Instability and caregiving in the lives of street‐involved youth from foster care

A large proportion of youth who become street‐involved have experience in foster care, and our sample of 92 street‐involved youth, aged 14–18 years, all had foster care experience. We report on (i) instability of guardians and home from birth to street involvement; (ii) the connection between perceptions about foster care and measures of well‐being; and (iii) the implications of these findings for understanding street‐involved youth and the role of foster care in their life. The average number of transitions per youth from birth to mid‐teens was nine. Youth with experience in permanent care first lived away from biological parents at age 8.5 years, and for those with temporary care experience, it was age 10 years. Foster care was one of many living situations and one of several sources of caregivers. If participants were satisfied with foster care, they were more likely to be currently hopeful and happy. Participants who experienced positive influences from at least one long‐term caregiver tended to have other positive caregiver experiences, and those with negative influences were more likely to also have a positive relationship with a female caregiver. Foster care was one of several ‘way stations’ in their lives, one whose meaning needs further study.     

Group work in mindfulness-based interventions with youth: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Almost all mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are delivered in group format. Given the benefits of group work for children/youth, the authors wondered how researchers studying MBIs discussed and analyzed the group-work component of the MBI. The authors conducted a scoping study with the aims of analyzing relevant research regardless of design to explore the range of research activity, to summarize findings, and to identify gaps in knowledge. Our research questions asked, (1) How is group work described and discussed in the research literature that explores MBIs with children and youth? (2) When group work is discussed, what factors are the focus of discussion? and (3) Is group work considered an important aspect in the delivery of MBIs? Ultimately, the authors identified 94 articles that met their inclusion criteria. The researchers that discussed group work identified rationales for the group delivery, benefits of group work, the need for a cohesive and safe environment for learning, the relevant role of the group facilitator, cultural implications, and challenges associated with group delivery. Engagement of youth in an MBI and the importance of the group process were identified as main issues. The authors concluded that all of the factors contributing to change as a result of having participated in an MBI need to be better understood, and that group work should be given more attention in the delivery and study of MBIs. Thus, the facilitation of an MBI can be better understood as can the mechanisms of change.     

The effect of child support enforcement on abortion in the United States

Objectives: This project aims to answer a critically important question of public policy: Does effective child support enforcement lead to a change in the incidence of abortion across the United States? Methods: Using state-level data collected from 1978–2003 from a variety of sources, we employ fixed effects regression analysis to examine whether financial security as measured by five types of child support enforcement effectiveness impacts abortion outcomes. Results: We find that child support enforcement effectiveness decreases the incidence of abortion as measured by the abortion rate, but not the abortion ratio. Conclusions: Income transfer policies such as child support enforcement can affect certain fertility outcomes such as abortion rates across the states.     

Transformation of a recreational youth group into community service group during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This narrative is based on the solidarity of a recreational youth group during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Note: Youth refers to older adolescents and young adults, 17–28). The narrative describes the journey and transformation of the youth group from playing cricket to the engagement in community service during the lockdown period. This paper also presents how the presence of the group shifted from physical to a digital platform, and the focus turned from recreation to social support; with that change in the focus, how a small group of youths turned into a larger group to mobilize and utilize resources for community service during the crisis time.     

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Canadian implementation efforts for indigenous children and youth

Since playing the role of co-host at the 1990 World Summit for Children in New York, Canada has promoted the adoption of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child at home and abroad. What impact has this unprecedented international human rights document had on Canadian First Nations, Inuit and other Aboriginal groups? This paper looks at Canada's implementation of this UN Convention, and specifically at Canadian initiatives for indigenous children and youth. The Indian Act, upon which the Canadian government has based its control over Aboriginals since 1876, is explained. Five national organizations representing various Aboriginal perspectives have reviewed the federal government's efforts to honour the World Summit's‘First Call for Children,’ and the emergent issues for at-risk children's programming on- and off-reserve are reviewed. The‘best interests of the child’ ideology that has guided the developed world's notions of children's rights has evolved in a cultural and value-laden context that must now be left for indigenous social scientists, children and youth around the globe to decide for themselves.     

‘Youth are not something to check off your to do list’: Poetic inquiry into the symbols youth,parents and professionals use to reimagine supports for youth in foster care

The child welfare system is characterized by fixed power structures, coercion and hierarchies that privilege the perspectives of a select few. These oppressive aspects of the system quelch youth voice and others' voices, especially those with lived experience, frequently omitting them from case- and system-level decisions. Acknowledging the empowering potential of creative and arts-based research, this study used poetic inquiry with youth in or formerly in foster care, parent partners and professionals working in child welfare, inviting them to reimagine how the system could support youth in foster care towards thriving. Through seven poetry focus groups, 41 participants wrote individual and relational poems. Analyses focused on how symbols were used and their suggestions for revisioning child welfare. Seven themes identified the types of symbols used in poems: 1) Nature/Natural Phenomena, 2) Human Body/Senses, 3) Actions, 4) Physical Objects, 5) Paperwork, Cases, Bureaucracy, 6) Connectedness/Family and 7) Strong Emotions. Beyond demonstrating a novel arts-based method, findings offer a new, creative space for understanding the foster care system. Symbols were powerful and cut across life experiences and identities. A key implication pointed to using symbolic language to aid the work of revisioning child welfare towards humanistic and embodied approaches, social justice and well-being.     

