5,447 research outputs found
Understanding child neglect
No full textChild neglect is one of the most common forms of maltreatment. Neglect is a topic that encompasses complex issues, many of which are also emerging research areas. This paper aims to provide a broad overview of these issues in relation to current thinking and to generate discussion points for practitioners, policy makers and researchers.
Key messages:
Poverty and child neglect are closely linked but not all children from poor families are neglected and children from more affluent families can be neglected.
Neglect is often portrayed as the “fault” of mothers, while failing to take into account the role of neglectful fathers. The gendered nature of “neglectful parenting” may be, in part, explained by links between single mothers and poverty.
A tertiary child protection response may not be the best way to respond to children who are being neglected—neglectful families are complex and have high needs so require multiple levels of support and resourcing. The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children aims to address these issues through the use of a public health model.
For many neglected children, access to resources and education to support families would minimise the effects of neglect—keeping them out of the statutory child protection system.
There is no quick, easy, “one size fits all” response to child neglect—the response must be based on careful assessment of needs and take into account the diverse nature of neglect and the compounding impact of multiple and complex needs.
Where it is necessary to provide a child protection response to neglect, an effective response is likely to be long term, resource intensive, and complex
Supporting Refugee Children in Pennsylvania Public Schools
No full textThis study documented the lived experiences of professionals with significant background working with child refugees, in an attempt to understand how practitioners view the information, resources, and other supports required to assure child refugees’ successful physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. An extensive review of the published research on child refugees in the Unitd States described specific international treaties, federal statutes, and state codes, addressed developmental disruptions as refugee children experience them, and explored the school experience of specific refugee cultural groups, yet revealed few reports of practitioners’ perspectives.
Accordingly, this investigation sought the views of ten school and community professionals who engage with child refugees in a medium-sized, suburban school district to determine 1) What advice would they offer to those who will serve refugee children in public schools? 2) How useful do they find background information on legal mandates and the refugee child’s experience prior to resettlement, and when is this information most beneficial? 3) How do they experience a child refugee’s developmental disruptions, and how do they prioritize work on these disruptions?
A one hour semi-structured interview addressed knowledge, skills, and practices that professionals found to be successful when working with a refugee population, along with barriers that they encountered. A three-part, twenty-six item follow-up survey asked participants to provide background information on their experiences, rate their knowledge of federal and state legal mandates and refugee cultural experiences (e.g., home country context, refugee camp conditions), and identify any developmental disruptions a refugee child presented in their setting.
Participants reported successes and barriers that were largely role specific. Several themes, however, arose across all interviews. These themes included: 1) addressing students’ language needs, 2) engaging community resources, 3) addressing school needs related to cultural context education, 4) building relational trust, 5) identifying and addressing bullying, and 6) collaborating in pursuit of common professional goals. In addition, interviewees identified motivation and transformation as personal experiences in their work with child refugees.
Findings lead to three implications, including development of comprehensive and specific state policy, recommendations for professional standards of practice, and revision to pre-service teacher and school leader curricula
The monitoring of the rights of the child: a child rights-based approach
No full textPhDDue to the lacunae between legal obligations to human rights and the actual situation,
monitoring is an essential component of the international and national human rights system.
Monitoring illuminates the situation of human rights commitments and ensures the relevancy
of instruments. The thesis explores monitoring in relation to the rights of the child and
submits that a child rights-based approach is essential. Monitoring should not only consider
the status and nature of child rights, but a child rights-based approach should also guide
efforts so that they improve as well as reflect and respect children's rights.
The study defines monitoring and describes a child rights-based approach. As a subject of
legal investigation, the thesis then addresses several questions. How do international and
national monitoring efforts respect child rights? How have the supervision of international
conference agreements supported child rights? Furthermore, how do different countries
monitor? National activities are examined through case studies of two Commonwealth
countries: Canada and South Africa. Then, analysis is presented about how actors interpret
and execute monitoring and the significance of different approaches. Lastly, the rationale,
challenges and existing support of a child rights-based approach are discussed. In sum, a
child rights-based approach is not generally utilised and the implications of child rights upon
the monitoring process are not yet realised. Most monitors, whether international, regional
or domestic, inadequately consider the demands of child rights upon the process of
ascertaining the situation of children's rights. Proposed guidelines are appended to support
a child rights-based approach to monitoring
The cult of St Nicholas in medieval Italy
No full textSt Nicholas was one of the most popular saints in medieval Italy. His cult attracted the attention
of popes, kings and emperors, and his shrine at Bari became an important international pilgrimage
destination. This thesis asks how the cult of St Nicholas came to be so widespread and popular in
Italy, and why the saint attracted the attention of diverse groups and individuals.
