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Many care-leavers experience poor individual and social outcomes. Care-leavers involvement with decision making and consistent supportive relationships with professionals can facilitate a more successful transition to independent living, including better well-being and social outcomes.
Louise Margaret Prendergast, C. Davies, Diane Seddon et al.
Research highlights a plethora of negative outcomes for care leavers and it is widely accepted that children in care are likely to have lower educational attainment than their peers. Rather than concluding that these figures can be attributed directly to being ‘in care’, scholars have indicated that the matter is more complex, drawing attention to circumstances which pre-date or supersede entry into care. This paper seeks to highlight the experiences of those care leavers who bucked the trend and achieved sufficient qualifications to study in higher education. Despite achieving well academically, our research shows that young people in care still struggled to manage the academic pathway between care and university. This paper draws on evidence collected from 234 care experienced students in England and Wales to consider the educational challenges faced by those without familial support. Findings revealed that instability, stigma and poor institutional support were significant barriers in participants' educational journeys. We consider the impact of narratives of 'meritocracy' and 'resilience' on interpretations of educational success for care leavers. We conclude that caution should be exercised when celebrating individual successes, and greater attention should be paid to structural and systemic barriers to educational achievement.
Katie Ellis, Claire Johnston
Multiple risk factors associated with the forced migration journey may adversely affect the identity development of young people with refugee backgrounds.Relatively little is known however, regarding how young people perceive their identity following the refugee experience and how their interactions with the environment influence this perception. To address this gap, this scoping review, which included 28 peer-reviewed articles from 2000-2020, explored the empirical literature that focuses on ways in which young people with refugee backgrounds represent their sense of identity. Our findings demonstrate that young people perceive themselves as having multiple identity characteristics, influenced by their interactions with their sociocultural environments and the need to integrate their past, present, and future. The review highlights the importance of holistic and pluralistic perspectives which consider factors at different layers of social ecology to understand how young people from refugee backgrounds shape their identities within their unique sociocultural contexts.
Farnaz Shahimi, Karen Block, Eva Alisic
• A deeper understanding of SAPs intervention is essential, due to the worldwide concern about the negative repercussions. • This study offers a systematic review of programs to reduce SAPs among youngsters. • 78 programs were found, of which 46 addressed School Refusal and 32 to Truancy. • The programs have been analysed according to 3 levels of effectiveness. • This study offers a review of the intervention framework for staff responsible for improving school attendance. School attendance problems (SAPs) refer to a construct that encompasses different manifestations of negative behaviours or persistent difficulties of a student to attend or stay in school for various reasons (anxiety, rejection, fear, etc.). Due to the worldwide concern about the negative repercussions of non-attendance, a deeper understanding of its intervention is essential. For this reason, this study aims to offer a systematic review of the programs designed to reduce or eradicate SAPs in child and adolescent population, differentiating between two main types according to the causal origin of the attendance problem: school refusal or truancy. For this purpose, a systematic process of search was carried out in the databases Web Of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO and Psicodoc with a common search strategy. According to 5 inclusion criteria, the data extracted from each study were analyzed based on 3 levels of effectiveness and the Cochrane’s risk bias tool. Seventy-eight programs aimed at intervening in SAPs in 6–18-year-old population were reviewed. Twenty-nine of the studies showed one of the established levels of effectiveness for the reduction of School Refusal or Truancy, which had similar characteristics in the application of the intervention program. Consequently, the strengths and weaknesses of these programs are discussed in order to provide a source of reference for staff responsible for improving school attendance. This work will contribute to clarifying which types of interventions are the most effective in dealing with SAPs.
María Pérez‐Marco, Carolina Gonzálvez, Andrea Fuster‐Rico et al.
Previous research indicates that people ascribe less responsibility to juvenile offenders than adult offenders for the crimes they have committed. Although assignment of responsibility to parents varies depending upon the youth’s age, we know little about the role of other factors. The current study used randomized factorial vignettes to examine whether the seriousness of the offense, peer involvement, and the offender's race, age, sex, and prior record influence support for parental responsibility. We found that participants in our study placed substantial responsibility on parents for dealing with juvenile offenders; however, support for punishing the parents was low, while the importance attached to enrolling parents in training was high. Views on parental responsibility were influenced by the age of the juvenile and the seriousness of the offense. The implications of these findings and how they fit in with previous work are discussed.
Eva Aizpurúa, Brandon K. Applegäte, Riane M. Bolin et al.
Care leavers often have a smaller network and receive less social support than other youth. This is problematic, as research highlights the importance of having a strong social network on which to rely when transitioning to adulthood. As such, the purpose of this scoping review was to identify studies describing interventions, programs, or methods used by child welfare services to strengthen or enhance supportive networks for care leavers. A literature search was conducted among five databases. The search was limited to articles published between 2010 and 2020 and written in English. To be as comprehensive and inclusive as possible, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies were included. Twelve articles were included in the review. The interventions discussed in these twelve studies were divided by the authors into five categories: (1) natural mentoring, (2) formal mentoring, (3) formal mentoring and skills training, (4) network facilitation by intensive family finding, and (5) self-help groups. This scoping review suggests that few studies have been conducted on social support interventions for care leavers carried out by child welfare services. Moreover, the method of evaluation differs among the studies that do exist. The literature is thus too limited to suggest a promising practice, but there are some examples of hopeful interventions. As such, there seems to be a need for more research on social support interventions within a child welfare context.
