Supporting Care Leavers to Fulfil their Educational Aspirations: Resilience,Relationships and Resistance to Help

Most children in state care do not do as well in school as their peers, but the period of leaving care and transition to adulthood may offer a ‘turning point’ for positive change. Based on a small study of care leavers in England, this article employs the concept of resilience to explore the significance of supportive relationships in enabling this group of young people to make decisions about their future and encouraging them to overcome setbacks in educational attainment.     

Peer Exploitation: Findings from a Romanian National Representative Sample of Children Living in Long‐Term Residential Centres

This study emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed‐type institutions, including a couple of abusive behaviours that have not been previously identified in long‐term residential centres.

‘Emphasises different facets of peer exploitation awareness and experience identified in closed‐type institutions’

A national representative sample of 1391 children (743 boys and 648 girls) seven to 20 years of age living in 44 long‐term residential centres was analysed to identify the prevalence of awareness and experience of peer exploitation. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors of peer exploitation experience. In total, 40.1 per cent of children reported that they were aware of peer exploitation, and 28.5 per cent that they were victims of such exploitation. Additionally, it was shown that (a) children who reported past abuse by a staff member were more likely to be victims of exploitation than those who did not; and (b) an increased number of children in a dorm room predicted a decrease in the odds of peer exploitation experience. This study provides a picture of the developmental environment for children in Romanian orphanages in the late 1990s, prior to subsequent child protection reforms, and underlines the prevalence of exploitation and the risk factors for peer exploitation in closed institutional systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key Practitioner Messages

• Four in ten (40%) institutionalised children reported that they were aware of at least one form of peer exploitation, and nearly three in ten (28.5%) reported experiencing at least some of these types of exploitation practices by their older peers.
• This study highlights the importance of understanding the complex milieu that comprised the daily lives of institutionalised children in Romania, including an environment that consisted of physical abuse by institution staff and awareness and experiences of exploitation.

     

The Long‐Term Effects of Building Strong Families: A Program for Unmarried Parents

The authors present findings from a large‐scale, random‐assignment evaluation of Building Strong Families (BSF), a program offering group sessions on relationship skills education to low‐income, unmarried parents who were expecting or had recently had a baby. Findings based on a 3‐year follow‐up survey of over 4,000 couples indicate that BSF did not succeed in its central objectives of improving the couple relationship, increasing the quality of coparenting, or enhancing father involvement. In fact, the program had modest negative effects on some of these outcomes. BSF also had little impact on child well‐being, with no effect on children's family stability or economic well‐being and only a modest positive effect on children's socioemotional development. Impacts varied across the 8 study sites. Although attendance at group sessions was relatively low, there is little evidence of program effects even among couples who attended sessions regularly.     

Do As I Say and Not As I Think: Parent Socialisation of Lie‐Telling Behaviour

This study explored parent (N = 146) perspectives about situations in which they think it is acceptable to lie, how this corresponds to how they socialise their children about lie‐telling and their children's actual behaviour. Results indicated the methods parents report using to teach their children about the acceptability of lie‐telling are consistent with what they report teaching their children about lie‐telling overall. Also, the frequency of lies that children told (N = 88) to protect themselves from psychological distress or conflict differed between those who were taught that lying is sometimes acceptable versus those taught it is never acceptable.     

Children's work and children's well‐being: Implications for policy

This article argues for holistic consideration of children's work. Dominant discourse on “child labour” attends only to dangers of children's work, leading to policies that damage some children's chances for development. Far from being universally negative in children's lives, appropriate work contributes to their well‐being and development, and to transitions to adulthood. Children's work can convey benefits for sustenance and quality of life, provide learning to complement and support school, offer psycho‐social benefits, particularly in building self‐esteem, and help develop social relations and responsibility. These benefits are especially critical for marginalized children. Common policies of abolishing child labour based on age of employment rather than potential harm deny such benefits to younger children.     

Gender,Culture and Intervention: Exploring Differences between Aboriginal and Non‐Aboriginal Children’s Responses to an Early Intervention Programme

Evaluation of a group parenting programme in the Northern Territory of Australia showed significant differences in benefits for Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal boys and girls. The analysis considers whether boys and girls from different cultural backgrounds present with different problems; whether parental expectations for boys and girls differ and whether the intervention activates different responses in different settings. Conclusions suggest that there is a need to closely examine the ‘cultural logic’ of interventions, the appropriateness of their assumptions about child development and hypothesised mechanisms of change in different settings.     

Educational Achievement of Children From Single‐Mother and Single‐Father Families: The Case of Japan

This article examines the relationships between single parenthood and student achievement in Japan. The study uses sixth‐grade data from the 2013 National Assessment of Academic Ability and the Detailed Survey, which was the first nationally representative parental survey collected through schools in Japan. The results indicate that children of single‐mother and single‐father families perform academically lower than children of two‐parent families. For children living in single‐mother families, more than 50% of the educational disadvantage was explained by a lack of economic resources. For children living in single‐father families, the educational disadvantage was explained more by a lack of parenting resources, measured by discussions at home, supervision at home, and involvement in school, than economic resources. These findings suggest that the gendered labor force and division of labor among spouses in Japanese society may deprive parents of the ability to buffer the negative relationship between single parenthood and children's educational achievement.     

