Situation Of Children Research Articles

Portrayal of body weight on children's television sitcoms: A content analysis

Television programs portray characters with idealized body types that for most viewers are unattainable. These body types have become a common source of comparison for many young viewers who evaluate their own self-worth and bodies based on the models they see on television. This study examines body weight, both in terms of frequency and portrayals, focusing on how preadolescent and adolescent characters’ bodies are presented on the sitcoms from three children's television networks. The results indicate that while children's situation comedies have relatively few overweight characters, this small percentage closely parallels national figures. Male and female characters do not differ in their distribution across weight categories. However, when character ethnicity is factored, significant shifts occur. Surprisingly, no differences were observed in the portrayal of physical and mental attributes among weight categories except in social popularity where overweight characters were not as embedded in social networks. Compared to other relevant studies, this research provides some evidence that the treatment and portrayal of overweight characters in children-targeted sitcoms is more positive, equitable, and less stereotypical than in other programming venues and that children are experiencing body type diversity in these fictional portrayals. Nonetheless, above average weight characters still suffer some social marginality and ethnic misrepresentation.

Revolutionary Mothers? Interacting Power Relations, Agency, and Social Change

In this article a theoretical discussion about intersectionality is carried out in dialogue with the ways in which battered and separated mothers deal with their children's situation and their relationship to their violent co‐parents/ex‐partners. In line with Connell's (1987) argument that categories such as gender are shaped by several structures and that the social order is inherently instable due to historic “unevenness”, contradictions, and internal differentiation, it is shown how abused mothers both follow and undermine well‐established notions of childhood, gender, and parenthood when trying to tackle their situation post separation or divorce. What is furthermore shown is how their “doing” of age, gender, and kinship entails both dichotomization and neutralization. It is argued that constructions prominent in public discussions about children at risk—the intrinsic value of childhood, children's right to personal integrity, and need of safety and protection—serve as a resource when the interviewees argue against the norm prescribing contact between children and fathers post separation and divorce. Two established constructions of the child's best interests are set up against each other when the mothers try to undermine power associated with the father position. An empirically sensitive and actor‐centred intersectional analysis must be sophisticated enough to grasp such complexities if we are to be able to fully explore possibilities for social change.

INVISIBLE PARTIES: LISTENING TO CHILDREN

This article discusses how children are involved in family court proceedings in New Zealand. On July 1, 2005, the Care of Children Act 2004 came into force. One of the changes brought about by this Act is an increased expectation that children will participate in proceedings involving them, by the court giving the child a reasonable opportunity to express his or her view. Children may participate in three ways, the primary mechanism being through the lawyer for the child. Children's views can also be elucidated through a specialist report, and direct participation can be achieved through judicial interviews. As each child is different, it is important that the unique circumstances of the case are accounted for. This article will discuss how each of the three methods can be combined to tailor an approach that gives every individual child a reasonable opportunity to express his or her view. There are a number of examples given of this approach in practice, showing how the court has adapted the process to accommodate the child's situation and personality.

The Construction of Fear: Americans' Preferences for Social Distance from Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Problems

Debates about children's mental health problems have raised questions about the reliability and validity of diagnosis and treatment. However, little research has focused on social reactions to children with mental health problems. This gap in research raises questions about competing theories of stigma, as well as specific factors shaping prejudice and discrimination toward those children. Here, we organize a general model of stigma that synthesizes previous research. We apply a reduced version of this model to data from a nationally representative sample responding to vignettes depicting several stigmatizing scenarios, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, asthma, or "normal troubles." Results from the National Stigma Study-Children suggest a gradient of rejection from highest to lowest, as follows: ADHD, depression, "normal troubles," and physical illness. Stigmatizing reactions are highest toward adolescents. Importantly, respondents who label the vignette child's situation as a mental illness compared to those who label the problem as a physical illness or a "normal" situation report greater preferences for social distance, a pattern that appears to result from perceptions that the child is dangerous.

Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy in Children: A Safe Technique with Major Symptom Relief and High Parental Satisfaction

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is widely used for establishing enteral feeding. The aim of this study was to assess immediate and long-term results after PEG insertion. A total of 121 children were retrospectively reviewed. Median age was 2.4 years (range, 4 months-13.2 years) at the time of PEG insertion. Patient morbidity, indications for PEG, preoperative findings and perioperative complications were registered retrospectively. Parents/caregivers of 85 children were interviewed for long-term results. Perioperative complications were seen in 12%. Twenty-four percent died at a median of 15 months (range, 1.5 months-8 years) after PEG. Eighty-five families were interviewed with a median follow-up time of 5.6 years (range, 1-10 years). A substantial majority (94%) of parents/caregivers reported that the PEG had a positive influence on their child's situation, and 98% would have chosen PEG insertion again. Vomiting/retching improved in 61% of the children, and oral intake enhanced in 43%. Stoma-related complications were frequent (73%). The gastrostomy tube was permanently removed at a median of 3 years (range, 7 months-7.3 years) after PEG placement in 25%. Delayed closure of the gastrocutaneous fistula after gastrostomy removal occurred in 48% of them. Time from insertion to removal was not predictive of delayed closure. PEG is a safe technique for establishing enteral feeding, even in very sick children. Major complications are rare, although most children experience minor stoma-related problems. Parents/caregivers report that the gastrostomy is of great help for themselves and their child.

