Informal Child Research Articles

Supervision and Monitoring in Informal Child Protection in Rural Context

Supervision and Monitoring in Informal Child Protection in Rural Context

What Content in Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development is Present in Swedish Preschools?

This article shares what Swedish preschool teachers are working with in the field of early childhood education for sustainable development (ESD) as e, merged in talks with their children, aged two to five years. The tasks carried out as the basis for the present analyses were informal child talks about a topic related to sustainability that the teachers and children had worked with in practice. The teachers themselves chose what content to talk about. The 200 teachers participated in the Swedish research and development programme Sustainable Preschool. The aim of the present study was to make visible the content of teacher-child talks about sustainable development in early childhood education. The research question is: What content areas do teachers communicate about with children 2-5 years of age related to ESD? The teacher-child talks were initiated by the teachers, but through the use of interpretative content analysis the children’s voices were also made visible. The main result is narratives about the content, the most common topics being recycling, growing plants, and animals, areas which have long been common topics in Swedish preschools. For many preschools, however, the talks show an integration of transformative and transactional perspectives in how the content was handled together with the children. ESD in early education in Sweden is no longer dominated by the environmental dimension, as earlier content studies have shown; a new common content relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 regarding sustainable lifestyles and human rights and sustainability is a long process, founded in empowerment, action competence, and changed policy.

When child trafficking and informal fostering intersect

Informal fostering is an important tradition for many communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the intersections of poverty and social circumstances may increase the risk of exploitation for informally fostered children. We used mixed methods to estimate the prevalence of child trafficking within informal child fostering placements in Sierra Leone, to document vulnerability factors and explore perceptions of key stakeholders. Data were collected through 1) a household survey (N= 3,070), 2) interviews (N= 41) with young adults who experienced child trafficking in informal fostering, parents of children who experienced trafficking in foster placements, and key informants, and 3) focus groups with community members (N= 23). We found that informal fostering increases the likelihood for children to experience trafficking. Although there are significant associations between child trafficking and informal fostering, social (gender and cultural traditions) and economic factors (poverty and school access) appear to be drivers for both. Our results suggest that strengthening poverty reduction measures, expanding opportunities for schooling and vocational training for children and young adults, and improving safety for children in informal fostering arrangements through reporting and monitoring are essential to mitigate the high rates of child trafficking in Sierra Leone, and to ensure children’s well-being in informal fostering placements.

Alternative care takers for children of health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Kashmir valley: a cross sectional study

Background: COVID-19 pandemic forced health care workers to seek alternatives of child care due to strong standard operating procedures (SOPs). Informal child care workers include patrilineal, matrilineal, immediate family members, neighbours, friends and housemaids. The present study tried to explore and highlight the role of Informal child care workers in alternative spaces. Methods: The present study aimed to reveal new facts about COVD-19 pandemic, its implications in relation to the alternative child care spaces available to the children of health workers in the valley of Kashmir. Total sample size constituted 100 respondents including doctors, Para medicals and other supportive staff chosen through snowball sampling technique. For data collection, a structured questionnaire was constructed and sent to respondents through different social media platforms like Facebook, e-mail ids and WhatsApp. Results: In the study majority of dual career families especially health workers working as frontline COVID warriors in the valley of Kashmir reported that their children were taken care either by alternative care takers mostly patrilocal or matrilocal family members. Conclusions: The study reveals that dual career families of Kashmir prefer largely female members as alternative care takers as compared to male members. The immediate family members are the most preferable choice of Alternative care followed by housemaids.

