Rethinking family policy welfare that works for the contemporary child

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Rethinking family policy welfare that works for
the contemporary child

• Sigrun Juliusdottir, Professor of Social Work
• University of Iceland, sigjul_at_hi.is
• The Fifth Nordic Congress on
• Child abuse and Neglect
• 18-21 May 2008 Reykjavík

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Content of lecture

• 1. A second perspectivism - of the family
• 2. Various values mixing in the wake of
  postmodern curre
• 3. Processes of inclusion - marginalisation
  exclusion
• 4. Liquid life of the contemporary child
• 5. Young peoples messages about close
  relationships
• 6. Welfare that works for the contemporary child
• - a professional challenge of a revised meaning
  of neclect
• Key words postmodernity, children, professional
  challenge, edgework, protection

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1. A second perspectivism of the family from
structure to relations
4

• First perspectivism
• focus from seeing family function as a cybernetic
  mechanicism towards seeing the influences of
  dynamic socio-personal factors in the family
  system
• (Bertalanffy, 1945)
• Second perspectivism
• focus from the functions of systemic structures
  towards
• the quality of relations

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Personal relationships

• the critial prerequisites for human well-being
  ...shaping favorable conditions for nurturing
  bonds in human dyads

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Types of attachment systems

• securely attached
• anxious-avoidant
• anxious-resistant
• disorganized attachment type
• (Bowlby, 1969 Ainsworth, 1977 Boehm, B. et
  al., 2001)

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A stable emotional relationship favours the
development of an inner core

• an anchor which protects from blowing away
• locus of self-control
• moral-social responsibility towards primary
  group, society and the global environment
• (Kjellqvist, 1993)

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Last century theoreticians

• sensitivity, holding, stimulating, nurturing
• Eriksonian concept of generativity
• Winnicott concept of good enough parenting
• (Winnicott, 1945/1971 Bowlby, 1969/1973/1980
  Erikson, 1963 Stern,1970 Clary Miller, 1986)

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The pair relationship the very basis for it all
and for what will be

• people seem generally to want to be part of a
  pair
• a trend to postpone pairing and childbearing
• dissolution of relationships - the quick creation
  of new pairs
• a weakening institutional status
• individuals able to be single and self-sufficient
• correlation between cohabitating in a close
  relationship and good health, social functioning,
  balanced work/private life and emotional harmony

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Worldwide contemporary literature mirroring a
painful, desolate existence of relationally
alienated individuals

• M. Houllebecq Les particules élémentaires (2000)
• P. Coehlo Veronica decides to die (2006)
• K. Hamman Fra smörhullet (2004)
• The hope for satisfactory life
• resides in the personal relationship

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2. Old and new values mix in the wake of
contemporary currents
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Since middle 1900s rapid eco- social
development - aversions to old habitus of living

• hidden loyalty to the past
• individualistic life styles simultaneous with
  generational obligations
• A speed-equalizer protecting man not to get
  lost in postmodernity
• a cultural lag - two examples
• extreme working hours - childbearing

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Nation-wide Icelandic research project 2006-08
Young peoples views and values (Juliusdottir,
2007)

• Cluster sample from 29 compreh. high schools
• 1187 class school teenagers (3rd year, approx.18
  yrs)
• 845 responses - 71.2 response rate

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Young peoples views and values Are you going to
form a family?
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Young peoples views and values Are you going to
have children?

•  
• Yes, one child 2
• Yes, two children 25
• Yes, more than two ch. 23
• Yes, but no fix.idea how many 44
• Yes, have already   4
• Uncertain 2
• No 2

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Young peoples views and valuesOwn reasons for
having children

• Emotional value 90
• Important for me to form a family 85
• Gives purpose to life 79
  
• Important to have a descendant 72
• To ensure care late in life 48
• Not to be alone in later years 44

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Possible reasons for some people deciding
not to have children

• too great responsibility 90
• some dont like children 53
• other things more important 36
• too big personal obligation 15

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The question of having a child

• in agricultural time securing labour force
• taking care of the older generation
• future human capital investment
• securing own interests of life - through children
• a different time concept
• a construct from a single, tough, slow life

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Industrialization and urbanization effect for
children

• social and legislative control of work,
  eduaction, health
• future roles as
• obedient citizens, reproductive mothers and
  brave soldiers
• a threat of children becoming delinquents and
  drifters
• the idea of instutional care - widespread,
  abiding and longlasting
• (Aries, 1962 Parton, 1987)
• New legislation new ideology in the sixties
• in the best interest of the child (Goldstein,
  Freud, Solnit, 1973 Mason,1994)
• - a delayed shift of mentality

