Measuring Children's Experience of Their Right to Participate in School and Community: A Rights‐Based Approach

This paper discusses the development of a children's rights‐based measure of participation and the findings from its use in a survey of 10‐ to 11‐year‐old children (n = 3773). The measure, which was developed in collaboration with a group of children, had a high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.89). Findings suggest that children's positive experience of their participation rights is higher in school than in community, and higher for girls compared to boys. It is argued that involving children in the ‘measurement’ of their own lives has the potential to generate more authentic data on children's lived experiences.     

Coping and Helping to Cope: Perspectives of Children of Palestinian Political Detainees

This qualitative study investigates how children of Palestinian political detainees in Israeli detention cope with their fathers' absences. Researchers conducted 16 semi‐structured interviews with children, mostly aged 15 and older in the West Bank. Three themes are discussed that emerged from the interview data: how children cope with their sadness; the children's perspectives on community support; and older children's support to siblings and parents. Practitioners can support children by providing counselling to mothers and organising interventions, which give children the opportunity to connect. It is important that the agency of the older children is taken into account and built upon.     

Children as domestic employees: Problems and promises

While children's domestic work is widely seen as acceptable in a child's own home, there has been growing attention to the vulnerability of children employed in domestic service; some people have argued that this work should be banned outside children's homes. This article considers both the potential harm as well as the benefits accruing to children in such environments, and has inquired into the opinions of children who themselves are involved in this kind of situation. This exploration has encountered obstacles: for example, institutions for fostering children and extended-family scenarios frequently blur the boundaries between work within the home and for outside employment. While support for child domestic workers should be a matter of urgency, stopping children from working outside their homes is not necessarily an effective way of protecting them, and, further, this approach removes possible material resources from some disadvantaged children. It is, instead, better to focus on positive ways of improving children's opportunities.     

Children's rights: developments and prospects

The decade since International Year of the Child has witnessed a variety of suggestions and initiatives to promote the rights of children. Proposals for ombudswork with children, a Minister for Children, a Children's Congress, a Children's Rights Officer, a Youth Charter and Youth Councils are each critically assessed. It is argued that the forthcoming Convention on the Rights of the Child may prove less effective in winning rights for children than its advocates imagine. The author concludes that rights for children are less likely to be achieved by adopting any specific group of reforms, than by acknowledging and supporting the principle that, wherever possible, children should be encouraged to make decisions for themselves and act on their own behalf     

Children's talk and social competence

This article reviews research on the organisation of children's talk. It outlines the range of disciplinary concerns that contribute to the study of children's talk, and focuses on a range of work which foregrounds linkages between children's talk, social interaction and wider social processes. Paying particular attention to studies in conversation analysis, the emphasis is on how talk in peer‐group and in child‐adult interaction contributes to various theoretical and practical interests in children and society.     

The impact of early life-course transitions on equality at work and home

This paper investigates two aspects of the paid employment relationship between female and male partners aged 23. It is argued that in order to understand women's position in the home and the labour market it is necessary to consider employment relationships in the context of the household. The impact of children on women's labour force participation is already well known and in this paper we show that marriage also has an independent effect on hours worked. The second aspect of the paper concerns the relative financial contribution of each partner to the family income from their labour market earnings. It is recognised that power and equality within the home are to some extent derived from the relative contribution of partners to the family income. It is shown that women are economically dependent on men even in the early stages of their partnership before children and that this dependence is greater among women with children.     

Young Children's Rights and Public Policy: Practices and Possibilities for Citizenship in the Early Years

There is a growing belief that young children should be involved in decisions that affect them. This belief has its foundations in a new model of the young child, in a new concern with young children's rights as citizens and in new knowledge about the significance of young children's early experiences. This article examines the increasing interest in involving young children in policy‐making and its rationale. It then presents two case studies from Australia of consulting young children in policy‐making, to show what consulting young children can offer children, policy‐makers and the wider community.     

