Childcare Services Research Articles

Challenges of having a child with congenital anomalies in Saudi Arabia: a qualitative exploration of mothers' experience.

Congenital anomalies in children lead to morbidity, mortality, or lifelong disabilities. Mothers of children with congenital anomalies face considerable obstacles in parenting their children because of their lack of knowledge about such health conditions, lack of family support, and lack of health, rehabilitation, and social care support. In Saudi Arabia, less attention are given to researching this important issue. In this context, the purpose of the study was to explore mothers' experiences and perceptions toward children with congenital anomalies. We employed a qualitative phenomenological study design. We purposively recruited 10 mothers of children with congenital anomalies from different cities in Saudi Arabia. We interviewed the mothers with an in-depth interview guideline. The interview questions were designed to explore their perception of congenital anomalies in children and their experience of parenting and seeking health, rehabilitation, education, and social care services for children with such anomalies. Analysis of our data suggest that mothers of children with congenital anomalies face considerable challenges because of a lack of medical, rehabilitation, and social care support, lack of knowledge about these conditions and their management, lack of responsiveness of the healthcare providers, lack of support from the family and the stigma associated with such conditions. Consequently, mothers experience poor mental and social well-being. Mothers are facing considerable challenges in raising children with congenital anomalies. Regular screening for early detection of congenital anomalies, counseling support for mothers, and improving healthcare providers' responsiveness, knowledge, and skills are necessary. In addition, appropriate awareness-raising programs need to be implemented at the community level to counteract the stigma and negative attitudes of the community toward children with congenital anomalies and their families.

The Dilemma of Compulsory Vaccinations-Ethical and Legal Considerations.

The high childhood vaccination coverage in Israel leads to a low rate of morbidity from the diseases against which the vaccination in administered. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, children's immunization rates declined dramatically due to closures of schools and childcare services, lockdowns, and guidelines for physical distancing. In addition, parents' hesitancy, refusals, and delays in adhering to routine childhood immunizations seem to have increased during the pandemic. A decline in routine pediatric vaccine administration might indicate that the entire population faces increased risks for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Throughout history, vaccines have raised questions about their safety, efficacy, and need among adults and parents who feared or hesitated to vaccinate their children. Objections derive from various ideological and religious reasons or concerns about the possible inherent dangers. Mistrust in the government and/or economic or political interests also raise concerns among parents. The importance of providing vaccines to maintain public health, as opposed to the autonomy of the individuals over their body and their children, raises ethical questions. In Israel, there is no legal obligation to get vaccinated. It is imperative to find a decisive solution to this situation without delay. Furthermore, where democratically one's principles are sacred and where one's autonomy over one's body is also unquestionable, such a legal solution would not only be unacceptable but also rather impossible to enforce. It seems that some reasonable balance between the necessity to preserve public health and our democratic principles should apply.

The importance of good childcare services for gender equality

The importance of good childcare services for gender equality Professor Ingela Naumann at Fribourg University discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on childcare arrangements and family wellbeing, and how it highlighted gendered care norms. The COVID-pandemic put a spotlight on a central conundrum of modern society: you cannot do your job while simultaneously looking after your child. Whatever you do, in the long run one or the other will suffer: You can park your child in front of the TV so you can do that online meeting (bad educational value!), or you pretend to be present in that meeting while, actually, you are stacking blocks with your child (and you might miss that important part in the meeting for your input!). Yet, during COVID-lockdowns when childcare services and schools were closed and employment moved online for many, scores of parents tried to do exactly that: juggle employment and childcare in their homes, all at once. How did they fare?

