In recent years various factors have contributed to the dissolution of the traditional family and the subsequent emergence of alternative family systems like the single parent family. Single parent families have become a reality in our society, a fact reflected by statistics which indicate an increase in the occurrence of single parent families over the last couple of years. However, the single parent family is still mostly perceived as consisting of the mother and her children, rather than the father and his children. Research narratives seem to support the single-parenthood-equals-single-motherhood plot in that there is an abundance of single parent accounts in the literature that mostly tell the stories of single mothers. Thus, fathers who find themselves in the position of single father seem to be marginalised in society and stories regarding their experiences are few and far between. The aim of this project was to explore and describe how single fathers in South Africa experience fatherhood by focussing on their personal narratives. Therefore the research inquiry for this project took the form of a narrative inquiry which provides a way to understand people’s experiences by privileging their stories. The researcher conducted unstructured interviews with participants to produce languaged data which were analysed using a narrative analysis strategy. A narrative analysis aims to investigate not merely the content of the story, but rather the story itself and the way in which it is told within a specific cultural and historical context. Hopefully, in the telling, listening and retelling of their stories these fathers’ voices will become more pronounced in the research narratives and thus contribute to the body of knowledge pertaining to single fatherhood. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / Unrestricted

This thesis conveys the history of reproductive politics in Oregon through the life of Dr. Jessie Laird Brodie (1898-1990). Brodie was a key figure in this history from the 1930's until the 1970's, mainly through the establishment of family planning programs through social and medical channels in Oregon and throughout Latin America. Oregon's reproductive legislation walked a fine line between conservatism and progressivism, but in general supported reproductive healthcare as a whole in comparison to the rest of the United States and Latin America. The state passed controversial contraceptive legislation in 1935 that benefited public health, but also passed eugenic laws, specifically a 1938 marriage bill, that attempted to limit specific population's reproductive control. By the time family planning was solidly rooted in the national and international sociopolitical discourse in the 1960's, due to the advent of the "pill," population control rhetoric, and the Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) Supreme Court decision, eugenic laws were virtually obsolete. Portland's history suggests that leaders in local reproductive politics sought to appeal to a diverse clientele but were restricted to the confines of federal funding mandates, specifically the war on poverty, that were fueled by postwar liberalism in an increasingly global age. The first chapter concentrates on the history of women's health and reproduction in Oregon prior to the 1960's. Dr. Jessie Laird Brodie's experiences with families in poverty during medical school in the 1920's disheartened her and motivated her to seek ways for these women to efficiently and affordably access birth control information. In response to public health concerns, she helped get positive contraception legislation passed in Oregon in the 1930's that set guidelines and restrictions for manufacture of contraceptives. This law was the first of its kind in the country and set a precedent for other states to follow. Brodie also supported a marriage bill in the 1930's that mandated premarital syphilis and psychological testing, in the hopes that it would lead couples to seek contraceptive, or "hygienic," advice from their physicians as efforts to establish a birth control clinic had failed up to this point. The second chapter focuses on Brodie's continued involvement in Oregon in the 1940's and 1950's, a period marked by a high tide of pronatalism in the U.S., and how she took Oregon's vision for women to a national and international level. Locally, she was involved with the E.C. Brown Trust, an organization dedicated to sex education, and was the President for the Pacific Northwest Conference on Family Relations, a group focused on the postwar family adjustments of higher divorce rates and juvenile delinquency. In 1947, Brodie was one of the founding members of the Pan-American Medical Women's Alliance, an organization created to provide a professional arena for women physicians throughout the Americas to discuss problems specific to women and children. Involvement with these groups helped her gain recognition nationally and in the late 1950's she served as President, and then Executive Director, of the American Medical Women's Association. Lastly, the third chapter looks at the establishment and growth of Planned Parenthood Association of Oregon (PPAO) in the 1960's under Brodie's leadership and her foray into the international establishment of family planning programs through the Boston-based Pathfinder Fund, an organization whose mission involved bringing effective reproductive healthcare to developing countries. Brodie acted as Executive Director for PPAO, where she was able to use her medical expertise and connections to bring the new organization credibility and respect throughout Oregon that they lacked before her involvement because the board was mainly comprised of a younger generation on the brink of second-wave feminism and the sexual revolution. In her career with Pathfinder she assessed the needs for family planning in Latin American and Caribbean countries and facilitated the establishment of programs in the region, largely in cooperation with the U.S. federal government and the Population Council. The conclusion offers a brief history of Dr. Brodie's continued involvement in the local and international communities beyond 1975 and the awards she received highlighting her career in the battle for effective healthcare for all women. In short, this thesis argues that legal and rights-based contestations that were prevalent in other regions of the U.S. and throughout the world were not characteristic of Oregon, allowing Brodie and PPAO to bring birth control to the state with relatively limited opposition.