The Role of Formal Policy to Promote Informed Consent of Psychotropic Medications for Youth in Child Welfare Custody: A National Examination

Active participation of youth and surrogate decision-makers in providing informed consent and assent for mental health treatment is critical. However, the procedural elements of an informed consent process, particularly for youth in child welfare custody, are not well defined. Given calls for psychotropic medication oversight for youth in child welfare custody, this study proposes a taxonomy for the procedural elements of informed consent policies based upon formal and informal child welfare policies and then examines whether enacted state formal policies across the United States endorsed these elements. A sequential multi-method study design included: (1) semi-structured interviews with key informants (n = 58) primarily from state child welfare agencies to identify a taxonomy of procedural elements for informed consent of psychotropic medications and then (2) a legislative review of the 50 states and D.C. to characterize whether formal policies endorsed each procedural element through February 2022. Key informants reported five procedural elements in policy, including how to: (1) gather social and medical history, (2) prescribe the medication, (3) authorize its use through consent and youth assent, (4) notify relevant stakeholders, and (5) routinely review the consenting decision. Twenty-three states endorsed relevant legislation; however, only two states specified all five procedural elements. Additionally, the content of a procedural element, when included, varied substantively across policies. Further research and expert consensus are needed to set best practices and guide policymakers in setting policies to advance transparency and accountability for informed consent of mental health treatment among youth in child welfare custody.

Fertility as a driver of maternal employment

Based on findings from high-income countries, typically economists hypothesize that having more children unambiguously decreases the time mothers spend in the labor market. Few studies on lower-income countries, in which low household wealth, informal child care, and informal employment opportunities prevail, find mixed results. Using Mexican census data, I do not find evidence for negative employment effects of an instrument-induced increase in fertility. Mothers increasingly work in the informal sector when their family size increases. The presence of grandmothers and low wealth appear to be important. Econometric approaches that allow extrapolating from this complier-specific effect indicate that the response in informal employment is bounded to be non-negative for the entire sample.

The Unintended Consequences of Informal Child Care Subsidies for Older Women’s Retirement Security

Yulya Truskinovsky⇑ Yulya Truskinovsky is an assistant professor of Economics at Wayne State University (yulya.truskinovsky{at}wayne.edu)

Learning from theCOVIDcrisis for educating children and young people with SEN/disabilities.

Learning from theCOVIDcrisis for educating children and young people with SEN/disabilities.

Informal science educators and children in a low-income community describe how children relate to out-of-school science education

ABSTRACT Children in low-income neighbourhoods experience an intersection of socio-structural factors that delimit their engagement with out-of-school (informal) science education. Using Bourdieu’s framework of habitus, this paper explores how informal science educators and children in a given low-income community in western Canada described the attitudes, dispositions, and experiences that influence the informal science education practices of children in the community. Participants in the study included 32 children (aged 9–14) attending 4 different subsidised community clubs (each of which incorporated some science programming), 5 science centre staffers, and 11 community club program leaders. This multi-method study uses habitus as a thinking tool that bridges theoretical and methodological domains. The study employed various data sources in order to develop rich descriptions of participant perspectives; these sources included individual dialogues, focus groups, a statement sorting exercise, and participant responses to pilot data. The paper outlines the synergies and contrasts in the perspectives of children and informal science educators regarding the place of informal science education in the lives of local children. Despite certain consistencies between educator and child accounts, educators underestimated the level of interest children had in out-of-school science education and the range of self-/home-directed science activities in which children were participating. The paper ends by examining the implications of adults’ attempts to hide the word science from children during informal science activities and makes suggestions regarding the provision of informal science education in other low-income contexts.

