Children & Society最新文献

Research on young people's perspectives on COVID-19 remains limited. This qualitative serial picture analysis of Swedish children's drawings, predominately from spring 2020 (N = 169), aimed to explore their views and meaning-making processes. The focus was on the interconnections of two global crises in the drawings–pandemic and environmental crisis–revealing several links, such as negative emotions and dystopian expectations, as well as a lack of hope and agency, yet also resistance and utopian optimism for solutions. Our findings offer insights into young people's responses to contemporary global crises and their implications.

In this paper, I introduce the concept of ‘agile agency’ in children. ‘Agile agency’ is characterised by its non-linear fluidity that traverses along a sliding scale that is akin to an agency barometer. Its changes in magnitude and nature are responses to contextual factors that may be relational, environmental, and temporal. Using the case study of a four-year-old girl pseudonymised as Sophia from my doctoral research on 3–5-year-old children-led play at home and two London nurseries, I posit the following three principles of ‘agile agency’. Firstly, a child's agency is agile as it oscillates along a sliding scale, and it adapts in nature and degree in response to shifts in the immediate environment and to contextual shifts over longer periods of time. As per the second principle, agile agency is interpreted differently when filtered through the role-driven socio-cultural lenses of teachers, parents, and researchers. The third principle asserts that the interpretation of a child's agency is not only varied between different adults' lenses but also within an individual adults' viewpoint. Such fluctuations in an individual's viewpoint can result from shifts in contexts that may be physical, relational, and temporal. As child-initiated play is a vital part of the everyday life in early childhood, Sophia's case study serves as a rich context for examining how children's complex agency unfolds within enabling and restricting environments facilitated by adults. In doing so, the paper proposes broader theoretical generalisability of the three principles as a framework to accommodate agile agency's variability and complexity, and inform how adults working with children in various capacities can better understand and support their complex, and often rapidly changing spontaneous agency.

The main objective of this study is to examine the psychological effects of childhood abuse in adulthood, focusing on personality traits, resilience and attachment style within a large sample specifically centred on the Spanish context. A total of 700 adults participated, of whom 24.4% reported experiencing some form of childhood abuse. The results indicate that individuals who reported experiencing childhood abuse exhibit lower levels of responsibility, agreeableness, extraversion and resilience, as well as a greater tendency to develop an insecure attachment style compared to those without a history of abuse. Furthermore, findings suggest that both attachment style and specific personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness and responsibility) partially mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and resilience. These results highlight the critical need for a comprehensive approach to prevent childhood abuse and neglect, emphasising the importance of early interventions to foster adaptive personality development, resilience and secure attachment in adulthood.

Children have the right to accessible and reliable public sector communication. However, our understanding of children's perspectives on digital communication from the public sector remains limited. This study addresses this gap by analysing how children aged 10–11 (n = 18) evaluate a Swedish municipality's digital communication regarding leisure activities on websites and social media during group interviews. Using John Dewey's theory on judgement, the study identifies seven core principles children used in their evaluations: proximity, comprehension, inclusion, in-depth information, accurate information and authenticity, influence and mistrust. These findings can inform the development of public sector communication to better support children's rights.

This study examines the transition to adulthood of unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents in the context of the Dutch asylum system. We thereby focus on adolescents' capabilities and their perceptions of the enabling or hampering role of the system, the laws and policies which constitute it, and the ways in which these are implemented and put into practice. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and participant observation, we argue that the asylum system was experienced as a succession of waiting periods—for an asylum status and for family reunification—during which adolescents experienced uncertainties and limited agency in pursuing their aspirations. Earlier studies focused on predominantly refugees' asylum status as determining capabilities. While informants generally received their asylum status before their eighteenth birthday, expanding their capabilities, uncertainties and inabilities regarding family reunification extended into their nominal adulthood. Relationships with professionals both alleviated and compounded informants' concerns during these waiting periods.

This article examines the Sacchi v. Argentina case, a landmark legal action led by children against five states for their role in climate change, analysed through the lens of temporality. The case, brought before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, was pivotal in linking the climate crisis to children's rights, despite being ruled inadmissible. This paper explores the multiple temporalities inherent in the climate crisis, such as urgency, gradualness and intergenerational effects, and how they intersect with legal frameworks and children's unique experience of time. By focusing on the narratives and claims of the child petitioners, this study investigates the disproportionate impacts of climate change on younger generations and the ways in which the law constructs time, offering a new perspective on the relationship between human rights and environmental justice. The analysis contributes to the broader discourse on how to address children's rights within the growing field of climate litigation.

Education settings are critical for supporting mental wellbeing, but there is limited support specifically for care-experienced children and young people, including gaps in supporting the transition to Further Education (FE) colleges. Using a mixture of qualitative methods, this study aimed to understand mental wellbeing provision in secondary schools and FE colleges in Wales, UK, for those currently or formerly in foster, kinship or residential care, or adopted. Consultations were held with children and young people (n = 22), adoptive parents and carers (n = 17) and education, social care and mental health practitioners (n = 23). Case studies were conducted in four local authorities and included secondary schools and FE colleges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with learners and students (n = 10), carers (n = 2), and staff (n = 24). Consultations informed the case study topic guides and were then combined with interviews as part of an overarching Framework Analysis. Findings indicated peaks in wellbeing needs during the transition to secondary school and in response to changes in school environments and practices. Additional support needs at the transition to college were associated with growing independence and leaving care. Awareness of the needs of adopted children and young people was low. Barriers to support included children and young people not wanting to be singled out, as well as staff capacity issues. Facilitators included encouraging a sense of belonging and connections with carers to tackle wellbeing early on. Recommendations include promoting education-based relationships, improving opportunities for care-experienced children and young people to shape support, and enhancing staff support structures, including cross-setting collaborations.

Multisystem collaboration and actions are needed to tackle childhood obesity, especially in the most vulnerable. This review aimed to describe the regulatory and operational framework associated with four delivery systems (social protection, food, education and health) for obesity prevention in children in need in Greece, and to synthesise related evidence of effectiveness, implementation, barriers and facilitators. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines for scoping reviews were used, and identified policy interventions were categorised into delivery systems in addition to the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework. Peer-reviewed journal articles and grey literature describing the Greek regulatory and operational framework addressing obesity in children in need (2–18 years old) considering the EU policy environment, were searched. 28 policy interventions were identified, and only one of them referred specifically to children in need. Most interventions were delivered through the health system and in 16 policy interventions nutrition was the targeted behaviour; two policies targeted physical activity, while 10 interventions targeted both nutrition and physical activity. Limited information was identified in terms of policy implementation and effectiveness, and even less for impact. Important barriers for implementation included sociocultural determinants and procurement issues for food provision/assistance policies. In Greece, children in need are an understudied population group, and there is a lack of evidence of enabling environments to tackle obesity. This review provides consolidated evidence of the policy interventions in Greece for the first time, with the likelihood of stimulating further action at the national level and of supporting related discussion at the European level.