Dialogic literary gatherings and out‐of‐home child care: Creation of new meanings through classic literature

Research on out‐of‐home child care has revealed that foster care programmes focused on educational attainment and reading have the potential to improve the academic outcomes of children in care. However, no studies have examined which elements of these programmes positively benefit children's emotional well‐being. This article presents evidence of the positive effects of implementing a successful educational action, dialogic literary gatherings, in a children's residential care institution. A qualitative study using a communicative‐oriented methodology was conducted and involved five participant observations and eight daily life stories with children in out‐of‐home care in Catalonia (Spain). The children's reflections demonstrated that reading classic books, such as Dickens' Oliver Twist, deeply influenced their feelings and self‐conceptions and created new and exciting meaning in their lives.     

Mother–Child Reminiscing About Peer Experiences and Children's Peer‐related Self‐views and Social Competence

This study examined mother–child reminiscing about children's experiences with peers and its relation to children's peer‐related self‐views and social competence. Sixty‐three mothers and their preschool‐aged children discussed at home two specific past events involving the child and his or her peers, one event being positive and one negative. The children's self‐views in peer relationships were assessed at school during individual interviews, and their social competence was rated by mothers. Both maternal and child participation in the reminiscing, in terms of reminiscing style and content, were uniquely associated with children's peer‐related self‐views and social competence. The results suggest the important role of family narrative practices in children's social development.     

Stability and change – a 7‐ to 8‐year follow‐up study of mental health problems in Norwegian children in long‐term out‐of‐home care

The aim of the study was to explore stability and change in mental health problems in Norwegian children aged 6–12 years old (n = 70) in long‐term out‐of‐home care. The children's mental health problems were assessed shortly after the placement and 7–8 years later by the caregivers and the teachers on the Revised Rutter Scales. Information on pre‐placement and placement factors were collected from the child welfare workers. At a group level the children's mental health problems had improved significantly over time according to the teachers' reports. According to the caregivers' reports, however, the children's problems were high and stable across time. Analyses aimed at detecting individual changes revealed a great variability in development according to both informants, indicating that treating the placed children as a homogenous group could be misleading. Several pre‐placement and placement variables were associated with the change in the children's mental health problems from the time of placement to the follow‐up time according to both informants' reports. However, all the predictors were accounted for by the strong effect of the children's problem scores when entering care.     

Marital Conflict and Children's Adjustment: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Children's Coping Strategies

This prospective, longitudinal study examined the role of children's coping strategies in the link between interparental conflict and children's psychological adjustment. Using a sample of 100 parents and children aged 11–14 years, this study investigated children's venting of negative emotion, social support seeking, and problem solving strategies as mediators and moderators of the relationship between marital conflict and child adjustment. Venting negative emotion mediated the long‐term effects of marital conflict on children's psychological adjustment. This coping response also moderated the relationship between marital conflict and children's anxiety‐depression. The role of non‐constructive coping strategies as a mechanism through which marital conflict affects children's psychological well‐being is discussed, together with the need for research to identify intervention strategies aimed at improving children's coping efficacy in the context of interparental conflict.     

Mothers' Cognitions about Children's Self‐control: Implications for Mothers' Responses to Children's Helplessness

This research examined the role of mothers' cognitions about children's self‐control in their responses to children's helplessness. Mothers and their four‐year‐old children (N = 109) were asked to work on a difficult task in the laboratory. Mothers' hostility and warmth as well as children's helpless (vs. mastery) behavior were coded every minute. Mothers also completed a set of questionnaires assessing their cognitions about children's self‐control. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated variability among mothers in their minute‐to‐minute hostility, but not warmth, in response to children's helplessness. Mothers' cognitions contributed to this variability: The more mothers placed importance on, worried about, and believed they could influence their children's self‐control, the more hostility they demonstrated following their children's helplessness.     

The relation between parents' mental state talk and children's social understanding: A meta‐analysis

Though there is empirical support for the relation between parents' mental state talk to children and children's social understanding, including false belief understanding (FBU) and emotion understanding (EU), effect sizes range widely. The current meta‐analysis focused on the relation between parents' mental state talk and children's social understanding and moderators of this relation: parents' mental state talk content (e.g., cognitive vs. emotion talk), quality (e.g., appropriate vs. inappropriate), and context (e.g., book vs. reminiscing). Data from 22 studies examining FBU and 18 examining EU were examined. Participants included 2,298 children (<7 years). Analyses yielded a significant effect size for parents' mental state talk and children's FBU and EU. These relations were stronger under certain circumstances, particularly for children's FBU. For example, in terms of content, cognitive state talk was a stronger predictor of FBU and EU compared to talk about desires and emotions. For FBU, the strongest relations were present when parents' mental state talk was: (a) appropriate and explanatory compared to inappropriate and (b) in a book or self‐report context compared to reminiscing. The results of this study further refine the social constructivist view of social understanding and point to future avenues for research aimed at improving children's social understanding.     

