Avoiding saying too much: The complexity of relationships between permanent parents and social workers

Relationships between social workers and foster care, permanent care and adoptive parents are based on a combination ofknowledge, power, partnership and support, the ‘mix’ of which is likely to change over time. Different interpretations of what each side contributes to these relationships during assessment and post-placement contact, add to the complexity which parents and workers negotiate.In a longitudinal research project on support in permanent placements, avoiding saying too much was an important part of these relationships. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ parenting, expectations, blame, physical punishment and not coping are just some of the issues which were not spoken about.This article explores the gap between the things which can be said and the things which are rarely said, and looks at how this gap affects relationships between fami lies and workers.

Download Full-text

Qualitative longitudinal research: researching fatherhood and fathers’ experiences

Fathers, Families and Relationships ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447331476.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Tina Miller

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Qualitative Study ◽

Research Design ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Methodological Issues ◽

Research Project ◽

Transition To Motherhood ◽

Transition To Fatherhood ◽

Over Time ◽

Made In

This chapter focuses on a qualitative longitudinal (QL) research project, Transition to Fatherhood, and later episodes of fathering and fatherhood experiences. It begins by exploring the research design of this study and considers the inherent gendered and other assumptions made in it, which mirrors an earlier research project on Transition to Motherhood. Following an examination of some of the methodological issues that arose during this qualitative longitudinal study, the chapter turns to reflect on the important question of what adding time into a qualitative study can do. It considers what happens when narratives collected in later interviews are incorporated into earlier analysis and findings as lives and fatherhood experiences change, as well as the benefits of researching individuals over time.

Download Full-text

Absence and Ambivalence

Open Adoption and Diverse Families ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190692032.003.0010 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 341-364

Author(s):

Abbie E. Goldberg

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Adoptive Parents ◽

Birth Mothers ◽

Parents And Children ◽

Birth Fathers ◽

Over Time

This chapter addresses birth fathers—but often in the context of their absence. Many adoptive parents did not appear to view birth fathers as symbolically or relationally as “important” as birth mothers. For some, this tendency persisted throughout their children’s lives. Others, though, became increasingly curious about their children’s birth fathers. Still others did enact relationships with birth fathers over time, and in some cases these were important relationships to parents and children. This chapter discusses these different patterns, with attention to how and why birth fathers are often “invisible” in adoption narratives. It also explores how adoptive parents talk about birth fathers and how this varies depending on whether parents adopted privately and domestically versus through foster care, and how it varies over time.

Download Full-text

Changes in Work Orientations in Postsocialist Serbia

Südosteuropa ◽

10.1515/soeu-2020-0026 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 68 (3) ◽

pp. 343-364

Author(s):

Dunja Poleti Ćosić

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Survey Data ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Social Characteristics ◽

Sociological Research ◽

Spatial Mobility ◽

Capitalist System ◽

Change Over Time ◽

The Subject ◽

Over Time

AbstractThe subject of this study is work orientations, their change over time, as well as their distribution among the economically active citizens of Serbia. Particular attention is paid to work-motivated spatial mobility. The aim of this study is twofold: firstly, to determine which work orientations have been the most important for economically active individuals in the period of consolidation of the capitalist system in Serbia and to explore and explain the changes in their choices that have occurred since 2000; and secondly, to examine whether there are differences in prioritizing work orientations among actors with various social characteristics. The method of comparative analysis used in this paper was possible due to survey data collected during longitudinal research conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research in Belgrade over the last twenty years.

Download Full-text