Seeking children's perspectives: a respectful layered research approach

This article discusses why researchers and educators might choose to seek children's perspectives. It also highlights some of the key considerations when seeing children as having the right to contribute to decisions that affect them. The article draws on findings from a study that used pedagogically oriented methods for researching three- and four-year-old children's perspectives about outdoor spaces in the early childhood setting they attended. The article discusses the possibilities and practicalities of this research approach for both research and pedagogy. Examples are provided for others who may be considering working/researching in these ways.     

Children's talking and listening within the classroom: teachers' insights

Research suggests that social communication (verbal and non-verbal) plays a key role in students' and teachers' elementary-school experiences. Within the framework of sociocognitive developmental theory, this qualitative study investigates teachers' experiences and perceptions of children's talking and listening habits within the elementary-grade school classroom. Five Canadian elementary-school educators (three female, two male) discussed their perceptions of young children's talking and listening behaviours in the classroom. Results indicate that the actions of both talking and listening play a key role in students' and teachers' learning experiences in the classroom. Implications for inclusive and developmentally appropriate curriculum are discussed.     

Growing up with a lesbian or gay parent: young people's perspectives

Drawing on life story approaches, this paper reports on a qualitative content analysis of 67 published accounts in the UK, USA and New Zealand of young people and adults reflecting on their experiences of growing up with one or more lesbian or gay parent(s). Responses of the young people to their parent's sexuality were categorised as predominantly positive, neutral, ambivalent and somewhat negative. Young people reported that they had experienced homophobic attitudes and behaviours in one or more of three domains: general and institutional, within the family, and from peers/friends and other parents. The implications of the analysis for social care and social work practice in the UK context with this group of children and their families are discussed.     

Engaging young children in research through photo elicitation

Embracing the new sociology of childhood, this paper describes a participatory research method built on a belief in the competency of young children. The paper begins with a critical review of the photo elicitation literature exploring the varied levels of children's participation. Drawing on the strengths of the previous research, a multi-step photo elicitation method was developed and implemented with 32 kindergarten-aged children that provided opportunities for the collection of both verbal and non-verbal data. These young participants both supported and provided additional insights into the method while demonstrating their ability to contribute meaningfully to research about their classroom-based learning experiences.     

Strategies for improving disability awareness and social inclusion of children and young people with cerebral palsy

Background Children and youth with disabilities are at a higher risk of being socially excluded or bullied while at school compared with their typically developing peers. This study explored disabled children's suggestions for improving social inclusion. Methods Fifteen children with cerebral palsy were interviewed or took part in a group discussion about social inclusion and bullying. All interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Results The children and youth described several strategies to help improve social inclusion at school including: (1) disclosure of condition and creating awareness of disability; (2) awareness of bullying; (3) developing a peer support network and building self-confidence; and (4) suggestions on what teachers can do. Conclusions It is recommended that children's suggestions be considered within the classroom context to enhance the social inclusion and participation of children with disabilities.     

Reduction of HPV infections through vaccination among at-risk urban adolescents

Introduction

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine trials have demonstrated high efficacy in preventing HPV infections and HPV related disease in females ages 16–26. However, there is no source data to demonstrate the impact of the vaccine in other populations who may be at higher risk for HPV related disease. This study examines the impact of HPV vaccination on subsequent HPV detection and sexual behaviors among urban adolescents in a clinical setting.

Methods

A cohort of adolescent women, ages 14–17, were recruited prospectively and matched to historical controls to assess the impact of HPV vaccination. All women completed the same questionnaire and face-to-face interview that assessed sexual behaviors; all provided a clinician or self-collected vaginal swab that was used to test for sexually transmitted infections, including HPV. Logistic regression models, incorporating random pair effects, were used to assess the impact of the HPV vaccine on HPV detection and sexual behaviors between the two groups.

Results

Each woman recruited (N = 75) was matched to 2 historical controls (HC); most of the recruited women (89.3%) had received one or more doses of the HPV vaccine. At enrollment, detection of quadrivalent vaccine types (HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18) was significantly less in the recruited group (5.3%) as compared to the HC (24%): OR = 5.6 (CI = 1.9, 16.5), p = 0.002. Adolescent women in the HC had a 9.5 times greater odds of HPV infection when the analysis was adjusted to compare those who had 2 or more vaccine doses to their matched controls. The only behavioral difference found was that the recruited women used condoms more frequently.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that HPV vaccination was associated with fewer vaccine-type HPV infections despite incomplete vaccination and high risk sexual behaviors. These data also suggest that sexual behaviors were not altered because of the vaccine.     

