Child Indicators Research最新文献

The impact of social network consumption on adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB) has remained a subject of debate in cross-sectional studies, and the understanding of how changing social network consumption patterns affect SWB over time is even more limited. This study adopts an innovative approach, utilizing various measurement scales to assess adolescents’ SWB alongside the evolution of their SSNC patterns. A four-wave longitudinal study was conducted involving 341 participants aged 9 to 14 from Spain. The findings indicate that as adolescents age, their perception of SSNC increases, while SWB declines over time. Adolescents categorizing themselves as low consumers of social networks consistently exhibited higher SWB scores than those with medium and high consumption levels. Notably, the relationship between SSNC and SWB showed variations depending on the measurement scale used. An analysis of the evolution of social network consumption profiles (SNCPs) revealed four distinct profiles, although these were not linked to changes in SWB over time. Finally, participants with an extreme consumption profile consistently exhibited significantly lower SWB scores. These findings underscore the importance of continuously monitoring social media use and its effects on SWB, especially within subgroups displaying more extreme consumption patterns, an insight that has implications for preventive interventions.

Maltreatment is a complex and multidimensional construct. Several types of maltreatment exist, but not all of them necessarily co-occur. In the last decades, researchers have tried to untangle the heterogeneity of maltreatment. However, few studies have been carried out outside the U. S. and none of the previous studies had considered all stages of maltreatment. In this study, we aimed at exploring latent profiles of maltreatment in a sample of 635 children and adolescents enrolled at different intervention plans within the Child Protective Services (CPS) in the Valencian Community, Spain. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was performed. Profiles were based on the five types of maltreatment (physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect), as measured by the Chilhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form. Moreover, associations between the emerging profiles and sociodemographic, health- and school-related variables were also examined. Three profiles of maltreatment were found: “Relative low maltreatment” (58.58%), “Neglected” (35.92%), and “Severely abused and neglected” (5.5%). Then, profiles were contrasted with the reasons why court dictated maltreatment status of the child/adolescent to validate the maltreatment profiles. Results regarding the cumulative nature of maltreatment and its severity suggest tailoring public policies by level of risk of maltreatment. This study further proposes moving the focus of action from individuals themselves to the elements that characterize different maltreatment profiles, with the aim of protecting them. Future research ought to expand knowledge on maltreatment profiles in other European countries so as to promote generalization of results.

This study assessed the applicability of the Family Affluence Scale II (FASII) for conducting time trend analysis within Norway's “Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Study” (HBSC), spanning from 2002 to 2018. A dataset comprising 27,470 valid questionnaires was employed to assess the psychometric properties of the FASII with respect to validity and reliability for use at single- and multiple times points. The analytical approach encompassed a range of statistical techniques, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multi-group CFA, polychoric correlation testing between FASII scores and perceived family wealth, a subjective measure of socioeconomic position (SEP), and an assessment of perceived family wealth and FASII scores across time. The results of the study revealed an overall good model fit in CFA and a positive correlation between FASII scores and perceived family wealth. However, the analysis uncovered measurement non-invariance across survey years, sex, and age groups. Measurement non-invariance hampers direct time-to-time comparisons of FASII scores, impeding the assessment of affluence development over time. Despite this limitation, FASII maintains its utility for ranking affluence and measuring health outcomes at single time points. As such, this study offers valuable insight into the suitability of FASII for time trend analysis within the Norwegian HBSC data and broader research on social inequality.

The family lives of children and their early childhood development outcomes are attributable to the level of socio-economic disadvantage and relative isolation. This study aims to investigate how the disadvantage of the local area (i.e., socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA)) and the remoteness (i.e., accessibility/remoteness index of Australia (ARIA)) contribute to improved prevalence estimates of child development vulnerability in statistical areas level 3 (SA3) and 4 (SA4) across Australia. Data from the 2018 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) has been used. The study included 308,953 children involved in the AEDC 2018 where one-in-ten of them were considered to be developmentally vulnerable, nationally. We developed models in a hierarchical Bayesian framework at the SA3 level using SEIFA and ARIA indices as covariates to account for spatial and unobserved heterogeneity. The performances of developed models are examined based on the consistency at SA3, SA4, and state level. The results reveal that SEIFA makes a significant contribution to explaining the spatial variation in childhood development vulnerability across small domains in Australia. Further, the inclusion of the ARIA score improves the model performance and provides better accuracy, particularly in remote and very remote regions. In these regions, the spatial model fails to distinguish the remoteness characteristics. The chosen non-spatial model accounting for heterogeneity at higher hierarchies performs best. The utilization of socio-economic disadvantage and geographic remoteness of the finer level domains helps to explain the geographic variation in child development vulnerability, particularly in sparsely populated remote regions in Australia.

Child abuse is a severe global problem associated with various negative consequences. It is therefore important that the services received at Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) are perceived as positive as possible by children affected by abuse. Preliminary research indicates that CACs are successful in terms of providing coordinated, professional services. However, existing research has primarily focused on service and criminal justice system outputs, rather than documenting the experiences of the target group: i.e., children undergoing the CAC proceedings. The present study seeks to investigate the children’s experiences of the forensic procedures in a CAC. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 children undergoing case proceedings at a Danish CAC. The overall experiences of the children of the forensic interview and forensic medical examination were documented. Additionally, five overall themes were constructed using Thematic Analysis: Localities and surroundings, Relational and communicative work, Ambivalent experiences, Need of information and overview, and Missing out on everyday life. The findings of the current study underline the importance of the physical environment of the CAC, the need of information and overview as well as strong relational and communicative skills among professional as core elements in establishing positive encounters with the CAC. Furthermore, the results indicate how negative experiences of visiting a CAC are not necessarily directly linked to the CAC but may be a result of the children experiencing missing out on well-liked everyday activities. Altogether these results are important to consider when planning future CAC visits to support the well-being of the child.

