6. Family Resource Management

The protective role of family structure for adolescent development in sub-Saharan Africa

A supportive environment results in delayed sexual activities among Sub Sahara African (SSA) adolescents. The paper details the effects that family and communal structure have on the sexual debut of adolescents. The details reveal that adolescents who came from families with both parents had a lower chance of being sexually active as compared to those with either one or no parent (Somefun & Odimegwu, 2018). Moreover, adolescents who had parental support, high self-esteem, and were education-oriented were highly unlikely to engage in early sexual encounters. Correspondingly, the poverty rates in the community influence the age at which adolescents engage in sexual activity. Notably, deaths due to HIV/AIDS and clandestine abortions relate to early sexual exposure. Family and community factors had a significant role in delaying or promoting early sexual conduct among adolescents.

The study was accomplished through data analysis. The researchers used information from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from multiple SSA states. Through DHS data, it was possible to compare the results from multiple nations as the data collection methodologies are the same. The nations included were Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Gabon, DRC Congo, Tanzania, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Niger, Nigeria, and Liberia. Adolescents who had never had sex were not included in the study (Somefun & Odimegwu, 2018). The research compared details from nations representing east, central, west, north, and south of Africa to get reliable results.

The findings of the study have implications for future research. Notably, future studies should focus on how family structure, other than living arrangement, affects adolescents. Equally, the more studies should analyze how community factors other than the economic factors influence early sexual encounters amongst adolescents. More research should be conducted on communal and familial factors leading to early sex.

References

Somefun, O.D. & Odimegwu, C. (2018). The protective role of family structure for adolescent development in sub-Saharan Africa. PLoS ONE 13(10): e0206197. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0206197

Time, Monetary and Other Costs of Participation in Family-Based Child Weight Management Interventions: Qualitative and Systematic Review Evidence

Managing a child’s weight requires multiple resources from the family. Overweight and obesity in children have financial and non-financial costs to families. As a major public health concern, the economic costs of the predicament cost 14 billion dollars to manage annually (Arai, Panca, Morris, Curtis-Tyler, Lucas, & Roberts, 2015). For families, the cost of dietary changes and programs for overweight children take a toll on households financially. Moreover, the members have to avail themselves for check-ups and give their children the moral support. Part of the encouragement entails the entire family changing their diet pattern. Results from the qualitative data illustrate that families put a lot of time, energy, and money to aid their overweight children. The research highlights the costs that families with overweight and obese children face regularly.

The research analyzed qualitative studies and had participants across the UK. Regarding the reviews, UK based studies were examined regarding the monetary and impact of dietary changes to families (Arai et al., 2015). Notably, reputable databases, particularly government-based, were used in the qualitative analysis. Comparatively, the primary data was retrieved from families dwelling in England. The subjects were interviewed in accordance with ethical guidelines by UCL. The researchers relied on secondary and primary data to gather data for the text.

Correspondingly, the findings have implications for future research. Firstly, more emphasis should be put on the toll overweight, and obese children put on their fathers. Admittedly, the study is biased towards the women despite generalizing on parents. Moreover, an analysis of the impact of the overweight diagnosis to the siblings of these children should be done. Henceforth, it will be possible to draw a more comprehensive conclusion on the impact that obese children have on their families.

 

References

Arai, L., Panca, M., Morris, S., Curtis-Tyler, K., Lucas, P.J., & Roberts, H.M. (2015). Time, Monetary and Other Costs of Participation in Family-Based Child Weight Management Interventions: Qualitative and Systematic Review Evidence. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0123782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123782

 

7. Parent Education and Guidance

Relationship between Parental Feeding Practices and Neural Responses to Food Cues in Adolescents

Adolescents are susceptible to the influence of their parents regarding their eating habits. Parents resorted to controlling, emotional, and instrumental feeding models to regulate what their children ate. Controlling habits were mainly adopted for children with medical conditions like type 2 diabetes or obese children (Allen, Chambers, Blissett, Chechlacz, Barrett, & Higgs, 2016). Comparatively, emotional methods aimed at controlling the child’s emotions, while instrumental feedings fostered positive behavior. Each technique had a lasting impact on children, whose brains responded through food cues. Rewarding and influence were the most effective ways of making children follow specific food patterns (Allen et al., 2016). Equally, it was evident that parents whose children suffered from diabetes 2 and were obese had different feeding habits from those whose children were healthy. Parental feeding habits influenced the response that children have towards food.

