Singapore

The Ministry of Social and Family Development has introduced a practitioner's resource guide titled “Guideline on Healthy Family Boundaries: Maintaining Appropriate Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Boundaries”.

In this presentation, professionals will get to hear how this Guide can be utilised to support families in creating a safe and nurturing environment for their children. The session will delve into the conceptualisation of this guideline, including findings from literature reviews and the guiding principles that the key recommendations were founded upon. It adopts a strength-based approach, and presenters will also share actionable strategies to facilitate open and constructive conversations with families.

With this resource, professionals can play a pivotal role in empowering families and promoting positive child outcomes.

Singapore

Allkin Families for Life @ Community (FFLC) offers evidence-based and research-driven marriage and parenting support programmes, under the Ministry of Social and Family Development's Family for Life initiative. One of the key challenges faced by couples and/or parents in attending these in-person sessions, which can span for three to five weeks, include caregiving duties. To address this, Allkin FFLC is introducing “Empower Me!”, a group work programme tailored for children aged 5 to 9, to run concurrently with the parents’ sessions. This innovative programme aims to engage young children meaningfully while providing complementary psychoeducation on family values and practices. By equipping the children with strategies aligned with those taught to their parents, the programme seeks to increase participant sign-ups by addressing caregiving challenges, reduce attrition rates and enhance overall programme efficacy. This comprehensive, dual-focused approach fosters a holistic approach to family support and strengthening of family systems, setting it apart from traditional childminding services or volunteer-based approaches to addressing caregiving challenges.

Vietnam

Conflict is an inevitable part of social relationships in general and parent-child relationships in particular. Understanding parent-child conflict, especially in the context of modern society helps to identify modern issues in the family such as current concerns and differences in main concerns between parents and adolescents. This research was conducted at two high schools in Hanoi (one in urban areas, one in rural areas), including 706 students. The research indicates that the most common conflict revolves around adolescents’ internet use, followed by concerns about their academic performance, friendship relationships, and financial independence. Furthermore, the research emphasizes that families where parents employ authoritarian child management methods tend to have a higher likelihood of conflicts with their children. Lastly, the study highlights a statistically significant difference in parent-adolescent conflict based on living area, gender and grade. Implications for conflict resolution skills and future research on parent-adolescent are discussed.

Singapore

Social support is an important factor determining informal caregivers' outcomes including caregiver burden and depression, but research focused on social support itself, and how it changes over time, is extremely limited. This study is the first to describe heterogenous trajectories in perceived social support among informal caregivers of older adults. It also investigates if psychological resilience influences these trajectories. The study draws on a longitudinal survey of 278 Singaporean informal caregivers of community-dwelling older adults aged 75 years and above with activities of daily living limitations. Caregivers were interviewed up to four times across two years. We applied Group-Based Trajectory Modeling, an approach that is sensitive to within-population heterogeneity, to describe change over time in perceived social support. We modeled psychological resilience as a time-varying covariate. Five trajectories of perceived social support were identified, with three stable trajectories (91% of caregivers) and two declining trajectories (9%). Psychological resilience was positively associated with perceived social support only in the stable trajectories. While most informal caregivers of older adults may experience stable perceived social support over time, a minority do report declining perceived social support. More attention is needed on the reasons for this decline and interventions targeting this vulnerable group.

Japan

Previous literature based on the European contexts pointed out that except for family structure and cultural factors, the pattern of intergenerational support may vary greatly across the life course, and events such as entry into retirement, the onset of disability, or financial hardship influence intergenerational support greatly. However, little was known about how and for what intergenerational support patterns change across the life course in East Asia.

Employing data from the East Asian Social Survey in 2016, we examined the trend and determinants of time and money transfers across life course among observations older than 45 in Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan.

The results demonstrated that the Japanese show relatively consistent mutual transfers in both time and money across mid to later life while time transfer started to show a received-oriented trend after 70 in China, Korea, and Taiwan, and money transfer shows a transition from given-oriented to receive-oriented at 55 in China, 64 in Korea and 59 in Taiwan. Individuals' support abilities and needs were sensitively influenced by life course events such as retirement, poor health state, and financial hardship in their later life. Social policy should pay more attention to people who experienced these life course events.