The mediating role of coping self‐efficacy beliefs on the relationship between parental conflict and child psychological adjustment

The effect of parental conflict on children's psychological adjustment is variable. Coping self‐efficacy refers to a person's perceived ability to self‐motivate and access the required cognitive resources to take control of, or exert their coping efforts in a stressful situation. This study investigated the mediating role of children's coping self‐efficacy beliefs between parental conflict and children's psychological adjustment (internalizing, externalizing, anxiety, and prosocial behavior). The participants were 663 school students in grade 5 (M = 10.17 years, SD = .53) and grade 7 (M = 12.11 years, SD = .52). The ethnic composition of the sample was approximately 72% White, 20% Asian, 4% Middle Eastern, and 4% from other ethnic groups. Coping self‐efficacy for avoiding maladaptive cognitions mediated the effect of parental conflict on children's internalizing symptoms longitudinally. The higher the level of parental conflict, the lower the level of children's coping self‐efficacy for avoiding maladaptive cognitions and in turn the higher their levels of internalizing. These findings support the mediational role of children's coping self‐efficacy beliefs in the context of parental conflict. It is proposed that these beliefs should be considered in designing and implementing preventative interventions for children in the context of parental conflict.     

Applying the ICF‐CY to identify children's everyday life situations: A step towards participation‐focused code sets

Adolfsson M. Applying the ICF‐CY to identify children's everyday life situations: a step towards participation‐focused code sets With the long‐term goal to create an interdisciplinary screening tool with code sets focusing on children's participation in everyday life situations (ELS), the purpose of the present study was to identify ELS for children 0–17 years. The views of professionals and parents in Sweden, South Africa and the USA were integrated based on ICF‐CY ¹ 1 The WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, version for Children and Youth.
linkages. The chapters Self‐care and Major life areas seemed most obvious to include in ELS. At the 2nd ICF‐CY level, 11 categories emerged as ELS, with Hygiene and Recreation as the most obvious. Two sets of ELS were identified for infants/preschoolers and school‐aged children/adolescents. Professionals and parents agreed on ELS for the older age group. Findings suggest that ELS differ in context specificity depending on maturity and growing autonomy. The study has implications for the future screening tool that is intended to support children with disabilities in describing what matters most to them in intervention planning. Key Practitioner Message: ?Children and parents need opportunities to express their opinions during intervention processes, but a structured family–professional collaboration model is lacking; ?Using ICF‐CY‐based models, including holistic views of participation in everyday life situations, increases professionals' focus on family perspectives; ?Models to connect interventions to participation in everyday life situations enhance children's motivation and support interdisciplinary assessment.     

Dashed Hopes,Dashed Selves? A Sociometer Perspective on Self‐esteem Change Across the Transition to Secondary School

The transition from primary to secondary school challenges children's psychological well‐being. A cross‐transitional longitudinal study (N = 306; mean age = 12.2 years) examined why some children's self‐esteem decreases across the transition whereas other children's self‐esteem does not. Children's expected social acceptance in secondary school was measured before the transition; their actually perceived social acceptance was measured after the transition. Self‐esteem and Big Five personality traits were measured both pre‐ and posttransition. Self‐esteem changed as a function of the discrepancy between children's expected and actually perceived social acceptance. Furthermore, neuroticism magnified self‐esteem decreases when children's ‘hopes were dashed'—when they experienced disappointing levels of social acceptance. These findings provide longitudinal support for sociometer theory across the critical transition to secondary school.     

Crafting Child‐friendly Cities: Evidence from Biratnagar Sub‐metropolitan City,Eastern Nepal

Our cities are increasingly becoming the sites where children socialize, observe, and learn how society functions and many local and global activities have impacted children's health and well‐being. The Child‐friendly Cities initiative, launched by the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1996, draws in diverse stakeholders to place children at the center of the urban agenda. Based on social work research, this article analyzes the acclaimed status of Biratnagar Sub‐metropolitan city, Eastern Nepal, as a child‐friendly city. Despite its efforts, the city of Biratnagar is yet to meet the required criteria to claim itself as a child‐friendly city. Further improvements by the city administration in achieving children's participation in decision‐making, child‐friendly legal environment, and code of conduct are essential. Based on the evidence, the authors advocate for bottom‐up approaches that include children's voices and their real participation in city governance and a strong political will to craft child‐friendly cities, not as a policy rhetoric but for real. Enabling children to fulfill their potential as equal participants in crafting child‐friendly cities will require adults to relinquish some of their hegemonic powers of decision‐making on behalf of children.     

