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Results for “Kinship Networks”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Processes linked to contact changes in adoptive kinship networks.

The purpose of this study was to reveal underlying processes in adoptive kinship networks that experienced increases or decreases in levels of openness during the child's adolescent years. Intensive case study analyses were conducted for 8 adoptive kinship networks (each including an adoptive mother, adoptive father, adopted adolescent, and birth mother), half of whom had experienced an increase in openness from indirect (mediated) to direct (fully disclosed) contact and half of whom had ceased indirect contact between Waves 1 and 2 of a longitudinal study. Adoptive mothers tended to be more involved in contact with the birth mother than were adoptive fathers or adopted adolescents. Members of adoptive kinship networks in which a decrease in level of contact took place had incongruent perspectives about who initiated the stop in contact and why the stop took place. Birth mothers were less satisfied with their degree of contact than were adoptive parents. Adults' satisfaction with contact was related to feelings of control over type and amount of interactions and permeability of family boundaries. In all adoptive kinship networks, responsibility for contact had shifted toward the adopted adolescent regardless of whether the adolescent was aware of this change in responsibility.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Kinship networks that cross racial lines: the exception or the rule?

I estimate the frequencies of interracial kin relations, an important indicator of the isolation of racial groups in the United States. I use two techniques to estimate the size and heterogeneity of extended families. First, I develop a simple model that takes account only of kinship network sizes and intermarriage levels by race. This model allows a crude estimation of the frequency of multiracial kinship networks. Second, I produce more precise empirical estimates using a new hot-deck imputation method for synthesizing kinship networks from household-level survey data (the June 1990 Current Population Survey and the 1994 General Social Survey). One in seven whites, one in three blacks, four in five Asians, and more than 19 in 20 American Indians are closely related to someone of a different racial group. Despite an intermarriage rate of about 1%, about 20% of Americans count someone from a different racial group among their kin.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1998

Kinship networks and child fostering in labor migration from Ilocos, Philippines to Italy.

"This paper is an attempt to analyze the process of contemporary overseas labor migration from a village in the Ilocos region in the Philippines to Italy. As such, it will seek to outline the basic characteristics of the process of migration and examine them in relation to the local social structure. It will demonstrate how the Ilocanos responded to new opportunities of migration by manipulating existing social relations. Particular attention will be given to the process of constructing kinship networks among the migrants and the practice of fosterage in the homeland community, both of which are considered as adaptive processes to the new migration opportunity."

Asia↗
PubMed2005

[Social networks in drinking behaviors among Japanese: support network, drinking network, and intervening network].

PURPOSE: The national representative sample was analyzed to examine the relationship between respondents' drinking practice and the social network which was constructed of three different types of network: support network, drinking network, and intervening network. METHOD: Non-parametric statistical analysis was conducted with chi square method and ANOVA analysis, due to the risk of small samples in some basic tabulation cells. RESULTS: The main results are as follows: (1) In the support network of workplace associates, moderate drinkers enjoyed much more sociable support care than both nondrinkers and hard drinkers, which might suggest a similar effect as the French paradox. Meanwhile in the familial and kinship network, the more intervening care support was provided, the harder respondents' drinking practice. (2) The drinking network among Japanese people for both sexes is likely to be convergent upon certain types of network categories and not decentralized in various categories. This might reflect of the drinking culture of Japan, which permits people to drink everyday as a practice, especially male drinkers. Subsequently, solitary drinking is not optional for female drinkers. (3) Intervening network analysis showed that the harder the respondents' drinking practices, the more frequently their drinking behaviors were checked in almost all the categories of network. A rather complicated gender double-standard was found in the network of hard drinkers with their friends, particularly for female drinkers. Medical professionals played a similar intervening role for men as family and kinship networks but to a less degree than friends for females. CONCLUSION: The social network is considerably associated with respondents' drinking, providing both sociability for moderate drinkers and intervention for hard drinkers, depending on network categories. To minimize the risk of hard drinking and advance self-healthy drinking there should be more research development on drinking practice and the social network.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The status of circular migration in the evolution of Melanesian towns: an attempt at explanation.

"This article proposes a model of Melanesian urbanization and associated forms of migration, both permanent and temporary/circular. The model describes four stages of urban development, spanning the arrival of capitalism to a futuristic city of the next century. The author links the future of circular migration in Melanesia to the relative strengths of the precapitalist and capitalist modes of production and associated social relations, particularly the wantok [kinship network]."

Behavior↗
PubMed1998

Aging of population and elderly care in Sri Lanka.

"The main purpose of this paper is...to examine the trends [and] characteristics of the elderly population [in Sri Lanka] and to inquire into the status of elderly support and care.... There is considerable evidence to show that [the] mechanisms of family support and care of the elderly have weakened. There is an increasing demand for institutional support by the elderly. This paper attempts to identify some of the underlying reasons that have prompted the elderly to make the decision to move out of the family kinship network and seek institutional support."

