To “make kin, not babies” is what Donna Haraway has recently proposed in response to the so-called “Anthropocene”. Building on other critical engagements with Haraway’s proposal, this paper interrogates it from a childist perspective. While striving towards a “pro-child” position on kinship, Haraway only goes so far in explicating this aim. The paper suggests that challenging adultism as well as attention to children's ongoing kinship practices are required.
How are children coping with COVID-19 health crisis? Analysing their representations of lockdown through drawings
Spain is one of the European countries most affected of COVID-19, and also the one with the most stringent restrictions for children. This study aims to explore how COVID-19 lockdown affects children by analysing 151 drawings from children in lockdown. Findings were represented in four main categories: (1) Activities; (2) Emotions; (3) Socialization; and (4) Academic. The results indicate the need to manage the lockdown situation taking into account also children's voices and by placing greater emphasis on social and inclusive policies to help alleviate the possible effects of the pandemic and the lockdown on them.
Nahia Idoiaga Mondragón, Amaia Eiguren Munitis, Naiara Berasategi et al.
Abstract Understanding children’s psychological well-being (PWB) from a eudaimonic perspective is crucial given its impact on children’s overall well-being and quality of life. This perspective denotes PWB as the realisation of one’s true potential and attaining meaningful goals that lead to personal growth and fulfilment. Despite the recent increasing interest in children’s PWB, there is limited literature in this area. This may be due to the abstract nature of eudaimonic concepts, which are challenging to operationalise and measure, leading to less empirical attention. Using a systematic review, we synthesised existing empirical studies on children’s PWB from a eudaimonic perspective. We identified 32 quantitative articles, which presented in four different categories, namely validation studies, predictors and correlates of PWB, descriptive studies, and intervention studies. Most studies used Ryff’s ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57 , 1069–1081, 1989) theoretical model of PWB and her PWB Scale, and were conducted in high-income countries. Future research should prioritise conducting studies in diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts to ensure a comprehensive understanding of children’s PWB. By expanding geographic and socio-economic representation, and including longitudinal studies, we can develop more effective and inclusive interventions and policies that cater to the needs of children globally.
Phadiel Hoosen, Shazly Savahl, Sabirah Adams et al.
Our research challenges the picture of children exposed to political violence as helpless victims, portraying them as active agents who mobilize resources both within themselves and their social, physical, political world. Based on drawings and walk-along interviews with 70 Palestinian children, the present study provides an analysis of children’s agency across the multiple settings in which they live. Our findings highlight the interconnections between the children’s agentic practices and the multiple ecologies implied in promoting – or suppressing – their opportunity to cope with their surroundings.
Federica Cavazzoni, Alec Fiorini, Cindy Sousa et al.
Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect relationships among positive parenting, meaning in life, prosocial behavior, and subjective well-being using a parallel and serial mediation model. We sought to examine whether meaning in life and prosocial behavior mediate the association between parenting and subjective well-being, and whether prosocial behavior mediates the relationship between this positive parenting and adolescents’ sense of meaning in life. This research involved 408 high school adolescents who were registered in a Turkish high school. The student composition was 30.5% male and 69.5% female, with ages ranging from 13 to 18 years ( mean = 15.80, standard deviation = 1.27). Parallel mediation analyses indicated that meaning in life and prosocial behavior mediated the relationship between positive parenting (i.e., strength-based parenting) and adolescent subjective well-being. Furthermore, the serial mediation model revealed that these variables mediated this relationship, and prosocial behavior served as a mediator in the association between parenting and meaning in life. Additional results also suggested that the mediating role of meaning in life and prosocial behavior may differ between female and male adolescents. As a result, the study provides evidence that positive parenting practices are a significant factor in increased subjective well-being and that meaning in life and prosocial behaviors, in turn, enhance parents’ impact on adolescent well-being.
This paper explores the generationing of education and development in five villages in Northern Sierra Leone. Understood as ‘fields’ governed by power dynamics, we consider how the interactive ‘fields’ of generation, education and development coalesce, re/structuring adult and child ‘being’ and ‘doing’. We explore the tensions that arise between transformation and preservation in the field in light of wider social, cultural and economic change, and the negotiation of the generational contract in contexts of high risk and inter-dependency.