This thesis is structured around four chapters. The first demonstrates that through a
process of Latinisation the cult of St Nicholas became integrated within Italian literary traditions
and within a new spiritual era. Chapter Two reveals that this Latinisation also occurred within the
saint’s iconography. Chapters Three and Four are case studies of the cult in Puglia and Venice,
locations which claimed possession of the saint’s relics. These case studies show that the general
developments that the cult of St Nicholas underwent in Italy, identified in Chapters One and Two,
did not apply universally. Instead, the presence of the saint’s relics resulted in a different profile
of the saint in Bari and Venice. Through the process of Latinisation, the cult of St Nicholas
became updated and remained relevant for its new Italian audience; Chapters Three and Four
show alternative ways that the cult of St Nicholas gained widespread popularity.
This thesis presents for the first time an iconographical study of St Nicholas in Italian art,
which develops existing research of the saint’s Byzantine iconography. Chapter Four presents a
profile of the cult of St Nicholas in Venice in the Middle Ages, which is a significant oversight in
the literature. The thesis uses a variety of visual and textual sources, in particular fresco and
altarpiece representations, archival documents from Venice and Rome (including the Apostolic
Visitations), and under-exploited contemporary and antiquarian Venetian sources
Child labor : cause, consequence, and cure, with remarks on International Labor Standards
No full textAt least 120 million of the world's children aged 5 to 14 worked full-time in 1995, most of them under hazardous, unhygienic conditions, for more than 10 hours a day. This is an old problem worldwide but particularly so in Third World countries in recent decades. What has changed, with globalization, is our awareness of these child laborers. (The International Labor Organization distinguishes between"child work,"which could include light household chores and could have some learning value, and"child labor,"a pejorative phrase.) By bringing together the main theoretical ideas, the author hopes to encourage both more theoretical research and empirical work with a better theoretical foundation. Among other things, the author observes that: a) The problem is most serious in Africa, where the child-labor participation rate is 26.2 percent. The rate is 12.8 percent in Asia. But since 1950, the trend is a decline in that participation rate worldwide. For most Latin American countries, the decline is notable but less marked than in Asia. In large parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, the problem has been extremely persistent, but even there the trend is downward. b) Child labor has not always been considered evil, and there is no consensus on why it began to decline. In some (not all) countries legislative acts declared it illegal, in some there were rules about compulsory education, and increasing prosperity generally made families less likely to experience poverty if their children weren't working. c) Mandating compulsory education is regarded as more effective than outlawing child labor, because attendance at school is easier to monitor, but some experts believe economic progress is the answer to the problem. The justification for many interventions is that the state is more concerned about the well-being of children than parents are; the author believes such an assumption to be wrong when child labor occurs as a mass phenomenon rather than as isolated abuse. The author argues that, in some economies, the market for labor may exhibit multiple equilibria, with one equilibrium having low adult wage and a high incidence of child labor and another equilibrium exhibiting high adult wage and no child labor. The model is used to provide a framework for analyzing the role of international labor standards.Labor Standards,Children and Youth,Street Children,Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Street Children,Children and Youth,Youth and Governance,Labor Standards,Educational Policy and Planning
Child maltreatment: The Lebanese children's experiences
No full textBackground This study examined the prevalence, risk factors and consequences associated with child maltreatment in the home. Methods The sample was 1028 (556 boys; 472 girls) Lebanese children aged 8-17 years (M=11.89; SD=1.67). Children were administered an interview questionnaire that included the International Child Abuse Screening Tool, the Trauma Symptom Checklist and the Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire. Results Approximately 30percent of the children reported at least one incident of witnessing violence, 65percent reported at least one incident of psychological abuse and 54percent reported at least one incident of physical abuse over a 1-year period. The results showed an overlap between children's reports of witnessing violence in their homes and physical and psychological abuse that were associated with adolescents' trauma symptoms. Family-related variables significantly predicted three forms of child maltreatment. Conclusion These results highlight the importance of examining children's multiple experiences of violence in their homes in research designs, prevention efforts and policy mandates. 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The Social Construction of the Child Sex Offender Explored by Narrative
