Africa Knowledge Hub for Children

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Meaning-making in community-directed interventions: A social capital theory perspective from the post-conflict Northern Uganda Youth Livelihood Programme

Research on meaning-making in development policy is scarce, yet essential for contextualizing development interventions. The study demonstrates that policy implementation in post-conflict situations is vulnerable to meaning displacement when locally constructed meanings and the social capital through which they are produced and circulated are overlooked, with consequential effects for programme legitimacy, participation and effectiveness. A phenomenological research design adopting focus group discussions with former beneficiaries of the Youth Livelihood Programme and in-depth interviews with key informants was conducted in Kitgum District. The study used a content thematic analysis based on descriptive phenomenology to analyse the data. The findings indicate that the youth constructed several meanings and perceptions of the Youth Livelihood Programme, including (i) perceived political meanings, (ii) free money perception, (iii) pocket money from the President meaning, (iv) drinking money narrative, (v) loot without fear perception, (vi) the mimic perception “money for the community poorest people”, and (vii) our tax money being returned perception. In conclusion, as community-directed interventions enter the community with an official, formal meaning, these meanings are not automatically reproduced at the community level. Instead, informal meanings are socially reconstructed through interactions building on existing community social capital, resulting in meaning displacement. Thus, development policy actors ought to pay attention to socially constructed meanings in order to align programme and make policy adjustments required for effective policy implementation.

Benard Cankara, James Mugisha, Elizabeth Kyazike

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Social‐Emotional Outcomes of Preschool Participation: Are There Associations in Kindergarten and Fourth Grade?

ABSTRACT There is little doubt that children's social‐emotional skills predict better educational outcomes, yet few public preschool evaluation studies have explored associations between public preschool attendance and children's social‐emotional development through elementary school. This is surprising, as the field of preschool evaluation research has recently been consumed by a search for skills in the elementary school years that could be promising mechanisms linking preschool attendance to better adult educational and economic outcomes, especially for children from low‐income backgrounds who are typically the target of public preschool. The current study seeks to fill this knowledge gap, examining whether children who did not attend preschool versus those who attended one of the two primary public preschool programs in the US display more advanced social‐emotional skills in both the immediate aftermath of preschool—kindergarten—and into the mid‐elementary grades. Using propensity score methods, we predict children's social skills and emotional development in kindergarten ( n = 907; M age = 5.52 years) and again in fourth grade ( n = 595; M age = 9.52 years) from public preschool attendance (school‐based pre‐k and Head Start) versus no preschool. In our race‐ethnically diverse sample of children from low‐income families, there were no associations between preschool attendance and social‐emotional outcomes at either the end of kindergarten or in 4th grade. We interpret these results in the context of scientific evidence regarding what it might take to promote early social‐emotional development in typical US preschool settings.

Deborah A Phillips, Ann Wright, Anne Martin et al.

DevelopmentPractitionerUSRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Reconstruction of the Legal Protection Model For Children as Perpetrators of Criminal Acts Based on Restorative Justice in the Juvenile Justice System in Indonesia

The increasing number of children involved in criminal offenses highlights the urgency of comprehensive legal protection for children in conflict with the law (CICL), particularly those who serve as perpetrators of criminal acts. This study aims to analyze the forms of legal protection for children as perpetrators of criminal acts within Indonesia's juvenile criminal justice system, as well as to formulate an ideal legal protection model based on restorative justice that aligns with the principle of the best interests of the child. This study employs a normative juridical method with statutory and conceptual approaches, through a literature review of primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials. The results show that Law Number 11 of 2012 on the Juvenile Criminal Justice System (UU SPPA) has provided a legal protection framework through age limitations on criminal responsibility, special juvenile justice mechanisms, mandatory diversion, and the ultimum remedium principle in sentencing. However, implementation in the field still faces obstacles, including law enforcement officers' limited understanding of restorative justice, the criminalization of children, excessive pretrial detention, and limited facilities to support diversion. This study formulates that an ideal restorative justice-based legal protection model comprises four main elements: strengthening participatory diversion, a multidisciplinary approach that considers legal, psychological, social, and educational aspects, the enforcement of non-discrimination principles and the elimination of stigma, as well as sustainable collaboration among law enforcement officers, families, educational institutions, social institutions, and the community. This model is expected to position the Juvenile Criminal Justice System not merely as a repressive instrument, but as a means of guidance and protection for children's futures.