Dympna Devine, Giuseppe Bolotta, Elena Samonova et al.
Child migration is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon spanning continents, age groups, and family patterns governed by two intersecting but not overlapping governance regimes. One of these two regimes is the migration regime, designed to uphold sovereign state borders and manage migration flows. The other is the child rights regime, a governance framework that privileges the protection of the best interests of the child. This article focuses on the mobility of adolescents, their needs, their challenges, and the implications of the complex and sometimes contradictory governance regimes impinging on these youthful migrations.
Abstract This study uses representative samples of 10- and 12-year-olds from the third wave of the Children’s Words international survey (N = 48,499 10-year-olds from 35 countries, and N= 44,692 12-year-olds from 30 countries) to explore the relationship between four main economic indicators at the country level and a selection of children’s subjective well-being (SWB) indicators. The economic indicators included measures of wealth and wealth inequality, while the SWB indicators included general cognitive and affective indicators of the components of SWB and a selection of satisfaction items with specific life domains or aspects of children’s lives. Separated systematic linear regressions were calculated for each age group—each economic indicator being regressed on each SWB general indicator and on each of the selected satisfaction items. As is the case with previous research, the results do not display significant associations between economic indicators and cognitive SWB when using children’s data at the population level. In contrast, associations were identified between economic and affective indicators, and between the former and the correlation between affective and cognitive SWB at the country level. These results suggest that the affective and cognitive components of children’s SWB display idiosyncratic associations with both wealth and inequality indicators at this level, and that it is very important to analyse SWB components separately. This study also shows that satisfaction with some specific life domains (e.g.: with life as a student, time use or the freedom the child has) may display associations with some economic indicators at the macro level, while satisfaction with other life domains may not, meaning that overall life satisfaction may offer different associations with economic indicators, depending on children’s satisfaction with various life domains in each country. These associations may change with age in some cases. Findings contribute to questioning the hitherto widespread belief that a country’s macro-economic situation has little or no impact on children’s well-being and invite the use of children’s SWB indicators from a quadripartite conception—including overall satisfaction with life and life domains, positive affect and negative affect—to monitor the implementation of public policies aimed at children.
Ferrán Casas, Mònica González‐Carrasco, Xavier Oriol et al.
This study explores how children navigate institutional regulation at an asylum centre and how their political acts of resistance are expressed through their struggle to access play. It shows that the children used tactical awareness to identify the displayed strategies of the institutional regulation, which was conditional for their development of tactical acts, through which they handled that regulation. The children’s political acts of resistance and struggle for play, which were hidden to the institution, demonstrated how they claimed their right to play, although this right was still structurally denied. Consequently, their politics is a politics of impediment.
Abstract Early childhood deprivations and inequalities have social and economic implications in adulthood and thus, their elimination is essential for child development. However, child-level estimates of poverty are rare in low income countries. Using data from two recent rounds of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, we measure the extent and sources of childhood deprivations in Ghana and examine subgroup differentials in child poverty. In addition, we examine the child quality-quantity by estimating the causal relationship between number of children and child poverty. Finally, we assess the sources of rural-urban inequalities in child poverty. We find that despite declining incidence and intensity of multidimensional child poverty, significant subgroup differentials persist in Ghana. The findings of the paper reveal that living standards is the main contributor to multidimensional poverty in early childhood in Ghana. Our findings also confirm a significant causal relationship between child quality and quantity in Ghana, there exist a positive relationship between the number of children and the intensity of child poverty in Ghana. Finally, we find that rural-urban inequalities in child multidimensional poverty in Ghana are attributable to differences in observed maternal and household characteristics between rural and urban areas. The persistence of subgroup disparities in child poverty may be detrimental to achieving equitable and inclusive growth in the country. There is the need for considerations of equity, fairness and social justice in the distribution and development of social services and economic infrastructure to ensure even distribution of social and economic opportunities and promote social mobility across groups.
Frank Agyire-Tettey, Derek Asuman, Charles Ackah et al.
