Child Care Professionals Research Articles

Les demandes de placement d’enfants des familles juives du Maghreb : un révélateur des évolutions du travail social en France (1950-1970)

From the 1950s onwards, the question of placing children in institutions was constructed as a problem in the field of Jewish social services. This development is situated at the crossroads of a dynamic of transformation of social service intervention practices, the doctrine of casework, and the construction of the field of the medical-psychology of child services. This issue is of special relevance to the arrival of populations of urban North African Jews and the increase in demands for placement of these children by the OSE and the CASIP. This article looks at this critical moment in the history of child placement and highlights how the role of social workers has been reconfigured, both in terms of assessing requests for placement and the need to coordinate efforts with other child care professionals.

Adverse Childhood Expereinces: Family Map-ACEs and Child Health in Preschool

Purpose Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are typically assessed as a retrospective report of the adult’s childhood and are predictive of poor health in adulthood.1,2 ACE assessment includes childhood maltreatment, household dysfunction, and parental factors. Recent studies have linked a preschool ACE screen with childhood development.3-5 Assessing ACEs in preschool allows providers, childcare professionals, and other early childhood professionals to support families to protect children. This study examined the The Family Map Inventories (FMIs) as a preschool assessment. The FMIs engage providers and families in goal directed partnerships. The FMI are …

FP14 Time-Series Assessment of Childcare Professionals’ Knowledge Regarding the Implementation of the Updated CACFP Meal Pattern

Objective Children's eating behaviors are formed early in life making it an optimal time period to promote healthy eating. Therefore, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new meal pattern for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) in 2017.There is a gap in the literature regarding CACFP provider's knowledge level of the updated guidelines. This study investigates the nutrition knowledge of CACFP providers after one year of implementing 2017 CACFP meal pattern. Description This is a matched pre-post longitudinal study with a convenience sampling; childcare professionals from CACFP-funded institutions participate in an annual training to maintain their USDA support. At the 2017 annual training, participants were given a “baseline” survey that included 27 knowledge questions. The follow-up survey was administered at the 2018 training. A total of 475 baseline surveys were turned in, and 420 follow-up surveys with 135 matched IDs. Evaluation Descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests and linear regression analyses were used to determine differences in nutrition knowledge by geographical location, for-profit and non-profit and program settings. Conclusion and Implications The overall percentage of correct answers increased significantly from time one to time two, from 68% to 74% [t (135) = 5.48, P Grant Year 2016

Childcare providers’ attitudes, knowledge, and practice related to developmental monitoring to promote early identification and referral

ABSTRACT Although intervening early can improve child and family outcomes when a child has a developmental disability, most children with developmental delays are not identified prior to school entry. Childcare professionals can play a key role in identifying delays early. The developmental monitoring attitudes, knowledge, and practice of childcare providers in the United States are described based on survey data. Findings indicate that childcare providers commonly monitor development but may do so in ways that are better suited to providing care than to identifying risk for developmental disability. Most providers identify early intervention/early childhood special education programmes as a place to refer for developmental concerns, while not identifying referral to the doctor unless prompted to consider the doctor’s role. Overall, these findings suggest childcare providers may be well poised to identify delays and make referrals early through developmental monitoring but need additional knowledge and tools to do so effectively.

Empowering Residential Carers of Looked After Young People: The Impact of the Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Childcare

Empowering Residential Carers of Looked After Young People: The Impact of the Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Childcare

Legal and policy issues from the United States and internationally about mandatory reporting of child abuse

Laws that mandate reporting of child abuse have stirred global controversy. Mandatory reporting to authorities for different types of child abuse includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, educational neglect, and emotional neglect. While the definition of child abuse differs from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction, which covers a wide spectrum of abuse and maltreatment, employees who work in professions required to report child abuse include health care workers, educational employees, social workers, religious leaders, employees of divisions of child protective services, criminal justice and other governmental personnel, and child care professionals. Lack of a uniform definition of what constitutes child abuse causes problems for mandatory reporters, ranging from false arrest and malicious prosecution to failure to investigate ongoing child abuse. This article reviews international norms associated with mandatory reporting of child abuse and assesses court cases within the United States that involve mandatory reporting, identifying important issues and underlying problems with the current mandatory reporting system; it concludes with policy recommendations and suggestions for future research.

