<p> In recent decades, there has been a significant rise in the prominence and visibility of gay-identified men choosing to become fathers. The rise in planned gay fatherhood may be partially due to young gay men&rsquo;s radically evolving views of fatherhood (Berkowitz, 2011a). The current research is a phenomenological investigation in to the lived experience of gay fathers and community. Research questions include: How do gay men re-orient to evolving sources of social support over the transition to parenthood? How does the experience and quality of social support affect the process of becoming a father for gay men? Do gay fathers experience a sense of inclusion or exclusion in various social settings? How do gay fathers experience social milieus differently than before having children? Data collection consisted of interviews with 12 gay identified cisgender men who became fathers in the context of a previously established gay or queer identities. Interviews were in-depth and semistructured. While some fathers have described the process of becoming a parent as a second coming out process that allows a casting off of internalized oppression, others have described feeling alienated from previous social networks. Participants did not describe a distancing from a gay community, nor did a majority appear to feel embedded in a gay community describing diverse group of friends before and after having children. Participants experienced varying levels of family support in which future parenting identity became paramount to maintaining connections and approval from family members. Several fathers described interactions, particularly in public, that fall under the category of microaggression laden with stereotype threat. Such intrusions were disorienting and threatened to undermine an emerging sense of competence at critical stages of establishing a new fatherhood identity. Suggestions for further research and implications for therapeutic interactions are considered.</p><p>

<p> For many, bearing children is not a choice, it is considered the norm, a rite of passage. Despite this view, in the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the number of families without children, and the number of women who do not have children has doubled. While women who have chosen to be without children have increasingly gained acceptance in society, they continue to experience varying degrees of stigma. This research project reviewed the literature on the topic of women without children, and investigated the subjective experience of ten women who have decided to not have children. This study explored the decision process, particularly, how the participants arrived at the decision to not have children as well as the impact their choice had on their sense of self. The method used was a semi-structured interview, and data from these interviews was analyzed to identify themes that emerged from the participants&rsquo; narratives. The findings of this study revealed that the choice to forego motherhood is complex and that several factors can impact one&rsquo;s decision, including others&rsquo; opinions. Some of these factors included their background and experience of being a child as well as their role within their family. The participants made reference to the way their mothers identified with being a &lsquo;mom&rsquo; and not wanting to identify as such. They expressed doubts about their ability to manage parenting and bringing a child into a dangerous world. Also of concern was the idea of meeting the demands of parenting, including the expense of raising children. Lastly, the participants identified health reasons as a factor, as well as the physical demands of pregnancy and childbirth.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the occupational stress on law enforcement officer relationships and if there is a positive or negative impact. Researchers suggest that law enforcement officers carry occupational stress and work- related behaviors home, which may cause negative impacts on their relationships. To accomplish this task a mixed method study examined occupational stress as perceived by law enforcement personnel assignments throughout the Tri-cities of Richmond Virginia to include the County of Henrico and the City of Richmond to determine the existence of stress experienced and relationships. There is not enough known about the difficulties officers experience in their relationships with their loved ones resulting from occupational stress and whether such factors have negative or positive impacts on their emotions and behaviors when at home. A qualitative method of research included one-on-one interviews with 15 full time active law enforcement officers from various ranks, genders, and assignments. Additionally, quantitative methods of research included the usage of Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op and PSQ-Org) to measure both operational and organizational stress, and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) to measure the influence on relationships of the officers. These surveys were administered to 89 full time active law enforcement officers from various ranks, genders, and assignments from the City of Richmond and the County of Henrico. </p><p> The conceptual themes endorsed by the law enforcement officers were (1) impact of occupational stress, (2) communication and stress (3) whether occupational stress is negative or positive, and (4) resources and support system for significant others. The differences in how the law enforcement officers perceived their stress and the implications on their relationships include (1) lack of resources for significant others, (2) officers finding ways to manage stress, (3) significant others finding ways to manage stress, (4) officer need to communicate with significant other, (5) providing informational and educational sessions for significant others (6) support system for significant others and family members and (7) department providing a support system of resources to manage stress for officers. </p><p> The results found suggest implications for law enforcement departments to implement several items to assist with officer occupational stress and their significant relationships. The results of the study described the need for programs, services and resources for officers and their significant others. This includes (1) orientation for officer significant others to assist with understand work schedules and work demands of officers, (2) provide counseling sessions and peer network groups for significant others, (3) provide appreciation and reward to officers that will create a positive work environment, (4) improving training programs to assist officers with physical, emotional and psychological stressors, and (5) intervention measures to assist officers to perform at their highest level and reduce a stressful home environment for their families reducing strain on relationships. </p><p> The law enforcement officers perceived that their departments should do more to assist their significant others in understanding their work demands. Additionally, officers explained the departments must do more to ensure that their significant understand what to do if the officer is experiencing occupational stress or a traumatic incident. The officers expressed that their occupational stress have both negative and positive implications in their significant relationships. The officers explained the importance of communication with their significant other as it relates to occupational stress and their relationships</p><p>