Muthia Hilmi Zakiya, Abdurrakman Alhakim, Tantimin

ProtectionParticipationIDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Perceived changes in mothers’ outcomes following a pilot parenting program for couples with young children in Mwanza, Tanzania: A longitudinal qualitative study

There is growing interest in engaging not only mothers but also fathers in parenting programs to improve nurturing care, psychosocial support, and early childhood development. However, few studies have explored how mothers perceive and benefit from participating in parenting interventions alongside their partners. This study explored mothers’ experiences during the pilot implementation of Familia Bora , a couples-based parenting program delivered in six communities in Mwanza, Tanzania (July-November 2024). In-depth interviews were conducted with mothers at baseline, midline, and endline using both random and purposive sampling. A total of 22 mothers participated in endline interviews, of whom 15 (68%) were purposively re-interviewed from the baseline sample to enable longitudinal qualitative analysis of perceived changes over time. Interviews explored mothers’ perceptions of changes in parenting practices, gender roles and attitudes, couples’ relationships, maternal mental health, and complementary feeding practices. Mothers commonly reported improvements across all domains. They described increased use of responsive caregiving and early learning activities, reduced harsh discipline, and improved nutrition knowledge and child feeding practices. Mothers also highlighted greater father involvement in childcare and more supportive couples’ relationship dynamics, which they perceived as reducing their caregiving burden and supporting their mental health. Overall, engaging fathers through couples-based parenting interventions may catalyze shifts within households that benefit mothers through improved caregiving practices, stronger partner relationships, and more nurturing family environments. These findings highlight the potential of father-inclusive parenting programs to support maternal, child, and family well-being.

Valencia J. Lambert, Alina Bhojani, Gabriel Sangarara et al.

DevelopmentSurvivalProtectionPre/postTZRead at source

OtherOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Motivation and Constraints in Recreation Participation Among Children and Adults With Disabilities

This dissertation investigated how motivation and constraints relate to participation in outdoor and community recreation among children with disabilities and adults who are blind or visually impaired. Although outdoor recreation is associated with important physical, psychological, and social benefits, people with disabilities continue to participate at lower rates than their peers without disabilities, and prior work shows that barriers extend well beyond physical access to include structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal constraints. Drawing on the Constraint–Negotiation Model (CNM) and social cognitive theory, this dissertation addressed gaps in multivariate research and life-course perspectives by examining whether and how motivations, perceived constraints, and participation are linked in two distinct but complementary populations. Study 1 used a cross-sectional online survey of parents and guardians of children with disabilities who are customers of a large Mid-Atlantic municipal park system. Parents reported consistently high motivation across achievement, social, and nature domains, and these motivational orientations were broadly similar across demographic groups. However, neither demographic characteristics nor motivation subscales significantly predicted 30-day facility use, revealing a clear disconnect between strong parental endorsement of recreation benefits and actual utilization. Study 2 surveyed adults who are blind or visually impaired across North America about their motivations, perceived intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints, participation in outdoor recreation, and health-related quality of life. Participants reported moderate motivation and moderate constraints, with constraint subscales strongly interrelated. That is, structural constraints showed modest negative associations with participation, and intrapersonal and structural constraints had small negative associations with health-related quality of life. In contrast, motivation and participation frequency had low correlation with health outcomes. Taken together, the studies suggested that motivation is not the primary limiting factor in these disability contexts. Instead, persistent structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal barriers were more consequential for both participation and well-being. Theoretically, the findings extended CNM and social cognitive perspectives by underscoring the need to incorporate negotiation-efficacy, perceptions of environmental predictability, and the cumulative psychological impact of repeated exposure to barriers. Practically, the results pointed toward organizational and environmental changes, rather than attempts to “boost” already high motivation, as the most promising pathways to more equitable participation. Recommended priorities included improving the accessibility of facilities and programs, expanding adapted equipment and transportation options, enhancing staff disability competence and inclusive communication, partnering with families and adults with visual impairments to co-design programs, and creating socially supportive, group-based opportunities. Across the lifespan, reducing constraints and strengthening support for negotiation appeared essential for translating motivation into meaningful, sustained engagement in outdoor and community recreation for people with disabilities.