A surgeon, a doctor and a baby - combining parenthood with a medical career.

Double-physician couples being parents have been shown to face greater difficulties in combining their private and professional lives when compared to other couples. In the present study, we aimed to analyze how double-physician couples manage to arrange their roles in their private and professional lives and how compatible their individual idea of being a mother or a father is with their career as a physician. Fifteen couples being parents and consisting of either two surgeons or a surgeon and a nonsurgeon were asked to participate in a survey to determine the average maternity or paternity leave, the reduction of hours worked per week after the birth of a child, and the need for professional childcare and additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters per week. Furthermore, the couples were asked to mark on a six-item Likert scale how compatible their professional life is with their idea of being parents. The average maternity or paternity leave was 13 ± 2 months per child and the mean reduction of hours worked per week was 30 ± 12%. The couples made use of professional childcare for 41 ± 6 h/week on average and needed additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters for 5 ± 3 h/week. On the Likert scale from “completely incompatible (0)” to “perfectly compatible (5)”, the mean compatibility of professional and private lives was rated 2.5 ± 1.1. Becoming parents significantly influences the professional and private lives of double-physician couples. The relatively low compatibility of double-physician couples’ private and professional lives might lead to relevant work-home conflicts. Such conflicts have been proven to be associated with surgeons not recommending surgery as a career. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the compatibility of parenthood and a medical career.

Facilitators and Barriers to the Implementation of EMOTION: An Indicated Intervention for Young Schoolchildren

ABSTRACT Research on implementation of school-based transdiagnostic interventions, conducted by personnel from the municipal services is limited. We investigated facilitators and barriers regarding implementation of EMOTION, an intervention targeting symptoms of anxiety and depression in children 8–12 years. Trained health- and childcare professionals completed one questionnaire before (N = 63) and a separate questionnaire after running an EMOTION group (N = 66). Twelve of the group leaders were interviewed to provide additional information regarding implementation. Results indicated that factors such as a perceived need for the intervention and positive attitudes from the group leaders facilitated implementation. Hindering factors were related to time constraints, workload, unsupportive leaders, and lack of cooperation from the schools. Allocating resources to implementation specifically could promote future use of the program.

Development of preschool social emotional inventory for preschoolers: a preliminary study

<span>Social-emotional competencies have been established as important predictors in children’s mental health, school readiness and academic success. Age and developmentally appropriate screening for preschool children is important for early detection of developmental delays and early intervention. The purpose of this study is to measure preschool children’s social emotional competencies (SEC) based on the Malaysian context using the Preschool Social Emotional Competency Inventory (P-SECI) developed to provide parents, teachers and childcare professionals with a standardized, norm-referenced, reliable and valid instrument. A pool of 50 items were created for P-SECI, representing eight clusters of social emotional competencies in children: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship management, attachment, communication, responsible decision making and pro-social skills. This pilot study involved two public Annex preschools in Johor Bahru, purposely selected with 49 preschool children as respondents. Results showed that P-SECI has a high reliability index (Alpha Cronbach-Teachers .98 and Parents .95). Initial findings also showed that Teachers and Parents differ in their evaluation of their children’s SEC according to age and gender. But for the age criteria, the mean difference is slightly wider in comparison to gender. Therefore, P-SECI is relevant in predicting children’s mental health, school readiness and academic achievement. Results from the study also showed that the inventory holds promise as a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate SEC in young children according to the <br /> Malaysian context.</span>

Professional attitudes towards children’s risk-taking in play: insights into influencing factors in Dutch contexts