The researchers recruited 57 adolescents to complete the research. The participants included type 2 diabetics, obese and healthy subjects. The UK Midlands and North-West provided details on the diabetes’ participants (Allen et al., 2016). The dieticians and advertisement responders availed the obese individuals, whereas the healthy participants came from local schools. All the participants had to be proficient in English and not have suffered from any significant illness except diabetes. Furthermore, parents had given their consent before the research the children participated in the research. The researchers equally followed protocols by the National Research Ethics Committee (NREC) and Birmingham University Imaging Centre (BUIC) were followed. Two subjects were removed from the experiment. First-hand data was obtained with the help of 55 participants, whose varying health conditions provided data for analysis.

The findings have various implications for future research such as analyzing brain behaviors in prospective study to understand whether a change in the parental feeding behavior influenced feeding cues. Brain response to feeding patterns will reveal the impact of parental influence on children.

References

Allen, H.A., Chambers, A., Blissett, J., Chechlacz, M., Barrett, T., & Higgs S. (2016) Relationship between Parental Feeding Practices and Neural Responses to Food Cues in Adolescents. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0157037. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157037

 

Relationships between Parental Education and Overweight with Childhood Overweight and Physical Activity in 9–11-Year-Old Children: Results from a 12-Country Study

Overweight and low activity levels could result in premature obesity. Maternal and paternal overweight status increased the likelihood of childhood obesity in households (Muthuri, Onywera, Tremblay, Broyles, Lambert, & Zhao, 2016). Among Latinos, paternal and maternal education on obesity had a positive correlation on childhood obesity. However, in the US, a father’s influence had little impact on childhood obesity. However, in Croatia, Sub Sahara Africa, and European countries registered positive results concerning maternal education on obesity and their weight status. Moreover, physically active parents were more likely to have children of a healthy weight than their physically dormant counterparts. Other than partaking in physical activity and education, no other significant factors influenced the weight of children. The study highlights the impact of parental knowledge on obesity, and its impact on children.

The research was completed through the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE) project. The information across African, Asian, and Western countries were obtained through coordination of the nations that partook in the project. The data was gained from multi-racial and economic environments from the states (Muthuri et al., 2016). In addition, ethical guidelines from the various nations were incorporated in the research. In total, 500 children aged between 9-11 years from each country took part in the study. The study used extensive questionnaires, accelerometry, and anthropometry in obtaining responses and data from the respondents. Researchers used the ISCOLE design and protocol to find and analyze data.

In future research, other factors relating to parental knowledge should be analyzed. Mainly, the study focused on the education and health status of the parents. Although it dismissed other actors as being insignificant, other causes such as peer pressure and literacy levels among the parents are equally good indicators. Future research should broadly examine other factors responsible for parental knowledge and obesity.

References

Muthuri, S., Onywera, V., Tremblay, M. B., Royles, S. Lambert, E., & Zhao, P. (2016). Relationships between parental education and overweight with childhood overweight and physical activity in 9–11-year-old children: results from a 12-country study. PLoS One 11 (8). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4996501/

 

 

8. Family Law and Public Policy

Impact of Maternal Death on Household Economy in Rural China: A Prospective Path Analysis

Maternal death relates with the family’s economic status and other existing influencing factors in China. The study relied on a conceptual framework that Russell designed to analyze the relationship between household income and mortality rates among mothers and newborns (Ye, Deng, Chen, Huntington, Wang, 2015). Poverty heightened the occurrence of death through inaccessibility to healthcare or illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. Direct costs which relate to medical expenditure had decreased in the wake of rising demand. Conversely, the indirect costs entailed the loss of productivity because of the ailment and death. Moreover, families relied heavily on social support to meet their income requirements when the mother was deceased. Medical and funeral arrangements were responsible for the high costs incurred by households. Similarly, social support was needed in raising a newborn child. Maternal death affected the household economy of rural Chinese people.

A cohort study was used to gather data on the subject. It involved 132 families that were motherless and a further 264 homes for comparison (Ye et al., 2015). The County Maternal and Child Health Office provided data on households that plagued by maternal demise within a three-month duration. Furthermore, the participants came from the same village and were of the same economic class. Additionally, the ethnicity of the family heads was the same. Bivariate analyses and structural equation modeling were used in analyzing the results. The cohort study aided the researchers in obtaining first-hand information on the maternal death on household economies.

In the future, researchers should focus on the impact of paternal death across multiple economic backgrounds. Fathers also substantially contribute to the household economy. Again, the effect differs across economic contexts. By illuminating on these factors, it will be possible to draw a comprehensive conclusion on how death affects families economically.