Monica Klock

DevelopmentParticipationUSRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Child Mortality, Parental Leave, and Gender Equality in Nigeria’s Public and Private Sectors

Child mortality remains a pressing public health concern in Nigeria, with significant implications for gender equality and national development. Parental leave policies play a crucial role in reducing child mortality rates by ensuring that infants receive adequate care, breastfeeding, and medical attention in the critical early months of life. These policies simultaneously serve as a proxy measure for gender equality, particularly in terms of redistributing caregiving responsibilities, supporting women’s workforce participation, and equal contribution to national development. However, how parental leave policies are operationalised across public and private sectors not only vary and poorly understood, but also how this relates to gender equality has not been adequately interrogated. How does parental leave policy in Nigeria’s public and private sectors impact child mortality rates? What is their variation(s), if any, and how do they influence gender equality? This paper examines the relationship between child mortality, parental leave, and gender equality in Nigeria’s public and private sectors. The study adopts Motherism and human capital theory as its theoretical guide, secondary data to explore disparities in leave entitlements, workplace policies, gender equality, and their broader socio-economic implications.

Motimifagha Kei

SurvivalNGRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood7 Oct 2026

Climate informed pediatric care – Nurturing a better future for children

Introduction Climate change poses significant health risks and children are particularly vulnerable to its effects. In 2024, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated its clinical recommendations for climate-informed care in a policy statement, urging pediatricians to incorporate climate change counseling into clinical practice. In alignment with this policy, Dartmouth Health embarked on an 18-month initiative to develop and pilot test a novel Climate-Informed Pediatric Care (CIPC) toolkit to increase uptake of the AAP policy statement’s clinical recommendations in general pediatric practices. Methods A short educational session was offered and a toolkit of resources was provided to seven community practices throughout the health system. Changes from baseline were assessed by pre- and post-implementation surveys. Toolkit use was measured manually and through reports generated from the electronic medical record. Results Overall, our findings show that a climate-informed care toolkit holds promise in helping busy clinicians incorporate climate counseling into practice. There was improved overall confidence in having climate-informed conversations with patients after the intervention, and about half of study participants reported using at least one toolkit item. Conclusion Though further study is needed, the findings from this pilot show a climate-informed care toolkit has the potential to help pediatricians align with the current AAP guidelines.

Cheryl Anderson, Robert McLellan, Carl Cooley et al.

SurvivalPre/postUSRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Pan-immune-inflammation Value as a Potential Inflammatory Marker in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objective: Neuroinflammation and immune dysregulation are implicated in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).This study investigated the relationship between inflammatory markers-pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte-platelet ratio (NLPR), and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR)-and ASD.Methods: A total of 161 children aged 2-6 years were included (87 ASD, 74 controls).Assessments comprised the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, the Ankara Development Screening Inventory, and complete blood count (CBC).Results: The ASD group showed significantly higher NLR, SII, PIV, NLPR, and MLR than controls.Receiver operating characteristic analyses revealed moderate discriminatory performance, with the highest area under the curve for MLR (0.799), followed by PIV (0.775).In age-and sex-adjusted logistic regression, PIV was the strongest independent marker of ASD, followed by NLPR, both with adequate model fit.MLR showed a significant but borderline calibration, whereas NLR and SII demonstrated inadequate goodness-of-fit and should be interpreted with caution.PIV, NLR, SII, and MLR were also associated with autism severity, independent of age, sex, special education attendance, and developmental delay; NLPR was not.Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate PIV and NLPR in ASD.CBC-derived inflammatory indices, particularly PIV, may have potential as adjunctive markers of case-control differences and clinical severity in early childhood ASD.However, given the moderate performance and single-center retrospective design, these markers should be regarded as candidate adjunctive indicators of immune dysregulation rather than standalone diagnostic tools, requiring prospective validation in independent cohorts before clinical translation.