The purpose of this essay is to make visible how social workers in family law construct gender in their custody investigations and whether there are gender differences in the assessment of mothers and fathers. This is to achieve a deeper understanding of how gender constructions can affect the investigative process and possible differentiation based on the parents´gender. Previous researches shows that social workers tend to reproduce a traditional view of family and gender, which means that women and men are assigned certain tasks and roles. Since statistics show that the district courts follow recommendations of social workers, it is important to understand how mothers and fathers are constructed in custody investigations. This was done using a qualitative content analysis of 12 custody investigations. The material was analyzed based on a constructionist gender theory and a social constructivist theory. Our study shows that social workers construct gender by identifying the mother and father based on gender stereotypes. Social workers are also more forgiving of the mother than the father when their shortcomings are presented. In the study, it was also possible to establish that there are more expectations of the mother and that social workers highlight more circumstances surrounding the mother. This meant that they focused differently depending on which of the parents was to be investigated. The study partly refuted previous research, for example by the father taking his responsibility.

No description available.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka vilka egenskaper och beskrivningar som ingår i konstruktionen av en missbrukande förälder i fyra nordiska filmer. De studerade filmerna är Trädgårdsgatan (2017), Mig äger ingen (2013), Submarino (2010) och Svinalängorna (2010). Syftet med studien är även att undersöka hur framställningen av familjemedlemmars reaktioner på missbruket i filmerna bidrar till konstruktionen av den missbrukande föräldern. Studien utgår ifrån ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv och använder narrativ metod. Två centrala teoretiska begrepp som används är normalitet och avvikelse för att analysera hur förälderns föräldraskap konstrueras som antingen normalt eller avvikande. Eftersom narrativ metod används analyseras filmerna som berättelser, mer specifikt berättelser om familjer. I studien har vi funnit att den missbrukande föräldern konstrueras genom önskvärda respektive avvikande egenskaper. I analysen har vi utifrån nyckelscener och nyckelcitat synliggjort de fem mest utmärkande egenskaperna som föräldern tillskrivits genom filmernas berättelser. Dessa är att vara socialt utsatt, ansvarslös, kontrollös, medveten (kring det som avviker) och känslomässigt nära till sitt barn. Egenskaperna har sorterats efter fem teman och under dessa har vi analyserat varje tillskriven egenskap och hur de bidrar till konstruktionen av den missbrukande föräldern i de studerade filmerna. Sammantaget visar vår studie att det är en viss stereotypisk bild av en förälder som förmedlas, men även en komplex sådan. Vår förhoppning med studien är att skapa medvetenhet kring hur film kan framställa, producera och reproducera vissa stereotypa bilder eller föreställningar för ett fenomen, som i detta fall är ett föräldraskap i missbruk.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att jämföra tingsrättens domar i vårdnadstvister där det uppges att våld mellan föräldrar förekommit med socialtjänstens riktlinjer för vårdnad- boende- och umgängesutredningar, för att analysera vilka förväntningar på föräldrarna som beskrivs. För att besvara syftet har en dokumentstudie gjorts, där tingsrättens domar och Socialstyrelsens handbok gällande vårdnad, boende och umgänge analyserats genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Socialkonstruktionism, genusregimer och den modercentrerade familjemodellen har använts som teoretiska perspektiv och analysbegrepp. Studien har visat att tingsrättens och socialtjänstens förväntningar på föräldrar stämmer till stor del överens med varandra. I studien har det bland annat kunnat observeras i domarna att mammor får ett större ansvar för barnens och pappornas relation till varandra, att skydda barnen från våld, att hålla barnen utanför föräldrarnas konflikt och att få samarbetet mellan föräldrarna att fungera. Samarbete mellan föräldrarna och barnets kontakt med båda föräldrarna har lyfts fram både i domarna och handboken som en viktig grund i bedömningen. Dessa aspekter har i vissa domar resulterat i att våldet hamnat i skymundan i bedömningarna. Trots detta tas våldet i regel i beaktning, men i varierande grad och i de flesta fall bedöms föräldrars uppgifter om våld som trovärdiga av tingsrätten och socialtjänsten. Slutsatsen dras att tingsrätten i deras bedömningar har högre förväntningar på mammor och deras föräldraskap än på pappor och att våldets konsekvenser för varken barn eller föräldrar sällan tas i beaktning. I socialtjänstens handbok framgår liknande förväntningar på föräldrar som hos tingsrätten, dock är dessa förväntningar könsneutrala.

