiagnosed and undertreated, says APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.“Anxiety disorders are some of the most prevalent and consequential mental health problems among women in the United States,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., in a news release. “This groundbreaking recommendation will be a critical step in the advancement of the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions, which have previously been underdiagnosed and undertreated.”Maureen Sayres Van Niel, M.D., the APA Assembly’s representative to the Caucus of Women Psychiatrists and chair of the Assembly Committee of Representatives of Minority/Underrepresented Groups, was a member of the WPSI Steering Committee and an author of the clinical guidelines published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. She was the first mental health practitioner to be appointed to the panel in 2016 (see Psychiatric News).“This recommendation was a direct result of a collaboration between APA and other major medical associations throughout the country to develop an integrated plan to screen women for mental health problems as well as physical problems during their yearly well-woman visits,” Van Niel said. “The recommendation was approved for services without a copay to allow women of all socioeconomic groups to have equal access to this screening.”The Affordable Care Act requires that some preventive services must be covered without cost sharing, including copays, deductibles, and coinsurance. WPSI, which is led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), is responsible for recommending which women’s preventive services should be covered.The new recommendation applies to all adolescent and adult women 13 years or older, including pregnant and postpartum women. WPSI does not stipulate at what intervals screenings should occur and notes that clinicians should use their judgment when determining screening frequency.“Given the high prevalence of anxiety disorders, lack of recognition in clinical practice, and multiple problems associated with untreated anxiety, clinicians should consider screening women who have not been recently screened,” the recommendation states.Given recent events, it is especially important that women are screened for anxiety disorders now, Van Niel said. “This is a time when we are all experiencing national trauma. Anxiety levels, especially in women, have been shown to have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. “Additionally, the severe anxiety caused by structural racism is very significant, and it is especially evident right now.”She continued, “The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends yearly screening for depression in all adults and adolescents and adding this universal screening for anxiety in women can be performed easily at the same time. The screening of men for anxiety disorders should also be addressed.”WPSI’s recommendation is especially important because the incidence of anxiety and depressive disorders in women is twice that of men, Van Niel pointed out. This increased incidence may be due to ongoing stresses women face, including carrying more of the household and childrearing responsibilities, experiencing a higher incidence of childhood and adult sexual abuse, and continued financial inequities due to a lack of paid leave and lower pay for equal work, she explained.“It is possible that, by correcting these social inequities, we can reduce the incidence of anxiety disorders in women,” she said.In an editorial accompanying the guidelines’ publication in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Kim G. Smolderen, Ph.D., and Matthew M. Burg, Ph.D., of the Yale University School of Medicine, emphasized the need to understand why so many women across age groups are struggling with anxiety. “Tools like the WPSI screening recommendations directed toward vulnerable groups are great first steps, but only one of the many elements needed to address mental health crises,” the authors wrote. ■“Screening for Anxiety in Adolescent and Adult Women: A Recommendation From the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative” is posted here.“Screening for Anxiety in Adolescent and Adult Women” is posted here.“Awareness for Anxiety in Women: A Great Start” is posted here. ISSUES NewArchived

Cannabis Use Among Aboriginal Youth in the Non-Aboriginal Child Protection Services System

The social, cultural and political contexts of vulnerability need to be considered in defining, understanding, and reducing substance abuse among maltreated youth with an Aboriginal background (MacNeil, 2008; Tatz, 1999). Aboriginal cultures tend to incorporate an ideology of collectivism that manifests in shared childrearing responsibilities within aboriginal families and communities (e.g., Dilworth-Anderson & Marshall, 1996). As such, Aboriginal children may identify with multiple and equally important attachment figures, and be more accepting of multiple caring adult guardians who can direct them away from risky behaviour (Christensen & Manson, 2001). We examined the relationship between cannabis use and reported identification with a caseworker among youth-identified Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adolescents randomly drawn from the active caseload of a large urban non-Aboriginal Child Protection Services (CPS) system. While an Aboriginal-specific child welfare agency exists in this catchment area, youth need to be identified as Aboriginal to be involved in that system and some youth with Aboriginal heritage inevitably end up in non-Aboriginal CPS agencies. There were no significant differences in rates of maltreatment, trauma symptomatology, or overall cannabis use between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in this study. However, Aboriginal youth who reported a more negative (i.e., low) identification with their caseworker were five times more likely to use cannabis in the past 12 months compared to Aboriginal youth who reported a more positive (i.e., medium-high) identification with their caseworker. These results suggest that having a moderate-to-high positive identification with caseworker may be a protective factor in regard to abstinence from cannabis use among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in the non-Aboriginal CPS system.

Divorce and adolescent academic achievement: Heterogeneity in the associations by parental education.

The link between parental divorce and adolescents' academic achievement may depend on parental educational levels. However, findings have been inconsistent regarding whether the negative associations between parental divorce and adolescents' academic outcomes are greater or smaller in highly educated families. The present study aimed to investigate the possible heterogeneity in the associations between divorce and adolescents' academic achievement by parental educational levels, within the context of the elaborate Norwegian welfare state. The population-based cross-sectional youth@hordaland study of adolescents aged 16-19 years conducted in Norway in 2012, provided information about parental divorce and was linked to national administrative registries (N = 9,166) to obtain high-quality, objective data on the adolescents' grade point average (GPA), and their parents' educational qualifications and income. The negative association between parental divorce and GPA was stronger among adolescents with educated or highly educated parents compared to adolescents with less educated parents. This heterogeneity was driven by maternal educational qualifications, whereby divorce was more strongly and negatively associated with GPA among adolescents with educated mothers compared to those with less educated mothers, independent of paternal educational levels and income measures. Among adolescents whose parents have low educational qualifications, parental divorce is not associated with their academic achievement. Educated divorced mothers appear less likely to transfer their educational advantages onto their children than nondivorced equally educated mothers, perhaps due to a "double-burden" regarding work pressure and child-rearing responsibilities. There is a need for future studies to detail the mechanisms underlying this finding.

