Framing the Picture of the Child

The paper studies the forms that are used in planning for a child’s early childhood education and care in Finnish day care from the perspectives of social constructionism and discourse analysis. It asks how childhood is conceptualised in these forms and what are the social functions of early childhood education and care as implied in the conceptualisations. The paper shows that the conceptions of childhood and the understanding of the functions of early childhood education and care are mostly in unison and are rooted in traditional discourses, approaches and practices of Finnish day care. Consequently, the child’s view and the child as an agent in her/his world are not present in the forms.     

The renovative aspect of psychoanalytic reconstruction in psychotherapy

Reconstruction of the origins of present day psychic phenomena constitutes an essential component of psychoanalytically oriented treatment. The clinician seeks to help restore to the patient a picture of the past and to correct or revise those early impressions that have been distorted as a result of cognitive immaturity or altered by the employment of defense, fantasy, or compensatory adaptations. It is this renovative aspects of reconstruction which will be elaborated upon, drawing from the treatment of a borderline woman who, since childhood, had overly employed the autoerotic resources of her body to compensate for missed object experiences. Ultimately this effort came to block her development, distort organization, and compromise self valuation. By tracing her polymorphous perversity in adulthood back to its origins, it was possible to enable her to regard her responses to chronic childhood trauma in a new light. This in turn aided in the revision of the predominantly negatively coloured self representations, leading to more positive development in the narcissistic sphere of her personality.     

Disabled children’s childhood studies: a distinct approach?

This paper suggests that the emergence of disabled children’s childhood studies as an area of study offers a distinct approach to inquiry; it represents a significant shift away from the long-standing deficit discourses of disabled childhoods that have dominated western culture and its reaches. On the one hand, contemporary childhood studies contest normative, Eurocentric mantras around the ‘standard child’; while on the other, disability studies critique the medical discourses and the scope of its authority. However, while drawing on these two approaches, disabled children’s childhood studies provide more than this combined critique. In disabled children’s childhood studies, disabled children are not viewed as necessarily having problems or being problems, but as having childhoods.     

Promise or Problem? A Review of the Literature on Men Working in Early Childhood Services

Few men care for, or teach, young children. The 1991 UK census found that less than 1% of nursery nurses were male, while 14% of nursery/primary teachers were male. A similarly gendered picture can be found across European, North American and Australian studies of early childhood services, such as childcare centres and early education. The practice and prospect of men early childhood workers are both encouraged and resisted. The aim of this article is to review the international literature relevant to men working in early childhood services with pre‐school‐aged children. The case for male early childhood workers is reviewed: two pertinent themes from the related field of men working in non‐traditional occupations are highlighted. The review considers how these are applied to the specific context of men and early childhood services. Four aspects of the debate about men and early childhood work are examined: gender stereotypes; senior positions; gendered motives; and risks, allegations and protection. The literature suggests that men's careers have much to gain from working in early childhood services, but that, certainly in the Anglo‐American literature, a recurring theme is the representation of men early childhood workers as a source of suspicion.     

A fractured journey of growth: making meaning of a ‘Broken’ childhood and parental mental ill-health

The psychopathological impact of parental mental ill-health on children is well known. However, little research explores positive and negative interpretations of such exposure in childhood, from the adult child's perspective. Using interpretative phenomenological Analysis this study sought subjective interpretations of the ‘lived’ experiences of growing up in a family with parental mental ill-health. A purposive sample of seven adult children provided data for analysis through semi-structured interviews. One superordinate theme: A fractured journey of growth to adulthood, overarched six subordinate themes. Four themes captured stigma, shame, social isolation and betrayal. Juxtaposed with this, two themes captured purposeful redefinition of self and psychological growth. This study captures the chronicity of traumatic distress and sense of betrayal experienced by these participants in childhood through unrelenting exposure to parental mental ill-health. However, despite unpredictability, fear, and neglect in childhood, they identified the emergence of inner strengths in adult life: unexpected growth in empathy and compassion, high resourcefulness, and personal authenticity through higher education. Findings highlight that positively redefining ‘self’ in adult life is possible in the aftermath of childhood trauma associated with parental mental ill-health. Implications for therapy include: (a) moving forward from childhood trauma and (b) managing ongoing family dynamics in adult-life.     

Creativity: An object relations perspective

This paper will explore the concept that some creativity may be an effort to develop a container for an aspect of the self when the environment or, in early childhood, the mother is unable to provide containment for a part of the self experience.     

Storytelling,organizations, and the coherent self: The chronotope of childhood in professional life histories

Professional life histories and organizational stories rarely follow the model of beginnings, middles, and ends. Most interviews end up being subjected to what Boje (2008. Storytelling organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage) refers to as the spiral of story disorder. However, some storytelling strategies are often used by interviewees to produce a coherent projection of the self and convey a unified professional ethos. This is the role the time and space of childhood – the childhood chronotope – plays in professional life histories. Childhood is often used by storytellers to bring coherence to their organizational stories – and this is no truer than in the context of interviews. Based on interviews from museum directors, this article illustrates how the childhood chronotope might be a meaningful notion for narrative analysis in organizational studies: childhood is mobilized and reinvested by the individual's self-construction in order to produce a sense of coherence and control over his or her organizational experience and professional self.     

