This dissertation explores the lives of baby boomers turning sixty as they use narrative to review their past by focusing on turning points. They reflect upon their present, and anticipate their future. The story begins at the St. Pius X High School Class of 1965's fortieth reunion, and proceeds to a class sixtieth birthday celebration and focus group. In addition, five members of the class record their life stories retrospectively. This research explores issues of identity, both personal and generational; the social construction of aging; grief, loss and death; and resilience, meaning, and spirituality. Methods used are autoethnography, narrative, participant observation, and writing as inquiry.

This study aims at investigating the orphan reunification and rehabilitation program in Zoba Ma'ekel, Eritrea. The orphan reunification and rehabilitation program is an intervention devised by Eritrean government in an attempt to address the ever present and continuing problem of orphans in Eritrea. This program aims at reunifying orphan children with their extended families (the uncles, the aunts, the elder brothers and sisters, the grandparents, and any other available relatives). It also aims at strengthening the participant families economically so that they provide the physical and social needs of the orphans under their care. Using data collected through in-depth interviews and questionnaires administered face-to-face in eight selected sites, this study examines the 'well-being' of the reunified orphans compared to non-orphans 1 in the same families using what were believed basic child needs indicators. The study was carried out over two months (December 2002 to January 2003). The findings illustrate that reunified orphans are provided with food, clothing/shoes and health services. However non-orphans in those families are better off than orphans. Most of the caregiver families are economically poor and tend to privilege their own children when there is scarcity of resources within the family. The statistical findings show that 81.5% of non-orphans are supplied with food four times a day compared to 73.2% of the sample orphans. The expenses made for clothing /shoes are found to be slightly higher for non-orphans than orphans (65.9% compared to 59.1%). The findings also reveal orphans' enrolment rate is higher than the national school age children which means they are better off than other children of the country although they are enrolled 6.2% lower than the comparison group (79% vs. 85.2%). However, they work longer hours than non-orphans and among orphans, females do more work than male which deprived them time for play and study. Relationship with the orphans is found stronger where there is a close family tie between the orphans and the caregivers. 1 Non-orphans in this study refer to children in the same families sampled for questionnaires administered face-to-face. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Within the child protection system, children are separated from their parents in different ways and for different reasons. Family reunification following these separations, similarly occurs in a variety of ways and is experienced differently by those involved. / Through a qualitative design, this study gathered together a range of perspectives regarding the experiences, emotions and beliefs of those involved in family reunification. By interviewing parents, protective workers, caregivers, family support workers, family preservation workers, health workers and others, the researcher hoped to capture their wisdom and insight. Overall, 38 people were interviewed in relation to five examples of reunification. / Key concepts and categories were derived from the interviews in conjunction with descriptions of the cases. The researcher then developed a pathways tool which documented the journeys travelled through the process of reunification. / Although all the children in these examples of reunification returned to their parents’ care and were still there up to two years later, there were different opinions as to whether or not the reunification was successful, and what barriers hindered and what strategies led to success. The different definitions of success appeared to be greatly influenced by the participants’ assumptions and perspectives regarding the role of state intervention in the lives of families. / The findings in this research included a broader understanding of the emotional reactions of parents, caregivers and workers. The enormous sense of loss and other strong emotions felt by parents were often experienced prior to the children being removed, as well as during the separation itself. This therefore challenged the concept of filial deprivation being limited to physical separation of children from their parents and subsequently raised a number of practice issues. Many of the workers and caregivers also described feelings of powerlessness, lack of control and being confronted with limited options. Some of the workers, however, spoke of reunification as a more positive and fulfilling experience than other aspects of their work, even though it involved significant risk and difficult decisions. / The principles under lying reunification practice, as outlined in the literature, were evident in aspects of the cases to a varying extent. Opportunities for parents to be actively involved in their children’s placements ranged from no contact with the carer, to visiting almost every day and being actively involved in all decisions. There were some principles which were absent in all of the case examples, such as none of the children experienced continuity of care due to being in multiple placements. / There were descriptions of several service models involved at different times and stages along the families’ pathway through reunification, including different reunification programs. There did not appear to be any clarity regarding when a family would be referred to one type of service compared to another. There was also discussion regarding the influence of universal services, such as schools, on the family members’ experience of being included or isolated in each other’s lives. / Dilemmas and challenges which arose through reunification included those which were common to many fields in social work, such as clashes of values and beliefs and needing to make decisions between limited and inadequate options. Some of the complex issues particularly relating to reunification were the impact of the separation on children and parents, and the experience of being a ‘parentless child’ or a ‘childless parent’. This was an example of the meaning of an issue being subjective and as important as the factual information. / Some of the practice issues which arose through this study included: discussion regarding operationalising permanency planning principles rather than focussing on a parents’ rights or children’s rights dichotomy; developing a partnership perspective with parents, caregivers and workers; the importance of planning and preparation before reunification; whether to celebrate the day of home return or plan it to be as uneventful as possible; and the support and services required following the children’s return home. / There were also a number of recommendations made for future research which could further inform practice in working with children and their families through the process of reunification.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-302).

No description available.

