Children & Society最新文献

This article focuses on what the author has termed children's ‘dark pictures’ to explore how children’ and young people express themselves visually and verbally about difficult issues—such as violence, death and trafficking. Two pictures created by children and young people about the UNCRC, and the interviews accompanying these pictures, are analysed as examples of the commonness of ‘dark’ issues emerging even when they are given assignments emphasising ‘lighter’ issues. The potential of children's and young people's dark pictures to comment on and challenge, how difficult issues are communicated with children by adults and society is explored with the help of socio-cultural and relational approaches to pictures. The article proposes the notion of dark visuality to highlight the critical potential of children's and young people's engagement with darkness through visual means and propose that their expressions can be understood as societal critique.

The study aimed to test children's subjective perception of participation in decision-making in school and community as protective factors against the negative effects of bullying on child subjective well-being in three East Asian countries and territories—South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This study is based on the subset of data from the third wave of the Children's World survey that consists of 5717 children 10–12 years of age. Our findings suggest that the children with bullying victimization who experience more participation in decision-making in their school and local community are less likely to have decreased well-being.

This article explores the establishment of a sense of community within a girls-only sports-based intervention targeting social inclusion in a socially disadvantaged area of Sweden. Employing an ethnographic approach involving participant observations and interviews, the study shows how moral socialization, through practices of discipline, teaching and care, fosters a sense of community. Through detailed observations, the study illustrates that community formation is an active, relational construct rather than a pre-existing entity, shaped significantly by both leaders and participants. Our findings reveal that the girls, through reflective engagement with norms and moral values, co-create a community that promotes social inclusion.

This article explores whether the statutory key person policy can mediate children’s experience of fragmentation due to a variety of transitions in the English Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector. I explore the policy enactment in the context of another statutory requirement, the staff:child ratio, and against the backdrop of a fragmented and neoliberal ECEC system. Data are from interviews with staff in three ECEC settings and publicly available Ofsted reports. I conclude that the contemporary understanding and practice of the key person policy is less likely to address all challenges of fragmentation experienced by children. The interplay of various patterns of attendance, complex staff rotas, and the requirement to stay in ratio impacts on the ability to offer continuity of care. I suggest ways to reduce the fragmentation experienced within the existing policy framework.

In Spain, children's sexuality is a sensitive topic, and pleasure is its most controversial aspect, contradicting the notion of children's innocence. Through a new feminist materialist approach, I analyse the narratives of primary school children (aged 9–11) about pleasant bodily sensations to explore their capacity for pleasure and the assemblage of elements that facilitate it. Additionally, I describe the forces that stabilise these assemblages and those that destabilise them. The findings suggest that leaving pleasure out of relationships and sex education reproduces gender and age inequalities, making visible the need to recognise children as subjects of sexuality and pleasure.

This article describes how (sexual) consent is constructed as an objective for teaching in Swedish preschool. An age-critical analysis of focus-group discussions with preschool practitioners shows how a didactic of consent is constructed and characterised: (1) The child should be trained to feel non-ambivalence. (2) Prohibitions are created against acts not considered age-appropriate. (3) Age-appropriate prior knowledge is required for a child's consent to be considered valid. Finally, alternative didactics of consent is discussed, in which ambivalence and unpredictability are highlighted as important elements.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of adolescent' participation in club activities on their citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa countries, specifically focusing on participation in Good Neighbors International's club activity in Malawi. For this, the Good Neighbors' Hope School Project Survey data were analysed through ordinary least squares and propensity score matching regression. The results showed that participation in club activities had a positive effect on improving adolescents' citizenship. This study also showed that school-related factors and relationship with others affect adolescents' citizenship. Based on this finding, the study concluded that participation in club activities can be understood as a process that connects adolescents with their lives and community problems or internalizes the global agenda, and it implies adolescents can grow up as global citizens through club activities in Malawi.

Aboriginal children and young people are over-represented in the out-of-home care system, yet their voices are largely absent in practice and policy decision-making. This paper presents a review of research that captures the voices of Aboriginal children and young people in out-of-home care. Three key themes are discussed: connection to culture, connection to family and participation. This paper argues for culturally meaningful research that honours child and youth citizenship, voice and roles in decision-making as critical to quality care and positive outcomes. This paper aims to highlight the importance of listening and responding to the voices of Aboriginal children and young people as critical to the provision of appropriate care and supporting positive outcomes.

Several quantitative studies have shown a negative relationship between fitspiration content (appearance-idealized pictures related to a fit and healthy lifestyle) in social media and mental health. The current study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of fitspiration users by qualitatively assessing their perception of fitspiration content and how it affects their health-related behaviour and well-being. A further research question was whether fitspiration as a form of public pedagogy was addressed in participants' physical education (PE) in schools. Thirteen female students from Austria who follow fitspiration content (14–19 years) were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Positive effects in health behaviour, such as a higher reported physical activity, exercise motivation and conscious eating (e.g., reducing junk food) were reported. However, participants further described potentially negative consequences on mental and physical health resulting from social comparisons with influencers. As none of the students reported addressing social media fitness content in PE, including or adapting a critical media pedagogy in PE should be considered to enhance awareness of the negative effects of social media but use the positive influence on health behaviour.