Children's Self-esteem and Moral Self: Links to Parent–Child Conversations Regarding Emotion

The current study has two aims: (1) to examine associations between the emotional content of parent–child past event conversations and two aspects of children's self‐concept—moral self and self‐esteem; and (2) to examine the degree to which talk about past events is uniquely associated with self‐concept when compared with talk about ongoing events and situations. Fifty‐one five‐ and six‐year‐old New Zealand children and their parents discussed four emotional past events and two ongoing conflicts. Children's moral self, self‐esteem and language ability were also assessed. When parents referred to a greater number of positive emotions and evaluations, regardless of conversation type, their children had higher self‐esteem. Past event talk also uniquely predicted children's self‐esteem: Parents who used more explanations during conversations regarding past negative emotions, and more explanations and confirmations of past positive emotions, had children with higher self‐esteem. We discuss these results with respect to an autobiographical memory approach to self‐concept development.     

Agreement and discrepancy between children,parents, and social workers on school‐based effort avoidance in child welfare services

A multiperspective approach is beneficial for obtaining reliable and multifaceted pictures of child behaviour problems. The goal of the present study is to examine interrater agreement on school‐based effort avoidance between children receiving child welfare services, parents, and social workers. Given previous findings, interrater agreement is expected to be low. Self‐reported data on school‐based effort avoidance were gathered for children and adolescents in child welfare services. Additionally, social workers (using the Teacher‐Report Checklist for social and learning behaviour) and parents (using the parallel version of the self‐rating questionnaire on school‐based effort avoidance) were asked to complete an external assessment tool to compare children's perspectives with the ratings of significant adults. The results confirmed significant discrepancies between parents' and children's ratings on effort avoidance tendencies. Furthermore, there were only small to moderate correlations between children's self‐ratings and the adults' assessments; however, the consensus between adults was higher than the interrater agreement between children and social workers. Discrepancies in ratings from multiple informants underline the importance of integrating multiple perspectives, especially children's perspectives, in the diagnostic process in order to plan and adapt appropriate care and treatment.     

Well‐being of migrant and left‐behind children in China: Education,health, parenting,and personal values

Over the last several decades of urbanization and industrialization, China has encountered mass labor force migration from rural to urban areas. As a result, two‐child populations have dramatically increased in number: so‐called left‐behind children and migrant children. Using data from the 2006 and 2009 China Nutrition and Health Surveys, this study examined the effects of parental migration and residency status on the education, health, parenting, and personal values of children, with particular focus on left‐behind and migrant children. The findings suggest that parental migration and residency status play important roles in the educational and health outcomes, parental supervision, and personal values of children. Through analyzing the differences and possible reasons for disparate outcomes among child populations, this study aimed to improve public understanding of migrant and left‐behind children's well‐being in China, and explore implications for future studies and welfare policy making. Key Practitioner Message: ● Help to identify the impact of migration on individual, family, and the society domestically and internationally; ● Provide implications for welfare policy making, program design, and service delivery for migrant populations; ● Explore the approaches to addressing migration‐related issues in different countries with internal and transnational migrant populations.     

Do ‘child‐friendly’ countries contribute to child satisfaction? A comparative study of OECD countries

Child‐friendliness is a new concept in the research literature. Derived from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it assesses different nations’ commitment to the aspects of children’s rights: both self‐determination and nurturance and care. Since the concept is still in its infancy, there is a need to study the associations between child‐friendliness and the subjective well‐being of children in a comparative perspective. Accordingly, the present study compares country rankings in the Child‐Friendliness Index (CFI) with country scores in the Global Domain Satisfaction Index (GDSI) in a sample of ten OECD countries. Results show that there is no association between the adapted GDSI score and the CFI. However, the self‐determination sub‐index and specifically participation in the personal domain are found correlated with GDSI domains. Moreover, countries can be grouped into different clusters: Nordic, Mediterranean, European, Asian. Key Practitioner Message: ? There was no apparent association between the adapted GDSI score and the Child‐Friendliness Index (CFI) rank; ? The CFI self‐determination sub‐index and participation in the personal domain specifically were found to be correlated with GDSI domains; ? Countries may be grouped into different clusters when looking at their GDSI score and CFI rank: Nordic, Mediterranean, European, Asian.     

Young Children's Psychological Selves: Convergence with Maternal Reports of Child Personality

The present research examined five‐year‐old children's psychological self‐concepts. Non‐linear factor analysis was used to model the latent structure of the children's self‐view questionnaire (CSVQ; Eder, 1990 ), a measure of children's self‐concepts. The coherence and reliability of the emerging factor structure indicated that young children are capable of meaningfully reporting about their own emotions and personalities. Moreover, these self‐reports from five‐year‐olds converged with maternal perceptions of child personality. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of emergent personality, continuity/discontinuity in personality assessment across the lifespan, and self‐concept formation in early childhood.     

