Facebook as Facilitator or Foe

2019 ◽  
pp. 313-340
Author(s):  
Abbie E. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Birth Family

This chapter examines parents’ use of social media, such as Facebook, with respect to the birth family. Some adoptive parents engaged Facebook as a means of establishing or maintaining reciprocal contact with birth parents and other birth family members; thus, it was used to sustain relationships. Others engaged it “passively” (e.g., as a means of finding out details about the birth family). Still others did not desire or pursue such contact, often citing concerns about boundaries. The chapter also addresses parents’ ideas about their children’s future relationships with their birth family—relationships possibly facilitated by social media and maintained without parental oversight or monitoring.

scholarly journals Post-adoption Contact and Relationships with Birth Family Members

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-197
Author(s):  
Harriet Ward ◽  
Lynne Moggach ◽  
Susan Tregeagle ◽  
Helen Trivedi
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adult Adoptees ◽  
Adoptive Families ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
Children's Identity

AbstractThe chapter draws on data collected through responses to an online survey concerning 93 adoptees (44% of the cohort), completed on average 18 years after placement, and interviews focusing on 24 adult adoptees. Face-to-face post-adoption contact was a legal requirement. After placement with adoptive families, 93% of adoptees had contact with birth family members; at follow-up, 56% still saw at least one member of their birth family; 69% of both adoptees and adoptive parents thought contact was ultimately beneficial. There was minimal evidence of contact with birth parents destabilising placements. However, it introduced a ‘painful transparency’ for all parties and could be problematic. Over time, contact supported children’s identity needs by incorporating knowledge of their antecedents and could mitigate their difficulties with attachment, separation and loss. It forced all parties to engage with one another and helped adoptees achieve closure.

Social Media and New Norms impact: “Oh! My Grandparents (OMG)!” As an Administrator in Family WhatsApp Group

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 254-272
Author(s):  
Azian Muhamad Adzmi ◽  
◽  
Liyana Mohd Ramly ◽  
Syahida Mohd Nazri ◽  
Nik Fatinah N. Mohd Farid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
The Family ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Depth Interviews

WhatsApp has become a major necessity in modern communication both individually and as a group. During an unprecedented time like COVID-19 pandemic, it increased the utilization of social media among society and has developed new norms among its users, especially grandparents. This study emphasises the various real-life activities undertaken by grandparents in social media and detailed research regarding the various WhatsApp administrators in a group chat. A qualitative research approach consisting of in-depth interviews have been carried out among family members in order to gather all the information-involving informants. In addition, it aims to gain a broader perspective of the informants' view regarding their grandparents becoming the administrator of a family WhatsApp group. Results of this study revealed that family relationships became strengthened between grandparents and other family members, especially with their grandchildren. Secondly, grandparents started being obsessed with WhatsApp, they are keen to learn more and are even able to keep up with the latest technology. Finally, the topics discussed in the family WhatsApp group covers current issues such as politics, religious advice, and sometimes entertainment. Generally, this study is expected to contribute to the communication studies and social media field, specifically understanding the use of social media between two different generations that are keen to keep up to date with the current technology especially during the unprecedented time. Keywords: WhatsApp, grandparents, pandemic, new norms, social media.

Open Adoption and Diverse Families

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbie E. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Family Relationships ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Open Adoption ◽  
Adoptive Families ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
Over Time

This book traces the experiences of diverse adoptive families—including lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parent families, and families who adopted through foster care and private adoption—as they manage birth family relationships across their children’s childhood. It explores the diversity among families in how open adoption is envisioned, enacted, and experienced over time. The author uses interview data from four time points spanning preadoption to 8 years postadoption to address a variety of questions, including: How do adoptive parents feel about openness when they first learn about it, and why do their feelings change over time? How do adoptive parents’ initial feelings about birth parents inform the types of relationships that they form with birth family? How do adoptive parents who strongly valued openness cope with and handle the disappointment of matching with birth parents who do not desire and/or are unable to enact a similar level of openness? What types of complex, unexpected, and nuanced trajectories of contact unfold over time between adoptive families and birth families? What types of boundary challenges occur between adoptive and birth family members, offline and online? How do adoptive parents talk about adoption with their children, and how does this vary depending on level and type of contact? How and to what extent do adoptive parents invoke environment versus genetics (i.e., birth family) in articulating children’s strengths, challenges, and physical features (e.g., height, skin color)? How do the experiences of adoptive parents differ by parent gender and sexual orientation?

scholarly journals A brief history of contact in fostering and adoption: practice and power, and the coming of the mobile phone

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-284
Author(s):  
Jennifer E Simpson ◽  
Gary Clapton
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Family Time ◽  
Critical History ◽  
Looked After Children ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Children In Care

This article charts the UK history of contact in fostering and adoption as it relates to looked after children and their birth relatives. It builds on a recent publication in this journal by one of the authors based on her research on the use of social media by children in care. Here we look at previous practices relating to the question of whether or not contact ought to be ‘allowed’ in which words such as ‘access’ were used, betokening the child as object. We also come up to date with reference to contemporary efforts to recast contact as ‘family time’ that is significant in the child’s continuation of understanding of self. Other words in the lexicon are problematised, including ‘contact’ itself. Attention is also devoted to the social work profession's conception and management of contact. We argue that a critical history of contact reveals the various ways that formal and informal power operates to both regulate and discipline those involved, most centrally the child and birth family members. Drawing upon emerging research relating to social media and contact, the article concludes with a discussion of how young people’s access to, and use of, social media has altered, how contact is managed and ‘policed’, and how this has shifted the balance of power in contact towards greater egalitarianism.

