PURPOSE: Childhood hearing loss (CHL) in need of assisting listening devices require a constant surveillance for hearing loss (HL) progression and adjustment of interventions. Despite advances in aetiological investigations, there are still important gaps in understanding causal determinants and progression patterns of CHL. The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and yield of aetiological investigations, and to identify causes associated with HL progression in older children. METHODS: This descriptive retrospective study included data from 194 children with moderate-profound senorineural HL born between January 1st 2010 and December 31st 2015, retrieved from the regional registry at the tertiary referral audiological centre in Stockholm County. Medical information and pure tone averages were gathered through the regional public health record system. RESULTS: 146 children (75%) underwent causal investigation, with a positive finding in 75 (51,4%) of them. The discovered aetiologies were genetic in 52 (69%) such as GJB2, congenital cytomegalovirus infection (cCMV) in 10 (13%) and inner ear malformations in 33 (33%). HL progression was observed in 16% of the children and the most common identified cause was enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome (EVA), followed by cCMV. CONCLUSION: The highest diagnostic yield was observed when genetic testing was performed, either as a first-line investigation or following imaging. Few children reported a progression of HL in this study group in which EVA and cCMV were the most prevalent causes. Comprehensive or targeted genetics remains as an effective diagnostic method, in isolation when clinically strengthened or in combination with imaging and infectious investigations.
Abstract Youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) has gained increasing relevance as an approach for promoting youth agency and addressing social inequalities in educational contexts. However, when implemented with migrant and racialized youth in border regions, participatory research faces specific ethical, political, and methodological challenges that may limit its transformative potential. This article offers a situated reflection on the possibilities and constraints of educational participatory action research developed with migrant and racialized young people in the Canary Islands, one of the main border territories of southern Europe. Drawing on 15 years of experience in participatory research, education, and community action, as well as practice-based insights from Emancipatory Communicative Action Laboratories involving migrant and racialized youth, the paper reflects on recurring tensions that arise in these processes. Five recurring challenges are discussed: functional interculturalism, academic extractivism, performative decoloniality, ethnocentric and adult-centred practices, and the effects of structural violence associated with border regimes. In response, the article proposes a critical anti-racist and dialogical framework grounded in reflexivity, recognition, shared knowledge production, and the creation of safe participatory spaces. Particular attention is given to methodological strategies that strengthen young people’s capacity to define their own experiences, analyse structural inequalities, and participate meaningfully in social transformation processes. The article contributes to ongoing debates on participatory methodologies by highlighting the need to rethink research practices from the perspectives of migration, racialization and border dynamics.
BACKGROUND: Many jurisdictions internationally continue to permit parents to use physical force against children under defences variously termed 'reasonable force', 'lawful correction', or 'domestic discipline'. In Queensland, Australia, this is codified under section 280 of the Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld). The appropriateness of such defences is increasingly contested, with child and youth advocates arguing that they effectively decriminalise child abuse, yet little is known about whether community attitudes align with their continued availability. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand how situational factors and community member characteristics shape attitudes towards the legal defence of domestic discipline and what community members believe constitutes a fair outcome, when a parent is charged with assaulting a child. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A quota-sampled survey of 1662 adults and qualitative focus groups with 58 community members, all residing in Queensland, Australia. METHODS: Participants were presented with a vignette describing a parent's use of physical force against an 11-year-old child, with the severity of force, use of an implement, and the child's diagnosis with ADHD experimentally varied. Survey data were analysed using binary logistic regression; focus group data were analysed thematically. RESULTS: After controlling for participant sociodemographics (e.g., age and gender), the predicted probability of a guilty finding rose sharply with the severity of force used, increasing from 7.2% (grabbed hand tightly) to 36.9% (slapped thigh with wooden spoon), and 56.9% (slapped face). Many participants, including several who supported a guilty finding, did not endorse criminal justice intervention, instead favouring parenting support and education. Qualitative findings revealed widespread uncertainty about the threshold between discipline and abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Findings reveal a gap between current legal tests and community reasoning, and support reform towards non-punitive, education-focused responses to low-level parental discipline, with implications for jurisdictions internationally that retain similar defences.
Hayley Boxall, Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Clementine Froomes-Houseman et al.
Child advocacy is a relatively new and underexplored phenomenon in Sweden. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with twelve employees of Swedish children’s rights organisations, this study explores the emergence of child advocacy as a professional domain within the institutional field of child welfare in Sweden. Child advocacy is conceptualised as an idea translated into the Swedish context. The analysis draws on institutional theory and theories of professional projects, with particular attention to professionals as agents of institutional change.The study suggests that child rights advocates is emerging as a professional domain in Sweden. Viewed as a professional project, child advocacy involves boundary work through which expertise is constructed and professional boundaries are negotiated in relation to child welfare authorities. Swedish child rights advocates can be understood as part of both internal and external processes within the field of social work, through which they construct expertise around children’s rights as a cultural-cognitive and normative framework. As such, child rights advocates assume a position from which to influence understandings of ‘good’ social work practice and authority within the field. Child advocacy is further discussed in relation to developments in social work as a professional field shaped by boundary work and broader societal transformations.
