From the Mouths of Mothers: Can Drama Facilitate Reflective Learning for Social Workers?

This article explores and evaluates a cross-disciplinary small-scale project using applied theatre in social work education. The aim was to provide an ‘Affective Encounter’ where students could practice empathic engagement, understanding of the needs of children who have been sexually abused and their protective parents/carers and engage in the complexities of working with family members who may be resistant. The workshop took place five times over a period of three years and was attended by children and families social workers on a one year post-qualifying graduate diploma course. While the use of verbatim theatre does not offer a guarantee of factual truth, it provided the students with some performed moments of personal testimony which was taken word-for-word from mothers whose children had been sexually abused. This allowed the social workers to hear the marginalised narratives of the protective mothers and to practice without a negative impact on the service user. The evaluation identified from self-report the development of emotional and practical skills and knowledge of available resources. This paper focuses on the emotional skills reported and two emerging themes are discussed: learning for humane practice, and the use of this pedagogical approach to encourage affective reflection.     

Governmentality within Children's Technological Play: Findings from a Critical Discourse Analysis

In many countries today, digital technology and instant communication are embedded in children's everyday lives to the extent that their play frequently incorporates smartphones, the Internet and other technologies. In this paper, we explore the recent historical conditions within the New Zealand context that have increased the accessibility of these technologies and imbued them with particular meanings. We suggest that from a Foucauldian perspective, these technologies can be seen as a form of subtle disciplinary power using techniques of governmentality through which children's ways of thinking are shaped to benefit societal requirements of the current historical era.     

贵州省少数民族地区留守儿童心理问题及学校对策

本文对贵州省三个少数民族自治县的留守儿童进行调查。采用问卷法和访谈法,研究总结出农村少数民族留守儿童六类心理问题,并对其产生的原因进行了详细阐述。进而专门从学校角度提出帮助留守儿童心理健康发展的四条对策。     

性别因素与脆弱儿童的长期照顾

性别因素对脆弱儿童的长期照顾的影响主要体现在以下方面:第一,在父死母嫁的情况下,女孩更容易被带入新的家庭,融入新的家庭中,成为其成员;而男孩则更容易被留在原生家庭中,形成与祖父母之间的隔代抚养关系。第二,在收养方面,女孩更容易被收养从而进入正常的家庭环境。以上这些状况的形成与亚洲地区男孩的性别偏好有非常重要的关系,这对于目前的社会福利政策与社会照顾体系提出了新的要求,需要采取一系列的措施与政策。如:通过现有的社会救助体系对祖父母—孙子女的隔代抚养关系给予支持与照顾;充分发挥社区作用,为脆弱儿童提供支持与保护;充分发挥儿童福利院的作用,为脆弱儿童提供专业支持和心理、情感指导,与家庭、社区相结合,共同为脆弱儿童的成长提供支持。     

How Mood and Task Complexity Affect Children's Recognition of Others' Emotions

Previous studies examined how mood affects children's accuracy in matching emotional expressions and labels (label‐based tasks). This study was the first to assess how induced mood (positive, neutral, or negative) influenced five‐ to eight‐year‐olds' accuracy and reaction time using both context‐based tasks, which required inferring a character's emotion from a vignette, and label‐based tasks. Both tasks required choosing one of four facial expressions to respond. Children responded more accurately to label‐based questions relative to context‐based questions at the age of five to seven, but showed no differences at the age of eight, and when the emotional expression being identified was happiness, sadness, or surprise, but not disgust. For the context‐based questions, children were more accurate at inferring sad and disgusted emotions compared with happy and surprised emotions. Induced positive mood facilitated five‐year‐olds' processing (decreased reaction time) in both tasks compared with induced negative and neutral moods. Results demonstrate how task type and children's mood influence children's emotion processing at different ages.     

High‐frequency family contact: a road to nowhere for infants

Understanding the practices which support the best interests of infants when placed in out‐of‐home care in the first year of life is a significant challenge. A study based in Victoria, Australia, explored the practice by the Children's Court of ordering high‐frequency contact (4–7 days a week) with the infant's mother and father when they are placed in care in the first year of life. A literature review revealed little attention to the issue of frequency of family contact for infants. An audit of case files of all infants in care in mid‐2007 showed that at 1 year follow‐up, there was no difference in the reunification rate for children with a period of high‐frequency contact and those with less contact with their mothers and fathers. Focus groups revealed deep divisions of opinion about high‐frequency family contact which are played out in the adversarial Children's Court system in Victoria. The study highlights the complexity of understanding and supporting the attachment relationships at this critical period in the infant's life.     

和谐视角观照下的幼儿适应行为

幼儿的适应行为是幼儿社会化的前奏，也是幼儿逐渐融入新环境的必备条件。在和谐视角观照下，影响幼儿不适应行为主要有三方面因素：幼儿身心发展不平衡、社会适应能力欠缺、自然适应能力薄弱。据此，教师和家长可依据 “和合观”、“和处观”以及“和生观”等培养策略来加强幼儿适应行为，从而促使幼儿自身身心、幼儿与社会以及幼儿与自然界的和谐共处。     

Charting the Emergence of National Identity in Children in Wales

This multimodal study, set in Wales, demonstrates that children aged nine and ten can clearly define and rationalise their own national identity. It contributes to age related discussions on how children categorise themselves in terms of national identity and the rationale for their choices. The children in the study used single and multiple definitions of national identity and illustrate the increasing plural nature of 21st century Wales. Family, birthplace and residency were identified as factors in shaping their national identity, more so than language, despite the current bilingual policy drive in Wales.     

An Assessment of Two Parenting Training Manuals Used in Swedish Parenting Interventions

In Sweden, all parents of children aged 0–18 years are entitled to attend free parenting courses as part of a national strategy presented by the Government in 2009. This broad parental support welfare strategy is expected to fulfil the intentions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this study, two parenting training manuals were analysed: the Canadian Connect program, based on attachment theory, and the Swedish ABC program, based on social learning theory. The results indicate that the manuals use strategies that can both hinder and support children's rights, regardless of rhetoric of children's best interests.