American society traditionally has held the family responsible for the socialization and social control of children, and when youngsters get into trouble the causal finger of blame is pointed at the family. No wonder then that a recurrent issue within the study of delinquent behavior has been the precise etiological role of the family. This thesis begins with an historical examination of the different approaches taken in the sociological study of delinquency and the family. This research investigated whether "interactive effects" are important in conceptualizing and understanding the family's etiological role. The concept of interaction is based upon the assumption that variables may not have causal efficacy within themselves, entirely independent of other variables. Variable interaction occurs when the effect of an independent variable varies depending on the value of another independent variable. This study utilized questionnaire data gathered as a part of the Richmond Youth Study by the Survey Research Center (University of California, Berkeley) in 1965. The original stratified random sample consisted of 5,545 junior and senior high school students. While this sample included both male and female, black and nonblack adolescents, the present analysis focused on the 1,588 nonblack subsample. Survey data was available on a wide variety of youth-related issues, including self-reported delinquent activity and family conditions. This study analyzed the interactive effects of five family dimensions in relation to four other causal variables commonly associated with delinquency involvement: community social disorganization delinquent friends, attachment to peers, and delinquent definitions. Analysis of variance, a multivariate statistical model, was used to distinguish significant independent and interactive effects. Identified interactive effects were then examined through tabular analysis in order to provide a more precise understanding of how these variables interact in affecting delinquency involvement. Finally, the general notions of variable interaction which are implied by existing theories were assessed. The data analysis revealed that family factors influenced delinquency in different ways. The level of an adolescent's attachment to father was found to be independently related to delinquent activity after controlling for all other effects (independent and interactive). Paternal discipline had an interactive effect on delinquency such that the type of paternal discipline influenced the effect that community social disorganization and number of delinquent friends had on delinquency; in turn, paternal discipline was significantly related to delinquency involvement under certain conditions of these same variables. The other three family factors, however, did not have a significant independent or interactive effect on delinquency involvement. These findings suggest that causal explanation and research dealing solely with direct, independent effects may minimize and oversimplify the causal role of certain family factors. At least a small portion of the family's influence on delinquency involvement is through interactive effects with non-familial variables. Existing theories have failed to actively consider such interactive effects. Furthermore, the general notions of variable interaction which are implied by current theories failed to find support in the data of the present study. Thus, future theory and research would likely benefit from consideration of interactive effects.

M.A. (Community Development) / The statistics on HIV/Aids in this study overwhelm the imagination. It has great social and economical consequences for individuals, families and communities. The generation of between 15-24 years are vulnerable to infection especially women. From the population of about 46 million in South Africa, 5.7 million were HIV positive by the end of 2007 with about 1000 deaths every day. Sub-Saharan Africa appeared to be the most hit by this tragedy as indicated by statistics in this study. When parents die of Aids, the burden of orphaned children is left with relatives and extended families to look after those children. The number of orphans is escalating due to increasing death rate of parents. A detailed discussion on the extended families which includes their origin, roles they play as well as challenges they face in caring for orphaned children is included as well. Challenges include having to deal with grief and changing behaviour of the orphaned children. The goal of this study was to conduct an analysis of extended families affected by HIV/Aids taking care of orphans, living in the Kyasands informal settlement in order to improve service delivery. The main objectives of the study included exploring the needs of these extended families caring for orphaned children in terms of social, emotional and material aspects as well as challenges they face and how they manage to survive. A qualitative method was used in conducting this study with the use of semi-structured interviews to collect information. The main central question asked was, how do you manage to live with an additional member within your family. The main findings in this study were reported which included the strength and composition of assets and the extended families’ resources to make a living and adjust to shocks of life. Family was seen as the most trusted asset in this study by the respondents. Just to mention a few, most of the families owned shacks, battery operated radios and televisions since they live in formal settlement without any permanent infrastructures.