Linking Self‐Regulation and Risk Proneness to Risky Sexual Behavior: Pathways through Peer Pressure and Early Substance Use

The linkages between self‐regulation in childhood, risk proneness in early adolescence, and risky sexual behavior in mid‐adolescence were examined in a cohort of children (N=518) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The possible mediating role of two early adolescent variables (substance use and negative peer pressure) was also examined. Self‐regulation was assessed by maternal report at ages 8–9, and risk proneness, comprising aspects of sensation seeking and decision making, was assessed by adolescent self‐report at ages 12–13. Structural equation models predicting risky sexual behavior at ages 16–17 indicated that self‐regulation operated partly through early adolescent substance use, whereas risk proneness operated through early adolescent substance use and negative peer pressure. The overall model did not differ significantly for boys and girls, although there were gender differences in the strength of particular paths. These long‐term longitudinal results support the importance of early self‐regulation and risk proneness in setting the stage for adolescent sexual risk taking and implicate substance use and negative peer pressure as processes through which risk proneness and poor self‐regulation lead to risky sexual behavior.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse as a Risk Factor for Subsequent Involvement in Sex Work

Abstract

The following paper is a review of research studies examining the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and subsequent involvement in sex work. The vast majority of research studies in this area are conducted on primarily female street-based prostitutes; however, there has been a recent emergence of studies focused on male, predominantly gay/bisexual, participants. Also, more studies have begun to include mixed gender samples and non-sex worker comparison groups. Highlights of the paper include a critique of studies reporting a prevalence of CSA, the intervening effects of family environment, runaway behavior, and abuse characteristics, and a brief overview of research on other sex worker populations. Limitations as well as contributions of current studies are underscored and directions for future research are indicated.     

Fecal incontinence during intercourse associated with a rectocele: A case Report

We present results of the first longitudinal study of long‐term outcome correlates of sexual experiences in early childhood (“sex play”). Two hundred children participated in the UCLA Family Lifestyles Project (FLS), beginning at birth to the current wave of data collection at ages 17–18. For most of the current analyses, data were complete for 96 of the young men and 88 of the young women. Participants were assessed on a wide range of adjustment variables devised for the FLS and the UCLA Adolescent Growth Study. Participation in early childhood sex play was determined by parent self‐reports at child's age three and age six. Forty‐eight percent of children were reported to have engaged in interactive sex play prior to age six. Using socioeconomic status, sex of participant, family attitudes toward sexuality, and family type (conventional two‐parent versus nonconventional) as controls, no significant long‐term associations were found between exposure to sex play and adjustment at ages 17–18. Sexual liberalism/conservativism in family of origin was significantly associated with sexual liberalism I conservativism at ages 17–18. These results converge on earlier cross‐sectional retrospective work, suggesting that the experience of childhood sex play in itself is unrelated to long‐term adjustment.     

The Cronus complex

This paper studies a buried dynamic in psychopathology as it arises in family process: the child's loss of self through caring before being cared for. This role reversal which places childhood at the disposal of family need is conceptualized, and the related material, integrated, in terms of the myth of Cronus, who swallowed his children. Some tentative clinical probings of this subject are discussed as well as the resistive sources which have placed this subject, for the most part, beyond reach of research and education.     

Substance use in youth adopted from foster care: Developmental mechanisms of risk

Children who enter foster care are at unique risk for developing substance abuse due to experiencing early life stressors. A large body of research has revealed robust effects of various stressors on later substance use, implicating the role of early neurobiological changes that create chronic internalizing problems. However, less literature has investigated externalizing behavior as a mechanism underlying this relationship. Moreover, few studies have examined these mechanisms through a model of cumulative risk. The present study examined whether the prospective association between cumulative pre-adoptive risk (e.g., maltreatment, age at placement, foster placement instability, ever having lived with birth parent) and adolescent/young-adult substance use was mediated by childhood internalizing and externalizing problems in youth adopted from foster care. Participants included 82 adoptees, most with histories of prenatal substance exposure (72%). We tested parent-rated internalizing and externalizing problems across 5 years in childhood as simultaneous mediators of cumulative risk and level of substance use 11–15 years later. Bootstrapping mediation procedures, controlling for age, prenatal substance exposure, adolescent/young adult mental health symptomatology, and youth participation in follow-up, revealed a significant indirect effect of cumulative risk on substance use through childhood internalizing problems, but not externalizing problems. These results underline the importance of mitigating early risk for children in the child welfare system and call for targeting childhood emotion dysregulation to reduce likelihood of substance abuse among previously high-risk adoptees. Nevertheless, low rates of substance use overall in the present sample underscore the positive impact of adoptive placement on mitigating risk for substance abuse among foster youth.     

