The justification for undertaking research on child subjective well-being has been challenged on three grounds : that it is a smokescreen diverting attention from more serious issues in childhood ; that the measures of subjective well-being available lack reliability and validity ; and that the results of the research have little or no policy relevance. Each of these challenges are considered drawing on national and comparative empirical research (with a partial focus on France) undertaken over the last ten years. It is acknowledged that there is some truth in all three arguments, nevertheless research on subjective well-being has a part in the study of all domains of child subjective well-being. Subjective well-being has been and continues to be measured over time and between countries successfully ; and there are examples of policy makers acting as a result of the findings.
PURPOSE: The practice of hurrying children through schools by parents and guardians has become a contemporary social problem in Nigeria. This study is an attempt to underscore the causes and consequences of hurried child syndrome in schools and how they affect the well-being and development of the hurried children in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one participants were selected for the study, using multistage sampling techniques. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and analyzed thematically with the use of NVivo 9. RESULTS: Findings revealed that a weak educational policy, proliferation of private schools, busy parents/guardians, and desire to train children before retirement were some of the causes of hurried child syndrome; while depression, anxiety, and poor academic performance were some of its implications on the well-being of the child. DISCUSSION: The practice of the hurried child syndrome was seen to have negative implications on the well-being and development of the child. The study findings revealed that most hurried children suffer anxiety, and depression and feel unworthy when they fail to fulfill the expectations of their parents. CONCLUSION: School counselors, health educators, school social workers, and concerned stakeholders should sensitize the public to the dangers associated with the practice of hurried child syndrome. They should also work toward revamping the educational policies and ensure that all schools (private and public) play by the rules. This will help reduce the practice of hurried child syndrome as well as its negative implications on the well-being of the children.
PURPOSE: This study's purpose was to develop a better understanding of the experiences of parents of children with achondroplasia and to provide qualitative evidence to support the development of a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure of parent impacts. METHODS: Concept elicitation (CE) individual/focus group interviews were conducted with parents of children aged 2 to < 12 years with achondroplasia in the United States and Spain. The qualitative analysis informed the PRO measure development. Cognitive debriefing (CD) interviews were conducted to ensure parent understanding and item relevance. RESULTS: Thirty-six parents participated in individual/focus group CE interviews. The analysis identified parent impacts in four domains, including caretaking responsibilities, emotional well-being, family, and work, and results informed the development of the Achondroplasia Parent Experience Measure (APEM). Caretaking responsibilities included managing child's medical care (92%), helping child with self-care (67%), advocating for child (64%), assisting child (56%), and observing/monitoring child (e.g., to ensure safety; 47%). Impacts on parents' emotional well-being included worry about the future (75%), worry about child's physical health (67%), safety concerns (50%), feeling stressed/overwhelmed (44%), and worry about child's social relationships (42%). Impacts on family and work included family strain (56%), limiting/adapting family activities (42%), and missed work time (50%). CD interviews with an additional 16 parents of children with achondroplasia confirmed understanding and item relevance. CONCLUSION: The results improve our understanding of the experiences of parents of children with achondroplasia and provide qualitative evidence to support the content validity of the APEM. A psychometric study is needed to validate the measure.
Kathryn M. Pfeiffer, Meryl I. Brod, Alden Raymond Smith et al.
The subject of the study is to present Polish legal regulations applicable in the case of a minor's demoralization.The ongoing cultural changes of a global nature are conducive to the moral degradation of young people.Human freedom has become the basic value inscribed in the human rights system.This freedom is often abused especially by young people.In addition, transferring human activity to cyberspace to a large extent limits the ability to control the activity of a young person.The aim of this work is to present the statutory definition of the concept of demoralization, its specific cases, and the course of proceedings before a family court in such cases.It is also important to show the attitude of the Polish legislator aimed at saving the minors, and not punishing them.Any penalties imposed on the minors are used as the final measures.The effect of the study is to present the substantive law and the system of dealing with minors before the family court in case of its demoralization.
