Social Representations Of Children Research Articles

Children's social representations of utopian societies

AbstractHow do children in the U.S. represent the ideal society? A scientific understanding of how children engage in utopian thinking—and how their ideas relate to cross‐cultural standards developed by the United Nations—is potentially useful for the development of social movements aimed at progressive social change. In this article we report the results of group projects created by 56 fifth‐grade students (27 boys, 29 girls) in New York City who were instructed to work together in small groups to represent their ideal society of the future. We found that themes of economic prosperity and cultural sensitivity, especially the need to promote social and economic equality and to prevent discrimination and prejudice, were central to children's conceptions of the good society. On several major issues, the utopian societies that were proposed dovetailed with the sustainability development goals identified by the United Nations, especially ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’, ‘Reduced Inequality’, and ‘Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions’. The children were acutely aware of the need for environmental protection and climate action but understandably lacked a clear sense of how to provide ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’ and ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ in their ideal societies.

Social Representations of Children and Parents in Parliamentary-Committee Debates about the Inclusion of Child Psychological Maltreatment in the Quebec Youth Protection Act

Child psychological maltreatment (CPM) was incorporated into the Quebec Youth Protection Act (YPA) in 2006. At that time, various civil-society actors were invited to present to Parliament their views on these legislative changes. The objective of this article is to document the social representations mobilized by the stakeholders in the parliamentary committee in relation to the inclusion of CPM in the Quebec YPA. After explaining our research objectives, questions, and methodology, we will discuss our results, in particular about the distinctive nature of children as a representational object. This specificity will be analyzed in order to better understand the type of communication it generates and the corresponding hegemonic representation of parents. Specifically, implications related to the representational dynamics identified are discussed in relation to our collective capacity (or incapacity) to debate sensitive issues such as child abuse.

Social Representations of Children in Relation to the Image of the Dentis

Objective: To identify the social representations of children in relation to the image of the dentist. Material and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with quantitative-qualitative approach. sample consisted of 80 children of both sexes aged 7-10 years attended at a clinic-school of a university in eastern Minas Gerais, Brazil. For data collection, the Test of Free Words Association (TALP) was used, with the word as its inducing theme. four items included in the research instrument were: 1) evoke up to five words or expressions related to the dentist; 2) to order each of them numerically, with number one being the most important and number five being the least important; 3) to conceptualize the one elected as number one; and 4) to justify the reason for that choice. EVOC software was used to carry out quantitative analyses and the Analysis of Content of Bardin for qualitative analyses. Results: words that composed the central nucleus of social representations were tooth, pain, brushing and treats. This grouping of ideas points to the following conceptual formulation: The is someone who 'brushes' and 'treats' teeth, but sometimes performs procedures that cause 'pain’. categories abstracted from participants' discourse were oral health, personal characteristics of the dentist and child-dentist interaction. Conclusion: Children presented predominantly positive image regarding the dentist.

Aproximaciones a la comprensión de las representaciones sociales sobre el ahorro y el uso del dinero en niños de 6 a 7 años

Understanding social representations about the economic world of children in public education in the city of Bogota, is influenced by the family context, the media and the banking options offered by financial institutions, which shape the economic future of their communities. This paper seeks to explore this phenomenon in chil­dren4 aged 6 to 7 years at the Carlos Pizarro District School. The research was developed based on the principles of the approach of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS), using instruments such as semi-structured interviews, community mapping, and cooperative game of grouping and dispersion. The results showed that the social representations of children in relation to money are related to the practices and teachings of the adult world and their own constructions of mental models according to their experiences, logics and perceptions of everyday life. Likewise, it is evident that children of these ages base their representations on an economic world that revolves around the flow and exchange of objects and money, which is specific to the preoperational and concrete operational stages of child development.

Social representations of children in higher density housing: enviable, inevitable or evil?

An increased focus on housing diversity in planning policy, international flows of capital and changing lifestyle preferences are resulting in increased higher density housing often marketed towards professional singles, couples without children and ‘empty nesters.’ Despite this, families with children currently dwell in higher density housing, either by choice or by necessity. This research identifies the social representations surrounding children in higher density housing in Australia’s third largest city, Brisbane. It does this by analysing newspaper media published between 2007 and 2014 and through 46 interviews with residents and built-form professionals from Brisbane. The research finds four key representations; that children belong in the suburbs; increasing support for wealthy families in higher density housing; an economic argument for the lack of family-appropriate apartments; and an increasing acceptance of medium-density housing for younger households. This research draws attention to the winners and losers in housing debates and the ‘common-sense’ assumptions that impact housing outcomes.

Stand Up to Children’s Rights: An Exercise in Listening in English as a Foreign Language

This paper reports an experience conducted to understand the social representations of children’s rights that emerged when discussing them in the English class at a secondary school in Bogota d.c. The variables identified were: children’s rights education; social representations; and listening competence. This qualitative action research project gathered data from observations, questionnaires and artefacts to identify the perceptions and understandings of the rights of the child from 27 participants. The findings indicate that they became aware of the social relevance of rights, of the agents who may violate their entitlements, and of the responsibility of promoting rights. The data also indicated that most of the 27 English language learners gained in language development, specifically in listening for general understanding and listening for specific information as well as in the use of listening strategies such as note-taking and translating. Data also revealed that they grasped vocabulary related to the discussion of rights.

