"There Is a Big Question Mark": Managing Ambiguity in a Moroccan Maternity Ward.

In Morocco, where extramarital sex and abortion are illegal, single mothers' ambiguous status before the law inflects medical decision-making. Leaky boundaries between the court and the hospital required doctors and administrators to work with multiple forms of documentation while anticipating external surveillance. Gaps between everyday experience and legalized forms of identity created confusion across multiple institutions. When discussing single mothers, hospital staff often spoke of "question marks" that flagged tensions between legibility and liability, disappearance and documentation. Managing question marks ramified surveillance and categorization. Ultimately, however, attempts to administratively resolve single mothers' ambiguity created gaps and inconsistencies that allowed vulnerable patients to disappear from view.

How are parental functioning and single parenthood associated with court outcomes? An analysis of child protection cases.

Impaired parental functioning and single parenthood are considered risk factors for child maltreatment and being involved in the child protection context. Past research has shown that an impaired mental functioning and being a single parent are indicators of limited parenting resources. These risk factors are likely to be considered by family judges, which might lead to more intrusive court decisions concerning parental custody. To date, court data have rarely been investigated. The present study examined parental mental health and single parenthood using data from family law proceedings. The role of the fathers has been understudied and the few existing studies yielded contradictory results with respect to fathers' involvement as risk or protective factor. Therefore, the study included both fathers' data and mothers' data. A total of 220 child protection court files with 343 affected children were coded using a category system. Parental mental health was coded as parental functioning in daily life and was significantly associated with the court outcome. Multilevel mediation analyses showed a significant indirect effect of maternal functioning on the intrusiveness of the court decisions via child maltreatment. Single motherhood moderated the effect: The indirect effect was more pronounced for single mothers. This study contributes to a better understanding of the population getting before court and the judicial process. Psychological attributes do play a role in the decision-making of judges; and taking the role of the fathers into account is necessary.

Avances hacia una regulación de la gestación por sustitución en España en base al modelo regulado en el Estado de California / No disponible

La Ley 14/2006, de 26 de mayo no ha autorizado la gestación por sustitución. Ello implica la exclusión injustificada del uso de las técnicas de reproducción humana asistida a los hombres y mujeres con incapacidad para gestar y, por ello, de la posibilidad de crear su familia a través de dichas tecnologías. Este problema se resolvería en la medida en que se regulase en el Derecho español un modelo de gestación por sustitución bajo la condición de que fuera respetuoso con los derechos de las partes intervinientes en dicho proceso. Para contribuir al avance hacia la eventual regulación en España de esta técnica reproductiva, hemos tomado como referencia el modelo establecido en el Californian surrogacy Law

The Law 14/2006 of 26 may has not authorized the surrogacy. This implies the unjustified exclusion of using human assisted reproduction techniques for women and men unable to gestate and, therefore, to create their family through these techniques. This problem could be solved if a model of surrogacy were regulated in Spanish Law emphasizing the respect for the rights of the parties involved in the process. In contributing to the progress towards the eventual regulation in Spain of the surrogacy reproductive technique, we have taken as reference the model established in the Californian Surrogacy Law

Maternidad subrogada: ficción jurídica contra verdad biológica / No disponible

Para comprender las razones de la creciente aceptación social de la maternidad subrogada el presente trabajo aborda tres líneas argumentales: en primer lugar, el papel que está jugando una nueva terminología en la reconfiguración de la maternidad y la paternidad. En segundo lugar, la definitiva consolidación social del dualismo antropológico como paradigma explicativo del ser humano, que lleva a reducir su dimensión corporal al ámbito del tener y, como consecuencia, a legitimar su absoluta disponibilidad y manipulabilidad. Y, en tercer lugar, las profundas contradicciones con las que el Derecho tropieza cuando, a la hora determinar la filiación legal, se pretende primar el factor intencional sobre el hecho biológico del parto, prescindiendo del secular principio mater semper certa est