<p> This research study aimed to examine Orthodox Jewish couples in context of attributions and marital attributions to address gaps in the literature regarding Orthodox Jews as a multicultural group in general, and their experiences of marriage in particular. A cross sectional design was utilized to consider the impact of both an individual's and his or her partner's cognitions on relationship satisfaction among marrieds. It was hypothesized that religiosity has a positive influence on optimism, marital attributions, and marital satisfaction, and that both actor and partner effects will be present for optimism and marital attributions. Specifically, marital satisfaction would be influenced positively by an individual's higher optimism scores and positive marital attributions as well as his or her partner's optimism and marital attributions, respectively. A total of 70 couples (<i>N</i> = 140) completed the survey and were included in analysis. Regression data indicated that religiosity was related to optimism, marital attributions, and marital satisfaction together, <i> R²</i> = .081, <i>F</i>(3, 130) = 3.82, <i> p</i> = .012, but pathways did not indicate statistical significance for individual predictors. The data did not indicate a statistically significant actor or partner effects of optimism on marital satisfaction for husbands or wives. Actor effects for marital attributions on marital satisfaction were found for Orthodox Jewish husbands (&beta; = &ndash;0.10, <i>SE</i> = 0.02, <i>p</i> &lt; .01) and wives (&beta; = &ndash;0.07, <i> SE</i> = 0.03, <i>p</i> &lt; .01) but no partner effects were found, perhaps indicating a proximity effect.</p><p>

<p> Research has shown that child abuse is a serious public health issue that may warrant child welfare agency intervention and removal of children from their homes. Placement with kin caregivers is considered the least restrictive placement option by social workers. It has been recognized that kin caregivers require some type of formal parental training to prepare them to care for relative children. A large city implemented the Caring for Our Own training program as prelicensing training to prepare relatives for roles as kin caregivers. Prior to this study, no research had assessed whether this training program adequately addressed caregivers&rsquo; ability to adopt effective discipline practices in response to perceived child misbehavior. The purpose of the study was to examine how the Caring for Our Own prelicense training impacted kin caregivers&rsquo; use of ineffective discipline practices, as measured by change in scores on the 3 subscales of the Parenting Scale. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Ajzen&rsquo;s theory of planned behavior. One-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed no statistically significant difference in kin caregivers&rsquo; (<i>n</i> = 27) use of ineffective discipline practices as measured by the 3 subscales of the Parenting Scale over time. In light of this finding, the child welfare agency may create an evidence-based curriculum to assist in the development of competent kin caregivers. Social change to improve training and thus foster more effective responses from kin caregivers may occur within educational departments of child welfare agencies, through assessing and developing prelicensing kin caregiver training that allows for effective child behavior discipline management.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge base on anxiety symptomatology, marital satisfaction, and social support by examining the unique relationships among these 3 variables, as well as the role of social support communication as a moderator of the existing relationship between anxiety symptomatology and marital satisfaction, to inform clinical endeavors with couples who are navigating symptoms of anxiety. Gender differences between husbands and wives in these associations were also examined. Using previously collected pre-treatment data from a sub-sample of 96 chronically and seriously distressed heterosexual couples seeking couple therapy, simultaneous linear regressions were run between partners&rsquo; anxiety symptomatology, as measured by the anxiety subscale of the COMPASS, their own marital satisfaction, as measured by the DAS, and their own negative and positive social support communication, coded from observed social support interactions using the SSIRS. Partners&rsquo; social support behavior as a moderator of their anxiety symptomatology and marital satisfaction was examined using HLM. Partners&rsquo; marital satisfaction was found to be significantly negatively related to their negative social support behavior and significantly positively related to their positive social support behavior. However, contrary to predictions, marital satisfaction and anxiety were not significantly related, anxiety symptomatology and social support communication (either negative or positive) were not significantly related, and there was no support for social support communication (either negative or positive) moderating the effect of anxiety symptomatology on marital satisfaction. No significant gender differences were found. Limitations of the current study and clinical implications are discussed.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this grant proposal was to develop and seek funding for the implementation of &ldquo;Project Motherhood&rdquo;, a parenting program for transitional aged youth (TAY) mothers in Los Angeles County. The clients, former clients of Heritage Group home for Teens Inc., as well as referrals from local agencies located in Los Angeles County will have an opportunity to participate in the proposed parenting program. </p><p> Through a review of the literature on the needs and challenges as well as current services and interventions in place for TAY, the grant writer proposed and designed a parenting program. This grant writer explored numerous potential public and private funding sources. The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation was selected as the potential funding source because it best fit with the goals and objectives of this project. </p><p> The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not required for the successful completion of this academic project.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative study explored the perceptions of effectiveness of a performance review process at one family business. Ten employees across the firm were interviewed in order to describe the process, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and offer suggestions for improvement. Findings suggest that participants understood the process steps and timing, but had less accurate understanding of the process outcomes. Participants generally perceived the process as fair, helpful, and valuable to their development. Noted strengths included the process design and support from direct managers, executive leaders, and the organization. Weaknesses included the lack of structure, poor consistency in ratings, timing issues, and lack of goal alignment. Recommendations include improving the rating system, adjusting the process timing and structure, leveraging evaluation data as a talent management tool, and increasing stakeholder involvement. However, these study findings are considered exploratory, and more research should be conducted to determine how representative these findings are of family businesses.</p><p>