Brunei Darussalam

As Perceived Income Adequacy (PIA) has been considered a predictor of economic well-being, this study investigates the relationship between family-related variables and PIA among older adults, a topic receiving less attention in Brunei and Asian countries. Analysing data from 429 Bruneian respondents aged 50 and above, hierarchical logistic regression models were employed to examine the family variables (family size, support from children or relatives, living arrangement) on PIA, while controlling for socio-demographic, economic, and health factors. It shows that 54.3% perceived having adequate income and highlights the significance of intergenerational support networks, with support from children consistently associated with higher PIA likelihood (OR=2.3, p-value=0.02). Conversely, specific living arrangements, such as being divorced/widowed with children (OR=0.14, p-value=0.002) or married with children (OR=0.26, p-value=0.02), were linked to lower PIA likelihood compared to being unmarried without children. Other family variables showed no significant associations. Household income and good self-rated health consistently exerted a strong association with PIA. These results emphasise the importance of family, alongside health and financial conditions, in shaping older adults' perceptions of income adequacy. The findings underscore the potential benefits of policies promoting intergenerational support to enhance perceived economic well-being among older adults and consequently foster active and healthy ageing.

Singapore

The Happy Kakis (THK) groupwork began in 2021 as a three-year initiative attempt to address early signs of social isolation in individuals aged 50 and above. This groupwork aims to guide the participants towards a more fulfilling life by alleviating symptoms of social isolation and involuntary loneliness.

THK integrates various therapeutic modalities like Narrative Therapy, Choice Theory, Play Therapy, and Mindfulness in our groupwork activities, with the entire curriculum guided by theories from Interpersonal Neurobiology by Dr Daniel Siegel.

Evaluation employed a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative analysis of transcripts, session notes, journal entries, and facilitator assessments – of participants behaviours during sessions, in-between sessions and post-groupwork sessions – with quantitative data from pre and post-tests from existing evidence-based measures. Qualitative findings underscore the significance of sessions such as mindfulness exercises and values exploration activities, which received commendable ratings from participants for improved emotional well-being and quality of life. Quantitative findings revealed a significant increase in participants' renewed purpose in life, suggesting a positive influence of THK groupwork.

Overall, the findings highlight the multifaceted nature of addressing social isolation among older adults and underscore the potential of this blended THK groupwork intervention approach in promoting holistic well-being and social connectedness for older adults.

Singapore

The study aimed to examine how adverse family circumstances could be linked with the risk of child maltreatment. Furthermore, it examined the common social service pathways for children who received protection services, which could contribute to identifying avenues for early intervention. Linked administrative data of multiple birth cohorts in Singapore were analysed (N ≈ 200,000). Adopting the machine learning approach, the study found that spousal violence and parental criminal justice involvement were pertinent factors predicting children's contact with protection system at early and late childhood (model overall accuracy ≈ 0.85). Furthermore, sequence analysis revealed that among maltreated children who were from families with the abovementioned adversities, a substantial proportion of them received financial assistance prior to their contact with protection services. These validated the Ministry of Social and Family Development's ongoing efforts in supporting families with exposure to various life adversities. It also suggested that financial assistance could be a possible touchpoint for early preventive effort to break the negative cycle.

Singapore

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is a structured, evidence-based, and family-centred intervention designed for families of at-risk and in-risk children and youths. FFT emphasises on enhancing family strengths and addressing dysfunctional interaction patterns to help families build hope for change, improve family dynamics, and achieve sustainable positive outcomes. This presentation showcases local examples of how FFT addresses family conflict and violence through guiding families to understand their shared struggles, develop strategies to break intergenerational patterns of violence, and improve family relationships. The presentation will focus on three aspects. First, FFT as a therapeutic modality and its service delivery will be discussed. Second, the presentation will delve into how family therapists apply FFT techniques with specific high-conflict families to increase and sustain families' motivation for change. Finally, the presenters will share their experiences as FFT therapists, which will include personal reflections and insights from working closely with high conflict families.

Singapore

Studies that examine determinants of marriage and fertility intentions often treat them as separate outcomes. To what extent fertility intention predicts marriage intention reflect changing meanings of marriage and childbearing. This study, using data from a comparative quasi-experimental study in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, systematically examines how the associations between fertility intention and marriage intention and the moderating effects of gender, gender ideology, familism, and democracy attitudes converge and differ across the three societies. Findings show that intention to have children positively predicts marriage intention. While such associations are strengthened by endorsement of familism, they are attenuated among women and by endorsement of gender equality. Among the three societies, the association between fertility and marriage intentions is the weakest in Taiwan; gender and gender ideology are more significant moderators of such associations in Hong Kong, while familism, as a moderator, is more significant in Singapore and Taiwan.

Indonesia

There are two primary types of studies in family demography. The first involves technical analyses, tracking family dynamics over time, documenting changes in composition, transitions (e.g., marriage, divorce), and socioeconomic factors. The second type delves into socio-economic-cultural aspects of family structures and transitions, uncovering their origins and impacts. This paper falls into the first category, focusing on calculating the likelihood of changing marital status in Indonesia. It provides an important basis for the second type of research.

