We Are Family by
From one of the world's leading experts, this absorbing narrative history of the changing structure of modern families shows how children can flourish in any kind of loving home. The past few decades have seen extraordinary change in the idea of a family. The unit once understood to include two straight parents and their biological children has expanded vastly--same-sex marriage, adoption, IVF, sperm donation, and other forces have enabled new forms to take shape. This has resulted in enormous upheaval and controversy, but as Susan Golombok shows in this compelling and important book, it has also meant the health and happiness of parents and children alike. Golombok's stories, drawn from decades of research, are compelling and dramatic: family secrets kept for years and then inadvertently revealed; children reunited with their biological parents or half siblings they never knew existed; and painful legal battles to determine who is worthy of parenting their own children. Golombok explores the novel moral questions that changing families create, and ultimately makes a powerful argument that the bond between family members, rather than any biological or cultural factor, is what ensures a safe and happy future. We Are Family is unique, authoritative, and deeply humane. It makes an important case for all families--old, new, and yet unimagined.
Protecting Children by
The state is increasingly experienced as both intrusive and neglectful, particularly by those living in poverty, leading to loss of trust and widespread feelings of alienation and disconnection. Against this tense background, this innovative book argues that child protection policies and practices have become part of the problem, rather than ensuring children's well-being and safety. Building on the ideas in the best-selling Re-imagining child protection and drawing together a wide range of social theorists and disciplines, the book: * Challenges existing notions of child protection, revealing their limits; * Ensures that the harms children and families experience are explored in a way that acknowledges the social and economic contexts in which they live; * Explains how the protective capacities within families and communities can be mobilised and practices of co-production adopted; * Places ethics and human rights at the centre of everyday conversations and practices.
The Child's World, Third Edition by
This definitive textbook provides accessible information on best practice for assessing the needs and strengths of vulnerable children and their families. It explores the challenges that practitioners face routinely - with suggestions as to how to address them - as well as the established areas for assessment, of children's developmental needs, parenting ability and motivation, and socio-economic factors. This new edition has been extended substantially to include recent practice, policy and theoretical developments, such as understanding the lived experience of children, young people, and family members. It also considers children's neurological development, assessing parental capacity to change, early help assessments, emerging areas of practice such as child sexual exploitation, and working with asylum-seeking and trafficked children. Crucially, this updated edition takes a broader approach in offering relevant information to a range of professionals working with vulnerable children. The importance of inter-professional working is emphasised throughout.
Search the Library Catalog by title, author, or keyword.
Clinical Practice at the Edge of Care by
This book brings together psychological and psychotherapeutic contributions in clinical practice with at-risk children and their families. Chapters by experts working in a range of edge-of-care settings give an essential account of real-world clinical challenges and dilemmas; whilst drawing on relevant theory and the growing evidence base for edge of care work with children and families. This title will be of interest to both clinical and social work practitioners, those commissioning and developing best practice in edge of care services, scholars and students of Clinical Psychology, Systemic Psychotherapy and related disciplines.
Innovative Approaches to Supporting Families of Young Children by
This invaluable reference introduces successful strengths-based programs for aiding families of young children in critical social contexts: family, school, community, and policy. The wide range of systems/contextual approaches described here are based in current understanding of children's development, stress and resilience in families, cultural competence, and the two-generational approach to intervention. Research-based examples across early care and early learning platforms illustrate the links between parental protective factors and children's academic and social outcomes, and between family stability and larger social goals. By supporting parents and children equally, the contributors assert, these interventions more fully address developmental and family issues than programs that mainly serve one generation or the other. Included in the coverage: * Parent and community focused approaches to supporting parents of young children: the Family Networks Project. * Honoring parenting values, expectations, and approaches across cultures. * Building young children's executive functions at home and in early care and education settings. * Promoting early childhood development in the pediatric medical home. * Neighborhood approaches to supporting families of young children. * Public policy strategies to promote the well-being of families with young children. Innovative Approaches for Supporting Parents of Young Children benefits professionals and practitioners working to support families of young children, particularly those interested in social work, psychology, public policy, and public health.
Parental Incarceration and the Family by
Winner of the 2014 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Over 2% of U.S.children under the age of 18--more than 1,700,000 children--have a parent in prison. These children experience very real disadvantages when compared to their peers: they tend to experience lower levels of educational success, social exclusion, and even a higher likelihood of their own future incarceration. Meanwhile, their new caregivers have to adjust to their new responsibilities as their lives change overnight, and the incarcerated parents are cut off from their children's development. Parental Incarceration and the Family brings a family perspective to our understanding of what it means to have so many of our nation's parents in prison. Drawing from the field's most recent research and the author's own fieldwork, Joyce Arditti offers an in-depth look at how incarceration affects entire families: offender parents, children, and care-givers. Through the use of exemplars, anecdotes, and reflections, Joyce Arditti puts a human face on the mass of humanity behind bars, as well as those family members who are affected by a parent's imprisonment. In focusing on offenders as parents, a radically different social policy agenda emerges--one that calls for real reform and that responds to the collective vulnerabilities of the incarcerated and their kin.