To understand the reasons for the increased social acceptance of surrogate motherhood the present paper develops three plot lines: firstly, the role that is playing a new terminology in the reconfiguration of the motherhood and fatherhood. Secondly, the definitive social consolidation of anthropological dualism as paradigm of the human being, that leads to reduce his material dimension to the field of having and, as a consequence, to legitimize his absolute availability. And, thirdly, the hard contradictions that the Law finds when it intends to determine the legal parentage of a child, only founded on the procreating will and not over the fact of birth, forgetting the secular legal principle mater semper certa est

Randomized control trial follow-up: Online program and waiting period for unmarried parents in Title IV-D Court.

Despite a lack of research on parent programs for separating unmarried parents, many judicial officers mandate participation. Rudd, Holtzworth-Munroe, Reyome, Applegate, and D'Onofrio (2015) conducted the only randomized controlled trial of any online parent program for separating parents, ProudToParent.org (PTP), and related court processes (e.g., having a waiting period between the establishment of paternity and the court hearing regarding child related issues vs. having the hearing the same day). They recruited a unique sample of 182 cases in a Title IV-D Court (i.e., a court for primarily low income parents) (Authorization of Appropriations, 42 U.S.C. § 651, 2013), in which paternity was previously contested but subsequently established via court-ordered genetic testing. Unexpectedly, cases assigned to PTP and a waiting period were the least likely to reach agreement at their court hearing. In the current study, we extend these results to examine the impact of the study conditions on relitigation in the year following the court hearing; only 11.2% of cases filed a motion, and 7.8% had a hearing. The group that was least likely to reach full initial agreement (i.e., assigned to PTP and the waiting period) were the most likely to relitigate. Further, controlling for study conditions, reaching a full agreement in the Title IV-D court decreased the odds of having a court hearing in the following year. Reaching agreements on the specific issues involved in such cases (e.g., custody, child support) reduced the likelihood of both motions and hearings in the year after the Title IV-D hearings. The implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

A alienação parental no Brasil: uma revisão das publicações científicas / Parental alienation in Brazil: a review of scientific public ations / La alienación parental en Brasil: revisión de las publicaciones científicas

De grande relevância às áreas comuns da psicologia e direito, o tema da Alienação Parental (AP), bem como da Síndrome de Alienação Parental (SAP), ganhou destaque nacional a partir da aprovação da lei 12.318/2010, que prevê punição para a prática alienadora e determina a atuação do psicólogo judiciário na investigação dos casos suspeitos. Contudo trata-se de assunto controverso do ponto de vista científico, sendo que, em nosso país, há grande carência por estudos. Com o objetivo de traçar um panorama nacional sobre as pesquisas na área, o presente estudo consistiu na revisão da literatura científica brasileira sobre o assunto até julho de 2015. Foram selecionados e analisados 13 artigos, sendo que nove deles são textos dissertativos e apenas quatro apresentam resultados de investigações empíricas. Infelizmente a maioria dos artigos encontrados, inclusive os estudos empíricos, não parece trazer contribuições relevantes para a área. Conclui-se que a baixa produção de estudos científicos sobre o tema prejudica o desenvolvimento conceitual e a atuação dos profissionais que trabalham com famílias em disputas judiciais.

Parental Alienation (PA) and Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) are of great relevance to the common area shared by Psychology and Law, and have gained emphasis in Brazil since the approval of Law 12.318/2010. Such law provides punishment for alienating practices and determines the role of Forensic Psychologists in the investigation of alleged cases. Nevertheless, the topic is controversial from a scientific point of view and the literature is scarce, particularly in Brazil.The present study reviewed the Brazilian scientific literature regarding PA and PAS up to July 2015. As a result, 13 articles were selected and analyzed. Nine of them were theoretical papers, and only four presented results from empirical research. Unfortunately most publications, including the empirical studies, did not seem to offer important contributions to the area. The lack of empirical research on this topic affects the area's conceptual development and professional conduct while working with families in litigation.