Wong Wai Ling. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-218). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Declaration --- p.iii / Abstract --- p.iv / 中文摘要 --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- The Immigration of Cross-Border Families --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Family Strategies and Gender Relations --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Summary of Arguments --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4 --- Research Design and Methods --- p.10 / Chapter 1.5 --- The Development of Cross-Border Families --- p.14 / Chapter 1.6 --- Map of the Thesis --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- "Immigration, Gender, and Family" --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1 --- Western Feminist Rethinking of the Family --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2 --- Immigration Scholarship of Family Theorizing --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3 --- An Integrative Approach --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4 --- The Concept of Strategy with a Gender Perspective --- p.27 / Chapter 2.5 --- Gender and Internal Family Processes --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6 --- The Making of the Structural Context --- p.31 / Chapter 2.7 --- Chinese Traditional Family Culture as Resource or Constraint? --- p.35 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Immigration and Family Formation Across the Hong Kong 一 Guangdong Border --- p.37 / Chapter 3.1 --- History of Chinese Immigration and Cross-Border Family Formation --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2 --- Immigration Policy and Family Split Structures --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3 --- Immigration and Social Location of Immigrant Families --- p.45 / Chapter 3.4 --- Women's Economic Situation --- p.47 / Chapter 3.5 --- The Context of Reception --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Strategies and Family Patterns --- p.62 / Chapter 4.1 --- Tensions in Reconstituted Cross-Border Families --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2 --- Family Strategies and Conjugal Arrangements --- p.64 / Chapter 4.3 --- Legal Reunited Conjugal Arrangement --- p.67 / Chapter 4.4 --- Split Conjugal Arrangement --- p.71 / Chapter 4.5 --- Bi-national Conjugal Arrangement --- p.77 / Chapter 4.6 --- Continued Tensions and Alternate Conjugal Arrangements --- p.78 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- "Decision, Rationality and Conjugal Relations" --- p.88 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Pattern of Decision Making --- p.89 / Chapter 5.2 --- Decision Making and Conjugal Arrangements --- p.90 / Chapter 5.3 --- Decision Making and Gendered Motivations --- p.92 / Chapter 5.4 --- Rationality and Gender Relations --- p.103 / Chapter 5.5 --- Conjugal Conflicts and Negotiation --- p.107 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- "Homemaking, Fatherhood and The Reconstruction of Male Gender Role" --- p.118 / Chapter 6.1 --- Men's Participation in Domestic Work --- p.120 / Chapter 6.2 --- The Social Construction of Fatherhood --- p.129 / Chapter 6.3 --- Men's Strategy and Gender Change --- p.134 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Family Economy and the Remaking of Women's Family Status --- p.146 / Chapter 7.1 --- Changes in Family Economy after Family Reconstitution --- p.146 / Chapter 7.2 --- Theories of Family Resource Management --- p.149 / Chapter 7.3 --- The Patterns of Resource Management --- p.151 / Chapter 7.4 --- Gender Relations and Resource Management --- p.156 / Chapter Chapter 8: --- Conclusion --- p.173 / Chapter 8.1 --- The Politics of Cross-Border Family Formation --- p.173 / Chapter 8.2 --- Gender Change and Conjugal Negotiation --- p.178 / Chapter 8.3 --- Immigration and Social Inequality --- p.185 / Chapter 8.4 --- Theoretical Implications --- p.187 / Chapter 8.5 --- Issues for Further Studies --- p.194 / Notes --- p.196 / Appendix 1: Profile of Informants and Their Families --- p.201 / Appendix 2: Topics and Questions Guiding the Semi-structured Interviews --- p.206 / Bibliography --- p.210 / List of Tables / "Figure 1.1: Chinese Immigrants by Relations to Local Residents, 1988-97" --- p.2 / "Figure 3.1: A Table Showing the Entry of Chinese Immigrants, 1950s-1990s" --- p.38 / "Figure 3.2: Chinese Immigrants Having Relatives in the Mainland, 1998-2000" --- p.41 / "Figure 3.3: Employed Persons by Occupation,1996" --- p.46 / "Figure 3.4: Employed Persons by Industry,1996" --- p.57 / Figure 4.1: Categorization of Reconstituted Cross-Border Families by Conjugal Arrangements --- p.65 / Figure 5.1: The Pattern of Decision Making by Conjugal Arrangements --- p.89

Text in Afrikaans / The aim of this study was to compile a programme to prepare the child in a children's home for family re-unification. An extensive study of relevant literature was conducted and included works on subjects such as the middle childhood years, the child in the children's home, family re-unification, the Gestalt approach and Gestalt play techniques. An empirical study was undertaken with semi structured interviews with social workers and family re-unification workers. From these resources some themes were identified to be included in the programme. Conclusions and suggestions were made in the interest of the implementation of the programme. / Social Work / M.Diac.(Rigting: Spelterapie)

Text in Afrikaans / The aim of this study was to compile a programme to prepare the child in a children's home for family re-unification. An extensive study of relevant literature was conducted and included works on subjects such as the middle childhood years, the child in the children's home, family re-unification, the Gestalt approach and Gestalt play techniques. An empirical study was undertaken with semi structured interviews with social workers and family re-unification workers. From these resources some themes were identified to be included in the programme. Conclusions and suggestions were made in the interest of the implementation of the programme. / Social Work / M.Diac.(Rigting: Spelterapie)