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Today - child a value of itself

• a source of pleasure and emotional meaning
• a social person with social recognition and
  status
• (Hallet Prout, 2003)
• however
• still enmeshed with the virtue of work
• means to participate in the game of the market,
  fashion and new-tech
• Icelandtoday 75 school teenagers work part
  time

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Parents guilty feelings and lack of time a
tough conflict

• Opposed ideas of
• up-bringing methods and limits
• how much is enough - for what goals?
• pattern of unbalanced exaggeration - a spoiling
  devotion to the child
• ......but a child is not a horse

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3. Processes of inclusion - marginalisation -
exclusion
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Social critics and writers antagonistic
forces in the social arena

• self-centeredness
• less concern for others
• decreasing altruism
• fragmented existence
• (Rose, 1996 Honneth, 1997 Bourdieu, 1998
  Sennett, 1998 Bauman, 2000/2002)

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Kazuo IshiguroNever let me go (2005)

• no parents
• laboratory produced
• humans with feelings
• no relational core
• no special disorders
• But - traumatic reflections about own
• origin, neglect and lacking connections

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Centripetal Centrifugalforces
forces
More in postmodernity
More in modernity
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Berangur- a bare land

• a no mans land
• no belonging - emptyness - anxiety
• marginal position
• living on the edge of socio-cultural
  participation
• personal freedoom or lack of competitiveness

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(No Transcript)
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Edge work

• young person lost in the marginal position
• the concept of edge work crucial in social work
• co-creating channels to bridge the gap

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An evaluation studyAdventures in the
Mountains(Juliusdottir, 2002)

• 27 interviews with young adults, ave. 25 years
• 12 years ago - as adolescents referred to
• a 10 days edge-work program in the Icelandic
  wilderness

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Lacking, fragmented information

• inconsistent recording
• frequent professional turn-over
• professional neglect and incompetency

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The overall picture

• single mothers - invisible fathers
• sporadic relationships with grandparents
• did poorly in school
• drug problems of various degrees
• parents
• ignorance of their school attendance
• disregard of their mistakes
• lack of involvement in their possible
  performances

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Ten days of hiking

• protected and guided by strong, sensitive and
  caring group-leaders
• a peak-experience in their life
• learnt that they could manage something
• someone who cared
• meeting strong demands in nature and in the
  group
• reaching a set goal
• by own physical and personal strengths

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Only a sample

• back into the same situation
• no follow-up
• However
• gave new insight and hope - a model for
  themselves and for own children
• a connection to their core of hidden personal
  strengths

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A hidden sprout of strenght -of betrayed
children

• a natural human resource
• independent of time and space
• in Susanna Alakoskis desription of an immigrant
• child in a welfare state (Svinalängorna, 2006)
• in Khaled Hosseinis dramatic descriptions of
  children in Afghanistan
• (The Kite Runner , 2003, A thousand Splendid
  Suns , 2007)
• - and in Iceland

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A public committee researching last century
closedchild institutions

• interviews with now averagely 50 year old men
• former children in institutional care
• isolated far out in the Icelandic wasteland
• in the middle of the last century

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4. Liquid life of the contemporary child
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Young people in Tokyo

• In literature these phenomena reflected on the
  individual level
• Japanese novel by Hitomi Kanehara
• Snakes and Earrings , 2004

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Life of ordinary children today

• changes and transformations
• behavioral handicaps - expanding diagnostic
  culture
• increased medicalization expanding
  medicine-industri
• Ordinary school class, up to a third, a range of
  disorder-clichés
• e.g. behavior disorder, sleeping disorder, eating
  disorder, anxiety disorder, obsesssive
  /compulsive disorder - character disorder
• ADHD the disorder of the disorders

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Range of disorders related to the social disorder

• lack of time and parental attention
• distracting behaviours of the adults in their
  lives
• childrens disorders - a parallel process
• adequate - sign of environ-mental adaptation

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Young peoples views and values 24 of
respondents experienced parents divorce Parents
cohabitate again
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Young peoples views and values Parents
re-cohabitations

• 25 of both mothers
• and fathers cohabitate
• two or more times after divorce

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Half-siblings

• 45 fathers
• 38 mothers
• - got a new child with the news spouse

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Step-siblings

• Parents new spouse
• 50 fathers
• 59 mothers
• had child/ren from previous relationships

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Pattern of frequent transitions

