Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Social Work." Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-263).

Enhancing and facilitating a strength-based intervention model presents a challenge for practitioners and those involved in program design and policy. This study examined a shift away from a deficit-based approach and toward strength-based assessment of family functioning within current early childhood practices. The initial effectiveness of the Family Functioning Style Scale in facilitating the re-framing of family functioning was assessed and patterns of reported family strengths were analyzed and compared. A random sample of 64 parents, equally representing four different early childhood program models, were asked to complete the scale, participate in informal discussion, complete a follow-up questionnaire, and answer follow-up questions individually three months later. The sample of parents reflected equal distribution among Head Start, Day Care, Early Intervention and Pre-School Special Education programs as well as represented equal distribution with respect to ages served (0-3, 3-5) and special education program and regular education models. The study also included a sample of 13 professionals, representing the four programs, who completed the scale based upon their knowledge of 13 of the families in the parent sample. While inter-class correlation coefficients indicated that there was no significant evidence to show that there was a difference in the rating of family strengths between parents and professionals, professionals expressed a need to gain further familiarity with the strengths of families they served. When asked if completing the scale helped them to identify family strengths, 77.6% of the respondents to this question indicated that they felt the scale had been effective. The area of strength most frequently reported by the total sample was in cohesion. The area of strength least frequently reported by this sample was in communication. Income was significantly correlated with the full scale score (FFSS) and the strength dimensions of competence and cohesion. Risk factors, such as low income and social isolation, were felt to impact the reporting of strengths within each sub-group. Several significant differences between the four sub-groups were reported with respect to the full scale mean scores as well as within several of the strength dimensions. This study supported further investigation of the use and effectiveness of scales as well as the option of interviews in order to assess family strengths and facilitate a strength-based model for intervention. In addition, the researcher emphasized the importance of staff training and policy formation in order to support program models in their effort to create environments which will maximize the recognition of family strengths and nurture the empowerment of families.

South Africa faces a high disease burden and a limited public capacity to provide care to the ill. Research from the UK and sub-Saharan Africa suggests the burden often falls to children, who also take over domestic responsibilities necessary for household survival. To date, there is limited research exploring the relationship between parental illness and children’ responsibilities, or the moderating effect of socio-demographic variables. The thesis is comprised of three research phases. The first is a literature review to summarise existing research and identify substantial gaps, which included limited amounts of quantitative evidence on this topic and a lack of a tool to as-sess child responsibility that had both been adapted to the South African context and included caring responsibilities. The second research phase consists of an exploratory study of n = 349 children living with ill adults in urban and rural communities in the Western Cape province of South Africa to investigate their range of responsibility, which included caring for an ill parent, household chores, childcare, and income-generation. The resulting data were used to create the Child Responsibility Measure, which assesses the range and time burden of re-sponsibilities among South African children. The third research phase is a cross-sectional quantitative survey of n = 2,476 pairs of children and parents from urban and rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Resulting data on parental health, socio-demographics, and child responsibilities were analysed with multiple regres-sions to determine drivers of children’s responsibility. Among the findings were that parental illnesses increase the likelihood children provide care and have larger responsibility workloads, and girls are more likely to take on all types of responsibility excluding income-generating activities, which were more common in boys. Additionally, while urban children were more likely to provide personal care, rural children had greater responsibility workloads.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine associations between parenting and child callous-unemotional (CU) behavior in a high-risk sample of children aged 2-9 years. First, a narrative review examined the construct of CU behavior, focusing specifically on definitions and measurement of the affective and interpersonal dimensions of psychopathy, and their applicability to youth. Second, a systematic review examined evidence from 30 studies that had investigated associations between dimensions of parenting and CU traits. Studies were classified as testing one of five different research questions. Third, five different empirical studies tested various research questions pertaining to associations between parenting and CU behavior. Data from mother-child dyads N = 731; 49% female) were collected from a multi-ethnic and high-risk sample, and included multi-method observed measures of parenting. Study 1 found that observed harsh and positive parenting predicted child CU behavior from ages 2-4, controlling for earlier child behavior and various demographic covariates. Study 2 employed a moderator design, and found that harsh and warm parenting were more strongly related to the conduct problems of children with high versus low levels of CU behavior. Study 3 tested cross-lagged simultaneous and reciprocal effects models, and found that parental warmth (observed and expressed by parents in speech samples) uniquely predicted child CU behavior versus conduct problems. Study 4 tested the factor structure of Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick, 2004), finding support for a three-Bifactor structure. Finally, Study 5 found that parent-child affective interactions at ages 2-3 predicted CU traits at age 9, over and above general behavior problems. Taken together, the results of this thesis suggest that CU features are more malleable than previously thought. In particular, aspects of parental affect and warm parenting behavior appear to be important key targets of investigation for future empirical and intervention studies.

A decade of growth and wealth generation in Russia ended in 2009 with the collapse in GDP and rising unemployment. This Great Recession added new economic challenges to the ‘old’ problems facing children and families, including widening income inequalities and the phenomenon of social orphanage. One question is how the new and existing material pressures affect parent–child relationships. This research contributes to the answer by examining, in aggregate terms, the role poverty plays in the allocation of parental time in this emerging economy. Utilising a nationally representative sample of children, it explores how child interactions with parents are affected by aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks. Drawing on the rational choice paradigm and its critique, we put forward the Parental Time Equilibrium as an analytical guide to the study. This theoretical approach presents individual decisions concerning time spent with children over the long term as the product of a defined equilibrium between resources and demands for involvement. We test this approach through pooled cross-sectional and panel analyses based on the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey dataset from 2007 to 2009. Children in low-income households face the double disadvantage of a lack of money and time investments at home, with both persistent and transient poverty being associated with lower than average parental time inputs in the sample. Moreover, while on average, we find that children do maintain the amount of time they spend with their parents under conditions of severe financial strain, low–income children lose out on play time with the mother. Material resources cannot be considered in isolation from structural disadvantages, of which rural location in particular is detrimental for parent–child time together. The study demonstrates that the cumulative stress of adverse macro-economic conditions and depleted material resources makes it difficult for parents to sustain their human investment in children. The evidence this study provides on the associations between economic stress and pa-rental time allocations advances our knowledge of the disparities of in the childhood experience in modern Russian society. The findings strongly support the equal importance of available resources and basic demand for involvement, thus drawing policy attention to the need to address both in the best interests of children.