ABSTRACT Marriage migration from Vietnam to Taiwan has often been portrayed in static terms of integration or failure, overlooking how women adapt to ruptures across time. This study applies resilience theory to examine how 27 Vietnamese marriage migrant women confronted disappointment and developed coping strategies within transnational marriages. Drawing on in‐depth interviews, the findings reveal that Vietnamese marriage migrant women endured disillusionments such as domestic violence, neglect, and isolation but actively recalibrated their lives through spirituality practices, small‐scale entrepreneurship and investments in children's education. By situating these practices within a resilience framework, the study highlights how adaptation is not a linear recovery but an iterative process shaped by agency, family obligations and cross‐border ties. Through this perspective, the study shows how aspiration, rupture and recalibration recur across the life course, leading to different rather than converging trajectories. The study extends resilience theory into the domain of marriage migration, contributes to feminist and transnational scholarship by foregrounding everyday agency, and carries policy implications for supporting migrant women beyond early settlement stages.
Abstract Contemporary theories of positive youth development (PYD) emphasize dynamic, mutually beneficial relationships between individuals and their contexts as a pathway to thriving and contribution. However, there remains a critical gap in longitudinal, theory‐driven research examining youth strengths (e.g., purpose) and contextual assets (e.g., program quality) in Majority World contexts, particularly within structured youth programming. The present study examined reciprocal relationships between perceived program quality (a higher‐order factor of the Big Three) and youth purpose using three waves of longitudinal data from a sample of 615 adolescents (50.3% female; ages 9–16, M age = 12.5, SD age = 2.3) participating in Compassion International youth development programs in Uganda. Results using cross‐lagged panel models revealed positive, reciprocal associations between perceived program quality and youth purpose, such that higher program quality predicted subsequent higher youth purpose, and stronger youth purpose predicted more positive later perceptions of program quality. Temporal precedence tests indicated that neither construct emerged as a dominant developmental driver, and therefore supported a pattern of mutual influence. These findings advance PYD theory by providing longitudinal evidence for dynamic person⇔context coactions between perceived program quality and youth purpose, consistent with dynamic, relational developmental systems perspectives.
Ruoying Zhang, Roya Abbasi‐Asl, Margaret Mackin et al.
Abstract This study examined the associations of neighborhood collective efficacy and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) status with psychosocial and academic outcomes among Black and White adolescents. Using a sample of 2,178 adolescents (ages 14–19; 73.0% Black, 27.0% White) from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we investigated how adolescent- and caregiver-reported neighborhood collective efficacy, and its interactions with racial group and ADHD status, were associated with wellbeing and school-related outcomes. Adolescent- and caregiver-reported neighborhood collective efficacy were weakly correlated, suggesting the importance of examining both perspectives. Significant racial group × ADHD interactions emerged in relation to engagement and happiness: ADHD was associated with lower engagement and higher happiness among White adolescents, but these associations were not observed among Black adolescents. In both caregiver- and adolescent-reported models, significant racial group × neighborhood collective efficacy interactions were observed for perseverance, such that higher neighborhood collective efficacy was associated with greater perseverance among White adolescents, but not among Black adolescents. ADHD was also associated with greater trouble in school. Neither racial group nor informant’s rating of neighborhood collective efficacy was significantly associated with school suspensions, and no significant interactions emerged for suspension outcomes. Among Black and White adolescents in the present sample, these findings suggest that associations between neighborhood context, ADHD status, and psychosocial and academic outcomes differed across groups, underscoring the importance of considering social and cultural context when developing interventions to support Black youth.
Cathrin D. Green, Elizabeth S. M. Chan, Sydney E. Padgett et al.
Family mealtime is a recurring everyday context for parent-child interaction, typically involving family members sitting together with the shared purpose of eating and socializing. However, little is known about the quality of parent-child interaction in this context, as this is often assessed during play or structured tasks. The aim of this study was to examine whether family mealtime constituted a context evoking specific parent-child interaction quality. Participants were 110 families with 24–36-month-old toddlers from the Copenhagen metropolitan area. Parent–toddler interactions during free play, clean-up, and mealtime were video-recorded in the home. Interactions were coded using the Coding Interactive Behavior manual to assess parental Acknowledging, Overriding, and Dyadic Reciprocity. We assessed mean-level differences (contextual continuity) and rank-order consistency (contextual stability) across the three contexts. Means for Overriding and Dyadic Reciprocity were significantly lower during family mealtime than during both play and clean-up, suggesting contextual discontinuity; i.e., that at the group level, mealtime interactions involve less inappropriate parental disruption and redirection, but also lower mutual responsiveness within the dyad. Acknowledging, Overriding, and Dyadic Reciprocity showed no significant correlations across family mealtime and the other contexts, indicating contextual instability, i.e., that within families, interaction quality during mealtime is not necessarily associated with interaction quality in other contexts. Our results suggest that interaction quality cannot be assumed to generalize across contexts. Family mealtime appears to elicit distinct interaction patterns on more parameters and may be an important setting for observational assessment. Clarifying for whom and under what conditions mealtime fosters positive or negative interaction patterns may guide future research and intervention design.
Julie Elisabeth Warberg Mohr, Ida Egmose, Anne Christine Stuart et al.
