A lattice of participation: reflecting on examples of children's and young people's collective engagement in influencing social welfare policies and practices

The article introduces four case studies from Wales, France and Finland and explores the situated, intergenerational and dynamic nature of collective participation in child welfare settings. Collective participation is conceived of as a process of engagement in which children and young people have some influence over the initiation or direction of a project; and as seeking a product, or outcome. The case studies represent a range of forms of collective engagement and highlight some key resources which supported children's participation (communicative spaces, time, money, knowledge, social position, attitudes, social networks, institutional commitment, equipment, food and transport). Challenges encountered in achieving effective participation in different nations within Europe are also identified, related to generation barriers and the distribution of resources. These elements are used to construct a lattice of participation: a model for conceptualising children and young people's collective engagement in participatory projects. The model provides a tool for visualising how, at different stages of a project, actors (children, young facilitators, adults and institutions) exercise influence by directing the use of different resources, such as finance and time. It invites reflection on why influence is limited in some stages of a participatory project, and how it is supported in other stages.     

The Impact of Short-Term Quality Intergenerational Contact on Children's Attitudes Toward Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This article describes a research study designed to investigate the influence of short term quality intergenerational contact on the attitudes of children toward older adults. Glass and Trent's (1982) Typology of Approaches to change attitudes and Amir's (1969) Contact Hypothesis guided the development of this study. Glass and Trent reported that there are three primary ways that attitudes change: through discussion with others about the attitudinal object, direct experiences with attitudinal objects, and the acquisition of more knowledge about the attitudinal object. If attitudes are a reflection of internal and external influences, then it is assumed they can change.

The study revealed that children who participated in the treatment had a more positive attitude toward older adults. Both inclusion in the intergenerational activities and time spent with related older adults were significant in explaining the changes in the children's attitudes toward older adults.     

Representing children's views and best interests in court: an international comparison

This paper provides a comparison of a number of alternative models of international practice in relation to the appointment and organization of guardians ad litem and other children's representatives in child care and family proceedings. The paper notes that, in their attempts to address the need for children to have representation in matters affecting their welfare, English‐speaking countries have tended to conflate the two salient Articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, that is, Article 3, which deals with the child's best interests, and Article 12, which deals with their right to express their wishes and feelings. Where systems other than ‘stand alone’ legal representation have been put in place, the child's representative is charged with both assessing their best interests and, often as a secondary duty, communicating their views. The paper concludes that for some groups of children in public or private law proceedings, an advocate (rather than a best interest oriented guardian, and where necessary in addition to a legal representative) may enable better representation of the child in the courts and greater participation by children in legal proceedings, an increased role for children as citizens and a fuller implementation of their rights. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Voice Inclusive Practice,Digital Literacy and Children's Participatory Rights

This paper posits the need to align child participation principles and the emerging field of digital pedagogies. Informed by a contextualisation of children's participatory rights in contemporary technologically enhanced classrooms, the challenges of facilitating Voice Inclusive Practices are explored. Education is experiencing unprecedented change, particularly in the area of digital pedagogies, student engagement and voice. Such developments necessitate a participatory, Voice Inclusive Practice model relevant to contemporary education contexts where digital pedagogies are engaged. The potential of digital spaces in education will only be fully realised when student perspectives are included in the planning and implementation of digital pedagogies.     

Learning language regimes: Children's representations of minority language education

Minority language education initiatives often aim to resist dominant language regimes and to raise the social status of migrant or autochthonous minorities. We consider how participating children experience these alternative language regimes by analysing drawings made by children in two minority education settings—a Slovene‐German bilingual school in Austria and an Isthmus Zapotec (Indigenous) language and art workshop in Mexico. We examine how children's drawings represent language regimes in the social spaces they inhabit. Considering these drawings in relation to ethnographic observations and interviews with educators, we illustrate differences between how the social spaces are planned by educators and how they are represented and experienced by learners. Generally speaking, the children in our studies depict flexible, multilingual experiences and spaces, in contrast to the educators’ agendas of separating or emphasizing languages for pedagogical purposes. Mexican children's perception of themselves as participants in fluid language regimes, and Austrian children's increasing appropriation of multilingual space over time through both (school‐like) routines and (fun) exceptions can inform the efforts of minority language educators.     

Children in dual-residence arrangements: Exploring discourses of fairness and children's best interest in Norway

In many countries, dual residence is increasingly common for children when parents separate. This works well for many children, but opinions differ on whether or not it should be the norm. In analysing interviews with 35 nine- to 19-year-olds with dual-residence experience in Norway, undertaken in 2018, we find clear traces of prevailing discourses in society. Claims of equality and fairness and claims of children's rights both emerge, the latter being particularly visible in the participants' recommendations to other children. Children value spending much time with both parents, but may still want more flexibility than their parents realise.     

