Background: Parenting styles play a critical role in shaping children's behavior, emotional development, and safety. Statistics show that a majority of child abuse cases involve perpetrators known to the child, with parental neglect being a significant contributing factor. This study identifies how different parenting styles authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful affect child safety and well-being, with a particular focus on parental monitoring, digital safety, and risk prevention. Method: A quantitative survey method was employed, involving 100 parents of children aged 10 to 15 years from urban and suburban areas. Participants were selected through stratified random sampling to ensure diversity across socioeconomic backgrounds. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that assessed parenting styles, child protection strategies, parental monitoring practices, and indicators of child well-being, including emotional security, behavioral tendencies, and exposure to risks. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis to explore associations and predictive relationships between parenting styles and child safety outcomes. Results: Results revealed that authoritative parenting (characterized by high warmth and high control) had a statistically significant positive correlation with higher child safety outcomes (p < 0.01), including improved supervision, increased digital safety awareness, and reduced engagement in risky behaviors. In contrast, authoritarian parenting (high control, low warmth) showed mixed effects, with strict safety measures coexisting with elevated levels of child anxiety and secrecy. Permissive parenting (high warmth, low control) was significantly associated with increased exposure to online threats and peer-related risks, while neglectful parenting (low warmth and low control) exhibited the strongest negative correlation with child safety (p < 0.01), linked to higher rates of abuse, cyberbullying, and emotional harm. Conclusion: Based on the findings, the study recommends promoting authoritative parenting strategies that integrate warmth and control. Parenting programs and community workshops should incorporate digital literacy and safety education. Schools and child welfare organizations must prioritize support for children from neglectful or permissive homes. Finally, policymakers should develop targeted, family-centered interventions to foster safe and nurturing environments for children.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This research emerges from Lesotho's diverse landscapes, where children’s stories remain largely unheard in the realm of health policy. The study aims to harness these narratives to drive equity, inclusivity, and human rights in health interventions, positioning youth not just as beneficiaries but as active participants in all health interventions. METHODS This research represents a meta-analysis of a larger, cross-sectional, qualitative research project, focused on understanding childrens’ narratives and experiences on their health and wellbeing. The study employed Participatory Learning Approach (PLA) tools, notably Social and Resource Mapping, Body Mapping, and Cause and Effect Analysis, to delve into these narratives. It involved a purposeful sample of 180 children, ranging from 6 to 19 years old, including school-goers, herd boys, children with disabilities, and teenagers. It occurred in diverse regions of Lesotho (Lowlands, Mountains, Foothills, and Senqu River Valley). This comprehensive approach also encompassed 18 Focus Group Discussions, enriched by Key Informant Interviews with local stakeholders. RESULTS Key findings from this study highlight significant issues in health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), education, nutrition, and child protection. The study underscores the challenges in accessing general healthcare services, particularly stressing the importance of sexual and reproductive health in high HIV/AIDS prevalence areas. The need for improved water and sanitation infrastructure is critically emphasised. In education, children and youth advocate for greater equity and inclusivity. The impact of climate change on nutrition is evident, leading to food insecurity and malnutrition, with high prevalence of stunting. Participants highlighted key facets of child protection, emphasising the increased vulnerability and exploitation of children and youth, alongside a considerable risk of gender-based and sexual violence. CONCLUSIONS Participants powerful testimonies advocate for a paradigm shift towards more inclusive and youth-involved policymaking, challenging the dominance of adult-centric approaches and calling for a holistic integration of their perspectives in programmes and policies.
AbstractCross-cultural studies on the relationship between subjective and psychological well-being in children are still very limited. Consequently, proposing a model that considers the interaction of these constructs and examining its applicability in several countries would enhance the understanding of these phenomena in childhood. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the latent relationship between subjective and psychological well-being, and to measure invariance in a sample of 12-year-old children from 30 countries. Through a quantitative methodology with a correlational design, we analyze data from 44,358 children who participated in the third wave of the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB), using Structural Equations Modeling (SEM). Results suggest that levels of subjective and psychological well-being are moderate and high, respectively, and point to significant differences in well-being indicators by country. In addition, subjective well-being is related to psychological well-being through a general adjustment model with oblique factors. Finally, the model of latent relationships presents metric invariance across nationalities.
Rodrigo Moreta-Herrera, Xavier Oriol-Granado, Mònica González-Carrasco et al.