scholarly journals Social Media Causing Communication Gap: A Study of Middle-Class Families in Latifabad, Hyderabad, Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Rashid Ali Khuhro ◽  
Bashir Memon ◽  
Rabia Wahid
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Family Communication ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
The Family ◽  
Communication Gap ◽  
Middle Class Families

In family communication, the effective communication stands as the base of strong relations among the family members. However, a little gap in communication weakens family relationships and creates severe problems. Like all types of advanced communication channels; the advent of social media has also facilitated the effectiveness of interface among people. Although, social media's instantaneous communication process ended the communication gap among masses. Thus, many scholars believed that it has also created a communication gap among humans, especially in family communication. In this way, this study aimed to examine the communication gap created by social media among middle-class families of sub-division Latifabad Sindh, Pakistan. The researchers adopted a focus group discussion technique to collect data from three middle-class families. The result of this study shows that most of the focus group participants prefer communication in interpersonal communication settings. Further, it reveals that the majority of the family members use social media by smartphone, tabs and laptops. Significantly, the findings of this study emerged that social media creates a communication gap among middle-class families of Latifabad Hyderabad, Sindh –Pakistan.

Negotiating Reunion in Intercountry Adoption Using Social Media and Technology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Shier
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Intercountry Adoption ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
Media And Technology

Abstract This article focuses on how intercountry adoptees use social media and technology to negotiate and facilitate reunion with their birth families. The qualitative data were drawn from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eleven adoptees who were internationally adopted to Ireland and have contact with their birth families using social media and technology. The findings from this interpretivist study demonstrate that social media and technology have significantly transformed and can now play a central role in reunion in intercountry adoption. They also suggest that social workers need to be aware of the emerging role of social media and technology in intercountry adoption reunion to develop further knowledge and skills in this area. Specifically, the study indicates that social media and technology have facilitated, ‘normalised’ and casualised aspects of contact with birth family; increased the pace of contact and can pose challenges in navigating contact and boundaries. A key finding of this study relates to the importance of contact with birth siblings and their potential role as mediators and facilitators of contact with birth parents. Participants report that whilst social media and technology have facilitated their contact with birth family, it cannot and does not replace the need for ‘real life’ in-person contact.

scholarly journals Social Media and Family Integration: Perception of College Students of Faisalabad

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (II) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Ashraf Iqbal ◽  
Raheela Firdous ◽  
Tanveer Hussain
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Family Integration ◽  
At Home

This study explores to what extent social media play's role in family relationships, Results indicate that "Social media is positively predicting communication between family members with a coefficient of .320 and the dependent variables. "People prefer spending more time on social media than with family", as (55.5%) agreed and (18.5%) are strongly agreed. This study suggests social media can prove to be a useful source of family integration. Family members who do not have enough time to communicate due to their hectic schedule or not present at home, Social media can be a medium of communication for them as (62.5%) respondents agreed and (13%) strongly agreed that Social media play a vital role for a stay in touch with each other. People post wishes on Social media; it can show good gesture and love for each other.

scholarly journals The Effect Of Work-Life and Social Media Balances On Moslem Family Teachers In Pandemic Time

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-179
Author(s):  
Anizar Rahayu ◽  
Abdul Rahman Shaleh ◽  
Rosleny Marliani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Family Resilience ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Data

Distance learning demands extra work and adjustment of teachers in doing a task to educate their students. This condition causes a conflict such as interfering with wholeness that leads to family resilience conflict. In Islamic teaching, family resilience can be achieved by living the principles of zawaj (pair), mitsaqan-ghaliza (solid bond), musyaran (good association), and musyawarah (mutual agreement) in relationship between family members. The study aimed to find out the effect of work-life and social media balances on teachers' families' resilience and was measured by Islamic family resilience values. The participants were 161 teachers aged 21-36 years in Cikarang area of Bekasi Regency who used social media. Data was taken through Google-form with three scales, namely Islamic Family Resilience which was developed by Islamic family resilience aspect of BP4 called IMRS®, the scale of work balance was from Fisher, Bulger, & Smith (2009), and the scale of social media balance was from Kumar & Priyadarshini (2018). Data was taken by a nonprobability sampling with purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed with multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the variables of work-life and social media balances had a significant effect on family resilience. The study also showed that three dimensions had a significant effect, namely (2) the mixing of person to work, (3) enrichment of personal life from work, and (6) the use of social media for personal. This study implied that the importance of understanding family members related to the fulfillment of common goals and must be communicated.

Communication Privacy Management in Open Adoption Relationships: Negotiating Co-ownership across In-person and Mediated Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 009365022199847
Author(s):  
Colleen Warner Colaner ◽  
Alyssa L. Bish ◽  
Maria Butauski ◽  
Alexie Hays ◽  
Haley Kranstuber Horstman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Privacy Management ◽  
Open Adoption ◽  
Adoptive Families ◽  
Communication Privacy Management ◽  
Birth Family ◽  
Communication Privacy

Open adoption relationships are rife with privacy dilemmas and fuzzy boundaries, which require ongoing coordination of private disclosures as a result. The present study employed communication privacy management (CPM) theory to examine adoptive parents’ ( N = 354) private disclosures with the birth family across in-person and mediated (i.e., texting and social media) contexts. SEM analysis revealed that adoptive families who were more private and were concerned about the birth family sharing private information with others viewed disclosures to the birth family as risky. These privacy concerns related to adoptive parents being more clear with the birth family about preferences for sharing that private information with others. More social media contact between birth and adoptive parents predicted increased perceptions of risk of disclosure to birth parents. Results advance CPM theorizing by underscoring the motivational bases of perceived risk, the importance of anticipated boundary turbulence, and the nuanced privacy management processes within communication modes.

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