• influence childs position and feelings in the
  family
• new pairs of grandparents and step-grandparents
• new links and chains in ever new transformations
• The child is a part in parents divorce process
• 35 no one had talked to them about the
  decision nor arrangements following the divorce
• 30 both parents prepared the child for the
  divorce

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5. Young peoples messages about close
relationships, concern vs. neglect
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UNICEF-Report, 2007Child well-being in (21) rich
countries 6 comprehensive factors for assessment
of 15 yrs old

• Material well-being
• Health safety
• Education
• Family structure relationship
• Peer relations
• Childrenss subj. sense of well-being

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Physical vs. emotional concern

• bringing children to the world and ensuring
  physical health more than
• ensuring emotional security and well-being

48
Lacking data from many countries

• Fragmented - incoherent registration
• and neglect of information -
• a reflection of childrens psycho-social
  status on the macro-parental level ?

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Psycho-social well-beingUNICEF Report, 2007

• Well-being and interaction
• 10 of Icelandic 15 yrs. feel
• lonely
• being outsider - left out of things
• awkward - out of place
• The other Nordic countries 6

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Young people have talk with parents several
times per week UNICEF Report, 2007

• Iceland, 44
• The other Nordic countries averagely, 70

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Young peoples views and values Parents and
young people (18 yrs) have talk together
(Juliusdottir, 2007)

• W. mother W. father
• Daily 75 62
• Lower frequency when parents are divorced
• somewhat lower with a divorced mother
• much lower with a divorced father

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Young peoples views and values Well-being
health last 6 months (Juliusdottir, 2007)

• Significant difference between those who had
  experienced divorce and the others
• More often lonely, sad, depressed
• Still more often negative feelings
• anger, ups and downs
• Feel less as a valid member in the family
• Feel twice as often neglected in the family

53
Young peoples views and values Wishes on
changes in family interaction(Juliusdottir, 2007)

• Homogenous pattern of 50 wishing
• more interest taking more part in my life
• more time spent together
• more closeness
• Not significant difference between those of
  divorced parents and the others- but generally
  stronger wishes from the divorced group

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New research, social criticism and literature

• mirror the liquid life of the contemporay child
  
• prevalent lack of something a lacking-disorder
• The TACL-syndrome tricky implications of
• the concepts of Time, Attention, Change, Limits
• The common denominator
• a relational neglect

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6.Welfare which works for the contemporary child
-a professional challenge of a revised meaning
of neclect and parental responsibility
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From structures to relations

• Restrictions and correcting legislation replaced
  by narratives, negotiations, ad hoc solutions
• powerful influences and possibilities
• without limits
• not only for the market but also
• for professional influences

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Postmodern man liquid and flex

• a certain threat to
• human community and ethics of life
• no way back to
• the secure harbours of regulating authorities
• people - especially parents - need help and
  guidance to handle the doubt and ambiguity
  accompanying the chaos and confusion of
  contemporary time (Bauman, 1995 2002
  Sennett, 1998).

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Professionals challenged by demanding tasks
favouring general welfare that works for children

• moving unfavoured ordinary parents and children
• and marginalized people of different cultures
• from the losers side to that of the winners
• edge work on the margins of the nomansland -
  berangur
• discovering and strengthening resilience
• understanding global forces contextually
• using global channels for conveying insight and
  solidarity
• grasping opportunities also evolving in
  postmodern processes

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Professional power vocation of child-workers

• occupational /professional autonomy through
• expert knowledge, evidence based methods, own
  research
• mobilizing a democratic co-constructive
  partnership of the four Ps of
• responsible partners of parenthood
• parents, professionals, policy makers and
  politicians

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An ideology of child welfare that works

• focus on trustful psycho-social relationships
• interpersonal relations empowered through
• consciousness-raising family life education
• parental skill - training and coaching
• listening to the voices of children
• designed in a multi level context of responsible
  plural-parenthood

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Joint effort of multi-dimensional parental
responsibility

• also guarantees
• professional conditions,
• consistency and competency to
• observe, register, record and review
• the psycho-social conditions of children

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• Saving the child from not being crushed in
• the wake of the forceful postmodern currents

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Inner core of basic trust and respect in every
child

• reinforced through reliable relationships with
• parents
• caretakers
• pre-school teachers
• school-, health- and social professionals

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Welfare that works for the liquid child

• a symbolic anchor - a liquid safety ring
  guaranteeing it cheerfulness and well-being in
  the postmodern waves

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Protection is the best prevention!