De gran relevancia para el área común de la psicología y del derecho, el tema de la Alienación Parental (AP) y del Síndrome de Alienación Parental (SAP) ganaron prominencia en Brasil después de la aprobación de la Ley 12.318 / 2010, que establece penas para la práctica alienante y determina el desempeño del psicólogo judicial en la investigación de casos sospechosos. Sin embargo, todavía es polémico desde un punto de vista científico, y en el país, existe una gran necesidad de estudios científicos. Con el fin de dibujar un panorama nacional de la investigación el área, el presente estudio fue revisar la literatura científica brasileña sobre el tema hasta julio de 2015. Como resultado, se seleccionaron y analizaron 13 artículos, nueve de ellos son textos argumentativos y sólo cuatro presentan resultados de investigación empírica. Lamentablemente, la mayoría de los artículos encontrados, incluidos los estudios empíricos, no parecen aportar contribuciones significativas a la zona. Se concluye que la baja producción de los estudios científicos sobre el tema socava el desarrollo conceptual y el trabajo de los profesionales que trabajan con familias en litígio.

Welfare Reform and Labor Force Exit by Young, Low-Skilled Single Males.

While the labor market woes of low-skilled male workers in the United States over the past several decades have been well documented, the academic literature identifying causal factors leading to declines in labor force participation (LFP) by young, low-skilled males remains scant. To address this gap, I use the timing and characteristics of welfare-reform policies implemented during the 1990s and fixed-effects, instrumental variable regression modeling to show that policies seeking to increase LFP rates for low-skilled single mothers inadvertently led to labor force exit by young, low-skilled single males. Using data from the Current Population Survey and a bundle of work inducements enacted by states throughout the 1990s as exogenous variation in a quasi-experimental design, I find that the roughly 10 percentage point increase in LFP for low-skilled single mothers facilitated by welfare reform resulted in a statistically significant 2.8 percentage point decline in LFP for young, low-skilled single males. After conducting a series of robustness checks, I conclude that this result is driven entirely by white males, who responded to welfare-reform policies with a 3.7 percentage point decline in labor supply. Young black males, as well as other groups of potentially affected workers, appear to be uninfluenced by the labor supply response of less-educated single mothers to welfare reform. Impacts on young, single white males are large and economically significant, suggesting that nearly 150,000 males departed the formal labor market in response to directed welfare-reform policies.

Randomized control trial: Online parent program and waiting period for unmarried parents in Title IV-D court.

Despite a lack of research on parent education programs for unmarried parents, many judicial officers mandate participation. We recruited an understudied sample likely at high risk for negative outcomes-182 court cases involving unmarried parents on government assistance in which paternity was contested and then established via genetic testing ordered by the court. This 2 × 2 randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact on initial litigation outcomes of two factors: (a) participation in an online parent education program or not and (b) having a waiting period between the establishment of paternity and the court hearing concerning child-related issues or not. Using an intent-to-treat framework, we found that among cases not assigned to the program, there was no difference in the rate of full agreement on child-related issues (e.g., child support, custody, parenting time) when comparing cases assigned to a waiting period and cases not assigned to a waiting period. In contrast, for cases assigned to the program, cases also assigned a waiting period were less likely to reach a full agreement than cases that had their hearing on the same day. In addition, cases in the "program and waiting period" condition were less likely to return to court for their hearing than cases in the "no program and waiting period" condition. In exploratory analyses of the subsample of cases in which both parents were present at the court hearing, the pattern of results remained the same, although the findings were no longer statistically significant.

Children abandoned and taken back: children, women, and families in dire straits in Lyon in the nineteenth century.