Child protection training in sport‐related degrees and initial teacher training for physical education: an audit

This article reports on an online survey of child protection training for students on sport‐related and Initial Teacher Training Physical Education degrees, and on the views of recently graduated teachers of the usefulness of such training in their everyday work. The results indicate that child protection training is provided in most courses but in varying amounts. Respondents to the survey reported positively, in the main, about the effects of new requirements for teacher training (Every Child Matters: Change for Children, Department for Education and Skills, 2004). Reasons given for not including child protection in courses were: lack of time; the perceived vocational nature of the topic; lack of fit with course aims and objectives; lack of relevance; and the research rather than professional orientation of the course. Recently graduated teachers' views on their pre‐service child protection training differed from the claims made about this in the survey. In particular, they raised concerns about their lack of preparation for dealing with potential child protection situations. The article concludes that child protection training within sport‐related degrees is deficient in both consistency of delivery and in content, and that, in addition to preparing students to recognise signs and indicators of abuse, curricula should also address undergraduates' confidence and skills for responding to abuse in their everyday professional practice. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘From awareness to practice’: children,domestic violence and child welfare

This paper traces the development of social care practice in relation to child witnesses of domestic violence. It suggests that this development has been dominated by subsuming the needs of these children into a child protection process. The paper outlines how this has led to significant (but often unclear) legal and policy initiatives which have failed, as yet, to be translated into practice. The paper argues that there are a number of important reasons why child witnesses of domestic violence should not always be assumed to need the response of a child protection system and that a future practice, legal and policy response should be based on a wider understanding of their needs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

It Takes a Village (Perhaps a Nation): Families,States, and Educational Achievement

Research in the United States has shown that children growing up in 2‐parent households do better in school than children from single‐parent households. We used the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to test whether this finding applied to other countries as well (N = 100,307). We found that it did, but that the educational gap was greater in the United States than in the other 13 countries considered. Results from 2‐level hierarchical linear models demonstrated that international differences in the educational gap were associated with several indicators of national policy and demographic contexts. No single policy appeared to have a large effect, but several policy combinations were associated with substantially reduced educational gaps between children from different family structures.     

‘..It takes a lot of brain space’: Understanding young carers’ lives in England and the implications for policy and practice to reduce inappropriate and excessive care work

This qualitative study, undertaken in England, explored young carers’ perspectives on the nature of their caring responsibilities. The findings are significant, particularly in the context of England's Care Act 2014, which seeks to prevent children engaging in ‘excessive’ or ‘inappropriate’ caring. Our research placed children at the heart of the debate on what constitutes appropriate care. The findings raise key questions regarding effective implementation of contemporary child policy, duties of care towards children in caring roles and priorities for child protection and family support policy and practices, with the potential to inform thinking around child's well-being in wider contexts.     

Parent and Child Therapy (PACT) In Action: An Attachment‐Based Intervention for a Six‐Year‐Old With a Dual Diagnosis

This case study explores Parent and Child Therapy (PACT), an attachment‐based intervention for mothers and children experiencing intractable relationship distress originally developed by Heather Chambers (a Child Psychotherapist and Family Therapist working in New Zealand). We describe the use of PACT with a mother—child dyad presenting a history of severe abuse and neglect. The child had been diagnosed with Conduct Disorder and co‐morbid Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. We consider the themes arising in the therapy, the emotional process experienced by the mother and child, the initial outcome and 10‐month follow up. The case study indicates that PACT can be learned and used by practitioners outside of the team that conceptualised and developed it. The case highlights the links between externalising difficulties and attachment disorganisation and points to PACT as a promising treatment for the chronic sequelae of early interpersonal childhood trauma. The need for research and possible directions of this research are discussed.     

Latent Models of Family Processes in African American Families: Relationships to Child Competence,Achievement, and Problem Behavior

This study explored the assessment of family processes for a sample of African American kindergarten children, parents, and teachers involved in the EARLY ALLIANCE prevention trial. Using modified versions of the Family Assessment Measure, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales, the Family Beliefs Inventory, and the Deviant Beliefs measure, internal consistency analyses along with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided empirical support for a Cohesion factor (cohesion and communication), a Structure factor (support and organization), a Beliefs factor (on family purpose and child development), and a Deviant Beliefs factor. Regression analyses examined the relationship of these measures of family processes to child social and academic competence, problem behavior, and early reading achievement. Family Structure (support and organization) was consistently related to parent‐ and teacher‐reported competence and behavioral outcomes, providing support for this construct as an important aspect of family process. Family Cohesion and communication, along with Beliefs, were also related to youth competence and behavior. None of the family process variables added a unique contribution to the influence upon achievement for these kindergarten children beyond the role of parental education and income. This work begins to examine specific dimensions of family processes and their relationships to important adaptive and less adaptive child outcomes. Other dimensions may be identified and examined in future research with families of color.     

Children and Young People Living Through a Serious Family Illness: Structural,Interpersonal and Personal Perspectives

This study explores the experiences of children and young people in Britain living through a serious family illness. The study considers the interplay between social structures, social relationships and individual agency. We draw on data from the Millennium Cohort Study to estimate the number of children and young people affected nationally and on seven in‐depth interviews to understand young people’s experiences and the effects on their daily lives. Living through a serious family illness impacts on young people’s educational achievements, mental health and social relationships over long periods. Policy and service responses are suggested.     

From ‘public health’ to ‘safeguarding children’: British health visiting in policy,practice and research

This study examines the location of British health visiting in contemporary policy discourses concerned with public health and safeguarding children. It argues that professional identity and orientation can be understood through health visiting’s long history of public health work with children and families, which has included an engagement with protecting children. The expansive safeguarding children agenda, which includes the requirement to undertake a progressive universal approach to service provision and which incorporates a broad concept of risk and requires early intervention, has created tensions, particularly given current workforce constraints. The location and visibility of British health visiting in the academic and practice worlds also shape how the profession is understood.