Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being (2010 Update), Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services often continue to live with a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges after service involvement has ended (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of these children and youth is the ongoing management of emotional and behavioural challenges and the impact these challenges have in the daily lives of youth and their families. Several standardized measures of mental health, physical health, stress, and quality of life were used to assess parental and youth functioning in the life domain of …

Working Report #7: Helping Relationships In Child Welfare (Parent Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the nature of first contacts in child welfare, the level of contact between families and service providers, and the quality of relationships over time across central, integrated, and accessible service delivery models.

I. First Contacts Clarity, consultation, use of power, and positive shifts in perception were central issues identified by parents when discussing their experiences of first contacts with child welfare. More parents in accessible sites had experiences with workers who were clear and provided a sense that they would be supported. Within the accessible sites a strong philosophy of collaboration emerged between worker and participant. Participants …

Working Report #5: Child Welfare Jobs (Service Provider Perspectives), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report compares how service providers experience their employment realities across central, integrated, and accessible service models. Differences in job satisfaction, worker retention, and feelings about the work itself are examined.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family (2010 Update), Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

A key consideration in understanding the long term community adaptation of children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services is the role that family plays in sustaining or eroding gains made by children and youth in treatment (Frensch & Cameron, 2002). This report includes a summary of family descriptive information, the nature of family relationships, and indicators of family functioning for children and youth who have participated in children’s mental health services.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an …

Working Report #2: Client And Community Relations (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report addresses two important questions: how much emphasis is placed on building positive relationships with families and communities across agency based, integrated service, and community and school based models of service delivery? And, how successful is each model at building relationships, minimizing stigma for families, and improving the image of child welfare in the community?

Educating clients and the community about child welfare services was identified as an important role for workers in some sites and not in others. While families’ fears of child protection services were a concern, some workers also expressed a fear of their clients and …

Working Report #1: Service Model Accessibility (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report examines the differences in service accessibility across central, integrated, and school/community based child welfare service delivery models including geographic proximity to families, acceptability of the setting to families, and accessibility expectations of service providers. Results suggest that accessibility characteristics of the model can make a significant difference to front-line service delivery from the perspective of front-line protection workers.

A defining feature of the community and school based child welfare models was increased accessibility for families and workers. Through making themselves more accessible, the community and school based settings had some significant service delivery advantages including more regular, varied, …

Working Report #3: Use Of Legal Measures And Formal Authority (Service Provider Perspectives), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The focus of this report is, across service delivery models, how front-line protection workers viewed their formal authority role and the extent to which they relied on legal measures in order to achieve protection goals. The analysis is guided by several overarching questions including (1) how does each model view the use of legal measures and formal authority? (2) How does each model impact service providers’ actual use of legal measures? (3) What value do workers place on the authority figure role? And (4) how effective is the use of formal authority in reaching child protection goals?

Type of program …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Social Connections And Community Conduct (2010 Update), Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Understanding how youth participate in social networks with peers and friends, engage in social or leisure activities, and more generally forge healthy relationships with others are key considerations in assessing overall well being of youth. Among a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges faced by children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services may be their ability to negotiate relationships within social contexts (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003).

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an alternative to …

Life Domain Research Report Series: School And Employment (2010 Update), Karen Frensch, Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Earlier research by the Partnerships for Children and Families Project on the daily living realities of youth and children involved with mental health services, particularly residential treatment, revealed the ongoing and pervasive nature of difficulties youth and children experienced in their academic functioning (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003). As the education experience is such a large part of youth and children’s lives, we sought to better document how children and youth were performing in school in the current study.

Data were collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family …

Transforming Front Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts Of Institutional Settings On Services, Employment Environments, Children, And Families, Non-Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program And Agency Based Program Parent Survey Results From Case Opening And Follow Up, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Outcomes of accessible and central service models are assessed in this non-retrospective technical report using three criteria: (1) impacts on parent, child and family functioning; (2) impacts on system functioning (e.g. child placements, court involvements); and (3) impacts on parent and community attitudes towards child protection organizations.

Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program Parent Survey Results From Case Opening And Follow Up (Using Retrospective Data), Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This retrospective technical report supports the summary of outcomes of accessible and central child protection service delivery as found in the Synthesis Report (Cameron, Hazineh & Frensch, 2010): Transforming Front-Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families. The focus of this and other working reports is on the inclusion of all information relevant to the specific topic of investigation. The intent of working reports is to inform the synthesis report and include more information than what appears in the synthesis report. Less emphasis, however, is placed in the working reports on style …

Fathers And Child Welfare: Fathers' Service Experiences With The Child Welfare System, Nick Coady

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This research report provides an overview of the findings about 18 men’s experiences of service involvement with a Children’s Aid Society in Southern Ontario. The data reported here are part of a larger study that also focused on these men’s daily living realities. Themes discussed in this report include positive aspects of men’s child welfare involvement such as worker characteristics men appreciated, as well as, negative aspects of services including formulaic interventions and anti-male biases. Service implications are discussed. This document is intended as both a standalone document and a companion report to the Father's Life Experiences report. This report …

Fathers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Men’S Everyday Lives And Service Experiences, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This volume of stories from fathers involved with child welfare services acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research reports on father’s life experiences and child welfare service experiences. This volume is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with men, students and instructors interested in men’s issues, and fathers. This volume of stories may be useful for teaching purposes, service provision decisions, and general interest.

Mothers And Child Welfare: Stories Of Women’S Everyday Lives And Service Experiences (Story Volume), Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This volume of stories from mothers involved with child welfare services acts as both a stand-alone document and a companion document to the research report on mothers’ experiences of child welfare services entitled Stories of Mothers and Child Welfare. This volume is intended for multiple audiences including child welfare service providers, community organizations working with women, students and instructors interested in women’s issues, and mothers. This volume of stories may be useful for teaching purposes, service provision decisions, and general interest.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Youth And Parent Health And Well Being, Michele Preyde, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The Life Domain Series describes the community adaptation of children and youth graduating from residential and intensive family service children’s mental health programs in multiple life domains (education and work, social involvements, family and health). This full length report presents evidence from the first and second phases of longitudinal research about how children who were involved with residential and intensive family service mental health programs are doing in school and at work.

Life Domain Research Report Series: School And Employment, Karen Frensch, Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The Life Domain Series describes the community adaptation of children and youth graduating from residential and intensive family service children’s mental health programs in multiple life domains (education and work, social involvements, family and health). This full length report presents evidence from the first and second phases of longitudinal research about how children who were involved with residential and intensive family service mental health programs are doing in school and at work.

Life Domain Research Report Series: Social Connections And Community Conduct, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde, Gary Cameron

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Integral to formulating a picture of youth overall well being is to understand how youth participate in social networks with peers and friends, engage in social or leisure activities, and more generally forge healthy relationships with others. Among a variety of emotional and behavioural challenges faced by children and youth involved with residential treatment or intensive family services may be their ability to negotiate relationships within social contexts (Cameron, de Boer, Frensch, & Adams, 2003).

Data was collected about youth who had been involved with children’s mental health residential treatment (RT) or intensive family service programs (IFS), designed as an …

Life Domain Research Report Series: Family, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch, Michele Preyde

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The Life Domain Series describes the community adaptation of children and youth graduating from residential and intensive family service children’s mental health programs in multiple life domains (education and work, social involvements, family and health). This full length report presents evidence from the first and second phases of longitudinal research about how children who were involved with residential and intensive family service mental health programs are doing in school and at work.

The Impact Of The Blackberry On Couple Relationships, Jurgen Dieter Czechowsky

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research focused on the BlackBerry developed by Research In Motion and its impact on couple relationships. The areas examined were couple communication, time spent together, and martial satisfaction using grounded theory, a demographic survey, the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale and interviews. Ten couples participated and reported that the BlackBerry offered many practical applications for their relationship. The research showed that communication via the BlackBerry resulted in fewer face-to-face interactions. There was no increase in time together and for some time decreased. Martial satisfaction had increased for two couples, decreased for two couples with no influence for the rest of …

A Workplace Study: Follow-Up Research Report, Deena Mandell, Carol A. Stalker, Cheryl Harvey, Margriet Wright, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

In response to the Partnerships for Children and Families Project's study of Canadian child welfare workers that unexpectedly found participants scoring high on a measure of emotional exhaustion (burnout), and at the same time, high on overall job satisfaction, a qualitative study of 25 child welfare workers' experience of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction was undertaken. This analysis was guided by several key questions including what are the personal qualities, workplace and organizational context, and coping skills that employees identify as being a part of their experiences of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction?