Children's participation: control and self‐realisation in British late modernity

Children's participation in public life in contemporary Britain is examined in relation to the tension between control and self‐realisation found in late modernity. It is argued that, despite the recognition of children as persons in their own right, public policy and practice is marked by an intensification of control, regulation and surveillance around children. This tension is considered in relation to the constitution of children in the public sphere as human capital and therefore as a means of controlling the future. This is contrasted to the private sphere where children's potential for self‐realisation is increasingly sequestered in the family. It is suggested that these trends raise issues of social inequality, intergenerational justice and institutional disengagement in relation to children. This requires more serious attention to enabling children's participation in the society. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Research with young children: Exploring the methodological advantages and challenges of using hand puppets and draw and tell

This paper explores the methodological advantages and challenges of participatory tools used in research with young children in Ireland. Taking a child-centred approach, hand puppets and ‘draw and tell’ helped elicit children's expressions and meanings. Both techniques assisted in shifting the power balance between children and researchers, encouraged dialogue, created a fun atmosphere and promoted children's participation. When children are given the space, opportunity and means, and with skilled facilitation, they can clearly share their perspectives and meanings. It is important that researchers and practitioners use techniques that will facilitate and maximise young children's competencies, agency and preferences.     

A historical perspective on the working contributions of children in britain: 1800-1914

This paper considers the work of children and their contribution to modern societies by looking at this from a historical perspective. Children's work today is often characterised as being little and of no consequence, while it is expected that children should enjoy a childhood free from the cares and worries of the adult working population. In this article I show how children's experience of work moved from the 'public' world of the street and workplace outside the home, to one where children's work is centred in the 'private' realm of the home and school. Children were denied the status and benefits associated with receiving a wage and were therefore a role assumed to be dependent upon others and undervalued. It is argued that children's place in society is similarly devalued and their contributions to the reproduction of that society marginalised. Children's activities and contributions are merely represented as being unworthy of any kind of economic, political or legal reward. The subsequent exclusion from social, economic and political reward separates children from the independence normally enjoyed by adults. While not of course condoning the exploitation of children, or even suggesting that children today are not entitled to a time where they are free of the burdens of paid work, I discuss how children's contributions are redefined, undermined and undervalued. I do so by focusing on the experience of the city of Manchester between 1800 and 1914, and the effects of the slow introduction of legislation curbing children's paid work.     

The psychosocial well-being of children from Australian military and fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) mining families

This study investigates the effects of employment-related father absence on children's psychological well-being and home based mothers’ perceptions of family functioning. Ninety primary school aged children and their mothers residing in Perth in Western Australia participated in this study. The sample consisted of three groups: children whose fathers were employed in fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) mining (n =30), children whose fathers were in the military (n =30) and a community sample (n =30) of children, whose fathers’ employment was not military or mining based and who did not have extended periods of absence from home. Children's psychosocial well-being was measured by the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). Children's and mothers’ perceptions of family function were assessed with the Family Assessment Device (FAD). Results indicated that there were no significant differences between the groups on all measures of child well-being, and all groups were functioning at healthy levels. However, mothers from the FIFO families reported significantly more stress than the military and community groups with respect to communication, support and behaviour control within the family. It was concluded that despite mothers’ perceptions of disruption to family routine, the well-being of children in this small sample was not affected.     

Exploring the Relationship between Exposure to Violence,Perceptions of Neighborhood Safety,and Children's Adaptive Functioning: Clinical and Community Implications

This study explored the relationship of exposure to violence and children's perceptions of neighborhood safety and children's adaptive functioning. It used a cross-sectional quadi-experimental design of 300 inner-city children and a bttery of standardized measures, which included the Child Maltreatment Classification Scheme, Exposure to Community Violence Scale, the Domains of Safety Subscale for Neighborhood, and the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher's Report form. Hierarchal regression analysis revealed that child maltreatment history and perceptions of neighborhood safety were significantly related to children's overall adaptive functioning. Social workers can help by engaging in efforts to increase neighborhood safety and reinforcing positive adaptive psychosocial functioning of children at risk or exposed to violence.     