SCHOOLS,SKILLS, AND SYNAPSES

This paper discusses (a) the role of cognitive and noncognitive ability in shaping adult outcomes, (b) the early emergence of differentials in abilities between children of advantaged families and children of disadvantaged families, (c) the role of families in creating these abilities, (d) adverse trends in American families, and (e) the effectiveness of early interventions in offsetting these trends. Practical issues in the design and implementation of early childhood programs are discussed. (JEL A12)     

An individual treatment programme for sexually abused adult males: description and preliminary findings

Growing recognition of male sexual abuse and its potentially debilitating effects has underscored the need to develop effective treatment interventions for this population. The present study describes an individual treatment programme that was developed for adult males who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. The treatment programme focused on three areas related to sexual abuse, specifically feelings of self‐blame, anger and anxiety. The study also presents preliminary findings on treatment effects, using self‐report measures that five participants completed prior to treatment and at various assessments following treatment termination. Overall findings indicated improvements in behavioural self‐blame, anger, state anxiety and trait anxiety. Treatment did not appear to have an effect on characterological self‐blame over the long term. The study's findings are limited by the reliance on self‐report data and the absence of a comparison group. As such, our findings should be viewed as an initial contribution to the currently limited empirical data on treatment effects for sexually abused adult males. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lost in space: The impact of sensorimotor difficulties on emotional and social development in early childhood

This article examines the impact of sensorimotor deficiencies on social and emotional development in childhood. Children who have impairments in processing and coordinating sensory experience are unable to sufficiently develop sensorimotor schemas. Sensorimotor learning, in part, creates the experimential domain of the emergent self and is also a necessary component of core self development as outlined by Daniel Stern. The impact of deficiencies on the core self and, therefore, on social and emotional development are demonstrated with a complicated case example. The treatment process highlights the possibility of reworking core self issues and their effects on self concept and relationships. Multidisciplinary treatment is required to fully address all deficits. The child psychotherapist's role is to attend to the emotional and relational issues, as well as to coordinate the work with family and school.is on the editorial board of theClinical Social Work Journal, is on the faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work, and is in private practice.     

Chapter 11. Caregivers of Children with Cancer

SUMMARY

When a child is diagnosed with cancer, families experience a devastating life event with immediate and long-term impact on quality of life, actvities of daily living, family dynamics, self identity, parental role, and sense of meaning in the world. However, despite the trauma, more recent studies are highlighting the resilience and functioning of families facing cancer in childhood. This chapter explores these family dynamics.     

Children in Foster Care and the Development of Favorable Outcomes

Young foster children have invariably faced a variety of risks that are strongly linked to long-term deficits in functioning across multiple developmental domains. Despite these risks, however, some children demonstrate more favorable outcomes and exhibit adaptation and the development of assets. In the present study, the relationship of early childhood factors (e.g., maltreatment history, placement history, parenting practices, environmental stress, developmental status, and attachment behavior) to the development of favorable outcomes in middle childhood was examined in a sample of foster children who had been in foster care in preschool (N = 35). Favorable outcomes were defined as demonstrations of emotion regulation and school adjustment during middle childhood. Developmental status (particularly attention and executive functioning) and a lack of environmental stress during early childhood foster care experiences had a significant positive relationship with the development of emotion regulation and school adjustment in middle childhood.     

Existential Sociology*

Shifts in the structure of sentiments, taking place in two stages, underlie the emergence of existential sociology to its present significance. A challenge to Parsonian structural-functionalism initiated the first shift which was in turn followed by a period containing the development of the basis for a possible synthesis of existential sociology. This position is developed as are some of the characteristics features of an existential perspective on social life. Research based upon existential view and employing the concepts sentiments, body, self, situation, structure, massification and levelling, is presented. Some of the implications of these ideas are discussed.     

Childhood poverty, early motherhood and adult social exclusion

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the current political agenda. The key new issue that this research addresses is the relative importance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlates of outcomes later in life. How far are the ‘effects’ of early motherhood on later outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience of childhood poverty? Subsidiary questions relate to the magnitude of these associations, the particular levels of childhood poverty that prove most critical, and whether, as often assumed, only teenage mothers are subsequently disadvantaged, or are those who have their first birth in their early twenties similarly disadvantaged? The source of data for this study is the National Child Development Study. We examine outcomes at age 33 for several domains of adult social exclusion: welfare, socio‐economic, physical health, emotional well‐being and demographic behaviour. We control for a wide range of childhood factors: poverty; social class of origin and of father; mother's and father's school leaving age; family structure; housing tenure; mother's and father's interest in education; personality attributes; performance on educational tests; and contact with the police by age 16. There are clear associations for the adult outcomes with age at first birth, even after controlling for childhood poverty and the other childhood background factors. Moreover, we demonstrate that the widest gulf in adult outcomes occurs for those who enter motherhood early (before age 23), though further rein‐forced by teenage motherhood for most adult outcomes. We also show that any experience of childhood poverty is clearly associated with adverse outcomes in adulthood, with reinforcement for higher levels of childhood poverty for a few outcomes.