Developing a Monitoring System for Indicators in Middle Childhood: Identifying Measures

This paper builds on an initial paper (Moore and Theokas, Child Indicators Research, 2008 DOI ) that conceptualizes elements of well-being relevant for the middle childhood period, identifies potential constructs and develops criteria for indicators. Here, we follow up by identifying a set of 20 indicator constructs, half positive and half negative. Of these 20, half measure child well-being and half measure contexts that affect child development. For each construct, we discuss evidence of importance and provide, where possible, examples of measures from US surveys.

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Indicators for Measuring Material Affluence of Adolescents in Health Inequality Research in Developing Countries

The aim of the present study was to (i) develop a material affluence scale (MAS) for measuring adolescent SES in health inequality research in developing countries, (ii) compare the association of the MAS with the parental SES measures (parental occupation and education), and (iii) evaluate the association of parental SES and MAS with key health and health behaviour indicators. We used school-based cross-sectional survey conducted in thirty districts within three administrative regions in southern Ghana (a West African country) among adolescents ages 12–18-year old (N = 1,195) as an example. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used as the main statistical technique. MAS categorised adolescents into material affluence groups (MAS scores for the poorest, poor, average, affluent and most affluent were−1.679, −0.355, 0.354, 0.725 and 1.022 from the first principal component quintile respectively), it has adequate internal coherence (α = 0.622) and moderately correlates with parental SES (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). MAS and parental SES showed similar pattern of strength and direction of association with selected health and health behaviour indicators. MAS presents a viable alternative method for measuring adolescent’s SES in health inequality research in developing countries and could be useful as well in western countries.     

Multidimensional Child Poverty in Korea: Developing Child-Specific Indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals

This paper aims to examine child poverty in Korea by constructing a multidimensional child poverty index. The Sustainable Development Goals (hereafter SDGs) recommend producing children-specific poverty statistics based on the concept of multidimensional poverty. Responding to such global norms and trends, in Korea, there is an increasing need to define and measure multidimensional poverty among children, focusing on the individual rather than the household as a whole. Drawing on the Poverty and Social Exclusion methodology, we established a Child Deprivation Index and combined it with household income to estimate multidimensional child poverty, using data from the 2013 Korean National Child Survey. The findings show that the number of children in poverty are in fact around 10% of the child population, as measured by material deprivation and income combined, which is two times higher than the official Korean child poverty rate. This indicates that conventional measurements, based only on household income, not only insufficiently identifies poor children, but also excludes more than half of the potential recipients from the social assistance system. In addition, our logit analysis offers strong evidence that deprived children are mostly living in working-poor and single-parent households. These findings lead to the conclusion that support for the working poor should be considered as important child policy agenda.     

Developing,Implementing, and Evaluating Personalized Education for Pediatric Patients Diagnosed With Asthma on an Observation Unit

IntroductionA quality improvement project was commenced to determine if personalized, patient-specific education can increase parent/guardian knowledge and reduce subsequent emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient admissions secondary to asthma.MethodPre- and post-education survey scores were analyzed for a change in knowledge. A retrospective electronic health record (EHR) chart review was performed one year following the education to determine if the patients had additional ED visits or inpatient admissions.ResultsA statistically significant increase in post-education survey scores (p = 0.004) and decrease in post-education inpatient admissions was found (p = 0.005). There was no significant difference between the number of pre- and post-education ED visits.DiscussionAsthma is a chronic medical condition that often requires life-long home management. These results revealed that parent/guardian knowledge regarding asthma can be increased and optimal home management improved by personalized, patient-specific education.     

Psychometric Evaluation of a Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children and Adolescents

This study describes the second revision of a fear survey schedule for children which was originally developed by Scherer and Nakamura in the 1960's. The revised instrument (FSSC-II) was psychometrically evaluated on a sample of 918 children and adolescents aged between 7 and 18 years, attending regular primary and secondary schools in urban, suburban and rural areas of Victoria. It was demonstrated to have high internal consistency. The convergent and divergent validity of the revised instrument was examined by correlating it with conceptually related as well as distinct scales, respectively. Such analyses demonstrated sound validity. A five-factor solution almost identical to that reported for the FSSC-R, is described as are age and gender differences. The most common fears on the revised instrument are also reported.     

Rating Scale Analysis and Psychometric Properties of the Caregiver Self-Efficacy Scale for Transfers

ABSTRACT

Parents and caregivers faced with the challenges of transferring children with disability are at risk of musculoskeletal injuries and/or emotional stress. The Caregiver Self-Efficacy Scale for Transfers (CSEST) is a 14-item questionnaire that measures self-efficacy for transferring under common conditions. The CSEST yields reliable data and valid inferences; however, its rating scale structure has not been evaluated for utility. The aims of this study were to evaluate the category response structure of the CSEST, test the utility of a revised rating scale structure, and confirm its psychometric properties. The Rasch Measurement Model was used for all analyses. Subjects included 175 adult caregivers recruited from multiple communities. Results confirm that a revised five-category rating scale structure yields reliable data and valid inferences. Given the relationship between self-efficacy and risk of physical and/or emotional stress, measuring parental self-efficacy for transfers is a proactive process in rehabilitation.     

