Faith in welfare: the origins of the Open Home Foundation

This article analyses the origins of the Open Home Foundation (OHF), a Christian social service provider that commenced in New Zealand in 1977. It interprets the Foundation’s appeal, paying particular attention to the role of religious values and spirituality within the organisation. The article argues that OHF emerged and flourished from the late 1970s due to a confluence of personal, social, political and religious factors. Specifically, it reflected and benefited from post-war concerns about family life, renewed emphasis on policies of deinstitutionalisation, and a mobilisation of disparate conservative Christian interests. The latter factor concerning the religious context is particularly significant. On the one hand, it helps to explain the values and ethos of the organisation, and the social implications of a particular set of spiritual commitments. On the other, it complicates commonly held interpretations of conservative Christian engagement with social issues during this period.     

Religiosity of young adults: does childhood maltreatment make a difference?

Previous research on the association between maltreatment in childhood and later religious beliefs and behaviours suggests that maltreatment may have either negative or positive influences on religiosity. However, methodological limitations of previous studies may limit their generalisability. The present study attempted to address these limitations. We examined associations between childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and several dimensions of adult religiosity in a large sample of college students (N = 763). Associations between child maltreatment and religiosity were weak (rs ≤ 0.09). After controlling for possible demographic confounds, the only significant association was between childhood emotional abuse and religious questing.     

Researching Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa: Complexities in the Field

This study reports on my fieldwork experiences applying qualitative research strategies to study child sexual abuse in South Africa. It considers the challenges associated with, at three stages of data collection: ethical clearance, recruitment and data collection, followed by possible solutions. The study also considers the challenges from ethical and epistemological perspectives. I used a reflective self-study to analyse my experiences. My experiences revealed the following challenges: ethical process due to reasons not linked to the content of the research process would cause delays to the field-work. In addition, the use of [formal institutions] welfare institutions as sole research sites would result in a homogenous sample that does not permit comparison of experiences among the abuse cases. The costs to the researcher in terms of emotional and physical investment can be significant.     

Maternal Response to Father-Daughter Incest: Experiences of Mothers Following Disclosure

This study explored the impact of the disclosure of sexual abuse of the daughter by the father or father figure on the mother. Data were collected from seven mothers aged between 31 and 48 years whose daughters had a history of sexual abuse by the biological father, stepfather or live-in boyfriend. The children's ages ranged between 5 and 11 years with disclosure having taken place in the last two years before data collection. Data were collected using an interview schedule. The results obtained from the thematic content analysis indicate that the mothers were traumatized by the disclosure of the sexual abuse. The most prevalent symptoms were anger, anxiety, guilty, depression, insomnia, headache and fatigue. It is recommended that mothers be provided with psychological intervention in order to assist them deal with the trauma associated with the disclosure of the father-daughter incest.     

Domestic Workers' Experiences of Power and Oppression in South Africa

This study examines the work experiences of domestic workers in the context of socio-economic-political legislation promulgated to protect their social rights in the new South Africa. It gains insight into the power relations and embedded tensions between employers and domestic workers with the aim of identifying forms of oppression affecting domestic workers. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine female domestic workers employed in African households and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results indicate that despite inclusion in labour legislation, domestic workers remain a vulnerable group. They experience oppression in the form of exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, violence and some class-based cultural imperialism. Despite this, agency and resistance in the face of oppression was a key finding. Although some gains may have been obtained through inclusion in legislation, the asymmetrical power relationship with employers remains problematic.     

Perceptions of Child Abuse by Teacher Trainees in Zimbabwean Schools

This study is a part of a larger study that examined the epidemiology and aetiology of child abuse by teachers in Zimbabwean primary schools. The purpose of the study was to determine teacher trainees' conception of sexual abuse of pupils by teachers within the school context, the forms of sexual abuse perpetrated on pupils by teachers in Zimbabwean schools, and the aetiology of sexual abuse of pupils by teachers in Zimbabwean schools. One hundred and fifty (75 male, 75 female) teacher trainees from three colleges of education, located in the same province, participated in the study. Participants indicated that sexual abuse of pupils within the school context involves having sexual intercourse with pupils; having love affairs with pupils; impregnating pupils by teachers; and fondling pupils' breasts, buttocks, and private parts. Results suggested that pupils are vulnerable to sexual abuse by teachers in Zimbabwean schools.     

The association between maternal strategies and preschoolers' memory for location of objects

Using a Vygotskian theoretical framework and a social interaction design, we observed 30 middle-class North American mother–child dyads engaged in a location memory activity. The central aim of this investigation was to assess maternal and preschool strategy use employed during a memory for location task, and to determine which strategies are associated with preschooler accuracy of memory for location of objects. Results suggest that mothers are more apt to utilize labelling, encouragement, and guidance as opposed to location-specific assistance to their child during the task, and children are more apt to link the memory information to their real-life experiences, request help for assistance, and utilize self-regulatory speech. Implications of the research, suggestions for future research, and expansions of theoretical perspectives on the role of social interaction on preschool location memory performance, and educational implications are discussed.     

Building a composite factorial score for the assessment of quality of parent–child relationships in adolescence

The quality of parent–child relationships has important implications for adolescent development and well-being. However, whereas numerous measures of specific dimensions contributing to quality of parent–child relationships are available, scales that provide a global assessment of this content are scarce. Consequently, the assessment of quality of parent–child relationships poses a challenge to the researcher, especially when the need exists to consider its main aspects but long instruments can not be used due to diverse circumstances. This paper presents a composite factorial score on quality of parent–child relationships developed from four short measures of affection, communication, parental knowledge and family satisfaction that can contribute to solving some of those difficulties. This composite score can be a useful tool to assess quality of parent–child relationships, especially for studies devoted to the study of the relationships between experiences within the family and the adolescent's well-being.     

Identification and Testing of Modes in Beliefs

Characterizing diversity in beliefs is of paramount importance in empirical research on human behavior. In game theory, the focus is on the hypothesis formation. We present a data set with ideal properties for characterizing such diversity. The data consist of hypotheses on the empirical distribution of opponent choices. Using nonparametric techniques, we identify modes in the data corresponding to subpopulations of behavioral types and find the statistical significance of these modes in the underlying population distribution.     

Perceptions of Self and Relationship with Parents in Aggressive and Nonaggressive Rejected Children

This study examined the perceptions of self and the attachment relationship to parents in aggressive and nonaggressive rejected children, as compared to children with an average or popular sociometric status. Participants were 216 children from grades 3 and 4. They completed peer nomination measures, the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), and the Security Scale (mother and father form). Results generally confirmed the assumption that only the nonaggressive rejected children perceive themselves as less competent and worthy as a person than the more popular children. Aggressive rejected children did not report lower feelings of global self-worth or competence, although they did report lower levels of social acceptance. Furthermore, rejected-nonaggressive children perceived the relationship with their father (but not with their mother) as less secure than did the more popular children. Logistic regression analyses suggested that the linkage between felt security with father and rejected-nonaggressive status was mediated by children's self-worth. Implications for attachment theory and for the hypothesized heterogeneity among rejected children are discussed.