It utilises data from wave-5 (2014) of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS), a comprehensive longitudinal study initiated in 1993. The IFLS aims to offer insights into the evolving dynamics of family life, social transformations, and economic progress in Indonesia. Notably, it contains detailed information on marital history. This paper looks at how people’s marital status changes over time in Indonesia. It examines changes between 2007 and 2014. This is done for everyone aged 15 and older in 2007. The study also looks at differences by age, gender, education, geography, and social markers.

This paper shows how likely people change from one marital status to another marital status: from never-married status to married status, from married status to widowed or divorced status, from widowed status to remarried status, and from divorced status to remarried status. One finding is that a never-married female is more likely to change her status to married status than her male counterpart, regardless of education, geography, and social markers. This pattern is also found among young and adult groups, but not among older groups where the likelihood of changing from never-married status to married status is higher among males than females.

Furthermore, once people are married, most of them remain married. Some others become widowed or divorced. The married individual is more likely to become widowed than divorced regardless of gender, education, geography, and social markers. An exception is found among young and adult groups, who are more likely to change to divorced status than widowed status.

The paper also finds that the likelihood of remarrying is much greater among people with divorced status than those with widowed status, regardless of gender, age, education, geography, and social markers. Further studies can utilise these results to conduct deeper socio-economic analysis on change in marital status in Indonesia.

Singapore

Empirical work in past 4 decades have shed light on the “what” and “how” of factors contributing to mental health difficulties in children of divorce. This presentation will provide an overview of the divorce support ecosystem, with a focus on the Mandatory Co-Parenting Programme (CPP), and the introduction of outcome monitoring to track parent and child programme outcomes in families of divorce.

Outcome monitoring (OM) captures data across 4 time-points (baseline to 2-year post) using a battery of validated client reported scales, and provides respondents with automated tailored feedback on areas of needs to encourage them to seek appropriate support. The data also allows us to examine programming gains and identify pathways that explain child mental health difficulties in local families of divorce.

The sample with baseline data constituted about 50% (n=1404) of adult clients who attended CPP. MANOVA on n=110, showed an overall statistically significant change with large effect size at 6-months post programme. Follow-up analyses revealed significant improvements in parent well-being and resilience, co-parenting conflict, and child psychosocial functioning. In contrast, statistically significant decline in supportive co-parenting and no change in child-parent relationship quality were noted.

Potential policy and practice implications arising from these findings are discussed.

Singapore

There is a general increase in the total number of divorces in Singapore, where approximately half of the divorces involved children. Local research informed that children of divorce tended to experience socioeconomic difficulties in adulthood. The current study aimed to understand the long-term psychological adjustment of parental divorce, from the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) framework. Fourteen participants (aged 21 – 33 years old) were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling methods, for qualitative interviews. NVivo was used for thematic analyses. The results informed that most participants experienced emotional, cognitive, and social impairments, that increased the likelihood of risky behaviours in childhood and adolescence. It also informed that most did not seek help. As psychological impact of divorce was found to be long-term, the study concluded the importance of a child-centred and trauma-informed approach to parental divorce support, to consider the unique needs of children throughout their developmental years. Social Service Agencies (SSAs) could listen to the voices of children more, to involve them in the planning to meet their unique needs. Professional training for Child Access facilitators should ideally include managing trauma in divorce support.

Singapore

Families play a crucial role in society, yet the definition of family varies across households. Using data from the second wave of a nationwide panel study which consisted of 2171 nationally representative participants, this study explored the differences in time use between individuals who reside in different household structures (e.g., nuclear, extended, single-parent, elderly independent couples, and non-familial households) and its relation to quality of life (QoL), and family resilience (FR). Results have suggested differences in time spent on socialising and leisure activities as well as in quality of life and family resilience. Specifically, elderly independent couples spent more time on socializing/leisure when compared to other family types. Additionally, nuclear families spent more time engaging in social/leisure activities on the weekends compared to non-familial households. For QoL, elderly independent couples had higher psychological and environmental-related QoL. For FR, nuclear families had higher scores in all three domains of FR when compared to most family types. Likewise, elderly independent couples also had higher FR than non-familial households. Further analyses also revealed that time spent with family on meals and engaging in social/leisure activities was associated with greater FR, lending empirical support to the saying that “families who eat together stay together”.