Parents' decision making and access to preventive healthcare for young children: applying Andersen's Model

Background and objective

Implementing preventive health care for young children provides the best chance of improving health and changing a child''s life course. In Australia, despite government support for preventive health care, uptake of preventive services for young children is low. Using Andersen''s behavioural model of health‐care utilization, we aimed to understand how parents conceptualized their children''s preventive health care and how this impacted on access to preventive health‐care services.

Design

Semi‐structured telephone interviews conducted between May and July 2011.

Setting and participants

Twenty‐eight parents of children aged 3–5 years from three diverse socio‐economic areas of Melbourne, Australia.

Results

Thematic analysis showed parents'' access to child preventive health care was determined by birth order of their child, cultural health beliefs, personal health practices, relationship with the health provider and the costs associated with health services. Parents with more than one child placed their own experience ahead of professional expertise, and their younger children were less likely to complete routine preventive health checks. Concerns around developmental delays required validation through family, friends and childcare organizations before presentation to health services.

Conclusions

To improve child preventive health requires increased flexibility of services, strengthening of inter‐professional relationships and enhancement of parents'' knowledge about the importance of preventive health in early childhood. Policies that encourage continuity of care and remove point of service costs will further reduce barriers to preventive care for young children. Recent reforms in Australia''s primary health care and the expansion of child preventive health checks into general practice present a timely opportunity for this to occur.     

Risk,resistance and the neoliberal agenda: young people,health and well-being in the UK,Canada and Australia

In this article we describe how concepts of risk are both generated by and used to reinforce a neoliberal agenda in relation to the health and well-being of young people. We examine how risk may be used as a tool to advance ideals such as rational choice and individual responsibility, and how this can further disadvantage young people living within the contexts of structural disadvantage (such as geographic areas of long-term unemployment; communities that experience racial discrimination). We also identify the ways in which risk is applied in uneven ways within structurally disadvantaged contexts. To suggest a way forward, we articulate a set of principles and strategies that offer up a means of resisting neoliberal imperatives and suggest how these might play out at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. To do this, we discuss examples from the UK, Canadian and Australian contexts to illustrate how young people resist being labelled as risky, and how it is possible to engage in health equity-enhancing actions, despite seemingly deterministic forces. The cases we describe reveal some of the vulnerabilities (and hence opportunities) within the seemingly impenetrable world view and powers of neoliberals, and point towards the potential to formulate an agenda of resistance and new directions for young people's health promotion.     

Motivational orientation and self-regulation in young children

This experiment was designed to investigate external demand characteristics of the environment and internal self-system influences in young children's self-regulatory behavior. Subjects performed two tasks [letter recognition and sorting] under lenient-demand conditions. External reinforcers were not emphasized. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational patterns were determined by pretesting all 32 children with the assessment instrument. Approximately half of the children were relatively intrinsically motivated [IM], and the rest were relatively extrinsically motivated [EM]. Both external and internal influences affected self-regulatory performance with time on task being the dependent variable. IM children spent more time working on tasks. This experiment demonstrates that internal self-system characteristics interact with external demand characteristics of the environment to produce substantial individual differences in young children's self-regulatory behavior.     

A structural analysis on Korean young children's mathematical ability and its related children's and mothers’ variables

The objective of this study is to examine the structural relationships among variables that predict the mathematical ability of young children, namely young children's mathematical attitude, exposure to private mathematical learning, mothers’ view about their children's mathematical learning, and mothers’ mathematical attitude. To this end, we studied 387 pairs of mothers and their four-, five- and six-year-old children (mean: 66 months old). We conducted tests on the children and questionnaire surveys on the mothers. We used the structural equation modelling technique. In conclusion, young children's mathematical abilities can be predicted based on their own and their mothers’ positive attitudes towards math and their mothers’ constructivist views about mathematical learning directly and indirectly. Furthermore, exposure to private mathematical learning is not in any way related to young children's mathematical abilities when all of these variables are considered.     

