Suchergebnisse

This article describes a federally funded pilot program designed to connect low‐income families at supervised visitation (SV) programs to other community resources to improve their economic well‐being. The pilot program established additional community connections for families in both urban and rural communities. We describe outcomes that suggest that many SV clients can benefit when SV programs are engaged with multiple community service partnerships. We also recommend that judges refer families primarily to those supervised visitation programs that can connect low‐income families to additional resources to help address their problems and improve their economic self‐sufficiency.
Key Points for the Family Court Community:
practical advice about connecting low‐income clients in the court system to community resources,
information for supervised visitation and other social service programs on how to effectively connect families to additional services that can assist with economic well‐being,
steps for making the natural connection between single parents and the local child support enforcement offices,
strategies for connecting families to financial literacy resources, and
ideas and strategies for social service providers to begin the shift of services to a holistic partnership approach that can benefit all families who seek support through community programs.

This paper describes how supervised visitation programs in Florida rapidly transitioned from in‐person supervised visits to virtual, online visits during the COVID‐19 pandemic to protect the health of families and staff. Structured telephonic interviews and an online survey revealed that although most program directors had not previously developed guiding policies or hosted such visits, within weeks they were providing hundreds of online "virtual visits" between children and their non‐custodial parents to maintain the crucial parent–child relationship in a safe manner. Vignettes from this data provide lessons regarding parent and child reactions to virtual visits, advantages and disadvantages of virtual visits from the programs' perspectives, and levels of enthusiasm for using virtual visits going forward. In addition, the data includes recommendations for new program guidelines and protocols for the ongoing use of virtual visits. Although it is too early to call these policies best practices, the study does offer insight into the challenges and opportunities afforded by virtual visits and can inform disaster planning that supervised visitation programs develop to prepare for inevitable future disruptions in services to families.

For parents of minor children, the co-parenting relationship is often a highly salient yet volatile aspect of post-divorce life. The nature of this relationship is also dependent upon the greater social context, particularly those aspects that facilitate or constrain interactions between parents. This study evaluates four dimensions of co-parenting behaviors among a sample of recently divorced and divorcing parents (N = 396) and tests for measurement equivalence across physical custody arrangements. Item functioning was determined to be empirically similar for nonresident parents and parents with shared physical custody, so post-hoc tests were conducted comparing a combined group of these parents with a group of resident parents. Results indicated that covert conflictual behaviors falling within the exclusive control of the individual functioned similar across physical custody arrangements. Co parental support, overt forms of conflict, and covert conflict that fell outside the control of the individual differed at a mean-level. As such, there is discussion of co-parenting under particular contextual conditions and the potential impact of those conditions on child well-being.

For the last three decades, about half of all marriages have ended in divorce, and many of these couples had children. The law concerning parental rights and access to children after divorce has shifted and changed through state law and modern trends. The chief consideration for court decisions involving contested custody and parental responsibility today is what arrangement is in the best interest of the child, or children, involved. When the Supreme Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, expanding the rights of same-sex couples by recognizing their fundamental right to marry, the case also expanded the parental rights of gay and lesbian parents nationally. Gay couples use assisted reproduction and adoption to have children; in addition, many children with gay parents were born to these parents in earlier heterosexual marriages or relationships. After Obergefell, courts will inevitably be faced with increased litigation concerning physical custody and parental decision-making in contested child custody cases involving lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) parents. As courts grapple with case-by-case determinations of the best interest of the children involved in these cases, gay parents will need to remain vigilant to ensure that judicial anti-gay prejudice does not affect those decisions. In this Article, we propose a new test for gay parents who believe that a court has improperly allowed anti-gay animus to affect its custody/parenting time determination. Part I of this Article describes the judicial standards that have evolved over the last century governing decisions involving child custody in divorce litigation, with particular emphasis on the modern best interest of the child standard. Part II describes emerging constitutional protections for gay people, including the right to marry recognized in Obergefell, and a recognition of the important role that gay parents have in the lives of their children. Properly read, Obergefell protects LGB parents from having their custody rights to their children restricted on account of their sexual orientation. Part III describes pockets of political and judicial resistance to Obergefell in the United States legal system, and suggests that attorneys remain alert to both overt and oblique expressions of judicial prejudice against gays. It also proposes an appellate test for use when LGB parents appeal a trial court decision alleging that their parental rights have been improperly restricted by judges who harbor antigay animus. While the new test would help gay parents who seek to assert their rights in family court, it ultimately protects those with the least amount of power in disputed custody cases: the children involved.

AbstractPersistent stigma surrounding neurodivergent people still exists. This article advocates for changes to societal systems to improve the well‐being of neurodivergent individuals and families, beginning with widespread awareness and support. Our suggested approach to improve societal infrastructure includes large‐scale online educational training of multidisciplinary professionals who operate within these systems to increase understanding, awareness, support, and accommodations for neurodivergent people. Multidisciplinary professionals who have received neurodiversity training can advocate for their respective systems to improve services for neurodivergent clients. We describe the 2023 development of Florida State University's (FSU) new online Professional Certification in the Fundamentals of Neurodiversity. The asynchronous psychoeducational training provides continuing education credit to a wide range of professionals. The framework for this training and curriculum content are described. Such training, along with a set of accompanying open‐access resources, can be replicated by institutions in many languages and cultures to improve professionals' knowledge and skills across the globe.

AbstractObjective: explore the role of law enforcement officers (LEOs) experiences of early adversity on work-related stress. Data/methods: LEOs were invited to participate in a data collection effort connected to a marketed LEO prevention toolkit on domestic violence (n = 247). Linear regression models were run to identify variables associated with work-related stress. Variables such as demographics, social behaviours, and other job-related factors were controlled for during analysis. Results: mean Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) score of sample participants = 4.64; 95% of participants reported experiencing at least one ACE. ACEs are an important factor in later officer stress but is not significant when post-traumatic stress (PTS) is introduced to the regression models. ACEs, PST, and alcohol use are main explanatory variables of interest. Conclusions/implications: Out of our main variables of interest, ACEs were associated with LEO work-related stress, but the impact was blunted by PTS. PTS remained the only statistically significant variable associated with LEO work-related stress at the completion of analysis. ACEs have long been associated with development of PTS; thus, future research may explore how ACEs contribute to LEOs development of PTS.