ABSTRACTChildcare settings offer an ideal opportunity for children to become acquainted with risk-taking in play, which promotes healthy growth and development. Van Rooijen and Newstead’s (2016) model, based on a review of international literature, has identified the main challenges for childcare professionals when promoting risky play, namely; conflicting pressures from cultural and regulatory factors, parental concerns, personal attitudes and constructs of children. We used an online questionnaire to examine whether these challenges impact on children’s risk-taking play in Dutch childcare contexts. Dutch professionals encounter barriers; especially in external regulations, organization protocols, and parental overprotectiveness. We adjusted the model to gain further insight in influencing factors and their interrelatedness in a Dutch context. Our findings indicate that professionals can be supported with knowledge about and openness in discussion on risky play and with the tools necessary to support autonomy in daily pedagogical decision-making which then supports children’s age-appropriate risk-taking opportunities.

Empowering Residential Carers of Looked After Young People: The Impact of the Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Childcare

Summary: Children and young people in public care have long been recognised as a particularly vulnerable group in our society. Many have complex personal, interpersonal and educational needs as a result of pre-care maltreatment. Despite a number of initiatives to change the often-negative outcomes for these children, results have remained stubbornly disappointing. The model of professional childcare, rooted in psychological research and theory, was designed to enable and empower foster and adoptive parents and residential carers to acquire a deeper understanding of their children's needs and to provide these young people with the informed support required to help them to lead more fulfilling lives. In this study, we examined the impact of the model in a three-year project involving fifty-three children and young people and their carers in local authority children's homes on two UK sites (northern and southern England). Significant improvements in both behavioural and affective measures were observed following implementation of the model with these young people (Z(N=53) = 3.978, p < .001). These results demonstrate that this model of professional childcare can achieve positive outcomes for previously maltreated young people in children's homes. Methodological constraints on implementation of the model are discussed.

Preschoolers’ problem behavior, prosocial behavior, and language ability in a Latin-American context: The roles of child executive functions and socialization environments

Child executive functions and socialization environments are crucial for the socioemotional and cognitive development of preschoolers. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES), ethnicity, executive functions (EFs), quality of the home environment, quantity of maternal care, and quality and quantity of professional childcare as predictors of five-year-old preschoolers' problem behavior, prosocial behavior, and language ability in 77 low-SES families with a Chilean majority or Mapuche minority background in Chile. Executive functions and the quality of the home environment were positively associated with language ability, whereas quantity of childcare was inversely related to children's language ability. All other associations were non-significant. The results corroborate the vital roles of child executive functioning and stimulating and responsive parenting in child language ability in a Latin-American context. Furthermore, our findings revealed inadequate preschool classroom quality and provide new evidence from southern Chile of the urgent need to improve the quality of Chilean children's preprimary education as a catalyst for reducing social disparities.

Child and adolescent psychiatry in the Far East: A 5‐year follow up on the Consortium on Academic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Far East (CACAP‐FE) study

Data pertaining to child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) training systems are limited as extant research has mostly been derived from one-time data collection. This 5-year follow-up survey collects updated information on CAP training systems in the Far East, allowing for the tracking of system changes over the past 5 years. Data were obtained from 18 countries, or functionally self-governing areas, in the Far East, 17 of which were also included in the original study. An online questionnaire was completed by leading CAP professionals in each country. Questions were expanded in the present study to capture the contents of CAP training. When compared to data from the original study, there has been progress in CAP training systems in the last 5 years. Specifically, there has been an increase in the number of countries with CAP training programs and national guidelines for the training. In addition, the number of CAP departments/divisions affiliated with academic institutions/universities has increased. Findings from 12 of 18 countries in the present study provide data on clinical contents. All informants of the present study reported the need for more child and adolescent psychiatrists and allied professionals. Despite progress in CAP training systems over the last 5 years, the need for more professionals in child and adolescent mental health care in all the relevant areas in this region have yet to be adequately addressed. Continued national efforts and international collaborations are imperative to developing and sustaining new CAP training systems while facilitating improvements in existing programs.