In the midst of a ‘perfect storm’: Unpacking the causes and consequences of Ebola-related stigma for children orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone

The West African Ebola virus epidemic resulted in the deaths of more than 11,000 people and caused significant social disruption. Little is known about how the world's worst Ebola outbreak has affected the thousands of children left orphaned as their parents or caregivers succumbed to the virus. Given the infectious nature of Ebola, and numerous anecdotal accounts of stigmatisation, we set out to examine children's social representations of peers orphaned by Ebola, unpacking the causes and consequences of Ebola-related stigma. The study was conducted in 2015 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Data was generated through drawings and captions from 24 children living in four different communities in Freetown and interviews with four key informants. The children were first invited to draw a child whose family has been affected by Ebola and subsequently asked to write 3–10 phrases explaining the drawing. The drawings and captions were thematically condensed and key thematic areas were identified. The thematic areas emerging from the drawings were subsequently used to frame the interviews with practitioners. Unsurprisingly, Ebola was represented as a highly stigmatized and feared disease. Children drew and wrote vividly about health campaigns initiated to contain the epidemic, such as the ‘no touch’ policy and quarantine of suspected Ebola cases. Although important, the health campaigns appeared to cement an ‘othering’ of anyone associated with Ebola. Children orphaned by Ebola were depicted as excluded from social interaction due to the association with Ebola. This prevailing fear and stigma of Ebola were described to undermine the willingness of community members to help orphaned children and described to have severe psychological repercussions for children orphaned by Ebola. Many of our findings resonate strongly with the experiences of children orphaned by AIDS, calling for a greater focus on the risk of Ebola-related stigma and further discussion on the transferability and applicability of lessons learned from research on HIV-related stigma.

El uso de juegos dramáticos y dibujos para explorar las Representaciones Sociales de los niños y niñas acerca del aprendizaje y la enseñanza del inglés

Research with and for children is a subject that has not been widely explored within the field of foreign language teaching and learning in our context. In this article, we present the reasons, data collection instruments (drawings and pretend play) and the analysis processes involved in our research project called La mirada de los ninos y las ninas sobre la ensenanza y el aprendizaje del ingles in which we learned about children's social representations concerning learning and teaching English. We finally concluded that research that considers children as participants, not as objects of a study, implies the design and implementation of data collection instruments that coherently respond to the children's affective, cognitive and social characteristics. Children's voices have usually been left out of the decision making processes concerning educational policies, hence more esearch of this kind is needed in order to include their perspective about the strengths and weaknesses of the educational environment they are immersed in.

Social representations of healthy and unhealthy food built by Romanian and Canadian children

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the social representations (SRs) of healthy and unhealthy food built by three groups of children from different cultural backgrounds. The main goal was to determine whether children's age and cultural background operated in the development of these representations. Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative study was based on 45 individual semistructured interviews. In total, 45 children aged seven to 12 years from three different cultural backgrounds (French Canadians in Quebec, Canadians of Romanian origin, and children in Romania) were recruited using the snowball sampling technique. Interview transcripts were analysed and interpreted using a three-step method derived from theories on social representations. Findings – SRs of healthy and unhealthy food underwent similar development processes in all groups according to children's ages. However, cultural context had an effect on the content and complexity of the representations, which were influenced by both culture and ideology. Practical implications – The study confirms the importance of developing social campaigns on nutrition education and provides concrete evidence that could be used in conceiving more effective strategies in the field of nutrition education. Originality/value – Original developmental and cross-cultural approach to the study of children's SRs of food and nutrition.

LITERATURE CHILDREN - CHILD AS PROTAGONIST

This paper aims to contribute to issues related to social representations of children through the lens of the adult world; we recommend that fosters the child's opportunity to be author and co-author (protagonist) in the production of children's literature and is known to be beyond their textual production considering that all production of children in school (painting, scribbling, drawings, sketches of letters and various signs) is recognized as children's literature.

Children’s rights in educational relationships

The aim of this study is that of reaching a better comprehension of the topic of children’s rights within educational relationships. In a first stage, we analysed the representational field of children’s rights produced through free associations by the two partners who are in conflict in everyday life, namely adults (n=267) and adolescents (n=143). In a second stage, we chose a sample of 690 adult subjects that were all parents, half of whom were also teachers; through a structured questionnaire we investigated the role of several aspects (responsibility, respect, values, conditions influencing children’s growth and sense of justice) in the organisation of social representations of children’s rights. The results outlined different contrasts in the organisation of the representational scenario. The first opposes adults and adolescents, in the sense that adults emphasise their duties of offering protection and care, while the youngsters describe rights in terms of autonomous field of experience. Within the group of adults, several differences emerged between teachers and parents: the first seem more doubtful about the positive outcomes of personal involvement, while parents are moved by a general feeling of optimism, anchored in the faith in the family’s strength and integrity.

Social representations of children's rights: The point of view of adolescents

This article deals with social representations of children's rights, analysed in a sample of Italian adolescents with differing educational experiences. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 410 Italian adolescents aged between 13 and 17 attending four different types of school: lower middle school, high school, technical college and vocational training centre. The questionnaire contained an open-ended question on the rights of children and adolescents and a structured part concerning: attribution of responsibility to five agencies (government, family, school, voluntary associations and the police force), the degree to which rights are respected in Italy, reference values and explanations for violations of rights. The results show that representations of children's rights are organised differently in the four groups of subjects as a function of the dynamic interplay of social, personal and educational experiences.