<p> &ldquo;Mental Labor&rdquo; has been identified as an important, taxing, yet often invisible, aspect of family work that is disproportionately performed by mothers compared to fathers (DeVault, 1991; Lee &amp; Waite, 2005; Mederer, 1993; Offer, 2014; Thorstad, 2003; Walzer, 1996; Winkler &amp; Ireland, 2009). While researchers agree that mental labor (ML) needs to be included in family work measures, there has been no unified application of terminology, nor has any study been conducted for the express purpose of understanding ML phenomena. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of this construct, a phenomenological focus group study was designed to elicit rich descriptions of the thinking work performed by mothers of young children. Twenty-five women parenting children under age 12 in two-parent homes were recruited from community-based groups. Seven focus groups were conducted and verbatim transcripts were submitted for Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) following Smith and Osborn&rsquo;s (2003) guidelines and Palmer, Larkin, de Visser, and Fadden&rsquo;s (2010) recommendations for IPA with focus groups. Quality assurance included independent coding, peer review, member check, follow-up questionnaires, analysis of group-process, and self-reflection. ML emerged as a diverse set of mental activities and preoccupations unified by their function in family life. The following definition is proposed: ML is thinking performed for the purpose of accomplishing family goals. Effective mental laboring is the means by which parents leverage resources and coordinate family operations to ensure productivity and well-being. A thematic hierarchy describing the nature, content, impact, and context of ML is presented. In the content domain, six forms of ML were identified: (a) planning and strategizing, (b) monitoring and anticipating needs, (c) metaparenting (i.e., meta-reflection involved in developing and applying a parenting philosophy), (d) knowing (e.g., information processing, learning, remembering), (e) managerial thinking (e.g., coordination, delegation, instruction, evaluation), and (f) self-regulating. Effective mental labor can be empowering. However, the themes &ldquo;mothers as mental laborers&rdquo; and &ldquo;mental labor invisibility&rdquo; confirm that unrecognized mental labor is problematic. Invisible mental work can isolate a mental laborer and distort her sense of self. These and other findings are described, followed by a discussion of clinical implications and directions for future research.</p>

<p> The mission of public child welfare agencies is to help children grow up in families that can provide safety, permanency and well-being. Child welfare systems are notoriously complex and workloads heavy, but all participate in evaluation with the goal of continuous practice improvement. The Qualitative Service Review (QSR) is a tool designed to provide feedback about case practice and to identify trends influencing practice. Feasibly, QSR cannot be performed on every case, so an important element of its utility is the degree to which workers can apply learning from one case to others. Little is known about frontline workers&rsquo; experiences with QSR and how these reviews influence application of QSR generated knowledge and practice. Fourteen frontline workers in three state child welfare agencies participated in individual interviews about their experience with QSR and its influence on their practice. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method to describe perceptions of QSR and practice learning. Findings suggest that workers perceive QSR as a practice improvement strategy as well as an evaluation, that it requires a significant time investment, and that it highlights areas of opportunity where best practice expectations can be articulated more fully. Additional themes about the practice environment emerged. Workers described their emotional investment in practice and their perceptions that multiple systems influence practice. The neoliberal influence on public agencies could be heard in participants&rsquo; observations that the child welfare work environment is changing from one that measured performance through interaction with families to one that promotes accountability by data collection. These findings have implications for child welfare practitioners and administrators, researchers, staff responsible for conducting QSR reviews, and social work educators.</p><p>