Singapore

Low-income and single-parent families are doubly challenged by economic and family instability, yet existing research rarely adopt within-group approaches to explore their heterogeneous experience. Furthermore, there remains a research gap in understanding the types of instabilities experienced, and how these potentially intersect and interact to reinforce the families' precarity and limit their pathways to progress. Using findings from in-depth interviews with 40 Singaporean parent-adolescent dyads, this exploratory study, guided by constructivist grounded theory, identified the types of family instability associated with being a single-parent household i.e., household entrances, exits, parental incarceration; examined the types of economic instability associated with being a low-income household i.e., debts, limited savings, precarious employment, housing challenges, health and medical issues; and examined how these instabilities potentially interacted in terms of parenting challenges, stressors, and strains. Preliminary analyses suggested that these overlapping demands, in both definite and ambiguous forms, accumulate and destabilise the family system, particularly in the absence of adequate coping strategies and social capital. These present various implications for practice and policy, including the need to recognise in-group heterogeneity and intersectionality of disadvantages; multifaceted and sensitive diagnostic assessments to detect such nuances; and concerted design and implementation of interventions with multi-systemic and long-term effects.

Singapore

How do we uplift lower-income families to achieve Stability, Self-reliance and Social Mobility?

How does the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF)'s involve the community to multiply our social impact?

ComLink+ started in 2019 to reach out to families with young children staying in Singapore's Public Rental Housing. Under ComLink+, Family Coaches from MSF's Social Service Offices (SSOs) work alongside these families to help them overcome challenges they may have and achieve their aspirations. Today, ComLink+ has been rolled out islandwide.

The sharing will include how MSF:

• has evolved its social assistance to meet the changing needs of families;
• delivers Comprehensive, Convenient and Coordinated support through ComLink+; and
• has been working with partners such as Social Service and Community Agencies, Corporates, Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) as well as individuals under ComLink+.

Singapore

Every child deserves a safe and stable family environment to grow and thrive in. For children who have experienced abuse or neglect, the need for trusted adults to step in becomes even more crucial. Foster parents therefore play a critical role in providing a safe refuge and loving home, allowing these children to flourish and reach their full potential.

The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) will share on efforts to grow foster care in Singapore, including partnership with fostering agencies, who play a pivotal role in improving the lives of these children.

One such fostering agency, Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura (PPIS) Oasis, will share on their efforts in creative therapies for foster children – exploring the use of art, play and applied drama with foster children in Singapore.

Foster children face unique emotional and behavioural challenges due to past traumas. Since 2021, PPIS Oasis has used creative therapies such as art, play, and applied drama, in addition to verbal counselling, to help foster children cope, express themselves safely, and boost their mental well-being.

Singapore

Home for Good, Singapore (HFG-SG) is a registered Singapore charity and network of foster parents and volunteers.

Founded in 2013, HFG-SG has grown from a modest group of four families to over 270 members today, and is a testament to the power of community and corporate partnership in nurturing a foster parents' support network in Singapore.

This presentation will share about HFG-SG's journey, emphasising the pivotal role of community engagement with members, and working with corporate and community partners on initiatives to support foster parents to provide vulnerable children with the opportunity to thrive in stable, loving family settings.

Since becoming a charity in February 2023, HFG-SG continues to raise awareness of fostering with partners, highlighting the transformative impact of collective community efforts on the lives of children and youth in need of care.

United Kingdom

In 1998, the United Kingdom (UK) government funded Dr Robert Glover to assist the Shanghai Civil Affairs in reforming services for children in state care from institutional care to community-based family placement. This successful pilot project led to an invitation for Dr Glover to become a national advisor to Beijing, focusing on reforming the nation’s childcare system.

Over the span of 25 years, Dr Glover merged UK research, policy, and practice with Chinese family life, retaining the principles of child protection and permanency planning.

The presentation will highlight this collaboration, emphasising the transformative impact on care services, and the pivotal role of community engagement and partnership with governments in nurturing stable, loving family settings for vulnerable children.

Dr Glover has also developed a new digital online platform called My Family, which can support governments in reforming their services for children in state care.

“If the service does not meet the needs of the children, you do not fit the children into the dysfunctional system, you reform the service to meet the needs of the children”. – Dr Glover

Singapore

There is increasing recognition of the need for success indicators beyond GDP, and to look at multiple aspects that matter to people's quality of life and wellbeing (including family).

The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) has conducted Quality of Life (QOL) surveys since 2015, using the World Health Organisation's Quality of Life Framework (WHOQOL). This session will provide a brief overview of WHOQOL, how it compares to other common wellbeing measures, and how it has been used (i) as a holistic and person-centric measure of the needs of different vulnerable groups (e.g., caregivers, persons with disability, persons with mental health conditions, seniors, children and youth), (ii) to measure progress of national initiatives and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and (iii) as a common impact measure for funders, charities, and government bodies.

Roundtable participants will discuss: (i) use cases for QOL in their respective settings, (ii) challenges of collecting QOL data, and the (iii) benefits of having QOL as a common impact measure.