Children of Immigrants: Family and Socioeconomic Indicators for Affluent Countries

Affluent countries around the world are experiencing an unprecedented demographic shift that involves rapid change in the ethnic composition of the population, due to large scale immigration from low and middle income countries, combined with the rapid aging of the non-immigrant population. Because these immigrants and their children often differ from the non-immigrant population in physical appearance, language, religion, and culture, increasing attention is focusing on the integration and inclusion of these groups. To provide a framework for interpreting the new indicators presented in this article, we draw on ideas recently set forth by the European Union. These efforts provide a broad and comprehensive framework for discussing indicators in this article pertaining to the demographic circumstances of children in immigrant families, and to various aspects of their integration, including language, civic participation, education, employment, and housing. While indicators presented here do not directly measure integration and inclusion, they do portray the lives of children in immigrant families compared with the lives of children in native-born families along civic, social, and economic dimensions that are relevant to the assessment of integration and inclusion, shedding light on the extent to which children in immigrant families in the eight settlement countries covered in this study have access to the resources necessary to participate fully in the societies of their adopted homelands. The eight countries included in this study are Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.     

Conceptualizing a Monitoring System for Indicators in Middle Childhood

Middle childhood is often overlooked by researchers and policy makers. However, it is a unique developmental period with its own set of tasks and milestones, and inattention to the needs of this population can have consequences for adolescent and adult functioning. While research on middle childhood is limited compared with adolescence and early childhood, we take a distinctively developmental approach and draw on existing conceptual models and research for adolescence and middle childhood to identify domains and constructs that describe the health and well-being of the middle childhood population. This paper is the first of two papers in a multi-stage process of creating such a monitoring system. In this paper, we (1) review and synthesize relevant existing conceptual frameworks (generally developed for adolescents in the U.S.) that could be adapted for the middle childhood population, (2) outline considerations for identifying multiple domains of functioning within the child and specify multiple contexts of influence for a middle childhood monitoring system, (3) propose criteria for identifying constructs and indicators, and (4) suggest potential constructs and indicators to be reviewed by various stakeholders.

Subjective Social Indicators and Child and Adolescent Well-being

This paper reflects on the opportunity to take steps in the direction of proposing international systems of subjective social indicators of children??s and adolescents?? well-being. In order to contextualize such a reflection, a brief summary of the historical and epistemological foundations of the concept of social indicators, and of some of the controversies associated with the research results during the first decades of its existence, is made. Such foundations, research results and consequent debates have mostly been developed considering only adult populations, but they are reviewed here to explore research goals in relation to children??s and adolescents?? well-being and to link these goals to political action and decision making and the evaluation of its impact. The lack of internationaly comparable subjective data on children??s and adolescents?? well-being at the macro level may be related, among other things, to the lack of political importance given to the younger population??s point of view and to the lack of consistent or convincing research at a micro-level indicating what data-collection instruments are appropriate for making cross-national or cross-cultural comparisons. However, at present, research on children??s and adolescents?? own points of view about their living conditions??although still in its early stages and very heterogeneous??is already showing rapid advances and even provocative and unexpected results, of which a few examples are given. Tested instruments are already available, but systematic data collection is still scarce, and comparable data to be used for international comparisons is infrequent. Systematic data collection of children??s and adolescents?? perceptions, evaluations and aspirations that can be used as subjective social indicators requires political will, associated with the conviction that such data can be useful for decision-making and for evaluating social change. An increasing international interest in children??s rights to social participation seems to be an opportunity to promote links with research on childrens?? and adolescents?? well-being, both objective and subjective. Having an overall panorama of all these elements may be helpful to guide debates on what research is still needed and on what are the major challenges to be faced when offering research data to policy makers and to the public opinion.     

Pregnancy Outcome and Social Indicators in Sweden

ABSTRACT. Perinatal mortality, birth weight, the distribution of gestational age, and the relationship between gestational age and birth weight have been studied with regard to births reported to the Register of Births during 1976–77. In order to determine the influence of socio-economic factors on the parameters studied, the information from the birth register has been combined with that from the 1975 census in Sweden (including occupation of the mother, income of the family, type of family and housing standard). The total population of 190024 infants was divided into three groups; 6915 infants (3.6 %) were assigned to the most privileged group (group I) and 26430 (13.9 %) to the less privileged group (group III). The perinatal mortality rate did not differ significantly between group I and III. A comparison of the three groups showed a socio-economic difference as regards birth weight and the incidence of preterm as well as of postterm births. The less privileged group had a greater proportion of infants of low birth weight and of infants that were small for gestational age.