When everyday life is double looped. Exploring children's (and parents’) perspectives on post‐divorce family life with two households

This article explores children's perspectives on post‐divorce family life with time‐sharing arrangements, focusing on the children's experiences of dilemmas and constraints, but also on new possibilities. In many ways, the everyday lives of children who commute between two households are double looped. These children have to be attentive to the routines, expectations and demands of each household. By assessing their conduct of everyday life, this article elucidates what children do to adapt to and make sense of this double‐looped situation. This article examines how differences between households affect children's ways of understanding themselves and their family lives.     

Factors affecting children's disclosure of secrets in an investigatory interview

The present study aimed to identify how children's understanding of the investigatory interview process influenced their disclosure of secrets. Forty‐four 6‐year‐ and 7‐year‐old children participated in the study. Four short stories were read to each child. The stories were about young children who witnessed an event (e.g. witnessing a person stealing a pizza) and were asked to keep the witnessed event secret, then they were interviewed by an authority figure (e.g. security guard) and asked repeatedly about what they had witnessed. After each story, a series of questions were asked that related to factors that might aid the disclosure of the secret. Three main factors were investigated: children's perception of the interviewer's knowledge of the incident; children's perception of the purpose of the interview; and children's understanding of the purpose of asking repeat questions. Results indicated that a child's perception of how much an interviewer appeared to know about a secret, and whether the child was repeatedly asked about the secret do influence a child's disclosure of a secret. However, there was no effect for the purpose of the interview. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tomorrow's Leaders and Today's Agents of Change? Children,Sustainability Education and Environmental Governance

Children are central to the rhetoric supporting global climate agreements, yet they are also envisaged to play a strategic role in materialising such agreements. Along with other household actors, children are implicated in localised efforts to manage global resource sustainability. As learners in educational systems that are being redesigned to encompass messages of sustainability, children are moreover positioned as ‘agents of change’ through sustainability education. Drawing on theoretical work on children's agency and interdependence, this review calls for greater attention to the structural and relational dimensions of environmental knowledge transmission to inform sustainability education. This is presented as one move towards constructing what Middlemiss (2014) terms a more ‘socially sensitive’ model of sustainable development.     

“Don't Cry,You're Not a Baby!”: Emotion,Role and Hierarchy in Korean Language Socialisation Practice

I examine how South Korean children learn culturally specific emotional knowledge, especially affective hierarchy and the association between emotional displays and social roles, through participation in peer talk. An analysis of children's and teachers’ everyday emotional discourses shows that children, rather than passively adopting adult emotional discourses, creatively employ a range of linguistic and communicative features regarding emotions to construct their own culture‐laden emotional world. Findings articulate the role children's peer talk has in cultural reproduction and dynamic aspects of the language socialisation processes.     

Bullying,sexual harassment and happiness in residential children's homes

Much is now known about bullying and, to some extent, sexual harassment in settings such as schools. In residential children's homes, however, the two remain disturbing features of institutional life. This is a particular cause for concern as many of the residents in these homes, given their troubled backgrounds, are at greater risk of becoming victims of perpetrators. This article looks at the incidence and effects of these related maladies within the context of a wider study involving 223 children in 48 residential homes in five local authorities. The study found that fellow residents, rather than staff, were the main sources of physical and sexual abuse. Both bullying and harassment (actual and attempted) were strongly associated with the widespread misery reported by many residents. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Participation as a right to the city: Iranian children’s perspectives about their inclusion in urban decision-making

To assess children's willingness to participate in decision-making about urban environments, Iranian children were invited to tell their stories about child inclusion in city affairs. The findings demonstrate children's enthusiasm to have a say, their suggestions of how their ideas can be integrated into planning, and their competency for participation. Despite their willingness, participants indicated awareness of patriarchal cultural views of children and childhood which continue to exclude them from planning involvement. Being denied the exercise of their rights to the city generates a marginalised status, alienating children from achieving appropriate engagement.     

Parental substance misuse and statutory child protection in England: Risk factors and outcomes

Parental substance misuse is a significant child welfare issue and associated with increased risk of child maltreatment. The aim of the present study was to understand what social care outcomes children who live with parental substance misuse have, and to assess factors associated with those social care outcomes over a two-year period. The paper reports on a retrospective longitudinal study of 299 children all living with parental substance misuse and referred to one local authority in England. Data were collected from children's social work case files about procedural social care outcomes and factors which may be associated with those outcomes. Using cluster analysis, a new typology of children's longitudinal trajectories through the children's social care system was developed, consisting of five distinct types. Analysis indicated that some children received too little intervention from children's social care despite ongoing concerns, while other children were potentially unnecessarily caught up in the social care system. Factors associated with children having the poorest outcomes were: caregiver instability resulting from substance misuse, parenting capacity and household instability. The study's findings indicate that some children who live with parental substance misuse are at significant risk of harm, but others are not and may be better supported through non-statutory services such as early help.     