Impartiality and fair play revisited

Impartiality and fair play revisited

Reopening ECEC Services for Children Under Three Amidst the Pandemic: Investigating the Association of Health Measures with Pedagogical Practices and Children’s Well-being

In Portugal, early childhood education and care services for children under-three were the first educational services to reopen after periods of lockdown. COVID-19 prevention and control measures had to be implemented nationwide, but no knowledge was yet produced on their impact in educational settings. This study aimed to map the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control measures and examine associations among prevention and control measures, perceived changes to pedagogical practices and children’s well-being in early childhood education and care services for children under three. In this study, 1098 early childhood education and care professionals from all districts completed an online survey during January and February 2021. Results indicated that prevention and control measures were widely implemented. Furthermore, early childhood education and care professionals who started to implement prevention and control measures more frequently were more likely to perceive a reinforcement of their pedagogical practices at the level of adult-child interaction, emotional climate, and interaction with families, and reported higher levels of children’s well-being. Findings highlighted the potential role of pedagogical practices in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 in early childhood education and care services for children under-three.

Reporting Findings from an Exploratory Study of Social Workers’ Perceptions about autism Training

Abstract There is considerable literature on autism but a paucity of literature on social work with autistic people. This is surprising when autistic people may be overrepresented in the populations that social workers assess and support. This article reports the findings from a qualitative study exploring social workers’ perceptions of training needs about autism through two focus groups involving social workers. Social workers frequently engage with autistic people, either as practitioners in specialist teams but more frequently through generic adult and/or childcare services; therefore, awareness of autism is important. Autism is complex because it is sometimes hidden, which is exacerbated when autistic people may mask and camouflage their autism and any difficulties they experience. Data from the focus groups were thematically analysed to identify themes that highlight how social workers benefit from training about autism and how to work with autistic people, which includes training from autistic people and others with lived experience. The authors of this article represent different perspectives: the first author is a social work educator with over three decades’ practice and personal autism experience, and the second author is a social work manager and practitioner in a specialist service.

Transformation of Out-of-Home Services for Children in North Macedonia: Towards Individualized and Child Tailored Care

Abstract Republic of North Macedonia in the last several years undergoes comprehensive social protection reform. The reform processes have been focused on furthering the processes of deinstitutionalization, decentralization and pluralization of social services delivery. The transformation of social protection institutions has been one of the key priorities in this period, specifically out-of-family services for children. In this respect, alternative care services for children without parents and parental care has been strengthened and promoted. Foster care as a traditional form of protection has been given particular attention and has undergone considerable changes. This article will review key reform processes in the domain of social protection in the country, with focus on social services for children without parents and parental care. To do this, results from recent empirical research will be presented. Mixed methodology research findings target current conditions in respect to foster care, small group homes and supported living as services used for placement of children without parents and parental care as well as professional approaches used to provide for individualized and child-tailored care. Cross-cutting issues relate to human rights, basic human needs and social integration of children.

Context and Patterns of Separation and Return to the Family of Origin Experienced by Mothers Who Entrusted Their Children to the Child Care Service System

이 연구의 목적은 아동보호서비스 체계에 자녀를 맡긴 친모가 경험한 분리와 원가정 복귀의 맥락과 패턴을 파악하고자 하는 것이었다. 이러한 목적을 달성하기 위해, 이 연구에서는 자녀를 아동보호서비스 체계에 맡긴 경험이 있는 친모들을 대상으로 한 면접을 통해 자료를 수집하고, 질적 연구접근 중 하나인 맥락-패턴 분석방법을 적용하여 분석하였다. 주요 연구결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 친모가 자녀를 양육하지 않고 아동보호서비스에 의뢰하게 되는 사유는 다양하며, 그 과정은 매우 복잡하다. 둘째, 흔히 ‘발생원인’으로 거론되는 사유들 너머에서 실제로 친모가 자녀를 분리하고자 하는 결정을 할 때 중요한 하위맥락 요소는 ‘양육능력’과 ‘양육의지’라고 할 수 있다. 셋째, 일단 자녀를 분리한 이후 친모와 아동이 각자의 생활에 적응해 가는 과정에서, 친모들은 양육능력과 양육조건을 강화하기 위해 노력하지만 그 과정이 순탄하지는 않으며, 양육의지도 다양한 방향으로 변주되는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째, 이러한 적응과정의 역동성에 따라 원가정 복귀 가능성도 달라지는데, 그 가능성을 높일 수 있는 하위맥락 요소는 아동보호서비스 제공기관과 실무자의 개입인 것으로 보인다. 이러한 연구결과에 근거하여 자녀분리 전후 친모의 역량을 강화하고 동시에 원가정 복귀 가능성을 높이기 위한 정책과 실천 지침들을 제언하였다.