Denna studie undersöker småbarnsföräldrars syn på mediefostran i ett alltmer digitaliserat medielandskap. Ur perspektiv om domesticering, mediepraktiker och uppfostran utforskar studien hur föräldrar hanterar sina barns interaktion med medier i vardagen. Genom medieetnografisk metod och kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med småbarnsföräldrar framträder en bild av hur familjer balanserar mellan acceptans och motstånd till olika medier, med betoning på hur medieanvändningen integreras i familjens vardagliga rutiner och sociala praktiker. Resultaten synliggör en komplex väv av familjedynamik, samhällsnormer och teknologisk utveckling, som tillsammans påverkar hur medier domesticeras i hushållen. Studien bidrar på så vis nya insikter om hur små barns medieanvändning blir en del av småbarnfamiljers vardag. / This study examines the views of parents of young children on media parenting in an increasingly digital media landscape. From the perspectives of domestication theory, media practices, and upbringing, the study explores how parents manage their children's interaction with media in everyday life. The study investigates how parents' attitudes towards media shape children's media habits. Through media ethnographic methods and qualitative semi-structured interviews with parents of young children, a picture emerges of how families balance between acceptance and resistance to different types of media, emphasizing how media use is integrated into the family's daily routines and social practices. The studys results show a complex web of family dynamics, moral economy, and technological development, which together influence how media are domesticated in households. Thus, the study contributes with new insights regarding how young childrens media use is a part of the everyday life of families.

This research focuses on the possibility of discrimination towards men and any violation of men's right to parenthood. In modern times, the obsolete prejudices about men and their detachment from the upbringing of children started fading; thus is urged to examine the actual situation of men in the matter. That is to say, this paper addresses the issue from its ontological definition to the stipulated by legal bodies. It reviews the data about fathers’ (singles or in a same-sex relationship) personal experiences and society's reception of this new form of family. It compares the situation between men and women, analyzes the information, and intends to discover if there is any pattern that reflects a bias against men and the desire to become a father.

Integrating intersectionality theory with a quantitative design, this analysis investigates the intersectional dynamics of self-reported health inequalities among lone parents in England and Wales. This study examines the association between lone parenthood, gender, and migrant status simultaneously on health outcomes. It applies logistic regression using data from the 2011 Census Microdata Individual Safeguarded dataset. The findings demonstrate the presence of multiple identity factors that contribute to health inequality, which consequently highlights the impact of cumulative socioeconomic privilege and disadvantage, impacting the health of lone parents. Regardless of gender or migration status, being a lone parent has a negative effect on health. The healthy migrant effect is evident across intersected categories of migrants and socioeconomic groups, particularly among men, partnered parents, and immigrants from Western societies. These results emphasize the significance of considering additional dimensions of social positioning and adopting an intersectional perspective in monitoring health inequalities in the country.

No description available.