Reference

Ye, F., Deng, A., Chen, J., Huntington, D., Wang, Y. (2015). Impact of Maternal Death on Household Economy in Rural China: A Prospective Path Analysis. PLoS One 10 (8). Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134756

Opportunities, challenges, and systems requirements for developing post-abortion family planning services: Perceptions of service stakeholders in China

The availability or lack of post-abortion family planning (PAPF) activities influences the outcome of abortions in the republic. Following the Family Planning Policy enacted in 1973, pregnancy termination services became widely available in China (Jiang, Xu, Richards, Qian, Zhang, & Hu, 2017). Unmarried women constitute a majority of women who procure abortions in the country. Notably, the intolerance towards extra-marital or pre-marital sex among Chinese communities, urbanization, and rural-urban migration have heightened the risk of abortions. However, the side effects of abortion include infertility and even death among young women. Worse still, the perception towards abortion has not changed to incorporate the emerging challenges. Given that abortions take place in public and private clinics, integrating PAPF services is vital in minimizing the adverse effects of abortion. The paper highlights the impact of PAPF services to the Chinese population, whose changing social environment encourage many unwanted pregnancies.

The researchers used extensive group engagements and semi-structured interviews to obtain data. The critical stakeholders partook in the research after willingly consenting to participate. The informants had the first-hand experience with the individuals seeking abortion services. Through semi-structured interviews, the participants recounted their experiences and perspectives on the issue (Jiang et al., 2017). Comparatively, focus groups availed details used for comparison. The participants were contacted via telephone and email before the actual interviews or group activities. The responses were transcribed in full verbatim for accuracy. The semi-structured interviews and group discussions availed critical first-hand data that proved useful for the research.

In the future, researchers should focus on the impact of abortion on the survivors and their families. Consequently, it will be possible to customize the FAFP services to cater to the needs of not only the woman but also others affected by the abortion. More work should be done to understand the effect of abortion on an individual and families to provide better care.

References

Jiang. H., Xu, J., Richards, E., Qian, X., Zhang, W., & Hu, L. (2017) Opportunities, challenges and systems requirements for developing post-abortion family planning services: Perceptions of service stakeholders in China. PLoS ONE 12(10). Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0186555

9. Ethics

Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children

Children exhibit happiness by sharing. The research finds that contrary to the belief that humans are driven by self-interest, people often engage in acts of cooperation (Aknin, Hamlin, & Dunn, 2012). Generous actions are more prevalent among children, who willingly shared their treats with puppets as a lab experiment revealed. The prosocial behavior still puzzles scientists, who are yet to figure out how humans evolved into giving species. One possibility is that people, find it rewarding to share items with other people. To verify when such traits manifest themselves, young children were used in the experiment. The research answers the question on prosocial behavior by analyzing the character of young children.

The research uses two experimental phases to collect data. In the first stage, the children played social games that centered on sharing. The experiment took place in a laboratory. Forthwith, the emotional response of the children was monitored and recorded on a scale. Correspondingly, the main experiment had a warm-up phase where children were introduced to a puppet monkey (Aknin et al., 2012). After being acquainted with the puppet, children were then requested to share their candy with the animal, and the responses were documented. The results from all the tests were then compared during analysis. The researchers measured the emotions of the children when they shared their treats in multiple stages, to unearth any prosocial behavior in children.

Future research should include parental influence in studying prosocial behavior. Children pick up habits from their parents, among them sharing. It would be interesting to understand any relationship between parental conduct and prosocial behavior in children. Henceforth, research should broaden to cover the niche. In the future, research should analyze the parental impact on prosocial behaviour.

 

References

Aknin, L.B., Hamlin, J.K., & Dunn, E.W. (2012). Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children. PLoS ONE 7(6): e39211. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039211

References

Komić, D., Marušić, S. L., Marušić, A. (2015). Research Integrity and Research Ethics in Professional Codes of Ethics: Survey of Terminology Used by Professional Organizations across Research Disciplines. PLoS ONE 10(7). Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0133662

Ethical issues in using the internet to engage participants in family and child research: A scoping review

Using the internet poses ethical challenges when participating children and parents in research. Already, there are emerging ethical issues pertaining using children in study, a matter made worse in contemporary society’s use of the internet (Hokke, Hackworth, Quin, Bennetts, Win, & Nicholson, 2018). The research process, comprising recruitment, retention, and tracing has become harder when the participants are found online. Most researchers find that online responses are much cheaper. However, the practice may be unethical as some of the processes as they may adversely affect the vulnerable population (Hokke et al., 2018). Additionally, it is impossible to determine the consent age of the child online. With such issues, the text seeks ways that ethical breaches occur and how best to ensure the safety of the online participants. The text analyzes ethical issues emerging from online research detailing children and their parents and proposes likely solutions to these issues.