Evaluating a clinical decision support point of care instrument in low resource setting

BackgroundClinical pathways are one of the main tools to manage the health care’s quality and concerned with the standardization of care processes. They have been used to help frontline healthcare workers by presenting summarized evidence and generating clinical workflows involving a series of tasks performed by various people within and between work environments to deliver care. Integrating clinical pathways into Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) is a common practice today. However, in a low-resource setting (LRS), this kind of decision support systems is often not readily accessible or even not available. To fill this gap, we developed a computer aided CDSS that swiftly identifies which cases require a referral and which ones may be managed locally. The computer aided CDSS is designed primarily for use in primary care settings for maternal and childcare services, namely for pregnant patients, antenatal and postnatal care. The purpose of this paper is to assess the user acceptance of the computer aided CDSS at the point of care in LRSs.MethodsFor evaluation, we used a total of 22 parameters structured in to six major categories, namely “ease of use, system quality, information quality, decision changes, process changes, and user acceptance.” Based on these parameters, the caregivers from Jimma Health Center's Maternal and Child Health Service Unit evaluated the acceptability of a computer aided CDSS. The respondents were asked to express their level of agreement using 22 parameters in a think-aloud approach. The evaluation was conducted in the caregiver's spare-time after the clinical decision. It was based on eighteen cases over the course of two days. The respondents were then asked to score their level of agreement with some statements on a five-point scale: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree.ResultsThe CDSS received a favorable agreement score in all six categories by obtaining primarily strongly agree and agree responses. In contrast, a follow-up interview revealed a variety of reasons for disagreement based on the neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree responses.ConclusionsThough the study had a positive outcome, it was limited to the Jimma Health Center Maternal and Childcare Unit, and hence a wider scale evaluation and longitudinal measurements, including computer aided CDSS usage frequency, speed of operation and impact on intervention time are needed.

Trend, Pattern and Presentation of Visual Impairment and Blindness among Students of Schools for the Blind in South-East Nigeria

Introduction: The prevalence and distribution of major causes of blindness in children vary based on the availability of primary health care and eye care services, and under-5 mortality rates amongst others. Irrespective of the aetiology, blind children have a lifetime to live with the disability and this places enormous pressure on the family unit and the society.
 Data on the magnitude of blindness is usually gotten from schools for the blind.
 This study aimed to identify the recent trend, and presentation of visual impairment and blindness among students in schools for the blind located in southeast Nigeria.
 Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted among visually impaired students in schools for the blind in southeast, Nigeria. A total of 92 students were examined from three randomly selected schools out of the six schools in this region.
 Results: There was a male to female ratio of 1.3:1, an age range of 8-32 years with a mean age of 18.4 6.4 years. Majority of the students (85.9%) were blind with visual acuity <3/60, and 14.1% had visual impairment.
 Glaucoma was the leading cause of blindness followed by cataract and most known causes of blindness occurred in childhood.
 Conclusion: Most of the causes of blindness were from preventable and treatable causes. Increasing the availability of specialized eye care services for children, and improving primary health services will reduce the prevalence of blindness due to avoidable causes.

An urban neighbourhood framework for realising progress towards the New Urban Agenda for equitable early childhood development

ABSTRACT Children consistently exposed to positive, stimulating environments, including their spatial neighbourhood, experience foundations for ongoing optimal development. Recognition of the neighbourhood as a mechanism to enhance wellbeing is reflected in the United Nation's New Urban Agenda. Through a series of innovations and advancements, this paper aims to describe a spatial indicators' framework, the Neighbourhood Early Childhood Development Framework. Once tested, it can be used to assess and monitor urban neighbourhoods for their ability to equitably support early childhood development. Eight domains were included in the framework: Early childcare and education services, family-friendly destinations, food outlets, housing, public open space, public transport, traffic, and walkability. Overall, 44 indicators were conceptualised for calculation at the smallest appropriate geographical scale available (i.e. a child's home address). Different scales of analysis were chosen to represent a child's local neighbourhood in an urban setting. The Framework supports commitment to action in the New Urban Agenda through improved measurement, monitoring, and research capabilities, alongside provision of tools to support evidence-based and interdisciplinary policy and practitioner decision-making. Once tested with child outcomes, it can inform more precise, evidence-based place-based interventions, while offering the potential to reduce childhood developmental inequities at scale.