Every year thousands of families experience a major life-changing event when they are torn from their homeland and become refugees. Little is known about how the refugee experience impacts the family and how members perceive it affects their sense of family identity. The construct of family identity as proposed by Bennett, Wolin, & McAvity (1988) includes: (a) family membership, (b) quality of day to day life, and (c) an elusive historical dynamic that includes recollections and beliefs about a family's past. The purpose of this study was to explore the third component, that is, how family history affects family identity. This was done by asking family members how they perceive that their experience, the discrete event of being refugees, shaped, and continues to shape, their sense of family identity. Seventeen members from ten refugee families who fled Cambodia and Vietnam and who subsequently resettled in the United States between 1975 and 1990, were interviewed. Transcripts were qualitatively analyzed. Findings support the two primary components of the family identity construct as well as the existence of a third component. The experience of being a refugee influences (in both expected and unexpected ways) how members perceive their family identity. / Graduation date: 1997

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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No description available.

This study employed a qualitative hermeneutic methodology to compare and explore the stress faced by families caring for a family member with cancer or HIV/AIDS. Four 'Indian' families, two with a family member with cancer and two with a family member with HIV/AIDS, were purposiveiy sampled through NGOs in Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Generally it appeared that the illnesses brought about a range of stressors in families including fmancial and care-related stressors, role changes, difficulties accessing medical treatment, uncertainty and the psychological responses of family members. The impact of these on families was mediated by the families' abilities, social support, a variety of meaning factors and stigma. It did however, appear that families caring for a family member with HIV/AIDS had to cope with several additional burdens including coping with a more prolonged and variable period of illness, fears of infection, increased difficulties accessing medical treatment, less social support and stigma. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002. / Konrad Schrenk

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This study includes thirty-three children, all of whom were placed during the years 1943 - 1948, and who have been continuously in placement, and who are currently in placement as of November 1, 1951. This includes placement in either foster home, school or institution, and in some cases more than one type was used.

Intrafamilial and extrafamilial sex offenders receive differential treatment from criminal justice, mental health, and social service agencies. This differential treatment is based on assumptions that intrafamilial offenders are better candidates for successful treatment and that they are less dangerous than extrafamilial offenders. These assumptions are based upon clinical experience and anecdotal reports, but they lack empirical research evidence. The present study attempts to address the need for objective information regarding sex offenders and their offenses. Specifically, it compares a group of intrafamilial offenders with a group of extrafamilial offenders in terms of variables related to treatment prognosis, dangerousness, and psychological characteristics. The results suggest that there is a sound basis for the decisions being made by criminal justice, mental health, and social service agencies. Intrafamilial sex offenders are predominantly regressed offenders who do not have fixed sexual preferences for children and who are thought to be treatable in community-based treatment programs. In contrast, extrafamilial offenders are predominantly fixated offenders who do have fixed sexual preferences for children and who are thought to be particularly difficult, if not impossible, to treat. In addition, intrafamilial offenders appear less dangerous than extrafamilial offenders in that they used less forceful and violent means of coercion in order to gain compliance of their victims. No significant differences were found between groups regarding their psychological characteristics as measured by the MMPI. While the literature has characterized regressed offenders as men who sexually abuse children in the context of situational stress and family dysfunction, no evidence of this was found in the present study. This finding raises a question regarding the definition, understanding, and validity of the concept of the regressed offender. This may be of some importance to evaluators and treatment teams who believe that the treament of choice for the regressed offender involves family therapy and the alleviation of stress-related factors, while they tend to neglect or minimize the possible contribution of the individual psychopathology of the offender.

The effects of maternal employment on the young child have been examined for over 50 years. This research focuses on perceived maternal employment effects at a later point in the family life cycle: when mother is older and children are grown. Thirty-two poverty level women aged 56-83 (M=66.4 years) and their adult sons (n=l 6) and daughters (n= 16) were independently interviewed. All of the older women were paid workers or "stipended volunteers" who were employed part time (20 hours a week) in child care, clerical, or other service jobs. They had a variety of work histories; all were widowed or divorced.