Child participation is advocated for in many contexts related to children, such as in education and health services, but also in everyday life settings. To facilitate children's real opportunities for participation, it is proposed that children need to be adequately empowered to liberate the child's autonomous voice and activate their powers of action. This involves an understanding of children as opinion-forming and social individuals, who play an active part in social relationships. This article aims at a theoretical exploration of empowerment in the organization of ethically justifiable participation situations with children. With a semantic view of theory, an eclectic research design has been used to search for a theoretical framework based on basic human needs to be an active agent in one's own life. The purpose is to define key factors that promote the sense of empowerment as a prerequisite for being an active participant in interaction with adults. This conceptualization aims to raise clearer guidelines for the implementation of child participation and presents an empowerment model with four dimensions for the active inclusion of children in participatory processes with adults. These dimensions are information, autonomy, recognition, and alliance.
The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation in family and protection matters. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in the United States of America
La propuesta de inclusión de la educación ciudadana en los currículos escolares representa una mayor conciencia respecto de la importancia que tiene la formación para la participación y la convivencia en la educación de los niños, niñas y adolescentes. Por ello, educar para la ciudadanía refiere a la enseñanza de la participación de los estudiantes en asuntos que les son de su interés y de su competencia. Partiendo de lo antes expuesto, se realizó un estudio descriptivo con el objetivo de analizar las ideas que tienen estudiantes acerca de las problemáticas escolares que les preocupan y cómo visualizan su posible participación para resolverlas. Se aplicó un cuestionario diseñado ex profeso a 400 estudiantes de tres grados de nivel de secundaria de Querétaro (México). Los resultados indican que las problemáticas a las que son sensibles los estudiantes se refieren a aspectos individuales más que colectivos y la mirada que tienen acerca de la resolución es supeditada a la intervención de un adulto, es decir, heterónoma. Estas respuestas se contraponen a la educación para la ciudadanía propuesta desde el currículo formal, lo que abre una interrogante con respecto de las prácticas de formación ciudadana que se llevan a cabo en estas escuelas.
The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation in family and protection matters. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in Guinea (Conakry)
OBJECTIVES: To promote patient centered care, children with health issues should be supported to participate in consultations with health care professionals. We aimed to summarize, in a scoping review, the evidence on child participation in triadic encounters and its promotive interventions. METHODS: Two researchers systematically searched four major databases, and included studies on child participation in medical consultations. A synthesis of quantitative and qualitative data was made. RESULTS: Of 1678 retrieved records, 39 papers were included: 22 quantitative, 14 qualitative and 3 mixed-methods studies. Child participation, measured by utterances, turns or speech time, ranged between 4% and 14%. Participation increased with age. Equidistant seating arrangements, child-directed gaze and finding the appropriate tone of voice by the physician promoted child participation. Despite all facilitative efforts of doctors and parents, such as social talk, eHealth tools or consultation education, no increase in child participation was observed over the last 50 years. CONCLUSIONS: Children continue to participate only marginally in medical consultations, despite their desire to be involved in various aspects of the clinical encounter and their right to have their voice heard. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Health care professionals should provide more opportunities for children to participate in triadic medical encounters and create an inclusive environment.
Christiaan S. van Woerden, Heleen H. Vroman, Paul L.P. Brand
The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation in family and protection matters. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in Cape Verde.
ABSTRACT Child participation is strongly emphasized as a value and a right in the Norwegian child welfare (CW) system. Based on focus group interviews with 24 CW employees, we explore how CW workers understand and practice child participation in various work phases: assessment; supportive measures in the home; out‐of‐home placements. Two main forms of participation were identified: indirect participation, where the child is observed or communicates with other professionals, and direct participation, where the child speaks to a CW worker. The topics of conversations with children are divided into two categories: general topics regarding the child's everyday life and CW‐related topics, associated with the case and the child's situation. CW workers' understandings of children's participation provide the basis for the form and content of participation offered and lead to the child being assigned various positions. This ranges from direct participation where the child is positioned as the primary participant in direct interaction about their situation to indirect participation where the child is represented or observed by adults. We argue for a more nuanced understanding of what child participation implies and increased awareness of how different forms and contexts affect opportunities for children's participation.
The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation in family and protection matters. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in New Zealand.
Child participation has been defined as a process of listening to the child, taking him/her seriously, and turning his/her ideas and suggestions into reality. This author strongly believes that children should have the right to participate in decision making, especially over policies that affect their health, wellbeing and development. The main trusts of this review therefore are among others to do the following: To act as a reminder to individuals, organizations and governments that child’s rights actually exist, and need to be respected, to act as a reference resources for organisations(both government and non-government), and to ensure self-assessment with compliance. A Child for this purpose is defined as a person between the ages of 5-17yrs. Child’s rights can be protected through so many ways including; by involving a child in any activity concerning them. Involvement means ensuring that the Child is present at the venue of the event, and that the child actively contributes to the proceedings, and also by giving him/her the right of fair hearing in any activity concerning him/her. Child Participation must excludeChild “manipulation”, Child “decoration” and Child “Tokenism.” During child participation, Staff and volunteers should be properly trained to work with children, Adults should ensure a safe and child-friendly atmosphere, Venues should be clean, with healthy snacks or meals, Children should be separated by age groups, and in the event that a child becomes injured, extremely upset or reveals information that requires follow-up support, the organizers must have the proper resource-contracts at hand. When a child feelshe/she is taken seriously, and his/her opinions respected by others; he/she gains more control over his/her live and begin to develop hope for their future. In order to make participation simple, provide as much information and explanation as the child needs, use a range of ways to provide information by using simple language or graphics, and giving plenty of notice of meetings to everyone involved. The major challenge facing any child participation program and indeed any USAID supported program during reporting is to convince him/her beyond doubt that the target audience actually participated in that program. This is the duty before the Program Officer. This he accomplishes through what is called“evidential reporting”. The Monitoring &Evaluation Officer should be able to accurately complete the appropriate project forms, appropriately capture pictures related to the project events (with informed consent), and progressive pictures of the condition of the child or project; before, during, and after intervention.There should be proper documentation ofprogressive observation of the child’s or project’s condition; before, during and after intervention, if possible with video coverage. Finally, during an assessment process, the child should be involved also.Using qualitative method often yields a better result for the researcher. Once a good discussion guide is developed, an older child should be properly trained on how to conduct the group sessions, while an adult watches as the activity director from the background.
The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation in family and protection matters. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in Québec, Canada.