Nonformal education for improving educational outcomes for street children and street youth in developing countries: A systematic review

Tens of millions of children and youth (up to 24 years of age) live and work on the streets of developing countries. Most of them are forced to leave formal education. As a potential solution, nonformal education (NFE) interventions have spread worldwide. However, no previous attempt has been made to address the state of evidence regarding effectiveness studies of NFE for street children and youth. This review addresses this gap by conducting the first systematic review concerning the effectiveness of NFE for improving educational outcomes for street children and street youth. The search was conducted in 35 structured electronic databases and numerous organizations and experts were also contacted. The screening of 9,271 titles resulted in the identification of zero prospective effectiveness studies with a counterfactual. Lessons are drawn from the highest quality excluded studies to inform future evaluations that seek to address this knowledge gap. Key Practitioner Message: ● Practitioners should implement comparable intake and monitoring assessments to track changes consistently over time; ● Programs informed by critical pedagogy and empowerment‐based approaches may improve behavioral outcomes; ● Programs that work with street children and street youth should clarify how they identify their target population.     

Helpful citizens and caring families: Patterns of informal help and caregiving in Sweden in a 17‐year perspective

Jegermalm M, Grassman EJ. Helpful citizens and caring families: patterns of informal help and caregiving in Sweden in a 17‐year perspective This article reports on an analysis of informal help and caregiving in Sweden with, for the first time, a focus on patterns of change over 17 years regarding scope, type of caregivers and the recipients of help. The discussion is based on results from a national survey repeated four times between 1992 and 2009. In the 1990s, the figures were stable, but from the late 1990s to 2009, there seems to have been a dramatic increase in the extent of informal help giving. Concerning types of helpers, the patterns implied involvement not only from family members, but also from other types of helpers. Two interpretative perspectives were used in the analysis: the first from recent welfare state changes and the substitution argument; the second from the present debate on civil society and its possible and changing role. These perspectives represent two partly complementary approaches to the understanding of the dynamics of informal involvement in contemporary Swedish society.     

Well‐being among employed and non‐employed caregiving women in Taiwan

Chou Y‐C, Kröger T, Chiao C, Pu C‐Y. Well‐being among employed and non‐employed caregiving women in Taiwan This study addressed various groups of non‐employed/employed and non‐caring/caring women in Taiwan. Data from the 2006 National Taiwanese Women Survey (at age 16–64, n= 6,017) were analysed to determine whether there are differences in terms of well‐being, as measured by self‐rated health and family life satisfaction, between women who work and/or care and between different carer groups. Other factors associated with well‐being of carers of young children (n= 1,697) were also analysed. The results showed that non‐employed carers of disabled adults stood out as the most disadvantaged group. However, the importance of work has been replaced by support among carers of young children. This study suggests that unpaid carers, particularly carers of disabled adults who are non‐employed, ought to be supported by policies. To improve carers' well‐being, care–work reconciliation among working‐age women needs to be included in the future care scheme in Taiwan.     

The Relationship Between Religiosity,Youth Culture,and Premarital Sex among Malaysian and Indonesian Adolescents

This study explores the issue of premarital sex among the Muslim-dominant societies of Malaysia and Indonesia. Although premarital sex is condemned in both countries, its rate is on the rise. Three hundred and eighty-nine adolescents took part in a survey on their sexual experiences, religiosity, and a few youth cultural elements. The results suggest that there is an erosion of traditional and religious values, and that peers and youth culture play a significant role in influencing adolescents who engage in premarital sex.     

X–children and the militarisation of everyday life: comparative comments on the politics of youth, victimage and violence in transitional societies

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Northern Ireland and South Africa, this paper contends that the so–called ‘children of violence’ are perceived in terms of the serious cultural contradictions of the adult world and rarely in their own terms. Does the concept and norm of childhood give us permission to give violence a defining site of origination? Does childhood have a discursive function similar to penal incarceration as a limit–category of social abuse or caretaking by which society as a whole can be measured? If so, it is not surprising that children and youth are not merely conceptualised as victims of the pathological, but they become pathogenic as well. They are not only a vulnerable target of violence and aggression, but are reciprocally positioned: as authors of violence bearing the unmediated social horrors of the past; as suspect actors in the present; and as potential aggressors in the future. If childhood is good to think about these days, what does it really allow us to think about?     

‘He told me to calm down and all that’: a qualitative study of forms of social support in youth mentoring relationships

The worldwide growth in formal youth mentoring programmes over the past two decades is partly a response to the perception that young people facing adversity do not have access to supportive relationships with adults and positive role models in their communities to the degree they once had. Formal mentoring programmes facilitate the development of a friendship or ‘match’ between an older volunteer and a young person, with the objective of supporting the young persons’ personal and social development. Drawing on 66 semi‐structured interviews with young people, parents, mentors and caseworkers associated with nine youth mentoring matches in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Programme in Ireland, this paper analyses the forms of social support evident in the mentor–mentee relationships and highlights how the mentoring relationship was perceived to have impacted on the well‐being of the young people participating. The findings reflect the consensus in the mentoring literature that close, well‐established mentoring relationships have the potential to bring about meaningful change in the lives of young people.     

