Family Court Review最新文献

Military parents face distinct challenges in parenting which can negatively impact overall family functioning, child developmental outcomes, and serving members’ readiness and retention. Over the past decade, several programs supporting military parents have been developed and seem promising, but the existing evidence on their effectiveness has not yet been ascertained. This study systematically examined the overall effectiveness of parenting support interventions for military families. Through systematic searches of literature published between 2010 and 2025, 14 interventions were identified and included in the review. These are analyzed in relation to their approach and characteristics, country, evaluation design, sample characteristics, outcome measures, and key findings and limitations. Conclusions highlight that while many of the evaluations of parenting programs developed so far show promise as to their usefulness and beneficiaries of these programs are largely positive about them, confidence in their effectiveness is hindered by limited evaluations, non-randomized controlled study design, and small homogenous samples, among other limitations. Moreover, it is important to consider how, for example, these interventions developed and tested in North America can be adapted for other countries.

This article examines the policy and practice impact of Living in Our Shoes: Understanding the Needs of UK Armed Forces Families, the first comprehensive review commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in 2019. Drawing on extensive qualitative and quantitative data, the review identified systemic challenges faced by military families, including frequent relocations, disrupted education, limited healthcare access, and social isolation. The review made 110 recommendations, 106 of which were accepted by the MOD leading to policy changes; and directly informed the MOD Armed Forces Families Strategy 2022–2032, evidencing its strategic influence. The report has been cited in parliamentary debates and consultations across government departments and devolved administrations, used by third-sector organizations to advocate for improved support for military families; and continues to shape policy through the Living in Our Shoes Revisited project (2024–2027). In this article, the two authors of the review reflect on how research can influence and shape policy, share insights to encourage those working with military families to promote evidence-based policy and hold institutions to account. This case study demonstrates how applied social research can drive systemic change, inform national policy, and improve the wellbeing of military families. The review's themes are aligned with global challenges in military family wellbeing, making it a valuable international comparative resource.

While it is often assumed that counseling interventions can be helpful in resolving relationship difficulties, there is limited research which provides evidence of this being the case in respect of military families, who are facing additional, unique stressors due to the military lifestyle, which can significantly strain couple relationships and family functioning. This study presents the first empirical evaluation of relationship counseling within the context of UK Naval families, addressing a significant gap in the literature on military family dynamics and wellbeing. Employing a pre-test/post-test mixed methods design, the research draws on data from 187 Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel and their families who accessed counseling delivered by a civilian provider through a programme funded by a leading UK naval charity. Quantitative findings, derived from validated individual and family outcome measures, indicate statistically significant improvements in mental well-being, resilient coping, family functioning, and couple communication. Qualitative data further illuminate the complex relationship challenges faced by military families, underscoring the nuanced role of counseling as a supportive intervention. The study highlights the need for targeted mental health support and effective triage systems when military families seek help for relationship difficulties. It also identifies the potential of counseling as a preventative measure to mitigate the relational strain of military life, with implications for family stability and military personnel retention. This research makes an original contribution to understanding the role of counseling interventions in enhancing the wellbeing of military families and informs future policy and practice in community support services for military-connected families.

Military cultural competency (MCC) is increasingly recognized as essential for building trust and delivering effective care to military-connected individuals. Unlike the US, in the UK context military families receive support from practitioners who do not have formal training in military cultural competence and military identity is not systematically captured or considered in service provision. This structural difference creates a unique opportunity to study how military families engage with civilian services in a system that does not routinely recognize or accommodate their military status. This paper discusses the findings on culture awareness and competence of UK civilian professionals offering counseling to military families, from multi-informant perspectives of military beneficiaries of counseling (n = 40), counselors (n = 64) and supervisors (n = 14), using a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey data using an adapted version of the Military Cultural Competence Assessment Scale (Nedegaard & Zwilling, 2017), with structured qualitative evaluations. The findings highlight the importance of counselors having specific knowledge of the military population. This is the first study of this kind in the UK, thereby addressing important gaps in knowledge, policy, and practice regarding the effective provision of counseling to military families. The UK context provides a “natural experiment” for considering the importance of MCC in delivering therapeutic outcomes and as such, the study makes a significant contribution to international debates on culturally responsive care for military-connected populations.

