Child Abuse and Civilization: Working with Various Families

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Child Corruption and Culture: Working with Diverse Families

By Lisa Aronson Fontes, Ph.D.

Publishing Information: 2005, New York: Guilford Press 239 pages ISBN: 1-59385-130-8

Among human service professionals working with families, it is axiomatic that respect for cultural diversity is foundational to successful outcomes. The Kid Welfare League of America identifies cultural competence as one of the core principals that guide its framework for community activity to support families and increment safety for children at risk for abuse:

"Respecting and valuing diversity: Various cultures, traditions, and perspectives are sources of forcefulness and creativity that community partners can draw on to nurture salubrious families and children." (Morgan, Spears, & Kaplan, 2003, pg. ix)

Acknowledging the importance of cultural competence, however, is simply a kickoff pace in developing the skills, understanding, and noesis necessary to becoming a child welfare professional person with advanced levels of cultural expertise.

Lisa Aronson Fontes' book, Kid Corruption and Culture: Working with Various Families provides a comprehensive presentation of circuitous cultural bug with arable examples drawn from her experience as a psychologist, educator, and researcher. The 230+ page volume is specifically targeted at workers in the child maltreatment sector, just would be advisable for anyone providing social services to families, parents, or children. The book'south nine chapters include specific sections on assessment, interviewing, physical discipline, parent teaching, organizational improvement, and working with interpreters.

In Affiliate 1, Fontes writes of the dangers of stereotyping. She discusses means we tin erase someone's uniqueness and individuality by not beingness aware of our potential to stereotype our clients. For instance, have the following hypothetical scenario based on a composite of our experiences: 

                    A bi-racial, adolescent boy (African American and Latino), presents    for therapy. His physical features strongly favor his Latino    origins. With this in mind, the therapist begins to unconsciously    stereotype this boy to carry as other Latino adolescents that    he/she knows or has heard accounts of such equally: probably follows the    Catholic organized religion, possibly gang affiliated, and speaks Spanish.    The therapist creates a picture of this male child based on assumptions    and stereotypes and begins to craft his/her therapeutic    interventions and goals guided by this faulty data. Later,    as the human relationship deepens between the therapist and customer,    he/she realizes that this boy does not identify with his Latino    culture much at all. His mother is African American and his begetter    is Latino but he has not seen his male parent since infancy. Raised by    his African American mother and her family, he does not know much    at all about Catholicism and speaks simply a few words of Castilian.

In this example, the therapist ends up working with this customer based on stereotypes and assumptions which provide an inaccurate foundation for therapeutic work. Not only did the therapist brand assumptions about the boy'due south Latino background, he/she wrongly assumed an entire indigenous identity and missed the client's own racial orientation.

Chapter Two "Working with Immigrant Families Affected by Child Maltreatment" presents information about the considerable stressors faced by immigrant families trying to make their way in the United States. Civilization shock, isolation, linguistic misunderstanding, and discrimination all combine to claiming the child maltreatment worker conducting an assessment or providing interventions. For example, traditional healthcare practices such as "cupping" (an Eastern European, Asian, and Mexican American practice of applying hot cups to parts of a child's body to create a vacuum that moves blood to the surface, creating bruising) or herbal potions that may comprise atomic number 82 or mercury test the workers ability to balance respect for culture with the welfare of the children under their care.

Many cultures include male-female interactions that involve pregnant power imbalances. Some manifestations of these status inequalities such every bit wedlock by capture, genital cut of girls, married woman chirapsia, digital tests of virginity, and men with multiple wives will directly conflict with the values and standards of nigh American child welfare workers. Fontes provides concrete strategies for cartoon lines betwixt acceptable and unlawful practices, all the while maintaining a loftier level of respect and agreement for the individuals involved.

Other areas in which the book provides guidance include:

* Helping workers understand how their own race/ethnicity impacts clients and how to minimize the tension this may create.

* How to construction and facilitate parent instruction groups that gear up a tone of acceptance of diverse exercise and perspective.

* The role of the interpreter and how interpreted conversation tin can either assist or undermine the acquisition of information bearing on kid maltreatment and improving family support.

Of particular relevance is information about how to distinguish between corporal punishment and physical abuse and where to draw the line. The author identifies a diverseness of cultural disciplinary practices that can exist practical both as penalization or abuse depending on the severity of the application. These practices include:

* Making a child kneel with blank knees on an abacus (Chinese families), uncooked rice (Latino and Asian families), uncooked grains of corn (Key American families), or table salt (Jamaican families).

* Forcing children to hold Bibles with extended arms for periods of fourth dimension (fundamentalist Christian families).

* A special jar of peppers a child is forced to eat when he or she says something wrong.

Child Abuse and Culture deals with hard and complicated subjects simply is easy to read and sympathize. The book provides information in a mode that allows readers to quickly and hands apply new cognition to their daily practice, and provides strategies to discuss hard issues with children, parents, and fellow co-workers/clinicians. This book opens our eyes to areas crucial for truthful agreement of civilization's role in family life. Since immigration and the increasing diversity of the American mural will go on into the hereafter, this book belongs on the reference shelf of every child welfare worker.

Reference

Morgan, L.J., Spears, Fifty.South., & Kaplan, Due south. (2003). Making Children a National Priority: A Framework for Customs Action. Washington DC: Child Welfare League of America.

Lisa Aronson Fontes, Ph.D., is a psychologist who has dedicated over xv years to making the social service and mental health systems more responsive to culturally diverse people affected past family violence. She currently directs the Schoolhouse Counseling Graduate Plan at Springfield Higher in Springfield, Massachusetts. She has worked as a family, individual, and grouping therapist in a variety of settings.

Reviewed past Leslie Davidson, Chiliad.A., and John de Miranda, Ed.Grand.

Leslie Davidson is a Marriage and Family unit Therapist Intern with over ten years of feel working with children and adolescents. She has served as a mentor, teacher, child programming supervisor, child intern-therapist and counselor. Ms. Davidson completed her B.Southward. in Behavioral Communications and Theater Arts at Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, Michigan) and earned a Chief's caste in Counseling Psychology, with a specialization in Drama Therapy, from the California Found of Integral Studies in 2006.

John de Miranda is Executive Managing director of the National Clan on Alcohol, Drugs and Inability, a network of individuals and organizations defended to improving access to substance abuse prevention and treatment services for people with disabilities. With a professional person groundwork in the alcohol and drug bug field that spans 30+ years, Mr. de Miranda has served equally programme ambassador, management consultant, therapist, educator, government official, researcher, and trainer. Following graduation from Wesleyan Academy (Middletown, Connecticut) with a B.A. degree in Folklore, he earned a Masters degree in Counseling & Consulting Psychology from Harvard University in 1979.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Integrated Research Services, Inc.

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Gale Document Number: GALE|A173513901