“Something Amazing I Guess”: Children's Views on Having A Say About Supervised Contact

Abstract

This paper reports on a small-scale, qualitative study on children's perspectives about their participation in decision-making processes regarding supervised contact. The paper begins with an overview of the study and a summary of findings in relation to four key research questions framed around the idea of children having a say, that is, children's views and perspectives of their participation in family law decision-making processes. These key questions include: What are children's experiences of having a say? What are children's understandings of having a say? Did children want a say in the decision for them to have supervised contact? How did having (or not having) a say feel? Discussion focuses on what importance children place on having a say in family law matters, a finding that is contrasted with children's experiences of marginalisation and exclusion from decision-making processes and of ambivalence and reluctance sometimes expressed around having a say. Children's idea of having a say as taking place in and through particular forms of dialogue and conversation, thus enabling the recognition of children and respect for what they have to say, are also explored. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of the study for professionals working in family law     

Preface

Four children from three families in which the mother had a bipolar disorder were interviewed to understand their perspectives on their mothers' parenting. Children identified strengths in their mother's parenting, such as helping them with homework and moods and providing for their wants. They also identified challenges, such as mothers sleeping well into the day and displaying anger. Two children were worried over the possibility of having a bipolar disorder themselves. Implications of these findings for social work practice include acknowledging and supporting mothers' strengths in parenting, providing appropriate services to manage mothers' sleep and anger, and psychoeducation for children.     

Where now for ‘child protection’ in Scotland?

In common with the rest of the UK, child care and protection practice in Scotland has undergone unprecedented change over the last ten years, including a wide‐ranging three‐year Child Protection Reform Programme. In 2006, The University of Dundee's Centre for Child Care and Protection and Barnardo's Scotland Research and Development team were commissioned by the then Scottish Executive to undertake a process review of the Child Protection Reform Programme (Daniel et al., 2007 ). Drawing on findings from the process review, this article considers the impact of the Child Protection Reform Programme. The process review concluded that, in the view of the respondents, the Child Protection Reform Programme made a substantive contribution towards the improvement and delivery of child protection services in Scotland, particularly in terms of raising awareness and increased multi‐agency working. It was beyond the scope of the review to measure outcomes for children as a result of the reforms. Since the completion of the Child Protection Reform Programme, national policy emphasis has broadened from ‘child protection’ towards integrated support for children under the Getting it Right for Every Child reforms of children's services. The paper concludes with a discussion around where ‘child protection’ now fits within this context of universal support for children and argues that there is a need to ensure that the valuable work which was done to improve child protection services in Scotland under the Child Protection Reform Programme is not lost. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Socioeconomic,Sociodemographic and Attitudinal Correlates of the Tempo of Divorce

This study assesses the impact of socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and attitudinal characteristics of husbands and wives on the timing of marital dissolution. The primary concerns were with divorce and the intervals of marital duration before divorce occured. The analysis was based on data collected from an initial sample of 610 couples in the early years of marriage, all of whom resided within a large North Central Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area in 1978. The couples were reinterviewed seven years later in 1985 (N = 544). The data collected from the first wave of subjects were used to identify antecedent characteristics of husbands and wives, whereas, data from the second wave were used to measure the timing (tempo) of marital dissolution among the 105 couples who subsequently divorced. Partial correlation coefficients indicated that the tempo of divorce significantly varied according to the wife's employment status, occupational status, future work plans, father's education, age at marriage, gender role orientation and number of children. Moreover, a multiple classification analysis of these variables showed that under controlled conditions wives' employment status and number of children were more powerful predictors of the tempo of divorce.     

A systematic review of children’s participation in child protection decision-making: Tokenistic presence or not?

This article examines children's views on and experiences with participation in the child protection system's decision-making process. The systematic review follows the PRISMA statement and includes 12 peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals from 2006 to 2017. Findings suggest that children's contact with their worker was limited or non-existent, which minimised opportunities to express views regarding their situation; child–worker contacts lacked dialogue, information about the process of intervention and trusting relationships, meaning that without a voice, children were not engaged in making decisions. Although data are limited, they suggest little or no dialogue with children by child protection workers. Furthermore, children voiced their experiences of not being informed of or understanding the process or decisions made about their lives.