Children and youth on the front line Jo Boyden, Joanna de Berry / Jo Boyden, Joanna de Berry
2004., 20040615, 2004, 2005-03-15, Letnik:
14
eBook
War leads not just to widespread death but also to extensive displacement, overwhelming fear, and economic devastation. It weakens social ties, threatens household survival and undermines the ...family's capacity to care for its most vulnerable members. Every year it kills and maims countless numbers of young people, undermines thousands of others psychologically and deprives many of the economic, educational, health and social opportunities which most of us consider essential for children's effective growth and well being. Based on detailed ethnographic description and on young people's own accounts, this volume provides insights into children's experiences as both survivors and perpetrators of violence. It focuses on girls who have been exposed to sexual exploitation and abuse, children who head households or are separated from their families, displaced children and young former combatants who are attempting to adjust to their changed circumstances following the cessation of conflict. In this sense, the volume bears witness to the grim effects of warfare and displacement on the young. Nevertheless, despite the abundant evidence of suffering, it maintains that children are not the passive victims of conflict but engage actively with the conditions of war, an outlook that challenges orthodox research perspectives that rely heavily on medicalized notions of 'victim' and 'trauma.'
In a randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and correlates of maltreatment outcomes were examined. Mothers (N = 150) had a history or were at high ...risk of maltreating their children. After 12 weeks and compared to waitlist, PCIT mothers were observed to have improved parent-child interactions and reported better child behavior and decreased stress. At PCIT completion, improvements continued and mothers reported less child abuse potential and had improved maternal sensitivity. Also, PCIT completers were less likely to be notified to child welfare than noncompleters. Finally, those families not notified post-PCIT showed greater reductions in child abuse potential and improvements in observed sensitivity during treatment. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
A large body of research indicates that child development is sensitive to early‐life environments, so that poor children are at higher risk for poor cognitive and behavioral outcomes. These ...developmental outcomes are important determinants of success in adulthood. Yet, remarkably little is known about whether poverty‐alleviation programs improve children’s developmental outcomes. We examine how a government‐run cash transfer program for poor mothers in rural Ecuador influenced the development of young children. Random assignment at the parish level is used to identify program effects. Our data include a set of measures of cognitive ability that are not typically included in experimental or quasi‐experimental studies of the impact of cash transfers on child well‐being, as well as a set of physical health measures that may be related to developmental outcomes. The cash transfer program had positive, although modest, effects on the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development of the poorest children in our sample.
Prior research documents spatial concentration in the incidence of child maltreatment reported to and confirmed by Child Protective Services (CPS), but without estimates of the prevalence of such ...reports, the extent of CPS contact in different communities is unknown.
To estimate the prevalence of CPS reports during early childhood and substantiated investigations during childhood for children living in different types of neighborhoods.
Children who experienced CPS reports and substantiated investigations in Connecticut.
This study uses synthetic cohort life tables to estimate the cumulative risk of CPS reports before age five and substantiated CPS investigations before age 18, by neighborhood poverty rate and neighborhood racial composition.
The analysis reveals substantial stratification in the prevalence of CPS contact by the demographic characteristics of children’s residential neighborhoods. For example, while 7% of children in low-poverty neighborhoods (under 10% poor) experience a substantiated CPS investigation at some point during childhood at 2014 and 2015 rates, this risk more than doubles to 17% for their peers in moderate-poverty neighborhoods (10–20% poor) and more than triples to 26% for their peers in high-poverty neighborhoods (over 20% poor). Similar trends emerge when examining CPS reports in early childhood as well as when comparing neighborhoods with different proportions of White residents.
CPS reports and substantiated investigations are a widespread and disproportionately experienced life event for children in poor neighborhoods and children in non-White neighborhoods.
In laboratory studies, praising children's effort encourages them to adopt incremental motivational frameworks—they believe ability is malleable, attribute success to hard work, enjoy challenges, and ...generate strategies for improvement. In contrast, praising children's inherent abilities encourages them to adopt fixed-ability frameworks. Does the praise parents spontaneously give children at home show the same effects? Although parents' early praise of inherent characteristics was not associated with children's later fixed-ability frameworks, parents' praise of children's effort at 14–38 months (N = 53) did predict incremental frameworks at 7–8 years, suggesting that causal mechanisms identified in experimental work may be operating in home environments.
This volume explores the complex interaction and the importance of early communication between mother and baby from pregnancy to the first early months of development. It provides a rich and detailed ...study of this earliest relationship, and makes a significant and valuable contribution to this area of the mental health field.
