Africa Knowledge Hub for Children

OtherCrossref1 Jun 2018

Children and adolescents

ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that is underrecognized and underdiagnosed in many parts of the world but overdiagnosed in others. As there are presently no biological tests or markers available to support the diagnostic process, the cornerstone of case identification remains the clinical interview and assessment. Evidence suggests that a structured approach to assessment can foster good clinical practice and facilitate building a treatment plan that can be adequately monitored over time. Whilst there are several evidence-based clinical guidelines that describe the assessment process, these are not used in routine clinical practice as regularly as they should. This chapter describes the elements of a structured approach to assessment, including commentary on recognition, the clinical interview, observation, school information, questionnaires, diagnostic formulation, and cognitive and somatic examination. Special attention is needed to assess comorbidities and with special populations such as those in preschool and with intellectual impairments.

Marina Danckaerts, David Coghill

SurvivalDevelopmentRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex1 Jul 2022

Kindliches Wohlbefinden – Child Well-Being

In this article the results of the child perspective studies (Nentwig-Gesemann, Walther & Thedinga, 2017; Nentwig-Gesemann et al., 2021), which focused on the question of kindergarten quality from the perspective of four to six year old children, are considered in a different theoretical context or framework (reframe): that of subjective well-being and mental health. This re-framing, which is not a re-interpretation but an alternative interpretation of existing research findings leads to a new model of subjective well-being from the child's perspective, in which four dimensions of well-being are distinguished for the kindergarten context: personal well-being; social well-being; space-, time- and thing-related well-being; organisational well-being.

Sabine Andresen, Susanne Viernickel

DevelopmentParticipationDERead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex9 Sept 2020

Parental commuting and child well-being in Germany

The number of people commuting to work is increasing, including those who spend at least two hours travelling to and from work per day. In Germany, the group of these long-distance commuters comprises about 1.6 million people. To date, there has been little research on the possible consequences of long commuting times for family life and commuters’ children. On the basis of a pooled data set from the German Family Panel pairfam, we examine the relationship between parental commuting, the parent-child relationship and child well-being, both from the parent’s as well as the child’s perspective while also distinguishing between mothers and fathers. Some results indicate that long-distance commuting is associated with a poorer parent-child relationship and ultimately with lower child well-being. However, the association is rather sporadic and substantively weak.

Christine Borowsky, Sonja Drobnič, Michael Feldhaus

DevelopmentDERead at source

OtherCrossref9 Oct 2018

Literature for Children

The child is often imagined in the work of Coleridge and Wordsworth as a source of creative energies and of hope for the future of humanity, as well as symbolizing a return to original naturalness. But these ideas about childhood were not peculiar to the Lake poets: they have their origin in the politicized educational theories of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as in Joseph Priestley’s revolutionary rhetoric and the children’s literature that emerged from this tradition. Variously combining these influences, a new, often realist children’s literature written by Anna Barbauld, John Aikin, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Blake, Maria Edgeworth, and William Godwin sought to revolutionize the forms and content of earlier books for children. The new children’s literature of the 1790s and early 1800s envisaged a rising generation of socially engaged thinkers capable of transforming society.

Susan Manly

Read at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex6 Apr 2018

Postdivorce Parent–Child Contact and Child Well‐being: The Importance of Predivorce Parental Involvement

Frequent parent–child contact after divorce is generally assumed to be in children's best interests, but findings are mixed. This study extends the small body of research about the conditions under which parent–child contact is more beneficial or less beneficial by examining the role of predivorce parental involvement. It is argued that the more a parent was involved in child rearing in the past, the more important postdivorce parent–child contact is for child well‐being. Data from the Netherlands (N = 3,694) show that when children live with the parent who was not the primary caretaker, child well‐being is lower. Similarly, the more the father used to be involved in child rearing, the more beneficial nonresident father–child contact is for children. These findings suggest that it is not so much the frequency of contact per se that matters for child well‐being but, rather, the extent to which postdivorce residence arrangements reflect predivorce parenting arrangements.

Anne‐Rigt Poortman

DevelopmentNLRead at source

OtherCrossref1 Feb 2018

Stroke in children

Stroke in children is a rare, but terrifying disease and its lifelong sequelae weigh heavy on patients and families. It is also increasingly recognized as a socioeconomic burden, ongoing for many years after the acute manifestation. There is a significant delay in diagnosis of childhood stroke. This is caused by several factors: lack of awareness among the public and professionals, childhood-specific manifestations, numerous stroke mimics, and last but not least, limited access to emergency neuroimaging for children. Fast stroke recognition tools need adaption to the special needs in children. Childhood arterial ischaemic stroke differs in aetiology from adult stroke with cerebral vasculopathies being the leading cause and cardioembolic aetiology ranking second. However, treatment guidelines are largely based on adult guidelines and expert consensus. Future research has to put emphasis on understanding pathophysiology, defining specific treatment options, and providing evidence for treatment guidelines in paediatric stroke.