Maternal and paternal reactions to child sadness predict children's psychosocial outcomes: A family‐centered approach

Parents' reactions to children's emotions shape their psychosocial outcomes. Extant research on emotion socialization primarily uses variable‐centered approaches. This study explores family patterns of maternal and paternal responses to children's sadness in relation to psychosocial outcomes in middle childhood. Fifty‐one families with 8‐ to 12‐year‐old children participated. Mothers and fathers reported their reactions to children's sadness and children's social competence and psychological adjustment. Cluster analyses revealed three family patterns: Supportive (high supportive and low non‐supportive reactions from both parents), Not Supportive (low supportive reactions from both parents), and Father Dominant (high paternal supportive and non‐supportive reactions, low maternal supportive and non‐supportive reactions). Supportive families had children with higher social competence and more internalizing symptoms whereas Father Dominant families had children with lower social competence and fewer internalizing symptoms. Not Supportive families had children with average social competence and fewer internalizing symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to the “divergence model” which proposes that a diverse range of parental responses to children's sadness, rather than a uniformly supportive approach, may facilitate children's psychosocial adjustment.     

Foster care in France: children's perception of their own well‐being

Working to improve the welfare of children in care is a priority shared by all French child protection services. However, the means to measure and improve well‐being are limited (Fergeus et al., 2019). Although the trend today is towards a more comprehensive understanding of the point of view of adults involved in the socioeducational process, too little is done to include the children's own perception of their situation and conditions of care. The purposes of this study are to document and analyse the point of view of children in foster families on their subjective well‐being and also to identify contextual factors that influence it. Ninety‐one children living in foster care, aged 13.5 years on average, completed the French version of the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale developped by Huebner, Zullig Runa in 2012. The multidimensional evaluation of well‐being (family, school, self, friends, and living conditions) reveals a moderate life satisfaction within the foster family and a weak one at school. Total life satisfaction levels are directly linked to the number of care orders the child has experienced, their duration, and the type of education received. The implications of these results for professional practices related to children in care will be discussed.     

A space of safety: Children's experience of equine‐assisted group therapy

Owing to a shift in alcohol and other drug practice towards a more ecological understanding of the impact of problematic parental substance use, children who were previously forgotten by practitioners are increasingly being included in alcohol and other drug service provision. Occurring concurrently with these changes has been a boom in interest in non‐talk‐based therapies to enhance child well‐being. Examples of such therapeutic interventions include adventure‐based activities, theatre, yoga, music, and purposeful interaction with animals. The latter approach, increasingly delivered by social workers, is known as animal‐assisted therapy and involves the inclusion of animals in a goal‐directed intervention. Equine‐assisted therapy (EAT) is a specialised branch of animal‐assisted therapy in which horses are used to cofacilitate therapeutic interventions. Although EAT practitioners argue horses are uniquely effective therapeutic animals, a strong evidence base has not yet developed. The present study utilised qualitative methods to explore children's individual experiences of an EAT program. Thematic analysis of interview data found that EAT is beneficial to children experiencing problematic parental substance use as it offers an environment in which children can feel safe and secure and are supported to grow, personally and socially, by mastering fears, making new friends, and improving their interpersonal behaviours.     

Effects of Person‐ and Process‐focused Feedback on Prosocial Behavior in Middle Childhood

The effects of person‐ and process‐focused feedback, parental lay theories, and prosocial self‐concept on children's prosocial behavior were investigated with 143 9‐ and 10‐year‐old children who participated in a single session. Parents reported entity (person‐focused) and incremental (process‐focused) beliefs related to prosocial behavior. Children completed measures of prosocial self‐concept, then participated in a virtual online chat with child actors who asked for help with service projects. After completing the chat, children could assist with the service projects. In the first cohort, children were randomly assigned to receive person‐focused, process‐focused, or control feedback about sympathy. In the second cohort, with newly recruited families, children received no feedback. When given process‐focused feedback, children spent less time helping and worked on fewer service projects. When given no feedback, children spent less time helping when parents held incremental (process‐focused) beliefs. Children with higher prosocial self‐concept who received no feedback worked on more service projects.     

South African Mixed‐race Children's and Mothers' Judgments and Reasoning about Children's Nurturance and Self‐determination Rights

This study examined the understanding of children's rights in 63 (9‐, 11‐, and 13‐year‐olds) mixed‐race South African children and their mothers. In individual semi‐structured interviews participants responded to hypothetical vignettes in which children's nurturance and self‐determination rights conflicted with parental authority in the home. Participants were required to decide whether they should support the story characters' rights and provide justifications for their responses. Findings indicated that both children and mothers were more likely to endorse children's nurturance than self‐determination rights. In contrast to previous research, no significant differences were found between children and mothers in terms of support for either type of right. In terms of reasoning, both children's and mothers' responses revealed distinct patterns of thinking influenced by the type of right under consideration. The findings are discussed with reference to the available western and non‐western literature on children's understanding of rights. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are considered.