Having it all, for all: Child-care subsidies and income distribution reconciled

We study the design of child-care policies when redistribution matters. Traditional mothers provide some informal child care, whereas career mothers purchase full time formal care. The sorting of women across career paths is endogenous and shaped by a social norm about gender roles in the family. Via this social norm traditional mothers’ informal child care imposes an externality on career mothers, so that the market outcome is inefficient. Informal care is too large and the group of career mothers is too small so that inefficiency and gender inequality go hand in hand.In a first-best world redistribution across couples and efficiency are separable. Redistribution is performed via lump-sum transfers and taxes which are designed to equalize utilities across all couples. The efficient allocation of child care is obtained by subsidizing formal care at a Pigouvian rate.However, in a second-best setting, a trade-off between efficiency and redistribution emerges. The optimal uniform subsidy is lower than the “Pigouvian” level. Conversely,under a nonlinear policy the first-best “Pigouvian” rule for the (marginal) subsidy on informal care is reestablished. While the share of high career mothers continues to be distorted downward for incentive reasons, this policy is effective in reconciling the objectives of reducing the child care related inefficiency and achieving a more equal income distribution across couples. Our results continue to hold when the norm is defined within the mothers’ social group, rather than being based on the entire population.

Family labor participation and child care decisions: the role of grannies

Grandparents, and in particular grandmothers, are an important source of informal child care for their grandchildren in most developed countries. The literature shows how these informal transfers of care can help promote female labor participation. However, less is known about how working-age grandmothers are combining care with their own labor participation. In this paper, I use data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe and analyze to what extent child care is provided by grandmothers in ten European countries and how grandmothers are combining this task with paid work. I also revisit the question of whether the child care provided by grandmothers is encouraging the labor participation of their offspring. The empirical approach takes into account the simultaneity of labor market decisions and caregiving activities while controlling for grandmother’s unobserved heterogeneity on their willingness to provide care to their grandchildren. I find a negative and significant effect of participating in the labor market on the probability of taking care of the grandchildren on a regular basis. I also find evidence that, for some countries, the child care provided by working-age grandmothers has a positive effect on the labor participation of their daughters.

Development of a 2D Digital Animation for Yorùbá Folktale Narrative

Yoruba folktales are endangered in the face of globalization, Westernization, and inter-ethnic interaction, with the few that are available not being competitive with foreign cartoons and movies. The purpose of this work is to develop a digital animation film using Yoruba folktale narrative as a case study with a view to providing a framework to enhance the production of animated folktales as well as supporting Africa's rich cultural heritage, using relevant technology resources. The resulting folktale animation was evaluated by both the target audience and multimedia experts. The formal digital animation system resulting from the study is useful for formal and informal children's education and enlightenment as well as a source of enlightenment for society on different sociocultural problems which invariably results in a more conscious and civilized society.

Fertility as a Driver of Maternal Employment

Based on findings from high-income countries, typically economists hypothesize that having more children unambiguously decreases the time mothers spend in the labor mar- ket. Few studies on lower-income countries, in which low household wealth, informal child care, and informal employment opportunities prevail, find mixed results. Using Mexican census data, I find a positive effect of an instrument-induced increase in fertility on maternal employment driven by an increase in informal work. The presence of grandparents and low wealth appear to be important. Econometric approaches that allow extrapolating from this complier-specific effect indicate that the response in informal employment is non-negative for the entire sample.

Fertility as a Driver of Maternal Employment

Based on findings from high-income countries, typically economists hypothesize that having more children unambiguously decreases the time mothers spend in the labor market. Few studies on lower-income countries, in which low household wealth, informal child care, and informal employment opportunities prevail, find mixed results. Using Mexican census data, I find a positive effect of an instrument-induced increase in fertility on maternal employment driven by an increase in informal work. The presence of grandparents and low wealth appear to be important. Econometric approaches that allow extrapolating from this complier-specific effect indicate that the response in informal employment is non-negative for the entire sample.

Cohabitation or Marriage? How Relationship Status and Community Context Influence the Well-being of Children in Developing Nations

Drawing upon the developmental idealism framework (Thornton et al. Sociol Dev 1(2):69–112, 2015), this study examines the relationship between mother’s marital status (formal versus informal) and the health and schooling of children in 27 developing nations. More specifically, we consider the role of couple characteristics and the spread of modern cultural values on the relationship between marital status and child well-being. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys of 27 less developed countries, we focus on five child outcomes: delivery by a skilled birth attendant, vaccinations, child nutritional status, child mortality, and school enrollment. We find that child health and educational outcomes are positive when mothers are in informal unions, but that this benefit is largely explained by individual characteristics, as well as the community context. We conclude that both couple characteristics and trends toward greater choice and equality in family life account for the positive association between informal unions and child well-being.

