Abstract Children under three comprise a sizable and growing proportion of foster care placements. Very young children who enter the child welfare system experience disruptions of critical ...attachments that are essential to this formative stage of brain development, as well as other traumatic events, leaving them at great risk for lifelong impairments. To reverse these concerning outcomes, babies who have been removed from their homes require intensive, relationship-based interventions that promote secure attachment to a primary caregiver and holistic attention the child's developmental needs. Child welfare decision-makers must be informed of infant brain development and knowledgeable about the particular needs and circumstances of each child. This article describes a model with these features that has been developed and tested in the Bronx, New York, one of the nation's poorest urban counties with high rates of foster care. The Project utilizes evidence-based Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) as its core intervention, and emphasizes collaboration and information sharing– driven by the CPP clinician– with judges, child welfare workers, attorneys and other social service and mental health providers, thereby encouraging developmentally and relationally informed case planning and permanency decisions. The model is evaluated using pre and post treatment psychosocial measures and program outcome data. Results indicate improvement in parenting interactions, positive child welfare outcomes (including increased rates of reunification, fewer returns to foster care), and improved safety and wellbeing. Results highlight the need for child welfare practices to be more closely aligned with the current science of infant brain development, and to incorporate a specialized approach to address the unique needs of infants.
Pediatric Nutrition Kleinman, Ronald E; Greer, Frank R
2019, 20200101, 2019-11-15
eBook
Proper childhood nutrition can be the bedrock of lifelong health. This AAP policy manual makes clear policies and procedures for the best nutrition for well children as well as those with metabolic ...abnormalities and serious illnesses.
A battery of 17 rating items were applied to video records of typically-developing toddlers and young children with autism and Down syndrome interacting with their parents during the Communication ...Play Protocol. This battery provided a reliable and broad view of the joint engagement triad of child, partner, and shared topic. Ratings of the child’s joint engagement correlated very strongly with state coding of joint engagement and replicated the finding that coordinated joint engagement was less likely in children with autism. Ratings of other child actions, of parent contributions, and of shared topics and communicative dynamics also documented pervasive variations related to diagnosis, language facility, and communicative context.
There is a large child work force in India reported to be about 40 million. Child labor is being regarded as a form of modern slavery, as children are forced to work or have no choice to refuse work. ...Children are employed in a variety of occupations, many of which are hazardous. Exposure to machinery, pesticides, dust in agricultural work and fumes, chemicals, acids, cotton and wool fiber in other forms of work is detrimental to health. A large number are held in bonded servitude. In urban areas, children are employed as domestic helpers and engaged in eateries and auto-repair work. Trafficking and trading of children for work and sexual slavery are also major concerns. Poverty and illiteracy are root causes of child labor, but iniquitous societal attitudes are responsible for abuse and exploitation. Working children are deprived of proper health care and education, and lose their childhood and dignity. Several legal measures exist to prevent child labor and protect them from harm, but are thwarted by the distressing socioeconomic conditions. Although child labor would be difficult to abolish, exploitation can be prevented with concerted efforts of the government agencies, professional bodies and the civil society.
The current study examined three research questions: (a) Are unmarried at birth fathers' prenatal and birth-related behavioral, attitudinal, and identity adjustments directly related to father ...engagement in child-related activities during early childhood and father-child closeness in middle childhood and adolescence? (b) Do father engagement in child-related activities during early childhood, coresidence, and coparenting at age 5 mediate the association between unmarried fathers' prenatal and birth-related variables and father-child relationship in middle childhood and adolescence? (c) Do father-child closeness, coresidence, and coparenting in middle childhood mediate the association between fathers' prenatal and birth-related variables and father-child relationship during adolescence? Using a subsample of Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing data (N = 2,647), we found support for our hypotheses that fathers' prenatal and birth-related variables significantly predicted father-child engagement during early childhood and father-child closeness during middle childhood and adolescence, although not all prenatal and birth-related variables are related to outcomes during each stage of childhood development. Father involvement and coparenting cooperation significantly mediated the associations among fathers' prenatal and birth-related variables and father-child closeness at ages 9 and 15. Our findings indicate that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers should take advantage of the prenatal period and direct resources to facilitate and strengthen prospective unmarried fathers' early relationships with their partners and children.