Climate change education (CCE) in early childhood and primary settings has expanded rapidly, yet remains unevenly theorised with respect to children’s participation, emotional experiences, and resilience. While existing approaches frequently emphasise knowledge acquisition, pro-environmental behaviour, or coping skills, they offer limited explanatory insight into why children’s engagement with climate issues can simultaneously create agency, anxiety, hope, or disengagement. This critical integrative review synthesises 47 empirical, conceptual, review, and policy-oriented studies to examine how participation, emotion, and resilience are conceptualised and enacted in CCE for young children. Drawing on established guidance for integrative synthesis, the review identifies three patterned tendencies across the literature: constrained forms of participation that prioritise expression over influence; heightened attention to climate emotions without corresponding structural responsiveness; and resilience framings that risk individualisation in the absence of collective and rights-based supports. To explain these patterns, the review advances the Participation–Emotion–Resilience (PER) framework, which conceptualises participation, emotion, and resilience as mutually constitutive processes rather than discrete domains. Grounded in children’s rights research and aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the PER framework elucidates how the quality of participatory opportunities shapes emotional experiences and conditions whether resilience emerges as collective capacity or individualised coping. The review concludes by outlining implications for theory, pedagogy, and policy, arguing for climate education approaches that attend to the ethical and affective dimensions of children’s participation in conditions of climate uncertainty.
Abstract Children with neurodevelopmental or mental health diagnoses often face barriers to their successful psychosocial functioning at school. This study aimed to systematically review the key characteristics and quality of primary school‐based interventions that evaluate psychosocial functioning and to conduct a meta‐analysis of the interventions' effectiveness and moderators. The review was registered with PROSPERO and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analysis guidelines. Four databases were searched in July 2024. Eligible randomised controlled trials (RCTs) needed to evaluate school‐based interventions for primary school children with neurodevelopmental or mental health diagnoses. The first author screened all abstracts, with a second reviewer screening 50% of randomly selected abstracts. The same authors appraised the methodological quality of all studies using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 Tool and the QualSyst Appraisal Tool. Twenty‐four studies were included, including 11 RCTs and six cluster RCTs involving 17 interventions. Twelve interventions targeted autistic children, and five interventions targeted children with ADHD. Fifteen studies involving children with mental health conditions were screened at the full‐text stage; however, all were excluded because the study design ( n = 8), outcome measures ( n = 3) or intervention design ( n = 4) did not meet the inclusion criteria. Seven studies analysed moderating variables impacting the interventions' psychosocial outcomes. Individualised interventions were the most common ( n = 12), with a range of intervention techniques and outcome measures assessing sub‐constructs of psychosocial functioning. The meta‐analysis showed small, significant treatment effects from the between‐group analysis favouring the intervention groups. Findings from the subgroup analysis revealed that school‐based interventions were more effective for children with ADHD when they were single‐tiered and included children, teachers and parents. Although the review intended to include both neurodevelopmental and mental health diagnoses, all eligible studies involved neurodevelopmental conditions; therefore, conclusions are restricted to autistic children and children with ADHD. Context and implications Rationale for this study: Fostering a supportive school environment is key to supporting children's psychosocial development. Successful psychosocial functioning can enable children to participate academically and socially. We aimed to explore the available school‐based interventions to support children with a neurodevelopmental or mental health diagnosis and improve their psychosocial functioning at school. Why the new findings matter: Overall, we found evidence supporting the effectiveness of school‐based interventions in enhancing the psychosocial functioning of autistic children and children with ADHD in this review. Implications for educational researchers and policy makers: Our findings highlight the ongoing necessity for evidence‐based tier‐two and tier‐three interventions for neurodiverse children to support their psychosocial functioning, whether embedded within a multitiered intervention or as a standalone approach. Psychosocial functioning encapsulates the interrelationship between the person and their environment. Thus, as most interventions focused solely on upskilling neurodiverse children, we encourage future researchers and clinicians to intervene at the environmental level to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for the child.
Katherine Spender, Lauren Parsons, Sarah Wilkes‐Gillan et al.
Christian parents in Eastern Africa find themselves at a paradoxical position. On one hand they are one of the most individually devout believers globally, yet most of them are unable to translate their devotion into deliberate faith formation within their respective homes. This article examines the gap between private religious practice and intentional parental discipleship among Christian parents across seven Eastern Africa countries: Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. It draws on survey data from the OneHope Faith Foundations Eastern Africa Report (2025), which surveyed 758 Christian parents from the aforementioned Eastern Africa countries. The report reveals that while 69% of parents pray daily, and 75% attend church weekly, only 36% discuss the Bible with their children frequently, and fewer than 10% feel fully equipped to disciple their children at home. The study employs a quantitative survey design, supplemented by interviews with 31 church leaders, to assess the frequency of spiritual practices, perceived barriers and parental confidence in faith transmission. Findings reveal that the primary obstacles are not spiritual indifference but a deficit of practical knowledge and confidence, compounded by an over-reliance on institutional structures such as the church to carry out what is fundamentally a parental responsibility. This article concludes that the most strategic investment Eastern Africa churches and ministries can make in the next generation is the equipping of parents with simple, culturally relevant, and accessible tools for practising faith at home, beyond daily church attendance.
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.
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.
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.