Abstract Objectives To describe increased child abuse and neglect (CAN) reporting and the characteristics of the reports in the context of the development of a system of intervention for one of the ...hospital-based child protection centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Article 19. Methods A retroprospective collection of data on all children evaluated by the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) team in King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard from 2000 to 2008. The cases were further divided into 3 subgroups corresponding to the years 2000–2004, 2005–2006, and 2007–2008 parallel to the stages of development of the national child protection system. Results During the study period, there were a total of 188 referrals to the SCAN team. Of these 133 (70.7%) were further investigated as CAN cases. The total number of referred cases increased 10-fold from 6.4 cases per year in the first period to 61.5 cases per year in the third period. The mean age was 5 years, evenly represented by males and females. Physical abuse was the most common form of abuse in the first (2000–2004) period at 61% and second (2005–2006) period at 76%, which changed to neglect (41.6%) as the most common form of maltreatment in the third (2007–2008) period. Parents were the perpetrators in 48.9% of cases throughout the 3 periods. Overall fatality rates were 4.4%, 14.3%, and 7.9% in the first, second, and third periods respectively. Conclusion Recognition of CAN is expanding in Saudi Arabia. This is due to the successful adoption of a system of intervention consisting of child protection centers in the medical facilities, in conjunction with mandatory reporting and data collection strategies. In addition, the changes in public attitudes towards a better understanding of CAN enhanced further recognition and reporting of neglect and milder forms of abuse. We believe that the number of reported CAN cases in Saudi Arabia will continue to rise, hence adequate multi-sectoral services for the abuse victims require further development and improvements throughout the country.
Longitudinal research has demonstrated that responsive parental behaviors reliably predict subsequent language gains in children with autism spectrum disorder. To investigate the underlying causal ...mechanisms, we conducted a randomized clinical trial of an experimental intervention (Focused Playtime Intervention, FPI) that aims to enhance responsive parental communication (
N
= 70). Results showed a significant treatment effect of FPI on responsive parental behaviors. Findings also revealed a conditional effect of FPI on children’s expressive language outcomes at 12-month follow up, suggesting that children with baseline language skills below 12 months (
n
= 24) are most likely to benefit from FPI. Parents of children with more advanced language skills may require intervention strategies that go beyond FPI’s focus on responsive communication.
Abstract Objectives To measure the prevalence of maltreatment and other types of victimization among children, young people, and young adults in the UK; to explore the risks of other types of ...victimization among maltreated children and young people at different ages; using standardized scores from self-report measures, to assess the emotional wellbeing of maltreated children, young people, and young adults taking into account other types of childhood victimization, different perpetrators, non-victimization adversities and variables known to influence mental health. Methods A random UK representative sample of 2,160 parents and caregivers, 2,275 children and young people, and 1,761 young adults completed computer-assisted self-interviews. Interviews included assessment of a wide range of childhood victimization experiences and measures of impact on mental health. Results 2.5% of children aged under 11 years and 6% of young people aged 11–17 years had 1 or more experiences of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, or neglect by a parent or caregiver in the past year, and 8.9% of children under 11 years, 21.9% of young people aged 11–17 years, and 24.5% of young adults had experienced this at least once during childhood. High rates of sexual victimization were also found; 7.2% of females aged 11–17 and 18.6% of females aged 18–24 reported childhood experiences of sexual victimization by any adult or peer that involved physical contact (from sexual touching to rape). Victimization experiences accumulated with age and overlapped. Children who experienced maltreatment from a parent or caregiver were more likely than those not maltreated to be exposed to other forms of victimization, to experience non-victimization adversity, a high level of polyvictimization, and to have higher levels of trauma symptoms. Conclusions The past year maltreatment rates for children under age 18 were 7–17 times greater than official rates of substantiated child maltreatment in the UK. Professionals working with children and young people in all settings should be alert to the overlapping and age-related differences in experiences of childhood victimization to better identify child maltreatment and prevent the accumulative impact of different victimizations upon children's mental health.
Despite the substantial body of literature on racial disparities in child welfare involvement in the Unites States, there is relatively little research on such differences for Canadian children and ...families. This study begins to address this gap by examining decision-making among workers investigating Black and White families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario, Canada. Using provincially representative data, the study assessed whether Black children were more likely than White children to be investigated by child welfare, if there was disparate decision-making by race throughout the investigation, and how the characteristics of Black and White children contribute to the decision to transfer to ongoing services. The results indicate that Black children were more likely to be investigated than White children, but there was little evidence to suggest that workers in Ontario child welfare agencies made the decision to substantiate, transfer to ongoing services, or place the child in out-of-home care based on race alone. Black and White children differed significantly with respect to child characteristics, characteristics of the investigation, caregiver risk factors, and socioeconomic circumstances. When adjusting for these characteristics, Black families had 33% greater odds (OR=1.33; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.40; p=<0.001) of being transferred to ongoing services compared to White families. Among Black families, the assessed quality of the parent-child relationship and severe economic hardship were the most significant and substantial contributors to the decision to provide child welfare services. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.
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