Developing an infant feeding core outcome set for childhood obesity prevention

BackgroundModifiable parental feeding behaviours are implicated in the development of childhood obesity. A lack of outcome standardisation across trials of infant feeding interventions limits examination of intervention effects and mechanisms of change. Core outcome sets (COS) are an agreed-upon minimum set of outcomes that should be measured in trials of a specific health condition. The aim of this research was to develop an infant feeding core outcome set to be evaluated in trials of infant feeding interventions to prevent childhood obesity. MethodsDevelopment of the infant feeding COS was conducted in four stages. First, a systematic review identifying all infant feeding outcomes in the extant literature was done. The databases Embase, Medline, CINAHL, CENTRAL, and PsycINFO, were searched for English-language papers, from database inception to Feb 1, 2017, using search terms related to infants (eg, infant), early feeding (eg, complementary feeding), and study design (eg, randomised controlled trial, cohort). Second, a small-group expert stakeholder meeting was held to clarify and discuss identified outcomes. Third was an international e-Delphi outcome prioritisation survey. Fourth, a consensus meeting of expert stakeholders was held. Expert stakeholders included researchers, health-care professionals, parents, and child-care professionals. FindingsThe systematic review identified 82 infant feeding outcomes. Outcomes were discussed and clarified with 13 stakeholders at the small-group meeting. The e-Delphi study was completed by 79 international stakeholders who rated outcomes for importance of inclusion in the COS. Seven expert stakeholders participated in the consensus meeting. 26 of the identified outcomes from the following nine domains were identified as crucial for inclusion in the COS: breast and formula feeding, introduction of solids, parent feeding practices and styles, parent knowledge and beliefs, practical feeding, food environment, dietary intake, perceptions of infant behaviour and preferences, and child weight outcomes. InterpretationThe developed COS is the minimum that should be measured and reported in trials of infant feeding interventions to prevent childhood obesity. Use of this COS will facilitate better synthesis and understanding of intervention effects and is essential to inform development and evaluation of future infant feeding interventions to prevent childhood obesity. FundingHealth Research Board Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement Award 2015-1026, Irish Research Council New Foundations Award, Health Research Board Trials Methodology Research Network Summer Student Scholarship.

Town Square: An innovative pathway to family child care professionalization

Children's earliest years are times of significant development and learning, yet the professionals who provide care for young children often do not receive the economic or professional support they need and deserve. Given the unique situations of child care professionals, especially those running their own family child care businesses, we must find innovative ways to support them as they care for and guide our youngest citizens.

‘Modern’ parenting and the uses of childcare advice in post-war England

In the post-war English media, ‘modern’ parenting referred to psychologically inspired styles of parenting drawn from professionals. Drawing on archived social-science interviews with over 600 families, this article considers what ‘modern’ parenting meant in the vernacular. It explores the emergence of a group of working-class parents who felt ‘modern’ because they had adopted whichever style of parenting they felt ‘right’ for their child, whatever its source. These parents personalized ‘modern’ ideas found in the mass media, using them to justify choices which they had already made. They came to identify as flexible, adaptive, parents, rather than as people who unquestioningly implemented someone else’s ideas. Using reflexive models of selfhood, they produced a syncretic amalgamation of ideas about parenting, which were drawn, simultaneously, from childcare professionals, members of their communities and their own intuitions. This allowed them to fashion unique styles of parenting, tailored to their children. Rethinking what was ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ let them reconceive parenting as a personal matter, not as something which professionals or kin should dictate. The post-war fixation on the self was therefore consonant with the ‘reworking’ of class, rather than with its declining salience in English society.

