Suchergebnisse

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has recently released a report on the educational outcomes for children and young people on guardianship or custody orders. This report, four years in the making, represents one of the first comprehensive Australian assessments based on educational performance data from multiple jurisdictions for children on guardianship or custody orders. Developed for the National Child Protection and Support Services data group, the study was funded by the Community and Disability Services Ministers' Advisory Council (AIHW 2007).This pilot study examines how children on guardianship/custody orders are performing compared with all Australian children in education department-based testing for reading and numeracy in years 3, 5 and 7. Mean test scores were examined in addition to the achievement of national benchmarks for reading and numeracy. These nationally agreed benchmarks are designed to assess whether children have achieved the minimum standards for years 3, 5 and 7 (AIHW 2007). Data on 895 children on guardianship or custody orders were collected from five jurisdictions - Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory - for August 2003 (AIHW 2007). The data were linked through collaborative efforts by state and territory education and community services departments.

Judy Cashmore, Marina Paxman and Michelle Townsend focus on the educational and employment pathways and outcomes for young people after leaving care in Australia, based on a longitudinal study of young people 'ageing' out of care in New South Wales. Consistent with the findings of other research on the educational performance and attainment of children and young people in care, the young people leaving care in this study were less likely to have completed their secondary schooling than others their age in the general population. Four to five years after leaving care, they were much less likely than their peers to be in full-time work and/or education. Many had a history of part-time and casual work in poorly paid and low-skill jobs, and over half the young women had had children. Those who had completed Year 12, however, were more likely to be employed or studying, and to be faring well across a number of areas compared with those who did not complete Year 12. The more stable and secure they had been in care, the more years of schooling they completed, and the better they were faring 4–5 years after leaving care.

Abstract
Purpose
Child to parent violence is a significant concern that has been researched over the last sixty years. However, little is known about the help-seeking pathways of parents experiencing child to parent violence (CPV). Barriers and enablers to disclosing CPV have been explored, and responses to address CPV have been nominally researched. The mapping of a disclosure to a choice of where to get help has not occurred. This study seeks to map help-seeking pathways of mothers and considers these pathways in regards to the relations within families and sociomaterial conditions.

Method
This narrative inquiry utilizes response-based practice and Barad's concept 'intra-action' to examine interviews with mothers (n = 11) who experience CPV, and practitioners (n = 19) who work with families experiencing CPV.

Results
Five help-seeking pathways of mothers are found in this study. Three themes evident across the pathways are explored including: (1) help-seeking within pre-existing relationships; (2) mothers' feelings of fear, shame and judgement entangled with help-seeking; and (3) conditions which enable and hinder help-seeking from family.

Conclusions
This study finds sociomaterial conditions such as single motherhood and judgement limit help-seeking possibilities. Further, this study finds help-seeking occurs within pre-existing relationships along with the entanglement of CPV with other issues such as intimate partner violence (IPV) and homelessness. This study demonstrates the benefits of employing a response-based approach alongside 'intra-action' within a research and practice context.

AbstractFamilies globally experience child to parent violence (CPV). Stories of CPV have been considered at an individual and collective level to ascertain themes in parents' accounts to identify enabling and restraining factors for CPV. However, understanding the societal narratives, defined as discourses, which have a multi-directional and entangled relationship with individual recounts of CPV have yet to be investigated. This research utilizes Narrative Inquiry with participatory approaches to explicate the societal narratives within mothers' recounts of CPV. This analysis, guided by the interactional and discursive view of violence, and response-based practice, identifies societal narratives which set the conditions for what is possible and impossible in relation to CPV. The analysis contributes to understanding the attitudes of minimization and concealment of violence within parents' accounts of CPV. The mothers' recounts were constrained and made possible by the 'good' mother narrative and narratives of adolescence and gender. This research examines the intra-actions mothers' recounts have with the societal narratives, and the performance of their roles as (en)actors of the subject positions 'mother' and 'child'. Implications for practice and research include: consideration to practitioner's views of power and subject positions in a parent and child relationship when working with CPV; and practitioners to be critical of essentialism and gender in working with CPV. This study posits a practical demonstration for using the response-based practice approach in research; and a way of viewing stories which can be incorporated in working with families experiencing CPV.

AbstractChildren enter out‐of‐home care (OOHC) having experienced significant childhood adversities and trauma. Little is known about the short‐term impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on this vulnerable group. To gain some insights, we analysed the early impacts on the well‐being and experiences of children in OOHC and their carers using the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study data prior to and post the first lockdown restrictions. A total of 862 children, young people and their carers were interviewed either pre‐COVID‐19 restrictions (n = 567) (April 2019–March 2020) or post‐COVID‐19 restrictions (n = 295) (June–December 2020). While the two groups showed no significant differences in socio‐emotional well‐being, both the pre‐ and the post‐COVID‐19 restriction groups of children in OOHC had slight reductions in socio‐emotional well‐being. The interviews with the post‐COVID‐19 group showed that the pandemic restrictions affected children's well‐being and behaviour, education, social and physical activities, as well as time spent with their birth family. Likewise, interviews with carers post‐COVID‐19 found a negative effect on carers' well‐being, their ability to manage financially and their capacity to care and access services and support. The article contributes new evidence to inform OOHC policy and practice to support service systems facing unique challenges arising from a pandemic.