Bettina Henzi, Maja Steinlin

SurvivalRead at source

OtherCrossref20 Sept 2018

When Children Die

This chapter examines texts in which children experience violence. By examining childhood violence in war contexts, we see how brutal treatment is used in promotional texts for its rhetorical effect. Likewise, violence against children through curses is met with an equally robust societal response. Further, child sacrifice is rarely practiced but had broad narrative impact. In childhood burials, we see a high regard for children reflecting the child’s value in the domestic cult. These contexts frame how we read childhood violence in the Hebrew Bible. Psalm 137 and 2 Kings 8:11–12 offer a poetic and narrative example of how violence against children assumes a child’s value in order to be effective texts. This is demonstrated through 2 Samuel 12 and the boys and the bears in 2 Kings 2 as well as in Genesis 22. To be rhetorically effective, violence used against children assumes their broadly held value.

Shawn W. Flynn

ProtectionRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex5 May 2020

Marital Disruption, Remarriage and Child Well-being in China

Family changes in China are characterized by a dual rise in marital disruption and remarriage. However, the implications of these changes for child well-being remain understudied. I analyze data from the 2015 China Education Panel Survey to profile and explain well-being disparities between children in intact, disrupted, and remarried families. Child well-being is poorer in disrupted than in intact families. Remarriage, particularly of both parents, is associated with further harm to children’s well-being. Mothers’ remarriage is associated with a broader range and greater extent of damage to children’s well-being than that of fathers. Neither social selection nor economic and non-pecuniary resources explain poorer child well-being in disrupted families and stepfamilies than in intact families. Household structure only explains why children in disrupted families, but not in stepfamilies, fare less well than those in intact families. Variations in child well-being with parents’ marital status are consistently explained by poor parent–child relations and parental conflict. Reflecting on the theories of selectivity, resource deprivation, and structural instability, the findings highlight the need to consider China’s distinctive sociocultural and institutional settings in configuring the implications of ongoing family changes for child well-being.

Yang Hu

DevelopmentCNRead at source

OtherCrossref27 Sept 2024

Protecting Children Online: Tackling Risks and Ensuring Digital Safety

This paper discusses the significant risks children face in the digital world, including cyberbullying, online exploitation, harmful content, and data privacy breaches. With increasing engagement in social media, gaming platforms, and other digital spaces, children are exposed to new dangers, often worsened by limited digital literacy among both themselves and their caregivers. The conference will examine these threats, focusing on the roles of emerging technologies and socio-economic factors that contribute to an unsafe online environment. By fostering collaboration among governments, tech companies, educators, and civil society, this paper aims to present innovative solutions to protect children online. Through partnerships and increased digital education, the goal is to create a safer, more secure digital landscape for young users.

Abirami V, Kiruthivasan M

ProtectionRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex26 Jul 2020

Longitudinal sleep problem trajectories are associated with multiple impairments in child well‐being

BACKGROUND: This study examined whether distinct sleep problem trajectories from infancy through middle childhood were associated with multiple aspects of child well-being at ages 10-11 years. METHODS: Data were from the first six waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children - Birth Cohort (5,107 children recruited at birth). Caregivers reported on child sleep problems at each time point. A combination of caregiver-reported, teacher-reported and child-completed tasks were used to index child well-being outcomes at ages 10-11 years including emotional/behavioural functioning (internalizing and externalizing symptoms; self-control), health-related quality of life, cognitive skills and academic achievement. RESULTS: Latent class analysis identified five distinct sleep problem trajectories over time: persistent sleep problems through middle childhood (7.7% of the sample), limited infant/preschool sleep problems (9.0%), increased middle childhood sleep problems (17.0%), mild sleep problems over time (14.4%) and no sleep problems (51.9%). Compared to those with no sleep problems, children with persistent sleep problems had the greatest impairments across all outcomes except cognitive skills (perceptual reasoning), with moderate to large effect sizes. Children with increased middle childhood sleep problems similarly experienced greater internalizing and externalizing symptoms and worse quality of life, but few academic impairments. Both the limited infant/preschool sleep problems and mild increases over time trajectories also showed internalizing concerns and worse caregiver-reported quality of life, although effects were smaller than the other sleep trajectories. CONCLUSIONS: The linkages between sleep problems and negative child outcomes across domains underscore the importance of early identification and targeted intervention to address sleep problems and promote child well-being.

Ariel A. Williamson, Jodi A. A. Mindell, Harriet Hiscock et al.

SurvivalDevelopmentAURead at source

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