“GOOD, BETTER, BEST”

AbstractTurner Station, Maryland, is a century-old African American neighborhood just east of Baltimore that housed the families of workers who were employed at a nearby steel plant from the founding of the community in the early 1900s until the plant closed in 2012. Its story provides a window into the lives of the understudied Black working-class during the peak decades of industrial employment and the ensuing decades of decline. Long-time residents recall a vibrant, self-sufficient community with a heterogeneous class structure, produced in part by residential restrictions and employment discrimination that constrained professionals such as physicians and teachers to reside and to practice or work in the neighborhood. They report a high level of collective efficacy and joint responsibility for childrearing. Current and former residents describe a strong emphasis on education as a means of upward mobility. As levels of education rose and residential opportunities opened, the children of the mid-century steelworkers left Turner Station for other communities in the metropolitan area and beyond. As out migration continued, the community suffered a decline: virtually all of the businesses are gone, vacant homes are common, and a more transient population has moved in. The members of the Turner Station diaspora still cherish the memory of the neighborhood, even as many have moved on and up. Their achievements show what happened when a generation of African Americans were given access to decent-paying jobs that did not require a college education—a degree of access that no longer exists because of the decline of industrial employment in the Baltimore region and elsewhere.

Explanatory Model of Voluntary Childlessness among Iranian Couples in Tehran: A Grounded Theory Approach.

Background:Global and Iranian statistics indicate a rise in the newly emerging phenomenon of voluntary childlessness as a permanent status among couples. Childlessness is one of the main challenges of modern society. In Iran, studies on the process of voluntary permanent childlessness are scarce. The present study aimed to investigate the causes and underlying factors of voluntary childlessness and to provide an explanatory model of this phenomenon among Iranian couples. Methods:The present qualitative study was conducted using the grounded theory approach proposed by Strauss and Corbin. Married couples from Tehran (Iran) with no infertility problems who chose to be permanently childless were invited to take part in this research. Theoretical saturation was reached after 33 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results:Based on the results, the causal conditions of childlessness included the high-risk society and adverse experiences. Contextual and intervening conditions included social problems, social support, transitional society, natural resources, social presence of women, and marriage age. The strategies and interactions observed in childless couples included the suppression of feelings, conflicts, rationality, and malingering. The core phenomenon was individualism. Conclusion:Increased social problems and reduced social support endanger a society in transition toward modernity. Individualists resort to permanent childlessness by suppressing parental feelings, overcoming doubts about childbearing, and becoming nonchalant by running away from child-rearing responsibilities. Such people may resort to child adoption or to have pets in order to cope with loneliness.

In pursuit of self-reliance – perspectives of refugees in Jordan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the employment experiences of refugees, who have benefited from job opportunities in Jordan. It investigates the impact of employment on their livelihoods and the related challenges that they face.Design/methodology/approachThe research presented in this paper is of exploratory nature. By ways of analyzing selected interviews with refugees, it explores their employment experiences in terms of their motivation to work and thus provides insights into how refugees perceive the impact of employment on their progress toward self-reliance. It also incorporates the perspectives of employers and investigates measures taken by the employers to overcome challenges and facilitate refugees’ employment. The study is not meant to draw conclusions about the general trends of refugee employment or to measure refugee self-reliance. The study sample thus relies on a small number of people since it seeks depth rather than breadth in data collection.FindingsThe interpretation of the collected accounts explores how the indicative domains of self-reliance arise in the accounts of the interviewees. Findings suggest that regardless of gender, the employment process was transformational in terms of young refugees’ progress toward self-reliance, whereas its impact was less significant on older refugee women with child-rearing responsibilities. Although older refugee women with children acknowledge the positive impact of employment on their livelihoods, the accounts that they tell suggest that humanitarian assistance still plays an important role in their livelihoods. Furthermore, the collected accounts highlighted aspects that the interviewed women find problematic. These include age-restrictions that some employers impose when hiring, in addition to the limited employment opportunities for men living in Zaatari camp.Research limitations/implicationsThe research limitation is primarily methodological and is attributed to the limited respondent sample size. This implies that the sample is not representative; therefore, results may lack generalizability.Practical implicationsThis study highlighted multi-faceted and complex factors influencing refugee self-reliance. Therefore, it includes implications for the development of refugee employment programs to become more effective in enhancing refugee livelihoods and self-reliance. For example, it highlights that central actors engaged in employment programs for refugees should duly consider the local context to produce context-based solutions. Furthermore, it also emphasizes that central actors should not lose sight of the people-based factors such as refugees’ age, gender and child-rearing responsibilities when devising the employment programs.Originality/valueThis paper offers insights into how employment can become more effective in promoting the progressive development of refugee self-reliance in Jordan.