The association of self-reported violence at home and health in primary school pupils in West London

BACKGROUND: The effects of violence upon young people are relatively poorly understood. In 2001 the London Borough of Ealing conducted a large-scale survey of primary school pupils, which included questions on levels of violence at home. The aim of this study was to measure the association of violence at home with measures of health, health care use and health-related behaviours in primary school pupils aged 9 and 11 in West London. METHODS: A total of 3007 pupils from 28 primary schools were given a self-complete health questionnaire; 2083 completed a question on violence at home. RESULTS: Pupils reporting violence were more likely to have needed medical attention in the last year. Violence was also associated with greater need of dental care, drinking and spending money on alcohol, spending money on cigarettes, not eating or drinking before school, less willingness to speak to parents and siblings about drugs, and less communication with teachers about puberty and growing up. Violence was positively associated with increased communication with relatives about puberty. CONCLUSION: Pupils who report violence at home are more likely to have more injuries, riskier health behaviours and less social support than those reporting no violence at home.     

Feasibility of a multidisciplinary caregiving training protocol for young caregivers in families with ALS

ABSTRACT

Feasibility of a multidisciplinary caregiving training protocol for young caregivers in families with ALS. Objectives: To assess the feasibility of a multidisciplinary young caregiver group training protocol for children and youth who provide care to a family member with ALS. Method: Peer group experiential young caregiver model based on theories of self-management and self-efficacy. Training conducted by a multidisciplinary team of therapists in ALS (PT, OT, Speech and social work), as well as assistive device vendors. Demographic data, caregiving tasks and evaluations were collected. Results: The model is feasible for both youth and therapists. Youth found benefit, skill acquisition, and mastery by asking questions, teaching back skills to the group and engaging with peers. Conclusion: This project demonstrates young caregivers will participate in training, and engage with “like” peer group. Future projects will focus on developing a structured survey and observation, testing efficacy in larger groups.     

Children as Next of Kin: A Scoping Review of Support Interventions for Children Who have a Parent with a Serious Physical Illness

Young children and adolescents who have a parent with a serious physical illness require information and support to cope with their everyday lives. The purpose of this scoping review was to summarise and disseminate the research findings of interventions that support children in families with a serious physically ill parent. The review also aimed to identify research gaps in the existing literature. Following a comprehensive search, only nine support interventions from 12 studies were identified, indicating that a dearth of intervention research has been conducted in the area. Although positive results were reported from all interventions at some stage, many of the studies were small pilot studies that did not show robust proof of the effectiveness of the interventions. However, the scoping review revealed that the main aim of most interventions is to enhance family functioning for all afflicted families by helping parents to communicate with their children. Further, some interventions offer a comprehensive support for identified “at risk” families. Few interventions examined the improvement within the everyday lives of families facing a serious physical illness other than cancer or HIV. The measures of effectiveness for children were limited to internal psychological symptoms of stress and depression, behavioural problems and issues regarding communication within the family. Few studies evaluated external measures; for example, effects on children's care burden, improved support from social network or school achievements. Implications for practitioners include gaining inspiration from the programmes to enhance communication between parents and children and also, wherever possible, to ask children themselves to evaluate the effectiveness of the support offered to them.     

Making choices about medical interventions: the experience of disabled young people with degenerative conditions

Background Current western policy, including the UK, advocates choice for service users and their families, taking greater control and being more involved in decision making. However, children’s role in health decision making, especially from their own perspective, has received less research attention compared to doctors and parents’ perspectives. Objective To explore the perspective and experiences of disabled young people with degenerative conditions as they face significant medical interventions and engage in decision‐making processes. Design and methods Findings from a longitudinal qualitative study of 10 young people (13–22 years) with degenerative conditions are reported. Individual semi‐structured interviews were conducted with participants over 3 years (2007–2010); the paper reports data from all three interview rounds. Interviews focused on medical intervention choices the young people identified as significant. Results Although the young people in this study felt involved in the medical intervention choices discussed, findings demonstrate a complex and diverse picture of decision making. Results highlighted different decisional roles adopted by the young people, the importance of information heuristics and working with other people whilst engaging in complex processes weighing up different decisional factors. Discussion Young people’s experiences demonstrate the importance of moving beyond viewing health choices as technical or rational decisions. How each young person framed their decision was important. Recognizing this diversity and the importance of emerging themes, such as living a normal life, independence, fear of decisions viewed as ‘irreversible’ and the role of parents and peers in decision making highlights that, there are clear practice implications including, active practitioner listening, sensitivity and continued holistic family working.