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Kinship and friendship networks and women's demand for primary care.

Women's perceptions of illness are examined and the effects of lay consultations and social networks on the use of general practitioner services are explored.A sample of 79 women aged 16-44 from a new estate in London completed six-week health diaries and were subsequently interviewed. Symptoms were recorded in the diaries one day in every three, and the ratio of medical consultations to symptom episodes was 1:18. Nearly three quarters of the symptom episodes that precipitated a medical consultation during the diary period were discussed first with someone who was non-medical. There was an average of 11 lay consultations for every medical consultation. Married women were most likely to consult with their husbands, and single and separated or divorced women with their mothers. The second most popular category of lay consultant, regardless of marital status, was female friends. Type of symptom seemed to have little effect on who was consulted.Large, active kinship networks appeared to predispose women to consult their general practitioners; large, active friendship networks seemed to have an opposite, if less decisive, effect. We speculate that discussions of symptoms with kin may be intense and protracted and lead to kin referrals to general practitioners. On the other hand, discussions with friends may be more casual and result in symptoms being redefined as unimportant and less in need of medical attention.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Beyond parenting practices: extended kinship support and the academic adjustment of African-American and European-American teens.

This study examined adolescents' perceptions of parenting practices and extended kinship support in relation to academic adjustment for 104 African American and 60 European American 9th and 10th graders (14 and 15 year olds). For African-American teens, parental acceptance was associated with school values, teacher bonding, and work orientation. Higher levels of behavioral control and lower levels of psychological control were associated with a stronger work orientation. After accounting for the demographic variables and the three parenting practices, higher levels of extended kinship support related to stronger school values, higher teacher bonding, and a stronger work orientation. For European-American teens, parental acceptance related to academic adjustment, including stronger school values, higher teacher bonding, and a stronger work orientation. European-American adolescents with stronger extended kinship networks reported higher teacher bonding and a stronger work orientation. Results indicate the importance of extended kinship support for both African-American and European-American adolescents.

Achievement↗
PubMed1988

Perceived personal networks as mediators of stress reactions.

The evacuation of an Israeli community in the Sinai peninsula afforded an unusual opportunity to study the longitudinal relationships between personal network characteristics and psychosocial adjustment. Friendship network characteristics proved highly stable longitudinally but were poor predictors of long-term adjustment. The kinship network characteristics before relocation were better predictors, despite the fact that kin were not actually present in the community before relocation. These data support a hypothesis that the perception of social embeddedness rather than the actual availability of social supports mediates reactions to stressful life events.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1998

Mediation in kinship care: another step in the provision of culturally relevant child welfare services.

With rising numbers of children entering the child welfare system and declining numbers of available foster homes, the foster care system has increasingly turned to placements with relatives to meet the needs of children removed from parental custody. Nowhere is this situation more evident than in the African American community. But the child welfare system did not invent the concept of kinship care. The foundation of current mediation practice can be traced to several ancient cultures, including African culture, where the kinship network often provided mediation services in the resolution of disputes. As an ethnocentrically designed child welfare system grapples with how to best incorporate kinship care into its array of services, conflicts between kinship caregivers and the foster care system have arisen. It is suggested that the application of mediation to conflicts in agency-kinship family relationships can serve as yet another step in social workers' efforts to provide culturally relevant child welfare services.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1999

Fictive kin among oldest old African Americans in the San Francisco Bay area.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose here is to identify those processes that account for the more active and supportive kinship networks among Black oldest old than found among their White age peers. METHODS: Focused interviews were conducted with 122 Blacks 85 years and older. Both open-ended and semistructured questions were asked in order to determine how Blacks defined family and kinship membership, their expectations for kin, and the desired levels of reciprocity. FINDINGS: A content analysis of the responses indicated that Blacks defined the boundaries of their families flexibly so as to include fictive kin, and they upgraded more distant kin into the status of primary kin. They also emphasized the importance of collateral relatives so as to expand the size of the network. DISCUSSION: These processes use personal choices as well as immediate needs to expand the basis of relatedness beyond blood and marriage. Thus the supportive capacities of networks increase in order to serve a potentially vulnerable population.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1999

Social support, social adjustment, and recovery status in bulimia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: To examine recovery status in bulimia nervosa (BN) and its relation to social support and social adjustment. METHOD: Using a cross-sectional design, we administered the modified Social Support Questionnaire and the Social Adjustment Scale-Self-Report (SAS-SR) to 40 women, each of whom was actively bulimic (ABN), was in remission from BN (RBN), or had no history of eating disturbance (comparison). RESULTS: In terms of social support, relative to RBN and comparison subjects, the ABN group had significantly fewer persons in their friendship and kinship networks available to provide emotional support, although the groups were equivalent in number of persons available to provide things and advice. Relative to the comparison group, both bulimic groups were significantly dissatisfied with the quality of emotional support provided by relatives. On the SAS-SR, women in the ABN group displayed the poorest overall social functioning. The RBN group was functioning significantly better than the ABN group, but significantly more poorly than the comparison group. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that the social functioning of RBN women lies between ABN women and non-eating-disordered women, indicating both gains relative to the active phase and residual deficits.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Modelling step-families: exploratory findings.

