Child maintenance obligations in Malta: a qualitative study of fathers' perceptions and experiences

Child maintenance obligation is an important social policy issue given the benefits of child maintenance for children’s wellbeing as well as the role child maintenance plays in poverty reduction for payees and their children. This qualitative study sought to address the paucity of social science research on the issue in Malta – the home country of the author – by exploring the attitudes and behaviours of separated and divorced fathers in regard to child maintenance payment obligations. The study was underpinned by a critical realist relational perspective which incorporates a constructionist view of reality as being mediated by the interpretation of events experienced. Semi-structured interviews were held with 31 fathers who had undergone personal separation under Maltese law within the last 10 years. Transcripts were analysed using framework analysis which allowed for continuous comparison of themes for two groups of fathers, namely consenting and dissenting payers. Fathers’ stances towards child maintenance payment obligations were shown to be influenced by perceptions of un/fairness relating to three overarching themes: appraisal of the justice system; appraisal of financial contexts; and views on parenting. These findings provided support, to varying degrees, for four main theoretical frameworks: the theory of negotiated commitments; theory on the symbolic meanings of child maintenance monies; equity theory; and social negotiation theory. The concluding chapter reviews the study outcomes in the light of the aims, reflects on the limitations and originality of the thesis, and provides recommendations for future research. Fathers’ call for financial and parenting egalitarianism indicated a preference for new fatherhood ideals and for the re-evaluation of the role of financial provision, clashing with the gendered assumptions underpinning child maintenance obligations and raising important policy implications in regard to the complexity of challenges for policymakers to give primacy to both children and parents’ needs post-separation

The needs of Maltese families with dependent children : a focus group study among professionals

This article seeks to identify the needs of Maltese families with dependent children. The sociocultural context in which Maltese families are embedded will serve as a theoretical framework for this study. A series of six focus groups with experts in the area of family and children were moderated for the purpose of the study. These focus group sessions were audiotaped and transcribed and the results analysed using thematic analysis. This article draws on the findings of these focus groups and compares them to extant literature on Maltese families before making a number of policy recommendations. Three key themes were elicited: the need for more community work and early intervention; the need for education for life; and the need to support families achieve work-life balance. The main recommendations are: the set-up of family centres for community work and early intervention; the implementation of relationship education programmes; and more family-friendly working practices.peer-reviewe

Attitudes about remarriage in Malta

This study investigated the attitudes about remarriage of married and previously married Maltese people. Respondents were selected using stratified random sampling; 810 men and 1,196 women answered a questionnaire by means of computer-assisted telephone interviewing. The majority (67.4%) of respondents did not consider remarriage. Remarriage was more likely to be considered by respondents who were younger, previously married, nonparents, had children who were not all born within marriage, and were of higher socioeconomic status. The study highlights the differences in attitude according to gender and marital status. The fact that pro-remarriage attitudes were endorsed by 32.6% of respondents and that these were more likely to come from nontraditional family forms suggests that family life in Malta is no longer dictated by normative social imperatives. The need for the legal protection of families headed by cohabiting partners is highlighted.peer-reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Measurements of ttˉt\bar{t} differential cross-sections of highly boosted top quarks decaying to all-hadronic final states in pppp collisions at s=13 \sqrt{s}=13\, TeV using the ATLAS detector

Measurements are made of differential cross-sections of highly boosted pair-produced top quarks as a function of top-quark and $t\bar{t}$ system kinematic observables using proton--proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$, recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events with two large-radius jets in the final state, one with transverse momentum $p_{\rm T} > 500$ GeV and a second with $p_{\rm T}>350$ GeV, are used for the measurement. The top-quark candidates are separated from the multijet background using jet substructure information and association with a $b$-tagged jet. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects to a particle-level fiducial phase space and a parton-level limited phase space, and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations by means of calculated $\chi^2$ values. The cross-section for $t\bar{t}$ production in the fiducial phase-space region is $292 \pm 7 \ \rm{(stat)} \pm 76 \rm{(syst)}$ fb, to be compared to the theoretical prediction of $384 \pm 36$ fb

Measurements of ttˉt\bar{t} differential cross-sections of highly boosted top quarks decaying to all-hadronic final states in pppp collisions at s=13 \sqrt{s}=13\, TeV using the ATLAS detector

Measurements are made of differential cross-sections of highly boosted pair-produced top quarks as a function of top-quark and $t\bar{t}$ system kinematic observables using proton--proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$, recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events with two large-radius jets in the final state, one with transverse momentum $p_{\rm T} > 500$ GeV and a second with $p_{\rm T}>350$ GeV, are used for the measurement. The top-quark candidates are separated from the multijet background using jet substructure information and association with a $b$-tagged jet. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects to a particle-level fiducial phase space and a parton-level limited phase space, and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations by means of calculated $\chi^2$ values. The cross-section for $t\bar{t}$ production in the fiducial phase-space region is $292 \pm 7 \ \rm{(stat)} \pm 76 \rm{(syst)}$ fb, to be compared to the theoretical prediction of $384 \pm 36$ fb