The impact of words on children with ADHD and DAMP: Consequences for psychoanalytic technique

Children with attention‐defi cit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disorder of attention, motility control, and perception (DAMP) are often sensitive to the analyst's interventions. This is not always due to the literal import of the intervention. The children sometimes react as if the words were dangerous concrete objects, which they must physically fend off. The author traces this phenomenon to the child's unstable internal situation. A bad, un‐containing internal object is easily awakened and threatens to expel the analyst's words independently of their content. This results in violent clinical situations. Infant research and psychoanalytic work with infants and mothers evince how a complex semiotic process develops between mother and baby. The prerequisite for this process to get started and maintained is a secure external object, which gradually is internalized. Findings from developmental research and clinical infant work are used to illuminate analytic work with children with ADHD and DAMP. Vignettes demonstrate how important it is for the analyst to phrase interpretations after having gauged the state of the analysand's internal object as well as his/her own countertransference. If this is overlooked, the psychoanalytic dialogue easily capsizes. The author provides some technical recommendations on the psychoanalysis of these children. As part of the theoretical discussion he raises the general question of how the representations, which the baby forms in interaction with the mother, and the analysand forms in interaction with the analyst, should be classifi ed. Rather than dividing them into bipartite thing‐ or word‐presentations (Freud), the author suggests C. S. Peirce's tripartite semiotic classifi cation in that the baby forms representations of icons, indices, and symbols.

Well‐being: the next revolution in children's services?

The concept of ‘well‐being’ is entering into the policy debate on the back of recent research on ‘happiness’ ‐ self‐assessed evaluations of quality of life. It stands for a reassertion of relationships and feelings as central to positive evaluations and against the competitive and consumerist ethos of market individualism. Although the findings of research on well‐being among adults need to be adapted to suit children's situations and perceptions, work on this is in progress. This article presents some of the issues for measuring children's well‐being and for comparing measurements between countries. It also considers the implications for children's services of an approach that re‐values the relational elements in human service work, and argues that coherence between services is as important as the outcomes of interventions with individuals and families.

Managing child welfare agencies: What do we know about what works?

Child welfare agency caseworkers play a pivotal role in ensuring these children's safety and well-being, conducting initial investigations, making placement decisions and service referrals, and monitoring children's situations while cases are active. At this point, the empirical literature provides little guidance about how child welfare agency managers can best support caseworkers in these challenging functions. This article draws on available empirical literature to describe how agency management may affect children's experiences in the child welfare system and their resultant outcomes. The author notes what we may currently conclude from available literature as well as what knowledge gaps remain to be addressed. At this point the most robust evidence basis for agency management relates to human resource practices, but even these findings derive mostly from other settings and need to be tested directly in child welfare contexts. There is virtually no empirical evidence about how child welfare agency management affects children's outcomes over time.

Emotion Situation Knowledge and Autobiographical Memory in Chinese, Immigrant Chinese, and European American 3-Year-Olds

This study examined the influence of children's emotion situation knowledge (EK) on their autobiographical memory ability at both group and individual levels. Native Chinese, Chinese immigrant, and European American 3-year-old children participated (N = 189). During a home visit, children recounted 2 personal memories of recent, 1-time events with a researcher. Their EK was assessed in a production task (children described situations likely to provoke happy, sad, fearful, or angry emotions) and a judgment task (children judged what emotions story characters were most likely to feel in various situations). European American children had higher EK scores and remembered more details of the past events than their Chinese peers, independent of the influences of age and language skills. EK had the strongest influence on memory reports and mediated the effects of other individual (age, language skills) and group factors (culture, gender). Findings are discussed in light of EK as an important mechanism for the development of autobiographical memory.

Intervention for 6-year-old children with motor coordination difficulties: Parental perspectives at follow-up in middle childhood

The aim of the study was to evaluate motor function in middle childhood for two groups of children with motor coordination difficulties who had received intervention at the age of 6 years. For group A (n=15) a high-dosage, targeted motor skills approach with a high degree of parental involvement had been applied, whereas group B (n=15) had received a low-dosage, basic motor skills approach with limited parental involvement. Parental follow-up descriptions of the children's situation at home and at school 1–4 years after intervention, with primary focus on motor function at the levels of activity and participation, were compared with motor function as assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC). No significant differences were found with regard to M-ABC sum-scores, but the parents from group A reported an overall more favourable situation at the levels of activity and participation. The children in group A were physically active, with frequent use of targeted motor skills learned dur...

