Child marriage is a violation of Human Rights and an impediment to social and economic development, it is strongly rooted in gender inequality. In Brazil, this practice has a predominantly informal and consensual quality, they often involve adult men married to girls in early puberty. The objective of this study is to synthesize the literature on the impact of child marriage on the most diverse indicators of human development - such as education, labor market, health, fertility, violence and female empowerment. In summary, the literature reveals that child marriage has a negative impact on these indicators, and this corroborates the urge to eliminate this phenomenon, which will ensure women’s right to a full economic and social life.
IntroductionEver since the 1960s, Guatemala has been a principle site for global academic research on child growth and nutrition. Nevertheless, Guatemala still has one of the highest rates of child stunting in the world. Since 2012, Guatemala has had a comprehensive national policy on stunting, calling for a renewed investment in innovative, multilevel nutrition interventions and implementation science. Our objective was to perform a systematic search and scoping review of the literature on stunting in Guatemala to identify gaps in research and opportunities for responding to this unique policy opportunity.MethodsWe conducted a systematic search and scoping review on stunting in Guatemala, searching the PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO databases. Eligible articles were of any design or format, published in English and Spanish from 2000 to 2018. Articles were thematically grouped by those published before (2000–2011) and after (2012–2018) the new national policy initiatives.ResultsWe identified a total of 1934 articles through database searches. After full-text review, 104 were included in the synthesis. The volume of published articles on stunting increased from a mean of 3.2 to 9.4 articles/year before and after 2012. There was a shift toward articles generating new data on priority populations, including rural indigenous Maya populations (34% vs 61%, χ2 test, p=0.01). However, the proportion of studies conducting implementation evaluations or testing new interventions was low and did not change significantly (34% vs 18%, χ2 test, p=0.07). Among 17 identified intervention studies, only 4 tested multilevel interventions, and there were no published interventions incorporating nutrition-sensitive interventions.ConclusionsA systematic search and scoping review of the literature on child stunting in Guatemala identified critical opportunities for new research in multilevel interventions, nutrition-sensitive interventions and implementation science.
Ana Cordon, Gabriela Asturias, Thomas De Vries et al.
AbstractHousehold food and water insecurity has been previously associated with adverse health consequences in children. However, these relationships are understudied in middle‐income Latin American populations such as in Ecuador, where a high prevalence of food and water insecurity has been reported. Using cross‐sectional data from 2018 Ecuadorian National Health and Nutrition Survey, we examined the association of household food insecurity (HFI), household water insecurity (HWI), and concurrent HFI‐HWI with diarrhoea, respiratory illness (RI), and stunting in 20,510 children aged ≤59 months. HFI was measured using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. HWI was defined when households responded negatively to one or more of four drinking water indicators. Maternal caregivers reported on child diarrhoea and RI episodes during the previous 2 weeks. Measured length or height was used to assess stunting. We constructed log‐binomial regression models to estimate the associations of HFI, HWI, and concurrent HFI‐HWI with child outcomes. Moderate‐severe HFI was associated with a higher prevalence of diarrhoea (PR = 1.39; 95% CI: 1.18, 1.63) and RI (PR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.22, 1.47), HWI with a higher prevalence of RI (PR = 1.13; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.22), and concurrent HFI‐HWI with a higher prevalence of diarrhoea (PR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.62) and RI (PR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.29, 1.62). Stunting was not associated with HFI, HWI nor concurrent HFI‐HWI. These findings suggest that HFI and HWI can independently and jointly act to negatively affect children's health. Policies and interventions aimed at alleviating both food and water insecurity are needed to bring sustained health improvements in Ecuadorian children.
Rishika Chakraborty, Rodrigo X. Armijos, Erika T. Beidelman et al.
Canada has welcomed over 100,000 Syrian refugees since 2015, many of whom have faced displacement-related challenges that shape their socio-emotional well-being. Refugee children, in particular, are at heightened risk for socio-emotional difficulties due to their developmental sensitivity to adversity, exposure to traumatic events, and resettlement stressors. Assessing children’s socio-emotional well-being often relies on both parent-reports and child self-reports; however, discrepancies between these reports commonly occur, and the factors influencing such discrepancies are not well understood, particularly in displaced populations. The present study examined predictors of parent-child discrepancies in reports of socio-emotional well-being and explored whether such discrepancies were associated with children’s learning outcomes. Participants were Syrian refugee children (N = 55, Mage = 14.42) who were resettled in Canada for an average of six years. Results revealed that children consistently self-reported more socio-emotional problems than their parents reported. Moreover, longer time resettled in Canada predicted greater parent-child discrepancies, suggesting that resettlement-related factors and acculturation influence parent-child discrepancies. However, child self-reports, but not parent-reports, showed limited external validity; while parent-child communication barriers may contribute to discrepancies, differences in how socio-emotional constructs are understood and reported by parents and children are important to consider. These findings underscore the importance of including multiple informants in socio-emotional well-being assessments and carefully considering cultural and contextual factors when designing assessments, specifically given the complex dynamics in displaced families. Future research is important to advance the literature to determine whether assessments of socio-emotional well-being should be adapted for specific populations, as suggested by the present findings.
Andrea De Bartolo, Yuying Huang, Hamza Qayumi et al.
Abstract Research on child well-being under 10 years old is limited. A first step towards stimulating research targeting this population is the validation of psychometric scales across cultures. The current study examines the cross-cultural validity of the Children’s Worlds - Subjective Well-being Scale (CS-SWBS-8-year-old version), a six-item subjective well-being scale in an international sample of 8-year-olds (N = 20,822) across 19 countries. A confirmatory factor analysis of the CW-SWBS-8yo showed adequate fit after structural equation modelling. Multi-group analysis supported scalar invariance when one of the countries (Chile) was not included in the model. When testing convergent validity, results suggested that the CW-SWBS-8yo is predicted by life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Overall, the findings support the use of the CW-SWBS-8yo in 8 year-olds in both eastern and western countries.