Idun Okland, Inger Oterholm
Parenting support to enhance parent and child mental health is increasingly offered on websites, apps, and through videocall. This development raises the question of how online parenting support compares to traditional in-person parenting support. Is online support non-inferior to traditional in-person support? Or should online support be used as a supplement to in-person support? In the COST Action EurofamNet (CA18123), we sought to answer these questions by systematically searching for randomized trials comparing online to in-person parenting support (Study 1) and trials comparing in-person parenting support augmented with online support elements to in-person parenting support only (Study 2). We registered our review in PROSPERO (CRD42022354393) and searched PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Cochrane in May 2022. Our outcomes of interests were children’s mental health, parenting practices, parental mental health, and parents’ satisfaction with the program. For Study 1, multilevel meta-analysis of seven eligible randomized trials (101 effect sizes; N = 957) showed consistent non-inferiority of online support and a trend that parents were more satisfied with online support. For Study 2, narrative synthesis of two eligible trials (N = 279) suggests that adding online support elements to in-person support can improve program satisfaction and short-term benefits, but does not contribute significantly to program benefits above and beyond in-person support. Our findings suggest that, provided appropriate online formats and sufficient guidance from professionals, online parenting support is non-inferior to in-person support. The additive value of online support elements to in-person support seems limited, but may still be meaningful. Future research should identify the circumstances under which parents prefer, and benefit more from, in-person versus online parenting support.
Patty H. O. Leijten, Karen Rienks, Annabeth P. Groenman et al.
This research is a randomized controlled trial of effects of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) Community-Based Mentoring Program on the social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes of participating youth over a 13-month period. Seven hundred sixty-four youth between 9 and 14 years old were enrolled in the study through two BBBSA agencies that served predominantly urban areas on the West Coast. Each participating youth was randomly assigned either to be immediately eligible for being matched with a mentor (treatment group; n = 379) or to remain on the program waitlist for 13 months (control group; n = 385). Analyses for the present study are based on 654 youth for whom outcome data were able to be obtained at a 13-month follow-up (87.0% of the treatment group and 84.2% of the control group). Outcome measures were completed by youth (depressive symptoms, prosocial behavior, social acceptance, parent–child relationship quality, misconduct, self-perception of academic ability, skipping school, and academic performance) and primary caregivers (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ]) at baseline and at the 13-month follow-up. Composite indices reflecting the average of youth- and/or parent-reported outcome measures were also examined. Findings indicated effects of mentoring (i.e., being offered a mentor) that reached statistical significance, all favoring the treatment group, for youth-reported depressive symptoms, parent-reported emotional symptoms, peer problems, conduct problems and the total difficulties score on the SDQ, and the parent-report and combined youth- and parent-report composite indices at the 13-month assessment (Cohen’s d ranging from 0.138 to 0.253).
Carla Herrera, David Lane DuBois, Janet Heubach et al.
The inclusion of families throughout the child protection process can improve lifelong outcomes for children who have been removed from their parents’ care. However, child protection authorities have struggled to prioritize principles of family inclusion within systems that position families as risky. While parents’ experiences of powerlessness within child protection systems have been well documented, little is known about parents’ perspectives on family inclusion specifically. We engaged six parents who had experienced removal of children from their care in interviews and focus groups as part of a larger study that examined practitioners’, carers’, lawyers’ and parents’ views on family inclusion in Australia. In this article we report on parents’ experiences and recommendations for improving family inclusion. Through the analytical framework of Foucauldian concepts of power, knowledge and acts of resistance we highlight the complexities of parents’ lives and intersections in their experiences of systemic and social exclusion. In identifying the importance of collaboration, decision making and parental identity these findings suggest that the advocacy of parents for inclusion in the lives of their children is an underutilized asset in child protection systems.
Kate Davies, Nicola M. Ross, Jessica Cocks et al.
There are several factors that indicate the need for sexuality education during schooling. However, sexuality education programmes are very heterogeneous. The aim of this research is to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of school-based sexuality education programmes for adolescents. A meta-analysis was conducted on the scientific evidence of the effectiveness of school-based sexuality education programmes in different countries from 2000 to 2020. The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used. The review included 47 studies. Effect size was calculated using Hedges’ g. Heterogeneity was analysed using Cochran’s Q test and the I 2 statistic. Programmes increased attitudes towards sexuality and condoms, knowledge, condom self-efficacy, condom use intention and abstinence. Heterogeneity was high, so different moderator variables on the efficacy were analysed.
Sonia Barriuso-Ortega, María Fernández Hawrylak, Davinia Heras Sevilla