Šeimoje netektį patyrusių pradinių klasių mokinių vertybių internalizacijos raiška

Straipsnyje aptariamas socializacijos ir vertybių internalizacijos ryšio problemiškumas. Nurodoma, kad socializacijos tyrimuose nepakankamai dėmesio skiriama netektį šeimoje patyrusių vaikų vertybių internalizacijos problemoms. Prieinama išvados, jog šiems vaikams yra sunkiau perimti visuomenei priimtinas socialines-dorovines vertybes ir taip yra apsunkinama jų socializacija. Be to, darbe atskleidžiamas netektį šeimoje patyrusių pradinių klasių mokinių socialinis-dorovinis elgesys, kaip jų socializacijos raiškos rodiklis. Diagnostinio tyrimo pagrindu atskleidžiami šių vaikų vertybių internalizacijos, kaip jų socializacijos pagrindo, ypatumai lyties ir patirtos netekties aspektais.

Insecurity and Fear of Attachment in a Troubled Adoption A Clinical Example

A case is presented of the psychoanalytic treatment of a four-year-old girl who had been adopted in traumatizing circumstances that interfered with the development of secure, healthy bonds of attachment between her and her adoptive parents. This led to severe interpersonal and behavioral problems. The analysis was dramatic and emotionally intense for child and therapist alike. What emerged in the course of the treatment can help illuminate the psychology of adoption as well as that of healthy and pathological attachment between children and their parents. The case also illustrates the way in which intensive (psychoanalytic) treatment of a young child needs to conform to the unique requirements dictated by the child's history, psychological makeup, and family situation. It trenchantly demonstrates the way in which a therapist intensely treating a severely traumatized, distrustful, rage-filled young child, one who is terrified of allowing herself to get close to someone and fall in love with and yearn to be loved by that person, has to be able to withstand the intense emotional storms that can be expected to erupt in the course of treatment. The excellent result obtained from the treatment also demonstrates, however, that the emotional stress is well worth experiencing.

Community responses and perceived barriers to responding to child maltreatment.

Although child maltreatment has important effects on physical and psychological health, even serious cases often go unreported. Little is known about actions that individuals take when they know of an abused child, factors influencing whether they take action, or general population beliefs about how best to prevent maltreatment. A random-digit-dialed telephone survey of 504 Washington State civilian, English-speaking adults living in households with telephones was conducted in 2002. Respondents were asked whether they had ever known an abused child and if so, how they responded and any barriers they experienced to responding. Regardless of whether they had known an abused child, they were asked how they would respond in a hypothetical situation and hypothetical barriers. They were also asked what they believed to be effective in preventing maltreatment. Half (49% +/- 5%) of the respondents indicated that they had known a child they believed to be abused and of these, four-fifths (84% +/- 5%) indicated that they took some action, most frequently reporting the abuse to Child Protective Services, talking to the parents about the abuse or how to parent, or calling the police or other law enforcement. The most frequently reported barriers were fear of retaliation by the abusive parent, being afraid of making the child's situation worse, and not wanting to intrude on family privacy. About nine-tenths of respondents believed that mental health services and drug and alcohol treatment, support services such as food banks and crisis nurseries, and parenting education classes were effective in preventing abuse. These results provide evidence that most people are willing to intervene to help an abused child. However, barriers to intervening (particularly fear of retaliation) exist and may account for some of the failures to report abuse.

Lietuvos ir Švedijos mokinių požiūris į vaiko teises mokymosi procese

Straipsnyje pristatomi 1998-1999 metais atliktos Lietuvos ir Švedijos mokinių apklausos, kuria buvo siekiama išsiaiškinti mokinių požiūrį į vaiko teisių mokykloje realijas, duomenys. Plačiau aptariami mokytojų ir mokinių lygiateisiškumo, mokinių emocinio ir fizinio saugumo mokykloje klausimai. Nustatyta, kad mokiniams labiausiai trūksta pagarbos jų nuomonei, galimybės būti su mylinčiais ir jais besirūpinančiais žmonėmis, jausmų saugumo.Švedijos moksleivių nuomone, problemiškiausias klausimas mokymosi procese yra jų teisė daryti įtaką sprendimams. Jie pageidauja užimti aktyvią poziciją - nori turėti sprendimo teisę, dalyvauti planuojant ugdymo turinį. Lietuvos mokiniams labiau rūpi tokios mokymosi sąlygos, kai užtikrinama pagarba jų nuomonei, fizinis ir emocinis saugumas, parama. Abiejų šalių mokiniams ypač svarbu, kad mokykloje būtų laikomasi žmogaus teisių ir jos gerbiamos.