Parent and Child Similarities in Divorcing and Non-Divorcing Families

Abstract

It is frequently assumed that the model of their parents' marriage exerts a significant influence on the next generation, but little has been done to examine the part played by personality characteristics of parents and children. This longitudinal study examines the relative contribution of parental divorce, parents' marital (dyadic) satisfaction, conflict resolution style and selected personality qualities on children's personality qualities and self-image as adolescents and adults, and their dyadic satisfaction and conflict resolution style as adults. The samples were 67 adolescents from divorcing and intact families and their parents. Parents and children were interviewed when the children were aged 13-16, and the divorcing families were at the point of divorce. The children were followed up over 10 years until aged 23-26. At Year 1 the parents completed the anxiety, depression, sensitivity and submissiveness scales of the Neuroticism Scale Questionnaire (NSQ), the Spanier Dyadic Satisfaction Scale, and a conflict resolution scale, and made an appraisal of their children's socio-emotional maturity. Adolescents also completed the NSQ and a measure of self-image (Offer Self-Image Questionnaire: OSIQ). Ten years later the children again completed the NSQ and the OSIQ, and those who were currently in a dyadic relationship completed the Spanier and the conflict resolution scales. There were no differences on any measures between the children from divorced and intact homes. Husbands and wives were in reasonable agreement about their dyadic satisfaction and conflict resolution style, but no relationship was found between these and the corresponding self-reports of their adult children. Over the ten years of the study, mother and father depression predicted child depression, mothers' sensitivity predicted childrens' (and especially daughters') sensitivity, and fathers' lack of sensitivity predicted sons' submissiveness. The parents' appraisal of their adolescents' socio-emotional maturity at Year 1 predicted their children's self-image at Years 1 and 10, and their conflict resolution at Year 10; while self-image at Year 10 predicted contemporary Spanier scores. The findings are discussed in the light of current debates on the contribution of personality qualities to divorce and its sequelae for children.     

Agency as vulnerability: accounting for children's movement to the streets of Accra

This paper considers the agency of children moving to the streets of Accra, Ghana's capital city. A much used but largely unexamined concept, agency is nevertheless commonly deployed in childhood studies as a means to stress the capacity of children to choose to do things. In the literature on street and working children, and a cognate area of study concerned with children's independent migration, this has involved accounts of children's agency made meaningful by reference to theories of rational choice or to the normative force of childhood. It is our argument that both approaches leave unanswered important questions and to counter these omissions we draw upon the arguments of social realists and, in particular, the stress they place on vulnerability as the basis for human agency. We develop this argument further by reference to our research with street children. By drawing upon the children's accounts of leaving their households and heading for Accra's streets, it is our contention that these children do frame their departures as matters of individual choice and self‐determination, and that in doing so they speak of a considerable capacity for action. Nevertheless, a deeper reading of their testimonies also points to the children's understandings of their own vulnerability. By examining what we see as their inability to be dependent upon family and kin, we stress the importance of the children's perceptions of their vulnerability, frailty and need as the basis for a fuller understanding of their agency in leaving their households.     

Can preschool socioeconomic composition moderate relationships between family environment and Chinese children's early academic and social outcomes?

Research on primary and secondary school composition has shown that a school's socioeconomic status, as an aggregated and stratified index, has a contextual effect on children's school performance. For Chinese children, preschool is their first formal schooling experience. Preschools are segregated by the enrolled children's socioeconomic status. However, no studies have yet examined the role of preschool socioeconomic status in young Chinese children.Taking family socioeconomic status as the structure index and the home learning environment and authoritative parenting as the process indexes, the current study aimed to examine how preschool socioeconomic status operates independently and moderates the family environment to determine Chinese children's early academic and social development. Data were obtained from 826 children aged 36–74 months from 29 urban preschools in Beijing. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that preschool socioeconomic status significantly directly predicted children's academic skills but not their social skills. Participation in higher socioeconomic status preschools appeared to compensate for the literacy skills of children from a lower family socioeconomic status, and it reinforced the positive effects of authoritative parenting on the children's social skills. These results suggest that the optimal development of young children depends on the “fit” between their family's environmental characteristics and the preschool in which they enrolled.     