Early childhood education plays a critical role in promoting children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, laying the foundation for lifelong learning and well-being. Among the pedagogical approaches widely advocated in contemporary early childhood education, hands-on learning has gained increasing recognition for its potential to foster active engagement, problem-solving, communication, and collaborative learning. Despite growing international evidence supporting activity-based and experiential learning approaches, limited research has examined how hands-on learning activities support child development within preschool settings in Malawi. Furthermore, the study sort to fill the gap on the role of promoting children’s cognitive, social and emotional development by exploring how hands-on learning activities influence preschoolers’ cognitive and social development and identify factors that affect their effective implementation as specific gaps identified. Drawing from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, this study explored the role of hands-on learning activities in supporting preschoolers’ cognitive and social development in two early childhood centers in Lilongwe, Malawi. A qualitative-dominant comparative case study design was employed involving classroom observations, semi-structured teacher interviews, and document analysis. Data were collected from two preschool centers serving children aged three to six years and analyzed by using themes. Interview transcripts, observation notes, and documentary evidence were reviewed repeatedly to ensure familiarity with the data. The findings indicate that hands-on learning activities supported children’s cognitive development through enhanced problem-solving, creativity, language development, concentration, and numeracy skills. The activities also promoted social development by encouraging cooperation, communication, sharing, empathy, and collaborative participat ion. However, the developmental benefits of hands-on learning appeared to depend heavily on teacher scaffolding, peer interaction, and institutional support. Centers characterized by stronger teacher guidance, planning practices, and resource availability demonstrated more consistent developmental outcomes. This study contributes to sociocultural and early childhood education literature by demonstrating that the value of hands-on learning extends beyond children’s interaction with materials. Rather, developmental gains emerge through scaffolded social participation, collaborative learning, and supportive educational environments.
Steveria Limbani, Yamikani Chikhwaza, Alfred Shumba Hara et al.
This study investigated the impact of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme on vulnerable population in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. The study became necessary because of the ongoing problem of poverty, unemployment, and socioeconomic deprivation despite the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), as one of the major strategies in Nigeria's social protection system for poverty reduction. Specifically, the study aimed at assessing how the CCT programme had impact on the human capital development, economic empowerment of the vulnerable groups and the overall well-being of beneficiaries in the study area. The type of research in this study was descriptive survey. Target population were beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer programme of the selected Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State. The respondents were selected using correct sampling procedures in drawing a sample of 380 respondents. The structured questionnaire items that were used to collect primary data were based on four-point Likert scale items. Frequency counts and simple percentages were used in the analyses of the data to answer the research questions and in testing the hypotheses the Chi-square (χ²) statistical technique at 0.05 significance level was used. The results showed that the Conditional Cash Transfer programme failed to significantly increase human capital development of vulnerable populations (χ² = 2.803, p > 0.05) because there was no significant improvement in school enrolment, utilization of healthcare services, child nutrition and awareness of education. The study also indicated that there was a marginal economic empowerment of the beneficiaries with no significant improvement in income of the beneficiaries, food security and financial stability and only marginal improvement in income generating activities (χ² = 2.203, p > 0.05). The study recommended that the Conditional Cash Transfer programme though had achieved some level of improvement in poverty reduction, human capital development, economic empowerment and sustainable livelihood improvement in Akwa Ibom State, it still has limitation as a result of irregularity in cash disbursement, underfunding, low proportion of the poor and vulnerable targeted, limited programme coverage, weak monitoring and evaluation system, poor institutional co-ordination efforts and lack of integration with other complementary livelihood intervention efforts. The study thus suggested that for the effectiveness of the Program as a sustainable social protection and poverty reduction tool, government should ensure regular and timely cash disbursement, improve beneficiary targeting, monitoring and evaluation systems, and link the program to other relevant sectors, including skill and vocational acquisition, entrepreneurship development, agricultural support, financial inclusion, quality education, health care services, and employment generation.