İrem Aktar-Songür, Ahmet Özaslan, Samet Can Demirci et al.

DevelopmentTRRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Juvenile Delinquency as A Non-Traditional Security Threat: A Growing Concern for Bangladesh

Juvenile delinquency is a growing issue of public safety in Bangladesh, so far addressed as a criminal justice, or child-welfare issue. Much less is known about its influence on the security of people and their communities in their daily lives. This study is an attempt to highlight the factors which are responsible for Juvenile delinquency and the impact of Juvenile delinquency in wider frame of non-traditional security. The study focuses on a qualitative exploratory approach with two part groups of 100 in-depth interviews with parents, guardians and rehabilitated juvenile offenders and 20 key informant interviews with professional from the juvenile justice, law enforcement, child protection and social welfare sectors in Dhaka and Gazipur. The findings show that factors that contribute to delinquency do not exist independently, but are interrelated, such as the family, economic difficulties, school involvement, peer and gang pressure, and exposure to drugs and negative digital content. The vulnerabilities are a source of fear, restricted mobility, social isolation and a strain on public institutions, which creates a loss of community trust. They refer to the need for a comprehensive prevention, rehabilitation, reintegration and child-sensitive justice response to the study.

Rasel Abedin, Habiba Akter, Kazi Nishat Aunjum et al.

ProtectionDevelopmentBDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Causal machine learning for understanding heterogeneous effects of childhood obesity prevention

Abstract Community-based interventions (CBIs) are widely used to prevent childhood obesity, yet evaluating their causal effects is challenging due to multi-level interactions and variation across individuals. Standard statistical approaches often have difficulty addressing these complexities, which can produce biased estimates. To address this, we propose a causal machine learning framework that integrates causal discovery, causal inference, and tree-based models to estimate individual treatment effects and examine heterogeneity in program outcomes. Using data from seven CBI programs involving more than 7000 participants, we first applied causal discovery to identify relationships between children’s demographic and behavioral characteristics, finding links between body mass index (BMI), age, sex, and dietary behaviors such as takeaway food consumption. Individual treatment effect estimation suggested notable differences in intervention outcomes across participants, with age emerging as an important moderator of effectiveness. Tree-based models further highlighted subpopulation characteristics associated with these variations. Our findings suggest that CBI effectiveness is not uniform across children, and that identifying sources of heterogeneity can support the design of more targeted and age-sensitive prevention strategies. While demonstrated here in the context of childhood obesity, the framework provides a generalizable approach for analyzing heterogeneous treatment effects in complex, community-based interventions.

Nu Hoang, Toan K Nguyen, Bao Duong et al.

SurvivalPractitionerAURead at source

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Meaning-making in community-directed interventions: A social capital theory perspective from the post-conflict Northern Uganda Youth Livelihood Programme

Social‐Emotional Outcomes of Preschool Participation: Are There Associations in Kindergarten and Fourth Grade?

Reconstruction of the Legal Protection Model For Children as Perpetrators of Criminal Acts Based on Restorative Justice in the Juvenile Justice System in Indonesia

Perceived changes in mothers’ outcomes following a pilot parenting program for couples with young children in Mwanza, Tanzania: A longitudinal qualitative study

Motivation and Constraints in Recreation Participation Among Children and Adults With Disabilities

Child Mortality, Parental Leave, and Gender Equality in Nigeria’s Public and Private Sectors

Climate informed pediatric care – Nurturing a better future for children

Pan-immune-inflammation Value as a Potential Inflammatory Marker in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Juvenile Delinquency as A Non-Traditional Security Threat: A Growing Concern for Bangladesh

Causal machine learning for understanding heterogeneous effects of childhood obesity prevention

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