Abandoning a child was no rare deed in European towns in the nineteenth century, mostly among single women in underprivileged environments. On the other hand, taking this same child back was more unusual. By analyzing the registers of the Lyon hospitals, it is possible to determine the percentage of children taken back by their mothers, how this was actually achieved, and to examine the family status of the mothers at the time of both events. Both of these acts -- abandoning a child and then taking it back -- can be put back in their context in these women's lives, for instance, by looking into the length of time separating the two procedures. To finish with, it appears that the 'Hospices civils de Lyon' encouraged mothers to take the children back and generally had a conciliatory attitude toward them, supposedly in the children's interest.

Preschool and maternal labor market outcomes: evidence from a regression discontinuity Design.

In developing countries, employment rates for mothers with young children are relatively low. This study analyzes how maternal labor market outcomes in Argentina are affected by the preschool attendance of their children. Using pooled household surveys, we show that 4-year-olds with birthdays on June 30 have sharply higher probabilities of preschool attendance than children born on July 1, given enrollment-age rules. Regression-discontinuity estimates using this variation suggest that preschool attendance of the youngest child in the household increases the probability of full-time employment and weekly hours of maternal employment. We find no effect of preschool attendance on maternal labor outcomes for children who are not the youngest in the household.

Nonmarital births and state abortion policies.

This study examines the impact of various restrictive abortion laws on nonmarital childbearing since the passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill. The empirical results find that the price of an abortion, a Medicaid funding restriction, and a waiting period law are associated with a decrease in a state's nonmarital birthrate. The negative effects of restrictive abortion laws on a state's nonmarital birthrate are found to occur in various age groups. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that restrictive abortion laws induce unmarried women to change their level of unprotected sexual activity or contraceptive behavior, thereby reducing the likelihood of an unwanted nonmarital pregnancy.

Effects of earnings-supplement policies on adult economic and middle-childhood outcomes differ for the "hardest to employ".

Data from the Minnesota Family Investment Program and the New Hope demonstration were used to determine whether experimental effects of antipoverty policies differ by parents' risk for nonemployment. Using propensity score analysis, increases in employment and income were largest in the harder-to-employ halves of both samples. However, only children in the moderately hard-to-employ quartiles (50th to 75th percentile) consistently showed improvements in school and behavior outcomes. The very-hardest-to-employ 25% experienced decreases in school engagement, and increases in aggressive behaviors, despite substantial increases in parental employment and income. In this group, increases in maternal depression, reductions in regular family routines, and smaller increases in job stability and center-based child care occurred. These factors may have counteracted the potential benefits of increased income on children.

Coparent or second-parent adoption by same-sex parents.

Children who are born to or adopted by 1 member of a same-sex couple deserve the security of 2 legally recognized parents. Therefore, the American Academy of Pediatrics supports legislative and legal efforts to provide the possibility of adoption of the child by the second parent or coparent in these families.

The socio-legal acceptance of new technologies: a close look at artificial insemination.

Heated debates often surround the introduction of an important new technology into society, as exemplified by current controversies surrounding human cloning and privacy protection on the Internet. Underlying these controversies are disruptions to central socio-legal values caused by these new technologies. Whether new technologies will eventually be accepted by society is often contingent on the reaction of the legal system. This mandates the formulation of a conceptual framework for understanding and structuring the way the law should react in cases surrounding the adoption of new technologies. By using the case study of artificial insemination this Article develops the tools for structuring the legal role in the acceptance process of new technologies. The three-century controversy surrounding the innovation of artificial insemination results from the innovations' disruption of the socio-legal value of the family. Artificial Insemination--although invented in the eighteenth-century--was rarely used until the 1930s, and only legalized in the 1960s. Its application to surrogacy and its use by unmarried women extends the controversy into the twenty-first century. The case study demonstrates the nature of the relationship among the technological, social and legal acceptance processes of new technologies, and analyzes the legal acceptance debate. The conceptual framework produced is useful in understanding and structuring the legal role in current debates surrounding the introduction and acceptance of new technologies.