Understanding the meanings of children: a reflexive process

This paper identifies a number of children's voices within qualitative academic writing. It suggests that researchers can discover a variety of children's voices by employing reflexive techniques to ensure that their interpretations are not influenced by their personal prejudice, or the ethics, tools, roles and theories of their professional paradigm. It concludes that those who work with children may be able to reinforce the theme of the UN Convention on Rights of the Child by employing this reflexive approach to enable them to attribute equal status to the views of all the children whom they encounter.     

Family preservation and child protection: The reality of Children's Court decision-making

Abstract

Ainsworth and Maluccio (Australian Social Work, December 1998) drew attention to the increased use of kinship care for children who need care away from their parents. This paper discusses the aim of family preservation, on which kinship care is predicated, and the challenges for legal decision-makers to meet this aim when children are before the courts in need of care and protection. It draws from findings of a study of magistrates' decision-making in child protection cases (Sheehan 1999). The paper provides examples of family situations that typically confront the Children's Court in Victoria and the court's response to them as it attempts to balance the importance of family ties and the reality of risk for a child; a reality that challenges valued beliefs about families and their ability to always care for their children.     

Facilitating Participation: Adults' Caring Support Roles within Child‐to‐Child Projects in Schools and After‐School Settings

Embedded hierarchical relationships between children and adults constrain children's voice. For adults to support children's participation in decisions they need to learn new ways of working; to enable children to communicate their views, develop their ideas, make group decisions and take joint action. This article explores the different roles that caring professionals adopt when facilitating children's participation within Child‐to‐Child community health projects. It shows how even committed adults can struggle with shifting their practice and highlights the importance of facilitators adopting a reflective approach rooted in genuine dialogue with children in order to determine the most appropriate level of adult support.     

Mother–child and teacher–child relationships and their influences on Chinese only and non-only children's early social behaviors: The moderator role of urban–rural status

Investigations regarding the differences between Chinese only and non-only children primarily examine children's social behaviors, which are closely related to their early relationships with mothers and teachers. In recent years, the number of non-only children born in urban areas has increased because of the softening of the One-Child Policy, which leads to the distribution of non-only children shifting from being primarily in rural areas to being in both urban and rural areas. The present study investigates the current characteristics and influences of mother–child and teacher–child relationships on Chinese only and non-only children's early social behaviors from the perspective of urban and rural differences. Data were obtained from 126 rural only children, 94 rural non-only children, 168 urban only children and 155 urban non-only children from 38 semi-urban kindergartens in Beijing, China. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that mother–child closeness positively predicted children's social skills particularly in non-only children, whereas mother–child conflict positively predicted internalizing behavior problems in all four groups. Teacher–child conflict negatively predicted children's social skills most strongly in urban only children. Teacher–child conflict aggravated rural only children's, urban only children's and non-only children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, but mother–child closeness buffered rural only children's externalizing behavior problems. Findings underscore the importance for mothers to improve closeness, especially with rural only children, and for teachers to avoid conflict with both urban only and non-only children, as well as with rural only children.     

Adult images of childhood and research on client children

The point of departure in this article is a client study with children who had received services from child welfare, school counselling or child psychiatric clinics, compared to a cohort study targeting all children in the same community. It discusses whether parents' reservations towards letting their client children participate in the study indicates a fear of the researchers interfering in family life, and how the choice of research strategies influence the images constructed of client children and their families. A common finding in the two studies was that the children themselves provided the most positive information about their lives. It is argued that adult images of children as either vulnerable, and thus in need of protection, or competent, and thus with an ability to participate, influence access to, as well as construction of, client children's lives.