The 2001 book, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, by Dorothy Roberts, called out the racism of the child welfare system and the harms that system perpetrates on families and communities. Twenty years later, despite numerous reform efforts, the racism and profound harms endure. It is time for transformative change. In this foreword to the symposium Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re-Envisioning Child Well- Being, honoring the 20th anniversary of Shattered Bonds, we highlight Professor Roberts’ articulation of her development as a family policing abolitionist and summarize the articles and comments contributed from scholars in numerous disciplines and well as impacted parents, family defense advocates and system-change activists. These contributions help us learn from history and political theory; focus on the unique and shared circumstances of Native American families; critique, and call for repeal of, much of current law; condemn the punitive, and racially disproportionate, surveillance of families; and demand a new approach that diverts the massive funding of the foster-care industrial complex into support, services, and healing for families, tribes, and communities.<br><br>We call for abolition of the family regulation system, the term we use as a more accurate description of what is commonly called the child welfare or child protection system. We situate this call in the context of the more developed movement for prison abolition. The current system is predicated on seeing individual parents as a risk to their children. It fails to see the strengths and resilience of parents and families; the harms of surveillance and removal; and the structural forces that harm children by failing to invest in adequate housing, income, child care, health and mental health services, and educational opportunities for all families. Abolition provides the transformative mind-set that will enable loving and strengthened families to raise happy, healthy, safe, educated, and imaginative children.<br>
Based on a unique repeated cross-sectional data set of school-aged children in Europe, the Middle East and North America, we analyze how children's subjective well-being is related to parents' employment status, depending on the institutional context. We find that parental unemployment is strongly negatively related to children's life satisfaction across countries and years. The effect is thereby moderated by the generosity of unemployment benefits. Exploiting across- and within-country variation, our results suggest that a higher benefit replacement rate alleviates the negative effects of fathers', but not mothers', unemployment. We further test the robustness of our results considering unemployment benefits jointly with social work norms. While the buffering effect of unemployment insurance remains, the spillover effects of paternal unemployment seem to be more pronounced in environments with stricter social work norms.
This paper presents a broad outline of intellectual developments in child well-being research. Four intellectual currents are identified, the ‘objective’, ‘subjective’, ‘standpoint’ and ‘praxeological’ approaches. The narrative developed emphasises the role that critical contests over epistemological, ontological and methodological issues serve for developments in research. Drawing upon the various approaches identified, the paper concludes by discussing well-being in terms of social integration and system integration, advancing a concept of well-being that is nether relativist nor culturally monopolizing.
Maternal psychological well-being is a critical determinant of health outcomes for mothers and their children, encompassing emotional, mental, and social dimensions of health during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. This chapter explores the multifaceted concept of maternal psychological well-being, examining its biological, psychological, social, and cultural determinants. Hormonal fluctuations, physical health, pre-existing mental health conditions, self-efficacy, and social support systems all play pivotal roles in shaping maternal mental health. The consequences of poor psychological well-being are far-reaching, impacting mothers’ physical recovery, children’s behavioral and cognitive development, and family dynamics. Interventions, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based approaches, peer support programs, and policy measures such as maternity leave and integrated mental health care, are effective in promoting maternal mental health. Drawing on global trends and evidence from Ethiopia, this chapter emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach to address maternal psychological well-being, recognizing its centrality to maternal and child health outcomes.
Over one third of children in the U.S. are investigated by the child protection system (CPS) by age 18, but the effects of this interaction on families and children are largely unknown. Investigations aim to protect children from harm and direct services to families in need. However, they also bring the implicit threat of child removal, which can generate both stress and institutional distrust among affected families. Using a regression discontinuity design, we study the impacts of this interaction on child health. Children who are just above the threshold for being “defaulted” into an investigation see a reduction in injuries and an increase in preventative care in the two months following the referral. Effects are consistent across child gender, race and age. Finally, investigations increase the likelihood that a parent is jailed, suggesting that investigations also detect criminal activity within the home. An exploration of mechanisms suggests that it is the investigation, rather than home removal or parental criminal justice system involvement, which improves child health.<br><br>Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w34334" TARGET="_blank">www.nber.org</a>.<br>
The aim of this paper is to highlight major shifts in research regarding children and childhood as a narrative of the author. It starts from presenting a retrospective of child poverty research in Estonia, and it is demonstrated how it has developed from the social and political acknowledgement of poverty as a social issue in the early 1990s. Then it revisits main shifts in theory and methodology of childhood research and reaches international comparative approaches to child subjective and relational well-being.
