Afrikaans: In hierdie proefskrif word die pastorale begeleiding van gesinne waarin kindermishandeling voorkom, nagevors. Die navorser het toenemend met gesinne waarin kindermishandeling voorkom te doen gekry. Daar bestaan by pastorale werkers (almal wat op een of ander wyse pastorale hulp verleen) onsekerheid en onkunde oor die begeleiding van hierdie gesinne. Daar bestaan ook 'n behoefte aan 'n pastorale benadering, aangesien kindermishandeling nog altyd binne die maatskaplike en psigologiese studievelde geressorteer het. Samelewingsprobleme, soos geweld, immorele dade en emosionele probleme gee dikwels tot kindermishandeling aanleiding. Hierdie studie neem die narratiewe benadering as uitgangspunt en wil aan die hand van enkele gevallestudies, op die bruikbaarheid van die narratiewe benadering reflekteer. Die mens word binne sy lewensverhaal en konteks verstaan, want die praktiese teologie as handelingswetenskap, kies sy uitgangspunt in die ervaringswêreld van mense en die situasie van die kerk in die samelewing. God het die mens as Sy verteenwoordiger en as kroon van die skepping gemaak. Met die sondeval het daar 'n skeiding in al die mens se verhoudings gekom. In sy genade rig God 'n verbond op waarin Hy homself aan die mens verbind. Die pastorale perspektief maak ems met die verhaal van 'n handelende Verbondsgod wat verlore mense red en in die versoeningswerk van Jesus Christus, Sy oneindige liefde vir die sondaar bewys. Die Koninkryk van God kry in elke mens gestalte as die mens die waardes van die Koninkryk erken en daarvolgens lewe. Die waardes is Iiefde, geregtigheid, vrede en hoop. In die gesin waarin kindermishandeling plaasvind, ontbreek hierdie waardes dikwels, want mishandeling is teenstrydig met God se plan vir die gesin en kinders. Deur die simbiotiese werk van die Heilige Gees word die mens in nood op die toekoms gerig, met hoop, nuwe groeipotensiaal en oorwinning. Die navorsing toon dat ‘n gesin wat met sy noodstorie van mishandeling weer oor die toekoms, onder leiding van ‘n bekende God begin droom, in die hede weer liefde, vrede, duursaamheid en veiligheid kan vind. Die benaderings van Müller en Freedman&Combs, asook die benutting van die genogram, stel pastors in staat om, saam met die gesin waarin kindermishandeling voorkom, dominante verhale te dekonstrueer en ‘n nuwe realiteit te konstrueer. English: This dissertation reports on a study of the pastoral counselling of families in which child abuse occurs. As research progressed, the researcher came into contact with increasing numbers of such families. Many pastoral workers (this includes all those who render pastoral assistance of some kind) are not adequately qualified to work with these families, and their lack of knowledge gives rise to uncertainty. There is also a need for a pastoral approach, since child abuse has always fallen with the specific fields of study of Social Science and Psychology. This study is based on the narrative approach and reflects on its usefulness by referring to a number of case studies. Since practical theology as an active science chooses as its point of departure the world as experienced by individuals, and the role of the church in society, man is viewed in the context of all his life experiences or his personal history. God created man as His representative on earth and as the pinnacle of His creation. The Fall resulted in the disintegration of man's relationship with God and with his fellow men. In His mercy God established a covenant, binding himself to mankind. The pastoral perspective is serious about this God of the Covenant who acts to save those that are lost and who, through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, demonstrates His boundless love for sinners. The Kingdom of God is reflected in every person who acknowledges the values of the Kingdom and lives according to them. These values are love, justice, peace and hope. In families where children are abused, these values are often absent, since abuse is in conflict with God's plan for the family and for children. Through the symbiotic working of the Holy Spirit, people in need are helped to face the future with hope and a new potential for growth that can ultimately lead to victory. The research revealed that a family with a history of abuse can, under the guidance of a God that they know, again begin to dream about the future and can once again experience love, peace, stability and security. The approaches followed by Müller, Freedman&Combs, as well as the use of the genogram, enable pastors to assist members of families where child abuse occurs in deconstructing dominant experiences and constructing new realities. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

This dissertation consists of three essays in public economics. The three chapters focus on interactions between public and private economic decisions. The first two chapters focus on unemployment insurance (UI) policy in the United States. The third discusses public-private interactions in the education market. The first chapter, a joint work with Arindrajit Dube, Calvin Jahnke, Raymond Kluender, Suresh Naidu, and Michael Stepner estimates the labor supply and spending responses to a large change in UI benefits during the pandemic. We examine the effects of the sudden withdrawal of expanded pandemic unemployment benefits in June 2021 using anonymized bank transaction data for 16,548 individuals receiving UI in April 2021. Comparing the difference in differences between states withdrawing and retaining expanded UI, we find that UI receipt falls 35 p.p. while employment rises by only 4.4 p.p. by early August. Average cumulative UI benefits fall by $1,385 while average cumulative earnings increase by only $93. Heterogeneity by unemployment duration implies that these effects are primarily driven by extensive margin expiration of benefits, rather than intensive margin reductions in the benefit level. The second chapter examines the role of gifts and loans from friends and family during unemployment. These transfers play a largely unstudied informal insurance role in high-income countries, making it difficult to assess their implications for social insurance policy. I present new results on informal insurance paid via person-to-person (P2P) payment platforms using a survey-linked administrative bank transaction dataset covering 130,502 low-income users from the US who were unemployed at least once between July 2019 and September 2020. Event study estimates show average monthly inflows from all P2P platforms increase by $30, or 2% of lost earnings, one month after job loss before returning to baseline over 10 months. Single mothers and the long-term unemployed receive the largest increases, as do those living in high-income areas. I exploit three plausibly exogenous changes to federal pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) policy to estimate that UI benefits crowd out at most $0.04 of informal P2P transfers. Using the social insurance framework introduced in Chetty & Saz (2010), my crowd-out estimates indicate negligible welfare consequences for an additional dollar of benefits. Altogether these results imply that public UI benefits can raise welfare by pooling risk across networks without reducing within-network targeting of informal insurance. The third chapter asks whether public school services fill in gaps left by private school failures. Specifically, it explores what type of schools enter the market and experience an increase in enrollment after reports of abuse by Catholic priests lead to Catholic Schools closures. I use a two-way fixed effects event study method to estimate a change in enrollments and number of different types of schools after a report of priest abuse within the same zip code, school district, or county. I find there are 0.2 fewer Catholic schools and Catholic school enrollment falls by 75 students after six years, which are offset by a 0.2 and 50-student increase in charter school counts and enrollments on average. These increases are unique to charter schools and is not observed in other public or non-Catholic private schools. Altogether, these results suggest that former Catholic schooled families show a preference for charter schools over other public schools, which may be due to the low-cost and similar emphasis on discipline and academic achievement.