This article describes the experiences and perspectives of child welfare workers and maltreated children living in Japanese state care. Japanese adults emphasize supporting children's emotional well-being and empowerment through developmentally and ecologically focused socialization strategies. One developmental goal articulated by caregivers of…

To understand the challenges African American families face when combining employment commitments and informal caregiving responsibilities, uses data from a sample of 119 African American elder-caregiver dyads. Examines the nature of caregiving relationships and extent to which caregivers' employment statuses affect the hours of care provided.…

Examines patterns of use and predictors of unmet needs among a sample of 74 Latino grandparent caregivers. Lack of knowledge was the major barrier to service use, and predictors of unmet needs included low education, poor health, high levels of life stress, and lack of reliable help with child rearing. (Author/GCP)

Examined measures of social support and personality to determine their influence on health outcomes of 51 spouse caregivers of dementia patients. Results indicated a relationship between health outcomes and personality and social support. This finding may help practitioners target and improve interventions with dementia patients and their…

Presents memoirs written by those who have cared for severely ill and disabled loved ones. Such memoirs reveal multiple meanings--many of them positive--inherent in caregiving, contradicting the professional paradigm that family caregiving equals stress. These memoirs can provide an empathic point of entry for clinicians. (RJM)

Offers a survey and critique of three approaches for increasing family care of elderly people: filial support legislation, incentives for family caregivers, and service-rationing provisions. Results indicate that policies that require or encourage relatives to provide care may have adverse consequences for elderly people and their families. (RJM)

Describes parental caregiving among three groups: (1) employed daughters; (2) daughters not employed while caregivers; and (3) daughters who ended employment to continue caregiving. Examines daughters' reactions to caregiving, their involvement with care tasks, and their use of formal and informal assistance. Daughters who terminated employment…

Discusses the role of adult children with serious mental illness as a source of support to their aging parents. Most mothers reported that their mentally-ill children provided at least some ongoing help with daily living tasks. The adult child's assistance related significantly to lower levels of maternal subjective burden. (RJM)

Reports findings of intensive, semistructured interviews with 11 confidants to persons with AIDS (PWAs). AIDS has a devastating impact on the social support networks of those most closely involved with PWAs. Numerous changes were observed in the confidants' supportive resources, network structure, and functioning. (Author/FC)

Using a conceptual stress development model that treats informal supports and competency as potential mediators, examined outcomes of caregiving in samples of black and white caregivers. A perceived lack of informal supports and a sense of incompetency exacerbated stress among black caregivers but had no effects among the white caregivers. (RJM)