Optimal Disability Insurance with Informal Child Care

Abstract The possibility of engaging in household child care may exacerbate the incentives of parents and grandparents to falsely claim disability benefits as households also get to save on formal child care costs. This paper considers a multi-generational family model with persistence in privately observed shocks and presents an efficient implementation case for subsidizing formal child care costs of the disabled. An implementation of the optimal scheme that consists of capped formal day care subsidies, non-linear income taxation and asset-testing is proposed. Simulations based on a parametrization that targets key features of the US labor and child care markets suggest that day care subsidies may lead to sizeable cost savings.

Mothers’ employment and child care choices across the European Union

The aim of this paper is to analyse cross-country differences in the maternal employment patterns and the demand for formal and informal child care as interrelated decisions across Europe. We explore a sample of preschoolers and their mothers drawn from the EU-SILC (2005–2013) in a set of 11 EU countries with different institutional settings. The analytical strategy – a set of simultaneous tobit models – allows for mutual interdependencies across decisions. The results vary across welfare regimes and are related to the public provision of child care as well as other dimensions of the institutional context and values. We have found complementarities between paid employment and child care while formal and informal care are shown to be mutual substitutes, even in countries where the provision of external, formal child care is very extended and child care does not depend much on families. This means that the mere expansion of public child care is not enough to improve maternal employment rates. Other institutional aspects of the labour market and societal values also need to be taken into account in this endeavour.

Having it All, for All: Child-Care Subsidies and Income Distribution Reconciled

This paper studies the design of child-care policies when redistribution matters. Traditional mothers provide some informal child care, whereas career mothers purchase full time formal care in the market. The sorting of women across career paths is endogenous and shaped by a social norm about gender roles in the family. Via this social norm traditional mothersinformal child care imposes an externality on career mothers, so that the market outcome is inefficient. Informal care is too large and the group of career mothers is too small so that inefficiency and gender inequality go hand in hand. In a first-best, full information word redistribution across couples and efficiency are separable. Redistribution is performed via lump-sum transfers and taxes which are designed to equalize utilities across all couples. The efficient allocation of child care is obtained by subsidizing formal care at a Pigouvian rate. However, in a second-best settings, we show that a trade-off between the reduction of gender inequality and redistributive considerations emerge. The optimal uniform subsidy is lower than the Pigouvianlevel. Under a nonlinear policy the first-best Pigouvianrule for the (marginal) subsidy on informal care is reestablished. While the share of high career mothers continues to be distorted downward for incentive reasons, this policy is effective in reconciling the objectives of reducing the child care related gender inequalities and achieving a more equal income distribution across couples.

The Gender Gap in Informal Child Care: Theory and Some Evidence from Italy

The Gender Gap in Informal Child Care: Theory and Some Evidence from Italy

The Gender Gap in Informal Child Care: Theory and Some Evidence from Italy

Our model studies couples' time allocation and career choices, which are affected by a social norm on gender roles in the family. Parents can provide two types of informal child care: basic care (feeding, changing children, baby-sitting) and quality care (activities that stimulate children's social and cognitive skills). We obtain the following main results. Traditional mothers provide some informal basic care, whereas career mothers purchase full time formal basic care in the market. Informal basic care is too large and the group of career mothers is too small because of the social norm. Informal quality care is increasing in the couple's income and is provided in larger amount by mothers. We test the model's predictions for Italy using the most recent ISTAT Use of Time survey. In line with the model, mothers devote more time than fathers to both basic and quality informal care; more educated parents devote more time to quality informal care than less educated parents; more educated mothers spend more time in the labor market than less educated mothers.