Public Significance Statement
This study found that fathers who are unmarried at the time of their child's birth are more engaged and have closer relationships with their children when they provide tangible support to the mother during the pregnancy, are present at the birth, establish paternity establishment, and to a lesser extent have positive attitudes about the pregnancy and developing a commitment to fatherhood. Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers should take advantage of this period and direct some of their resources to facilitate and strengthen prospective fathers' early relationships with their partners and children.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) requires multidisciplinary approach by forensic, social, and medical services, thus Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) have been established to evaluate CSA cases in Turkey. At ...CACs the social needs of children are assessed by social workers. Protective and supportive injunctions (PSIs) are considered at each step of evaluation and are proposed to child courts. This study aimed to evaluate PSIs at a local CAC, which is one of the leading CACs in Turkey. The study group consisted of children and adolescents exposed to CSA admitted to Izmir CAC between April 2014 and April 2015. Socio-demographic characteristics, social investigation reports, psychiatric reports, and proposed PSIs were evaluated. The rate of social investigation necessity was 28.3% (n = 113), and the rate of being proposed for at least one PSI was 24.3% (n = 97). The most common proposed injunctions were maintenance care injunctions (n = 47; 48%) and counseling injunctions (n = 46; 47%). The rate of proposed PSIs was significantly higher in adolescents, incest cases and abuse types including penetration than in the other groups. This is the first study to evaluate PSIs in the child protection system. Our results provide data about the risk groups that need PSIs among the victims of CSA cases.
This article draws on data from research that includes 400 children who lived separately from their migrant parents in 10 rural communities in China, to explore the deep impacts of rural parents' ...migration on the care-giving and nurturing of children left behind. It shows that parent migration has brought about multiple impacts, mostly negative, on the lives of children, such as increased workloads, little study tutoring and supervision, and above all the unmet needs of parental affection. Children's basic daily care and personal safety could become problematic since surrogate caregivers, mostly elderly, are usually exhausted with livelihood maintenance. With illumination on the family dysfunction in children's development due to migration-induced family separation, this article highlights the social cost to rural families of parental migration. Urbanization in developing countries is obtained at the expense of rural migrants and their families, especially children left behind. Further attention is required to improve left-behind children's well being within split family structures and interregional migration.
Abstract Objective To determine if meaningful groups of at-risk pre-adolescent youth could be identified based on their self-report of physical and sexual abuse histories. Methods Youth participating ...in a consortium of ongoing longitudinal studies were interviewed using an audio-computer assisted self-interview (A-CASI) when they were approximately 12 years of age to obtain information about their perceived experiences of physical (18 items) and sexual (12 items) abuse. In addition, Child Protective Service records were reviewed and the taxonomy developed for defining maltreatment characteristics ( Barnett, Manly, & Cicchetti, 1993 ) was applied. A total of 795 youth completed the age 12 interview and had their records reviewed during the period from birth to the time of their age 12 interview. A latent variable modeling approach, specifically latent class analysis (LCA), was used to generate profiles of youth based on their endorsements of the physical and sexual abuse items. These profiles were then compared to CPS reports of physical or sexual abuse to determine their validity. Results The LCA identified 4 interpretable classes or groups of pre-adolescent youth. Based on the pattern of responses to specific items the classes were identified as follows: (1) no physical or sexual abuse; (2) high physical abuse/low sexual abuse; (3) no physical abuse/moderate sexual abuse; and (4) high physical and sexual abuse. Follow-up analyses indicated that the odds of a CPS report for Classes 2, 3, and 4 compared to Class 1 were significantly greater (2.21, 2.55, and 5.10, respectively). Conclusion The latent variable modeling approach allowed for the identification of meaningful groups of youth that accounted for both the occurrence of multiple types of abuse as well as differing severities associated with each type. It is suggested that this methodological approach may be most useful in future efforts to identify the antecedents and consequences of maltreatment. Practice implications The results of the present study not only have implications for future research efforts, but also suggest that in practice, youth at-risk for maltreatment may be reliable and valid reporters of their physical and sexual abuse experiences.
The goal of this study was to examine the impact of different parenting characteristics on child disruptive behavior and emotional regulation among a sample of at-risk children. The sample consisted ...of 373 Australian 5- to 9-year-old children who were screened for serious behavior problems. Seven parenting variables based on self-report were evaluated, involving parenting practices, emotion beliefs and behaviors, emotion expressiveness, and mental health. Outcome variables based on parent/teacher report were child disruptive behavior problems and emotion regulatory ability. When entered simultaneously in a multiple regression analysis, inconsistent discipline, negative parental emotional expressiveness, and parent mental health demonstrated the strongest relationship to disruptive behavior problems and problems with emotion regulation. The data presented here elucidate multiple risk pathways to disruptive behavior disorders and can inform the design of prevention and early intervention programs.
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