Role Changes And Birth Order In Female Adolescent Bereavement, Jennifer Joyce Evans

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis reports on the findings of a qualitative research study that explored role changes experienced by female adolescents after the death of a parent, with special attention paid to birth order. Seventeen women were recruited by convenience sampling for this study: nine were eldest daughters, three were middle daughters, and five were youngest daughters. All of the women lost a parent when they were between the ages of 11 and 17, and all were living at home with both parents at the time of the death. The findings were analyzed using a grounded theory method of coding (Glaser & …

Mothers Of Children Placed In Out-Of-Home Care: Everyday Realities And Child Placement Experiences, Nancy Colleen Freymond

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This qualitative study focuses on the everyday realities and child placement experiences of 31 mothers of children placed in out-of-home care in south western Ontario. The stories used in this analysis were collected for the Partnerships for Children and Families Project, a multi-year research project that is committed to developing an understanding of the lives and experiences of families and children who are served by Children's Aid Societies and/or children's mental health services. Twenty six mothers in this study were interviewed on one occasion, ranging from one to two hours in duration. Five mothers in this study had multiple interviews. …

Impacts Of Organized Sport On Family Life And Travel Demand, Jodi Murray

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In response to the rise in popularity of children’s organized sport there is a need to further our understanding of its impacts, both on family-life and on travel demand. Sport participation has become an integral part of raising children, and its typically rigid structure has significant impacts on many aspects of daily life and management. In order to meet the deamnds of a sport lifestyle, families depend on the “family van” as the main mode of transportation; thus increasing recreation travel. This thesis utilized mixed quantitative/qualitative methods to explore the relationship between youth hocky participation, family life and travel demand. …

Attachment Representations In Mothers Of Young Children With Developmental Delay: Relations With Concurrent And Later Maternal Depression, Mary Catherine Hutchinson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite the importance of early parent-child attachment and maternal depression to child development and the vulnerability of children with developmental delay, maternal attachment representations and their relation to depression have not been studied in this population. In this study, I examined attachment representations (i.e., internal working models) in 47 mothers of 4- to 8-year-old children with developmental delay and explored the relation between these attachment representations and maternal depression assessed concurrently and again one and two years later. The Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) was used to classify representations as balanced (i.e., secure) or non-balanced (i.e., disengaged or …

A Study Of Three Community And School-Based Models Of Child Welfare Service Delivery In Ontario: An Exploration Of Parents’, Service Providers’, And Community Experiences, Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

This report highlights results from our study of three innovative child welfare programs in Ontario attempting to modify front line child protection practice. These programs endeavor to deliver child welfare services in ways that promote greater accessibility and acceptability of services for families, provide increased levels of assistance to families, afford a better understanding of daily living circumstances of children and families, and engage the community in protecting children. Study results confirm that the three programs were successful in accomplishing these goals. Parents’, service providers’, and community members’ perceptions of these programs showcase the positive helping relationships and community partnerships …

The Children’S Aid Society Of Brant: A Community-Based Model Of Child Welfare Service Delivery (Full Report), Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

No abstract provided.

Family & Children’S Services Of Guelph And Wellington County: A Community-Based Model Of Child Welfare Service Delivery (Summary Report), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

No abstract provided.

Children’S Aid Society Of Halton: A School-Based Model Of Child Welfare Service Delivery, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

No abstract provided.

Family & Children’S Services Of Guelph And Wellington County: A Community-Based Model Of Child Welfare Service Delivery (Full Report), Lirondel Hazineh, Gary Cameron, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

No abstract provided.

The Children’S Aid Society Of Brant: A Community-Based Model Of Child Welfare Service Delivery (Summary Report), Karen Frensch, Gary Cameron, Lirondel Hazineh

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

No abstract provided.