Child mortality remains a serious public health problem

The identification of factors related to infant deaths can help in the planning of public health actions for the restructuring and improvement of maternal and child care, with a view to reducing infant mortality. The variables related to infant mortality continue to be incident in males, in those of brown color, with birth weight below normal and children of young mothers. Actions with technical and financial investment throughout prenatal care with a complete care network and strengthening childcare services for children by the Primary Care network at municipal level are necessary and urgent strategies to reduce the drama of preventable deaths of children in the first year of life.

Association between gender role attitudes and social support from mothers and paternal involvement in childcare

Objective Paternal involvement in child-rearing is an action goal of Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Tier 2), and should be actively promoted. Clarifying the related factors may contribute to countermeasures for promoting paternal involvement in child-rearing. This study aimed to examine the association between fathers' gender role attitudes and social support from their spouses (i.e., the mothers of the children) and their involvement in child-rearing.Methods We obtained the data of fathers involved in childcare (aged 25-50 years; all full-time workers) through an internet research company. The paternal involvement in childcare scale (11 items, 4-point scale, e.g., "taking care of children," "cooking") was used as the dependent variable. The independent variables were gender role attitude ("Husbands should work outside the home and wives should take care of the home," 4-point scale) and social support from the mothers of the children (including appraisal, emotional, and instrumental support). The control variables were father's age, mother's employment status, number of children, the age of the youngest child, children going to nursery school or kindergarten, use of childcare services, self-evaluation of low economic status, work hours on weekdays, and marital relationship satisfaction.Results The data of 360 men were analyzed (mean age 36.8 years, standard deviation 5.6). The results of the multivariable regression analyses with interaction terms are as follows: gender role attitude was significantly associated with childcare (β=-0.103) and housework (β=-0.125); appraisal support was significantly associated with childcare (β=0.142) and housework (β=0.199); and the interaction between gender role attitude and instrumental support was significant (β=0.176), indicating that, in individuals with a high gender role attitude score, a higher level of instrumental support was related to a higher childcare score (β=0.242).Conclusions Fathers with egalitarian gender role attitudes and those who receive appraisal support from the other parent are more likely to participate in childcare. In addition, fathers with traditional gender role attitudes who receive instrumental support from the other parent may tend to participate in childcare.

Global HIV prevention, care and treatment services for children: a cross-sectional survey from the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) consortium

ObjectivesTo assess access children with HIV have to comprehensive HIV care services, to longitudinally evaluate the implementation and scale-up of services, and to use site services and clinical cohort data...

Impact of community strategy package on uptake of reproductive tract infections health services among young street females in the municipality of Eldoret, Kenya

BackgroundDespite the intervention of free medical care services for street children by a dedicated clinic in Eldoret municipality, health care service of young street females (YSFs) is still deficient. The...

Review: Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union

Review: <i>Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union</i>

보육서비스 공동생산 유형화와 활성화 방안 연구

본 연구는 사회서비스 분야 공동생산 유형을 살펴보고 활성화 전략을 제시하는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 이를 위해, 마을육아공동체 유형화를 통해 보육서비스의 공동생산 활성화방안을 제시하였다. 연구 결과, 마을육아공동체는 구성 및 운영 주체, 서비스 제공자 및 수혜자를 기준으로 8개 유형으로 분류되었다. 부모협동형, 부모협동발전형, 봉사나눔형, 사회사업형은 공동체 기반 공동생산에 포함되고, 노동자협동조합형, 정부공간제공형, 정부사업위탁형은 이용자 기반 공동생산으로 나뉘었다. 또한 정부개입 없는 이용자들의 자조적 생산 활동인 상호나눔형도 있다. 이를 토대로 본 연구에서는 공동생산이라 하더라도 사회서비스에서 요구되는 공공성을 모두 확보하였다고 볼 수는 없기 때문에 유형별 차별적 활성화 전략이 필요하다고 보았다. 더불어, 공동생산 활동 자체만으로도 사회자본 창출이라는 넓은 범위에서의 공공성을 확보하고 있다는 점에서 참여소득과 같은 대안적 활성화 전략이 필요하다고 제시하였다.