No full textThe notion of "child sex offender" provokes aversion, but it may be that it is a social construction. We suggest that a Dominant narrative, in which child sex offenders are constructed as irredeemable, persists, despite the emergence of assumption challenging Alternative narratives. A story completion method was used to elicit themes of Dominant or Alternative narratives, theory-led thematic analysis was used to identify them. The use and analysis of narrative and free-form stories are well established in social research, but remain a novel concept in the study of offenders. The results support the persistence of the Dominant narrative with two notable exceptions. Conclusions centre on utility of the narrative method to examine offender constructions, and the pervasiveness of Dominant narratives. Key Words: Dominant and Alternative Narrative, Social Construction, Child Sex Offenders, and Thematic Analysi
Vitamin D deficiency: a paediatric orthopaedic perspective
No full textPurpose of review: At the turn of the last century, rickets (vitamin D deficiency) was one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases of the paediatric population presenting to physicians. Today, the most common referral pathway for these patients ends in a paediatric orthopaedic outpatient clinic. Vitamin D deficiency is a clinical entity that can affect all children and should be looked for in all children with musculoskeletal symptoms.Recent findings: The child at risk of rickets is now white, breastfed, protected from the sun and obese. Vitamin D deficiency can present as atypical muscular pain, pathological fractures or slipped upper femoral epiphysis. Obesity is linked with lower vitamin D levels; however, in the paediatric population, this does not necessarily equal clinical disorder. Vitamin D supplements can be used to reduce the risk of pathological fractures in the cerebral palsy child. It should also form part of the differential diagnosis in the work-up of nonaccidental injuries. Children with a low vitamin D present with a higher incidence of fractures from normal activities. Vitamin D levels need to be assessed before any form of orthopaedic surgery, as it can affect growth, both in the diaphysis of the bone and in the growth plate.Summary: Vitamin D levels are a key element in the successful practice of paediatric orthopaedics. It is not just the possible cause of disorder presenting to the clinician but also extremely important in ensuring the successful postoperative recovery of the patient
Vitamin D, and maternal and child health
No full textVitamin D has important roles in calcium metabolism and the prevention of rickets and osteomalacia; low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D are common in general population and amongst pregnant women. Whilst there is a wealth of observational evidence linking vitamin D deficiency to a wide range of disease outcomes, there are currently few high quality randomised controlled trials to confirm any causal associations, although many are currently in progress. Furthermore, currently, the vast majority of published guidelines recommend standard supplemental vitamin D doses for children and pregnant women, yet there is increasing recognition that individual characteristics and genetic factors may influence the response to supplementation. As such, future research needs to concentrate on documenting definite beneficial clinical outcomes of vitamin D supplementation, and establishing personalised dosing schedules and demonstrating effective approaches to optimizing initiation and adherence
Child labor and schooling responses to production and health shocks in northern Mali:
No full text"This paper investigates children's time allocation to schooling, home production, and market production using a unique data set collected from northern Mali. Production shocks from harvest period pest infestations induce households to withdraw children from school and increase the probability that they are selected into farm work. Health shocks to women increases the probability that a child participates in the family business and childcare activities. These results are robust to varying assumptions about the structure of unobserved heterogeneity at the household and village levels. Different measures of household assets are also constructed to test whether assets serve as a buffer against increased child labor in response to shocks. Assets such as livestock have mixed effects on child labor and schooling, depending on the shock and asset type. However, household durables are substitutes for increased child labor when households face health shocks." from Author's AbstractChild labor, Production shocks, Health shocks, Labor substitution effects, Schooling, Education, Gender, Women,
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