To complete the research, extensive academic research was completed. The team analyzed popular databases like PsycINFO, which had literature covering family issues (Hokke et al., 2018). Keywords made the research faster and more objective. Over 70,000 documents available from 2006 to 2016 were utilized. After that, the findings were categorized according to agreed criteria. The researchers relied on online resources to acquire data for the paper.

Future research should focus on obtaining first-hand information from the participants. Given that even the participants of the reviewed sources used the internet, there is a possibility that they gave misleading information. However, primary data is more reliable and could even reveal varying results. Future researchers should gain details through personal interaction with the participants.

 

References

 Hokke, S., Hackworth, N.J., Quin, N., Bennetts, S.K., Win, H.Y., & Nicholson, J.M. (2018). Ethical issues in using the internet to engage participants in family and child research: A scoping review. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0204572. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204572

10. Family Life and Education Methodology

The Influence of Family Factors on Children’s Early Literacy Skills

Family life influences literacy skills in early childhood. The paper examines the child and parental factors that could result in a child having difficulties in school. Concerning the child, the ability to master the alphabetic table is an indicator of the literacy skills of the child (Heath, Bishop, Bloor, Boyle, & Fletcher, 2014). Research has also found that children with good language skills attain high literacy skills in the future years. Comparatively, parents also have a role to play in child literacy. In this regard, the mother’s education level will impact the skills of the child in the early stages and even in adolescence (Heath et al., 2014). Equally, the socio-economic status of the family restricts or avails resources that would boost the child’s literacy levels. The child’s family history and perceived efficacy on the parent’s part contribute significantly to the literacy level of the child. Child literacy is influenced by the child’s capabilities and their parents.

Correspondingly, the researchers obtained data through 162 families that partook in the study. The participants were a part of a broader study that analyzed training programs focusing on building resilience in children (Heath et al., 2014). Despite 34 families withdrawing from the research, the exercise still provided reliable results. Forthwith, the children’s language skills were analyzed through the core language subsets during the pre-literacy examination. Correspondingly, the children were examined on word reading and spelling. Families also filled in questionnaires to assess their impact on their children’s skills. The process aimed at getting first-hand information on child literacy by evaluating the children and their parents.

In the future, the research should focus on other indicators that can determine child literacy. In the study, only the ability to communicate fluently in a language indicated literacy capacity. However, different skills, such as solving simple arithmetic questions should be looked into. The future researchers should broaden their indicators by considering other skills that children possess.

References

 Heath, S.M., Bishop, D.V.M., Bloor, K.E., Boyle, G.L., & Fletcher, J. (2014). A Spotlight on Preschool: The Influence of Family Factors on Children’s Early Literacy Skills. PLoS ONE 9(4): e95255. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0095255

The Use of Recommended Communication Techniques by Maryland Family Physicians and Pediatricians

Medical experts have proposed communication techniques that can be effectively used to communicate with patients. According to the AMA and other health experts, 17 techniques, if used, would improve health literacy among patients (Weatherspoon, Horowitz, Kleinman, & Wang, 2015). Notably, using simple and clear words was the most successful way of talking to patients, especially with the exclusion of medical jargons. Unfortunately, most physicians underestimate their jargon use although unknowingly. Worse still, not all medical facilities make use of the communication techniques recommended. A case in point is the physicians from Maryland. The research found that these physicians underutilized the 17 recommended techniques (Weatherspoon et al., 2015). Physicians who had patients covered under Medicaid schemes used much simpler communication styles with their patients as compared to their counterparts. Another factor is the age of the patient. Pediatric physicians, for instance, used language, which their young patients could understand easily. Communication techniques influence the literacy level of patients, although physicians hardly use them.

The research used a survey technique to obtain information. A cross-sectional study that consisted Maryland inhabitants was completed on family physicians (Weatherspoon et al., 2015). The participants filled in questionnaires, which they received after a pilot study was finished. The 17 communication questions were classified into five main domains. An analysis was completed with the aid of SAS Version 9.3. The cross-sectional study revealed useful data on the communication styles that family physicians in Maryland used.

In the future, research should be done on the effects of communication on the patients. Only physicians were used to complete the analysis, which may produce bias outcomes. Hence, the views of the patients concerning communication and how it influenced their health literacy should be looked into. Future research should analyze the impact of communication on patients.

References

Weatherspoon, D. J., Horowitz, A. M., Kleinman, D. V., Wang, M. Q. (2015). The use of recommended communication techniques by Maryland family physicians and pediatricians. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0119855. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119855

 

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