The United States imprisons juvenile delinquents at a rate higher than any other country in the world. This is likely due to the lack of a federal standard for a minimum age to try children as adults. While states scramble to find the appropriate response, youth offenders are left as collateral in a vicious loop of recidivism. This Note explores the lack of a national standard in establishing criminal responsibility for trying children and proposes a hybrid solution of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Raise the Age legislation to promote rehabilitation and re-entry pathways for youth offenders.

This study presents the results of research conducted among Lithuanian, Polish, and Ukrainian mediators on the issue of involving children in mediation in matters which concern them in order to hear their voice. The aim of the study was to establish the actual state of art, and therefore the scope, frequency and methods of involving children in mediation, as well as the expectations and preferences of mediators in this regard. The views of mediators regarding their role in mediation involving children were also sought. The results of the study prove that mediators agree on the need to hear a voice of children in family mediation. They also outline the practice of involving children in mediation, which is predominantly based on indirect methods. This study shows the great similarity between the studied groups, their characteristics, their perceptions of mediation and the role of a mediator and their opinions on how to secure the hearing of the child's opinion in mediation. This may prove the universal nature of the subject matter concerning conflict resolution, mediation and the protection of children's rights.

Aunts remain the “forgotten kin” in family and kinship care studies, which largely center on parenthood and coupledom. Existing literature tends to subsume them under the broad category of extended family members, devoting scant scholarly attention to aunthood as a distinct category or to the relationship between aunthood and the law. This article addresses that gap and contributes to singlehood studies by examining the legal treatment of aunt care in Taiwan, focusing on single and childfree aunts (“SACAs”) within a social-legal context where patrilineality and patrilocality persist despite the law's formal neutrality. It asks what the family might look like if aunts were placed at the center, mapping their legal status in comparison to other kin and showing that the law positions them as remote third parties to parenthood. Drawing on court decisions, the article analyzes SACAs' roles in supplemental and nonparent primary care, as well as their pathways toward legal parenthood. SACAs providing supplemental care are sometimes acknowledged as part of their siblings' extended family care support network, enhancing their siblings' post-divorce custody claims. Yet their caregiving rarely translates into legal entitlements; claims for dependent tax benefits are frequently denied due to narrow co-residence definitions and singlism. SACAs acting as nonparent primary caregivers may be appointed as legal guardians and recognized as surrogate mothers, particularly when parents are absent or when sibling ties would be strengthened, but the transition from aunthood to motherhood is often fraught with obstacles, as courts remain reluctant to recognize multi-parent families and sometimes exhibit singlism. The article calls for law and policy reforms to acknowledge SACAs' caregiving, broaden recognition of diverse family structures, and resist the privatization of dependency. An aunt-centered approach challenges the marriage paradigm and the parent dyad, advancing a vision of law that better reflects the diversity of caregiving and family formations.

This rapid review examined evidence on the effectiveness of couple relationship education (CRE) in strengthening military couple relationships. It sourced published evaluations of programs adapted for, or delivered to, current or ex-serving military personnel and their partners within Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the USA, between January 2010 and June 2024. Relationship outcomes examined include couple relationship satisfaction, quality, strength, stability, communication, interaction, connection, conflict resolution, and prevention of violence. Process evaluation measures were also compared. The quality and overall strength of the evidence (quality, direction and consistency) were reviewed, as were participant characteristics that moderate program effects. Twenty articles were included in the review, reporting on 15 studies of 10 programs. One study was from Australia, and the rest were from the USA. The review confirms the value of providing CRE for military and veteran couples experiencing relationship issues, and as a preventative strategy, to help them better manage the unique demands of military service life.