초등돌봄교실 전담사의 직무분석 연구

초등돌봄교육의 질적 제고를 위해서는 체계적인 교육 프로그램을 통한 초등돌봄교실 전담사의 전문성 향상이 필요하다. 이를 위하여 이 연구에서는 DACUM 기법을 이용하여 초등돌봄교실 전담사의 직무를 분석하고자 하였다. 이 연구에는 DACUM 위원회에 8명의 내용전문가와 책무와 과업에 대한 내용타당도 검증을 위한 설문조사에 32명의 초등돌봄교실 전담사, 그리고 설문조사 결과 검토를 위한 전문가 위원회에 5명의 전문가가 참여하였다. 도출된 초등돌봄교실 전담사의 책무와 과업에 대한 타당도 검증을 위하여 내용타당도 비율(CVR) 공식을 적용하였다. 이 연구에서는 DACUM 직무분석 기법을 활용하여 초등돌봄교실 전담사의 책무와 과업을 도출하고, 이를 검증하여 최종 10개의 책무와 70개의 과업으로 구성된 직무모형을 설정하였다. 또한 이 연구결과에 근거하여 몇 가지 시사점도 제시하였다.

Pozityviosios komunikacijos scenarijus formuojant keturių įpročių modelį

Integrated family support, emotional therapy and integrated practice are heterogeneous areas. One goals of family therapy or complex assistance can be, for example, improving the functioning of the family at various levels; Strengthening mutual understanding and emotional support from family members; Ability to solve problems and develop problem solving strategies in different life situations. Family Assistance is designed to help parents better understand their child’s needs and behavior, including positive socialization scenarios for a happy and healthy life. The sample is comprised of X-city teachers working according the pre-school curriculum and social educators, social workers, special educators and psychologists – those working with children, working in families and therefore particularly concerned with child well-being. During the study, 40 subjects were interviewed. Following the presentation of the Four-habit model of Positive Communication by the researchers, it was asked to highlight the steps to be taken to strengthen the competencies of teachers and child care professionals. The analysis of child welfare reveals that Lithuanian laws are not harmonized with the UN documents, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, there is no monitoring and information collection and evaluation system. Keywords: positive communication, complex help, model of four habits in positive communication.

Pozityviosios komunikacijos scenarijus formuojant keturių įpročių modelį

Integrated family support, emotional therapy and integrated practice are heterogeneous areas. One goals of family therapy or complex assistance can be, for example, improving the functioning of the family at various levels; Strengthening mutual understanding and emotional support from family members; Ability to solve problems and develop problem solving strategies in different life situations. Family Assistance is designed to help parents better understand their child’s needs and behavior, including positive socialization scenarios for a happy and healthy life. The sample is comprised of X-city teachers working according the pre-school curriculum and social educators, social workers, special educators and psychologists – those working with children, working in families and therefore particularly concerned with child well-being. During the study, 40 subjects were interviewed. Following the presentation of the Four-habit model of Positive Communication by the researchers, it was asked to highlight the steps to be taken to strengthen the competencies of teachers and child care professionals. The analysis of child welfare reveals that Lithuanian laws are not harmonized with the UN documents, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, there is no monitoring and information collection and evaluation system. Keywords: positive communication, complex help, model of four habits in positive communication.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TWO FICE SPECIAL ISSUES

This is the first of two special issues based on materials presented at the FICE International Congress in Vienna, Austria in August 2016. The theme of the congress was “Together Towards a Better World for Children, Adolescents, and Families”. The same theme was chosen for these special issues. Child and youth care professionals who presented their quality material in the congress were invited to rework their presentations as formal papers meeting the norms of a scientific journal. FICE International is most thankful to the guest editors, Jim Anglin, Silke Gahleitner, and Emmanuel Grupper, who worked with all the contributors to prepare their materials for publication. We also want to thank Dr. Sibylle Artz, the editor of IJCYFS, for giving us the opportunity to publish this material in an open-access electronic journal and in that way share it with a much broader audience.