Children experience poverty differently from adults. This is the fundamental premise of the work to design specific, child-focused policies to eliminate child poverty. Devising, planning, and monitoring the impact of these policies without a proper measure of child poverty is almost impossible. However, most attempts to measure and analyze child poverty are challenged by the steps needed to measure it properly. In this article a solution is offered in this regard. In the context of global efforts, including by governments, to eliminate child poverty, UNICEF has developed a position on how to measure child poverty, based on a few simple and clear principles. These principles are meant to guide the measurement of child poverty. The main objective of this article is to explain and provide a rationale for this position as well as its relationship to related debates on child poverty measurement. Child poverty should be measured at the level of the individual child, not just as a disaggregation by age of household-level or adult-centered measurement. The measurement should be based on constitutive rights of poverty (i.e., those crucially and directly determined by access to material resources) and not on all possible problems children may face. As all rights are equally important, all dimensions should be equally weighted. The measurement should provide the prevalence as well as the depth/breadth/severity of child poverty. There are various groups of children who require different or special goods and services to fulfill the same rights constitutive of poverty as all other children. These needs ought to be incorporated into the measurement (e.g., children with disabilities may require assistive devices or indigenous children may require culturally appropriate learning materials). Implications and opportunities for flexibility and adjustment of such measures at the country level (while applying the principles) are also addressed in this article as well as a description of the most recent estimates of child poverty across developing countries using the same dimensions, indicators and thresholds.
Child helplines provide free, accessible, and confidential support for children suffering from issues such as violence and abuse. Helplines lack the barriers often associated with the use of many other health services; and for many children, the helpline is the first point of contact with any kind of child protection and an important venue to go to in times of socio-economic distress. For instance, more children attempt to call the helpline in times of high unemployment, and relatively more of those conversations are about violence. Empirical evidence is scarce regarding how to implement online chat communication to improve quality and the child's well-being. In this study, we focus on the impact of chat duration, number of words, and the type of support. The results show that for children seeking emotional support, a longer chat negatively influences the immediate well-being and the counsellor needs to listen (i.e., not type), as relatively more child words result in higher evaluations. We conclude that for emotional support, the counsellor should be prepared to listen carefully, but also manage the duration. However, for children chatting for instrumental support, the counsellor needs to type more to create positive perceptions of quality. Since the impact of chat share is different for children seeking emotional support (negative) versus instrumental support (positive), counsellors need to be sensitive to early indicators of the reason for the chat.
The present study investigates the effect of obesity and overweight on children’s cognitive abilities and well-being using survey data from West Bank schools. The results show the significant adverse impact of obesity on a child's well-being by raising externalizing (behavioral) problems and increasing the probability of classifying a child with abnormal mental health difficulties, according to the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), while no such impact was founded on the cognitive test results. The analysis further exposes that teachers’ negative attitude toward obese students is an important factor that contributes to the association between obesity/overweight and higher SDQ scores.
This book is aimed at early years professionals, especially in early years (EY) settings, but has lots of relevance for infant schools and parents of EY children. It provides a definition of self-r...
Key Messages Although the substantial increase in data visualization tools on child health and well-being has made data more accessible and facilitated evidence-based decision-making, the increase has contributed to confusion over which tools to use for specific purposes and how they complement each other. We summarize the events that triggered increased production of data visualization tools on child health and well-being, discuss the benefits and challenges resulting from this increase, and propose principles for producing future tools, with an emphasis on tools for global monitoring, so that they most effectively spark action and accountability for children. The 6 principles include: (1) cocreate data visualization tools across organizations; (2) align donors on requests for new child health data visualization tools; (3) define the purpose, target audience, and added value of new tools at the outset; (4) develop tools through inclusive engagement of all key stakeholders; (5) identify a lead institution or individual to manage iterations of the tool and build consensus; and (6) select indicators that adhere to standard definitions, recommended data sources, and are available through existing data collection platforms.
Jennifer Harris Requejo, Kathleen Strong, Frances E. Aboud et al.
Middle-aged adults often have relationships with multiple family members (e.g., children and parents). The constellation of parent-child relationships within families may have implications for individuals' psychological well-being. This study created typologies of parent-child ties by combining multiple dimensions of relationships and examined the extent to which middle-aged adults showed variability across typologies of parent-child ties within multigenerational families. Using 2,252 parent-child ties across three generations from 633 middle-aged adults, this study identified typologies of parent-child ties based on 5 indicators (i.e., contact, downward and upward support, and positive and negative relationship qualities), and examined the associations of specific typologies of parent-child ties as well as within-family variability in typologies with middle-aged adults' psychological well-being. This study found 7 types of parent-child ties as distinct combinations of contact, support exchanges, and relationship quality. Within-family variability in these types was associated with more depressive symptoms, and having types characterized by conflicted ties was associated with more depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction. Middle-aged adults seem to be happiest when they are able to maintain homogeneous, harmonious patterns of relationships with their parents and grown children. Findings were discussed with regard to factors that also may predict greater variability in family relationship patterns. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Kyungmin Kim, Kira S. Birditt, Steven Howard Zarit et al.