Ana Blasco-Belled, Mònica González-Carrasco, Ferran Casas
Abstract Some reflections on strengthening epistemic justice and psychosocial well-being in the US child welfare system describes implications of our comparative ethnographic research beginning with the experiences of parents, professionals, and young people within child welfare systems using a comparative, ethnographic approach embedded within time and place. This approach revealed the cultural embeddedness of child welfare systems, as well as the psychosocial-spiritual harm, specifically moral injury, that can occur as a result of epistemic injustice within the US child welfare system. We argue that barriers to creating a more compassionate, epistemically just and effective child welfare system include a misalignment of cultural notions of child maltreatment—why it occurs, who is worthy of help, and who is responsible for helping—with those notions underlying many progressive policies and programs implemented in the United States over the decades. When progressive laws, policies, and programs that support families conflict with widespread cultural notions that criminalize struggling parents and devalue those who are impoverished and from historically oppressed groups, then implementing them and sustaining support from the general public and those in positions of power will falter.
OBJECTIVE: Parents of children with mental health problems often experience judgment about their parenting. Such stigma is associated with lower parental well-being and greater child symptom severity. Theory-driven descriptions of and interventions for parental stigma are limited. The authors aimed to investigate how parents experience and cope with stigma via the What Matters Most framework. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 24 parents (50% women, mean±SD age=39.8±8.6 years) of children ages 6-17 with depression (N=9), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (N=7), or substance use problems (N=8). Interviews explored what parents view as central to being respected as a "good parent," how a child's mental health problems threaten these qualities and shape stigma toward parents, and how parents cope with stigma and restore a positive moral identity. RESULTS: Parents reported being respected for support, open communication, boundaries, role modeling, and their child's well-being. When children have mental health problems, stigma reflects perceived parental failure to meet ideals, leading to emotional distress and self-doubt. With support from peers and clinicians, parents found new ways to fulfill or redefine these ideals, reducing self-stigma. CONCLUSIONS: Parental stigma centers on threats to identity as good parents. Mental health services can mitigate stigma by helping parents reinterpret and reasonably fulfill parenting ideals.
An estimated one billion children live at extremely high risk of adverse effects from climate change. Even when children are not exposed to direct physical impacts, the existential threat of climate change can have a psychological impact by creating a stressor that exacerbates underlying mental health disorders or contributes to the development of new disorders. Children and adolescents worldwide are experiencing high rates of fear and worry related to climate change, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Despite this disparate impact, most studies on this topic have been conducted in the Global North. The Galápagos Islands are part of a medium-income nation and will face stark impacts of climate change in the coming decades. Currently, it is unknown how the threat of climate change is affecting the mental health of the children living in the islands. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured, qualitative interviews with children and adolescents on the island of San Cristóbal to determine their thoughts, perspectives, and understanding of climate change ( N = 30). These interviews also required participants to draw what they expect the island to look like in 100 years. We identified major themes from the interview transcripts and drawings, including the children’s personal identification with nature, feelings of anger and frustration, and feelings of sadness and loss regarding climate change. The findings from this study will inform interventions to promote emotional resilience among the children in San Cristóbal, as well as educational initiatives to address knowledge gaps.
Victoria Moffitt, Kelly Penelope Kennedy, Ayla Malefakis et al.
ABSTRACT Early and prolonged parent–child separation (EPPCS) may affect the health and well‐being of affected families. This phenomenon is common but understudied among Chinese immigrant families, especially those living in low‐income communities. Whereas some research has been conducted to understand the mental health and development of separated–reunited children, no research has examined the mental health condition of affected parents. The present study collected interviews ( N = 24) and daily diary survey data (50% of the interview sample) to explore parental mental health and emotions and related factors among Chinese immigrant parents who have reunited with their children after EPPCS. Results integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis showed relatively low challenging mental health conditions in general, yet moderate positive to minor negative emotions (i.e., without extreme emotional reactions) among parents. Factors related to parental mental health included financial stress, children's educational attainment, family relationships, acculturation and homesickness. Parenting stress and a lack of communication with children could affect their negative emotions. Engagement in leisure activities, healthy parent–child bonding, quality family time and the child's advancement in academics were found to be beneficial to parental mental health conditions and positive emotions. The study provides insights for policies and community‐based services to support parents' parenting skills and relationships with their separated children during separation and after reunification.
Abstract Internalizing problems are prevalent in childhood and are associated with exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); however, their co-development across childhood remains understudied. Prior research documents sociodemographic disparities (i.e., race/ethnicity, sex, income) in ACE exposure and internalizing problems. The current study examined individual and co-developing trajectories of ACEs and internalizing problems and sociodemographic disparities among 4,655 diverse at-risk youth at ages 3, 5, and 9. Participants were 52.2% boys and racially and ethnically diverse, with 44.7% Black, 22.5% Hispanic, 16.7% Other, and 16.2% White youth. Results showed various trajectories with stable levels of cumulative ACE exposure over time and internalizing problems trajectories that decreased or increased over time. Findings provide some evidence for a dose–response relationship between ACEs and internalizing problems. Youth of Color (φ = 0.26, 0.11, 0.19) and from low-income backgrounds ( ϵ 2 = 0.07–0.09, 0.02, 0.06–0.08) were more likely to be in worse trajectories of ACEs, internalizing problems, and joint trajectories across ages 3, 5, and 9, respectively. Findings underscore the need for culturally responsive trauma-informed interventions and policy-level efforts that target the root cause of inequities.
Cynthia M. Navarro Flores, Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez, Brenna Gomer et al.