"A combined macro-micro model is applied to a population similar to that forecast for 2035 in the Netherlands in order to simulate the effect on kinship networks of a mating system of serial monogamy. The importance of incorporating a parameter for the degree of concentration of childbearing over the female population is emphasized. The inputs to the model are vectors of fertility rates by age of mother, and by age of father, a matrix of first-marriage rates by age of both partners (used in the macro-analytical expressions), and two parameters H and S (used in the micro-simulation phase). The output is a data base of hypothetical individuals, whose records contain identification number, age, sex, and the identification numbers of their relatives." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

Developed Countries↗
PubMed2001

Policy implications of the inadequate support systems for orphans in western Kenya.

This paper describes the support systems available for orphans in a rural Luo community in Nyang'oma sub-location in Bondo District of Western Kenya. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with orphaned children and their caretakers as well as key informants, and through focus group discussions with orphaned children, widows and community elders. Quantitative data were obtained by questionnaires administered to 100 caretakers of orphaned children. The most serious problem was inability of the orphan households to afford school fees, although lack of food, medicare and clothing were also prominent. The traditional, kinship-based support systems made a major contribution to catering for the orphans though the resources were far from enough. Various community-based groups in the area did not contribute significantly. The problem is getting desperate due to a combination of an exponentially increasing prevalence of orphans, poor socio-economic conditions and decline of the traditional support systems. For health planners and policy makers there are two major concerns. In the short term, a big and rapidly growing group of children are without adequate access to health services, while in the long term, the negative consequences for (in particular the girl) orphans' schooling pose a serious threat to the health of their future children. Based on the study findings, two recommendations are made: that the responsible parties address the issue of education for orphans rapidly and sufficiently and with due consideration of their food security and medicare; and that potential community resources such as kinship networks and community groups are mobilised in order to assist in achieving the goal.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Fertility and population policy in two counties in China 1980-1991.

A survey of women in two highly developed rural counties of China, Sichuan and Jiangsu Provinces, was carried out in late 1991, to gain information about demographic and economic change between 1980 and 1990. Three separate surveys were conducted: the first a questionnaire administered to married women aged 30-39, eliciting information about childbearing and contraception, as well as the social and economic background of the respondents; the second, focus group interviews emphasizing the motivation for childbearing. Official information about the selected villages, townships and counties was also collected. National level data in 1987 show that individual reproductive behaviour in China failed to conform to a universal, effectively implemented, population policy. They imply either a spatial range of policies, or great diversity in the demand for children, or perhaps a combination of both. Such diversity in reproductive behaviour is also found in the study area. The purpose of the analysis was to examine the diversity in reproductive behaviour and contraceptive practice, and to discover whether differentials are influenced by area, or else exist between individuals within areas. If the former, then the explanation may be found in differences in policy formulation and implementation between areas: and if the latter, to demand for children, or else differential application of policy restrictions. The main findings were that: (1) the explanation of the pattern of fertility and contraceptive use is to be found at the individual level (within locations) rather than in policy differences between administrative units; (2) the association between income and number of children is negative, as is that between income and the propensity for uniparous women to remain unsterilized. The theory that privilege may be exercised to gain concessions from birth planning cadres is therefore not supported; (3) ideal family size differentials are largely absent, showing that social (education) and economic (income, occupation) characteristics are not responsible for differences in reproductive motivations, and implying that the nature of the demand for children is very different from that in most rural areas of the Third World; (4) data on ideal family size by sex of the existing offspring indicate only a weak preference for sons. The low demand for children, and the weak son preference, may both be explained by the social acceptability of uxorilocal marriages, and of village endogamy, together with the prohibitive costs of children, and especially of sons. This partly results from the expense of education, but most mothers emphasize marriage costs. It is speculated that the circumstances responsible for the escalating costs of children in the two countries are likely to pertain in growing areas of the country, with the privatization of education and health services, the declining support of collective institutions, and the replacement of this function by kinship networks. These on-going changes imply that any policy of reproductive restriction for the purposes of population control is likely soon to meet with diminishing resistance; and it may later be rendered unnecessary in the eyes of government officials, as fulfilled reproductive intentions lead to a fertility level below replacement level.

Adult↗