보육교사의 감성지능이 이직의도에 미치는 영향

In order to help the healthy development of infants and young children, the role of childcare teachers who affect infants and young children is important. However, the high turnover rate of childcare teachers can lead to a deterioration in the quality of childcare services. In this study, in order to lower the turnover rate of childcare teachers, emotional intelligence was noted as the cause of turnover intention. In addition, the mediating role of job stress and job satisfaction was verified to identify the process through which the relationship between emotional intelligence and turnover intention is connected. In this study, 224 childcare teachers working in daycare centers were surveyed, and 203 of them were used for analysis. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the emotional intelligence of childcare teachers had a significant effect on turnover intention. In addition, it was found that job stress and job satisfaction had a significant partial mediating effect between emotional intelligence and turnover intention. The theoretical implications of this study confirmed the theoretical model predicting the effect of emotional intelligence on turnover intention. Also, the sequential process of emotional intelligence affecting turnover intention through job stress and job satisfaction was identified. These results are meaningful in that they provide practical implications for preparing a plan to reduce the turnover intention of childcare teachers. Based on these research results, the limitations of this study and future research directions were presented.

Experiences of Female Nurses' Parental Leave in Taiwan: A Qualitative Study.

(1) Background: To counteract the recent severe decline in birthrates in Taiwan, a number of child welfare policies are being promoted. Parental leave is among the most discussed policies in recent years. Nurses are healthcare providers, but their own right to healthcare has not been well investigated and should receive more attention. (2) Aim: This study aimed to understand the experience journey of nurses in Taiwan from considering applying for parental leave to returning to work. (3) Methods: Qualitative design with in-depth interviews was conducted with 13 female nurses from three hospitals in northern Taiwan. (4) Results: Content analysis of the interviews revealed five themes, i.e., considerations for taking parental leave, support received from other parties, life experience during parental leave, concerns regarding the return to the workplace, and preparations for the return to the workplace. Participants were motivated to apply for parental leave due to the lack of help with childcare, the desire to care for their own child, or if their financial situation allowed it. They received support and help during the application process. Participants were happy that they could participate in important developmental stages of their child, but were concerned about disconnect from society. Participants were concerned about not being able to resume work. They successfully returned to the workplace through arranging childcare services, self-adapting and learning. (5) Conclusions: This study can serve as a reference for female nurses considering parental leave and provides insights to management teams for building a friendly nursing workplace and creating mutually beneficial situations.

Children's drawings as a projective tool to explore and prevent experiences of mistreatment and/or sexual abuse.

Reality shows us that situations of mistreatment and sexual abuse in childhood are still seldom visible, despite their high prevalence around the world. It is essential to detect and address them, especially among children in situations of dire risk or neglect. The purpose of this study is to determine if graphic emotional indicators are expressed in the drawings of the projective Draw-a-Person (D.A.P) test, made by children in situations of dire risk or neglect. The sample is made up of 34 children, between the ages of 5 and 11 (17 girls and 17 boys), attended by Specialised Child and Adolescent Care Services of the Barcelona Town Hall (Spain). The drawings were coded quantitatively. The results indicated that most of the drawings show a frequency of graphic emotional indicators, as well as graphic indicators common to experiences of mistreatment and/or abuse, which confirm the existence of emotional problems. However, no significant differences based on gender and age were found, except for one indicator of sexual abuse (body omitted/distorted), which is significantly more common in the boys. Results also revealed that the drawings of human figure enable the children to express their experiences of traumatic situations which are difficult to verbalize. These findings have important implications for professionals, as the use of this projective technique can help to early identification and design treatment strategies in situations of mistreatment and/or abuse in children and their families.