Idaisin Israel Akpan, Chijioke Basil Onuoha, Itoro Bassey Ebong
Objective: The Certainty About Mental States Questionnaire (CAMSQ) is a self-report measure of individuals' perceived certainty about their own and others' mental states. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the CAMSQ in adolescents aged 14-18 years (CAMSQ-Y-TR). Method: A non-clinical sample of 576 adolescents (M = 15.49, SD = 1.31) completed the CAMSQ, the EPOCH Measure of Adolescent Well-Being (EPOCH), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Construct validity was tested with exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); reliability, criterion validity, and measurement invariance across gender and grade level were also examined. Results: The EFA supported a two-dimensional structure (Self-Certainty and Other-Certainty) explaining 42.01% of the total variance, and the CFA showed acceptable fit (χ²/df = 2.69, CFI = 0.90, GFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.055). Cronbach's alpha was .85 for the total scale, .80 for Other-Certainty, and .82 for Self-Certainty. Self-Certainty was positively related to well-being and negatively related to internalizing symptoms, whereas the Other-Self discrepancy (hypermentalizing) was negatively related to well-being and positively related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Full scalar invariance was supported across gender and grade level. Conclusion: The CAMSQ-Y-TR showed sufficient psychometric properties for use with Turkish-speaking adolescents aged 14-18 years.
Mutations in the pyridine nucleotide-disulfide oxide reductase domain-containing protein 1 (PYROXD1) gene are characteristically linked to early-onset congenital myofibrillar myopathy, typically presenting with generalized weakness, hypotonia, and respiratory insufficiency in infancy or early childhood.However, emerging evidence suggests phenotypic heterogeneity.We report the case of a 45-year-old Tunisian woman, born to non-consanguineous parents, who presented with a slowly progressive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) phenotype; her older brother, subsequently confirmed to carry the same homozygous variant, had a similar but more severe clinical history of proximal weakness.The patient's symptoms began at age 17 with running difficulties, progressing by age 35 to difficulty rising from a seated position and climbing stairs, and by age 45 to exertional dyspnea, dysphagia, and sleep-disordered breathing.Physical examination revealed a high-arched palate, scoliosis, joint hypermobility, limited ankle dorsiflexion, palatal weakness, and mild neck flexion weakness alongside a proximal-dominant limb-girdle pattern of weakness.Her brother showed a matching but more severe phenotype starting at age 12. Electrodiagnostic studies demonstrated normal nerve conduction and a nonirritable myopathy; serum creatine kinase was entirely normal, and pulmonary function testing revealed a restrictive ventilatory defect with mild obstructive sleep apnea on polysomnography.Clinical exome sequencing confirmed a pathogenic homozygous c.464A>G (p.Asn155Ser) mutation in the PYROXD1 gene in both affected siblings, with both parents confirmed as unaffected heterozygous carriers.This represents the first molecularly confirmed family with PYROXD1-related myopathy in Tunisia and North Africa, and only the second family identified across the African continent; a single unrelated Tunisian case harboring the same variant has also recently been reported.This case expands the known clinical spectrum of PYROXD1 variants to include adult-onset LGMD-like presentations with respiratory and bulbar involvement, emphasizes the diagnostic utility of recognizing associated dysmorphic features (scoliosis, high-arched palate, nasal speech, and joint hypermobility), and highlights the pivotal role of comprehensive genomic testing in atypical adult myopathies.
Abraham Alhatou, Omar Mohammed Alhatou, Mohammed Alhatou
This scoping review aims to map existing research on couple relationships, psychological well-being, and child-rearing experiences from pregnancy to one year postpartum. Studies will be identified through searches of Ichushi Web, CiNii Research, PubMed, CINAHL, and APA PsycINFO. Findings will be synthesized descriptively to clarify research trends, measurement indicators, and knowledge gaps, providing evidence for future perinatal family support and research.
Emotion regulation is widely assumed to support adolescents’ prosocial behavior, yet evidence from Indonesian senior high schools remains inconsistent, particularly in rural settings. This study described emotion regulation and prosocial behavior among eleventh-grade students at SMA Negeri 1 Talamau, West Pasaman, Indonesia, and examined the relationship between these variables. A quantitative correlational design involved 65 students selected from a population of 187 through proportionate random sampling. Data were collected using Likert-type emotion regulation and prosocial behavior scales comprising 37 items (α = .918) and 38 items (α = .937), respectively. Descriptive percentage analysis and Pearson product-moment correlation were conducted following normality and linearity testing. Most students exhibited high emotion regulation (61.54%), while nearly half demonstrated very high prosocial behavior (49.23%). No students were classified in the low or very low categories. The correlation was positive but very weak and statistically nonsignificant (r = .185, p = .141). These findings provide no evidence of a statistically significant linear association within this sample and caution against assuming that higher emotion regulation necessarily corresponds to greater prosocial behavior in this school context. The study contributes contextual evidence to research on adolescent socioemotional development and recommends combining emotion regulation training with peer-based prosocial programs in school counseling. Future research should involve larger samples and examine empathy and school climate alongside emotion regulation.
