The current study examines the level of internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems among children experiencing different types of child care, and levels of parental stress and social support among their parents. These relationships are also examined in the context of different levels of psychosocial risk factors. Data were taken from three cross-sectional waves of data collection from an evaluation study of the 1, 2, 3 GO! Initiative. The sample is from Montreal and surrounding areas and consists of 1245 children, aged between 20 and 42 months, and their families. The Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach, 1997), the Parental Stress Index,Short Form (Abidin, 1995), the Arizona Social Support Interview Schedule (Barrera, 1980) were used. Parents also completed a questionnaire about the childcare service attended by their child. Results indicate that attending a daycare center is linked with lower internalizing behavioral problem scores for children and higher social support scores for parents. No relationships were found between externalizing problems and parental stress. Overall, parents and children using a structured childcare service (i.e. center daycare, family daycare) obtained better scores than those using a less structured childcare service (i.e. drop-in center, relative care). Results also show that children attending a less structured childcare service present higher level of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems than the normal population. Their parents have higher levels of stress and lower levels of social support than the normal population
With the help of the results obtained from the LifePaths Microsimulation Model developed by Statistics Canada, we made estimates as to the situation of marriage and the changes in the proportion of individuals with no surviving children amongst future elderly people, based on gender and age, with location in Canada 2001 and 2031. Our projections allow us to see how changes in age, matrimonial situations and the number of individuals with no surviving children will affect the family environment of the elderly both as concerns the structure of their lives and their numbers. The results indicate that the anticipated retarding of male deaths will lessen the number of spouseless women aged 75 and over. The results also anticipate that the number of baby boomers reaching the age of 75, as from the year 2021, will more specifically increase the number of this age in whose family environment there will characteristically be no surviving children.
This article deals with young people’s projects for their futures and more especially the way in which they envisage their own future families. The author presents the results of an analysis bases on interview data concerning the values important to young Quebecers of both sexes. The analysis shows that these young people have a step-by-step vision of their futures. They intend to complete their studies, find interesting employment that pays enough to satisfy their needs, and settle down and have children. They are optimistic and explain their projects clearly, while being aware of what it will require from them in terms of effort and investment.
In this study, the author compared the educational practices of fathers and mothers of children who present exteriorized behaviour problems with those of parents whose children do not (n = 626 children, average age: 5.6 years). She also examined the relationships between the level of the behavioural difficulty experienced by the children and the educational practices of their parents, taking into account the gender of both parent and child. The results indicate that a feeling of insufficient parental competence is interconnected with the difficulties experienced by the children, irrespective of the gender of parent or child. The results also show a differentiated linkage, more particularly that of the improper use of discipline, especially as concerns boys and that of a low level of paternal commitment, especially as concerns girls. The discussion brings out the possible spin-off from a differentiated approach to the two parents.
When one questions spouses as to how they go about organizing their finances, their spontaneous answer is “easy – there was nothing to it.” But when you combine the results of research carried out on changes in the use of money (Henchoz, 2008b) and of linen and laundry (Kaufmann,1992) as part of spousal history, you begin to realize the central role played by silence in the structuring of contemporary conjugality. If this process is seen as both natural and spontaneous, this is because it is based more on the representations of contemporary conjugal relations (of which we will examine three dimensions : love, equality and gender expectations) than on a genuine ‘conversation’ between partners (Berger and Kellner, 1988). Couples have found that the most effective instrument for maintaining good spousal relations and to reconcile the antinomic representations of money and conjugality is silence (Hahn, 1991. However, this silence is also due to the fact that there are no words available to characterize the inequalities that result from the application of conjugal ideas such as love, disinterestedness and equality. This means that in constructing their couple, the spouses incorporate a fictitious and rarely questioned understanding rather than a shared vision of reality.