Indirect effects of the Family Check‐Up on youth extracurricular involvement at school‐age through improvements in maternal positive behavior support in early childhood

Extracurricular involvement in the school‐age years has widespread potential benefits for children's subsequent socioemotional development, especially for low‐income youth. However, there is a dearth of research on interventions aimed at increasing school‐age extracurricular involvement in low‐income youth. Thus, the present study aimed to test the collateral effect of a brief, family‐focused intervention for low‐income families, the Family Check‐Up, on children's school‐age extracurricular involvement via improvements in maternal positive behavior support (PBS) in early childhood. The sample (n = 630, 50% female, 50% White, 28% Black/African American) represented a subsample of families from the Early Steps Multisite Study. At the age of two, families were randomly assigned to the Family Check‐Up or Women, Infants, and Children Nutritional Supplement Services as usual. Mother‐child dyads participated in observed interaction tasks at child ages 2 and 3 that were subsequently coded to assess PBS. Primary caregivers reported on children's school‐age extracurricular involvement at ages 7.5, 8.5, and 9.5. Results indicated that although there was not a direct path between intervention status and children's school‐age extracurricular involvement, a significant indirect path emerged from intervention group to changes in PBS between ages 2 to 3 to children's school‐age extracurricular involvement. The results are discussed in terms of implications for designing preventive interventions in early childhood that promote extracurricular involvement at school‐age, particularly for children at risk for maladaptive outcomes.     

The United States: welfare, work and development

It has long been claimed that social welfare programmes harm economic development. These programmes, it is alleged, depress work incentives, divert scarce investment resources to 'unproductive' social services and create a large underclass of dependent individuals. Welfare reform in the United States intends to reverse these allegedly negative economic effects by requiring welfare clients to work. It also hopes to reduce poverty. This article examines these claims. It discusses the welfare reform programme and concludes that its impact on both economic development and poverty has been minimal. Policies that transcend the current obsession with work, promote sustained economic development and invest in human capabilities are more likely to succeed.     

美国与《联合国海洋法公约》

《联合国海洋法公约》是迄今为止最广泛、最全面、最有影响的管理和规范海洋活动的国际公约,已经并将继续对国际政治、经济和社会产生重大影响。美国虽然积极参与了《公约》的谈判和制订,但时至今日仍未批准《公约》,令人费解。本文回顾了美国与《联合国海洋法公约》的渊源,通过《公约》对于美国国家利益关联性的论述,探究美国未批准加入《公约》的缘由。本文认为,随着国际海洋形势和美国自身实力等因素的不断变化,美国出于自身利益考虑,批准《公约》是大势所趋。美国一旦批准《公约》,必将附加对其更加有利的额外声明、条件等,对此,我们应予以关注。     

The contribution of mentoring to the life skills of youth leaving care in Israel

The goal of this study was to examine the contribution of natural mentoring to the improvement of life skills among youth in care in core areas of education, employment, and avoidance of risk behaviours while controlling for personal characteristics and placement history. The sample includes 174 adolescents in residential care in Israel. Results showed that mentoring duration and mentoring functions including mentor as “role model,” “parental figure,” and “independence promoter” significantly contributed to the prediction of the three life skills above and beyond control variables. This study highlights both the array of meaningful roles mentors play in youth's development of life skills and identifies important practice implications regarding the mechanism by which mentoring relationships contribute to the resilience of adolescents.     

Patterns of change in youth unemployment regimes: France and Switzerland compared

The comparison between France and Switzerland enables us to compare a country that has a strong interventionist tradition in the labour market and whose youth unemployment is endemically high with a more liberal country that is faced with a more recent increase in youth unemployment but which, nevertheless, remains relatively measured. Starting from different rules and values, the two youth unemployment systems resemble each other insofar as both exclude most unemployed youth from all available benefits. From this angle, French egalitarianism rejoins Swiss differentialism. In both cases, it is not the least of paradoxes that the system of unemployment insurance so little benefits those who are most vulnerable to the economic crisis and the present dearth of jobs.     

Outcomes of the ON FIRE peer support programme for children and adolescents in families with mental health problems

Children in families with mental health problems may encounter multiple risks to their well‐being. General aims of peer support programmes for these children include fostering resilience and effective coping strategies, and enhancing self‐esteem and social skills. This study aimed to evaluate outcomes from a pilot multi‐site implementation of the ON FIRE peer support programme. The purpose of ON FIRE is to cultivate hope, resilience and well‐being in children and adolescents aged 8–17 years living in families affected by sibling or parental mental health problems. We employed a pre‐post test (baseline and 4 months) evaluation using a suite of outcome measures. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Children's Hope Scale, Kids Connections Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS‐C) were completed for 64 child/adolescent participants. At baseline, participants had significantly greater difficulties compared with Australian norms. At 4 months, there were significant differences in children's hope and in connections outside the family. There were no significant differences in the SDQ or the PANAS‐C.