Contributory Factors and the Situation of Children during Incidents of Domestic Violence: A Snapshot

Research suggests that alcohol is an important contributory factor in incidents of domestic violence. Children living in households where incidents of domestic violence take place are at immediate risk of physical and psychological harm. This study aims to discover what factors most frequently contributed to incidents of domestic violence and what proportion of these incidents involved children in some way, and by doing so assesses the size and nature of the problems in this area. This report draws on information about victims and incidents from 2,596 police incident forms between April 1999 and March 2000. Alcohol was judged to have been the major contributory factor leading to incidents of domestic violence, it having been implicated in 30% of all incidents, while children were disproportionately more likely actually to have been ‘involved’ in an incident when alcohol or illicit drugs were judged to have been a contributory factor compared to others. The report discusses the implications of these findings.

PSYCHOSOCIAL FORUM

The following article presents, with the scholarly and methodical approach we have come to expect from this psychosocial group (at Baltimore Regional Burn Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital), several important issues. First, it reminds us that noncompliance following hospital discharge from an acute care setting demands much more research than has thus far been accomplished. It also reminds us of the complex assortment of biopsychosocial variables that interact dynamically to impede continued improvement following successful hospital treatment. Finally, it reminds us that, although burn care professionals have been writing about assisting with community and school reintegration for almost 20 years, we still have little information about how we can most effectively utilize interactions with school systems to facilitate recovery of pediatric burn survivors. Yet, by focusing on what one excellent team was able to accomplish with one child's situation, the authors leave us with a sense of hope that, eventually, we will plod through these myriad difficulties until we are able to match patient difficulties with helpful interventions in a timely manner and with consistency.

Les jeux d'enfants chez les Gbaya (Centrafrique)

Children's games among the Gbaya. After a brief presentation of children's situation in gbayaland, from birth to adulthood, the author introduces the games and their place during childhood and adolescence. She distinguishes the games of the very small children which seek to consulate them attracting their attention, those of the children some of which are a way to get the ability for adult's work (hunting for boys and cooking for girls), then the games of the evening which concern first of all the adolescents. All theses games constitute a varied repertoire which shows the priviledged status of children in this culture.

Quality of life in preschool children born preterm

The relationship of preterm birth to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was examined for children aged 1 to 4 years. Three gestational age groups with a NICU history were selected, <32 weeks (n=65), 32 to 36 weeks (n=41), 237 weeks (n=54), and a reference group from the open population (n=50). The main instrument was the TNO-AZL Preschool Quality Of Life (TAPQOL) questionnaire, which was completed by the parents. In addition, other outcome measures obtained from parents or neonatologists were investigated. Children born <32 weeks had significantly lower HRQoL than the reference group in the scales for lungs, stomach, eating disorders, motor functioning, communication, and anxiety. Parental feelings towards the child were related to the child's HRQoL. We found differences between the neonatologists' and parents' perceptions of the children's situation, which can have clinical consequences (e.g. different opinions about what needed treatment). Neonatal intensive care after birth has HRQoL implications for all children, particularly in children born at <32 weeks of gestation.

Development of a child health indicator system in Italy.

The need for a uniform, comprehensive and action-oriented child health indicator system is widely recognised. As part of a Ministry of Health project, a working group was established in Italy in order to develop a proposal for a minimum set of health indicators to be adopted at the regional and local health authority levels, where the planning process takes place. The indicators proposed cover 17 areas of perinatal, child and adolescent health. The informing principles for the choice were relevance to the main health problems, availability of a reliable data collection system, feasibility of the collection and analysis process at the two health system levels proposed and extent to which the information provides clues for policy options. The main difficulties arise from a lack of uniform systems of classification and data collection for disabilities, as well as adequate tools for assessing quality of care and quality of life. A basic framework for analysis is suggested, including further breakdown of the indicators proposed, such as analysis by birthweight and by cause of neonatal death and by mother's education and father's employment. The information provided by the health indicators put forward needs to be evaluated within the broader scenario of the child's situation so that associated factors may be identified and clues found for intersectoral policies. Two research projects were started to evaluate the feasibility and reliability of data collection and the impact on the planning process at both the regional and local health authority levels. A European-wide initiative is proposed to tackle existing methodological problems effectively and develop a common child health indicator system.

Expression starting from &apos;I&apos; : Inquiry into Current Issues in the Situation of Children and their Artistic Expression

Expression starting from &apos;I&apos; : Inquiry into Current Issues in the Situation of Children and their Artistic Expression