A non-negligible proportion of children in Europe live in multifamily households that include other adults beyond their parents: around 4% live with their grandparents and a further 7% with their adult siblings. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which living in these two household types protects children against deprivation and we provide tests of the relationship between the intrahousehold sharing of resources and children’s deprivation. We find that although most children in multifamily households face significantly higher deprivation risks than children in nuclear households this largely reflects the selection into co-residence of families facing financial difficulties rather than arising from an incomplete sharing of resources. We further show that co-residence with grandparents protects a large share of children against deprivation (i.e. they would face higher deprivation risk if they lived only with their parents) while co-residence with adult siblings has more mixed effects across countries.

Longitudinal studies on the social determinants of health (SDH) from a global perspective, including developing countries, are still scarce. This study aimed to examine the associations between major SDH, the child mortality rate (CMR), and life expectancy (LE) according to socioeconomic status (SES), physical environment, health-related behaviors, and healthcare services. Data from 200 countries from 1990 to 2021 were included. The associations between CMR, LE, and SDH were analyzed using fixed-effect regression, and sub-group analyses by high income (HI) and non-HI countries for all analyses. CMR and LE were on the decline, but gaps persisted between HI and non-HI countries. Large intra-group gaps existed in CMR in non-HI countries. Education correlated negatively with CMR in both HI and non-HI countries and positively with LE only in non-HI countries (coef.=0.069, p < 0.0001). Unsafe water correlated positively with CMR and negatively with LE in both HI and non-HI countries. Medical doctors correlated negatively with CMR in both HI and non-HI countries and positively with LE in non-HI countries only (coef.=0.010, p < 0.01). Associations between health status and other SDH were not consistent between HI and non-HI countries. We found differences in major SDH between HI and non-HI countries. However, higher educational levels, safe water guarantee, and number of physicians were key SDH linked to better health status in both HI and non-HI countries. Other SDH should be examined differentially for HI and non-HI countries. Lastly, vaccine coverage was not a strong predictor of national-level health status indicators.

Recent research has shown a growing interest in understanding the relationship between students’ well-being and their academic achievement. However, many studies have narrowly focused on the linear relationship and hedonic well-being, such as life satisfaction and positive affect, leading to ambiguous results regarding the association between well-being and academic performance. Concerns persist about potential trade-offs between well-being and academic success, particularly with Chinese students often perceived as sacrificing well-being for academic excellence. This study adopts a broader perspective, considering both hedonic (measured by life satisfaction and positive affect) and eudemonic well-being (measured by meaning in life) to investigate the well-being of students from mainland China. Additionally, it examines the linear and curvilinear relationship between these well-being indicators and two academic competencies: reading performance and reading self-concept. Utilizing data from 12,058 mainland Chinese students (47.9% girls) who participated in PISA 2018, the findings reveal that mainland Chinese students exhibit lower levels of life satisfaction but higher levels of positive affect and meaning in life compared to the OECD countries’ average. Results from multi-level modelling and the Johnson-Neyman technique suggest no simple and convincing trade-offs between students’ well-being and academic competencies. While the relationships between two hedonic well-being indicators and reading performance are inverted U-shaped, the relationship between eudemonic well-being and reading performance is U-shaped. Additionally, all three well-being indicators show predominantly positive associations with reading self-concept. These results underscore the importance of considering the multi-faceted nature of student well-being and challenge assumptions regarding trade-offs between well-being and academic competencies.

Bullying is a recognised serious public problem affecting many students worldwide. Despite the well-established empirical evidence for the negative consequences of bullying on adolescents? mental and physical health and educational outcomes, little is known about the link between bullying victimisation and adolescents? subjective well-being. Moreover, empirical studies using comparative large-scale survey data are particularly scarce. This study explores this question using nationally-representative data from 329,015 adolescents across 64 high and middle-income countries and economies from the 2018 PISA survey. Two measures of subjective well-being were considered: overall life satisfaction and positive affect. Multilevel regressions were estimated at three levels (student, school, and country). Results showed that bullying victimisation was negatively and significantly related to overall life satisfaction and positive affect after controlling for a wide set of factors affecting subjective well-being. Moreover, this negative relationship was more pronounced for top performing students. Locally adapted intervention programmes are needed to tackle the issue of school bullying and foster positive school climate and student well-being. Practical and policy implications are discussed in detail.

Cyberbullying is a disturbing form of behavior associated with the use of communication technologies among adolescents. Many studies have been devoted to cyberbullies and cyber victims, neglecting an important growing group: cyberbullies who are also cyber victims. Moreover, few studies refer to all cyberbullying roles and factors associated with them. Therefore, the goal of this study is to examine differences in family climate, peers’ engagement in cyberbullying, and perception of academic achievements among involvements in cyberbullying roles. Data are collected by telephone or face-to-face from a sample of 277 eleventh- to twelfth-grade students in Israel who are asked to participate in the survey. Cyberbullying roles are composed of two variables—cyberbullies and cyber victims, creating four groups: cyberbullies, cyber victims, cyberbullies-and-victims, and non-involved. Three types of family climate are measured: warmth, order and supervision, and conflict. Respondents report their perceptions of peers’ engagement in cyberbullying. At the personal level, gender, perception of academic achievements, and school absence are measured. Multinomial logistic regression findings show that boys are more likely to be cyberbullies and cyberbullies-victims than are girls; family conflicts increase the odds of being cyberbullies and cyber victims; and family warmth decreases the odds of being cyber victims and cyberbullies-cyber victims. Perception of peers’ engagement in cyberbullying increases the odds of being cyberbullies and cyberbullies-victims. Perception of academic achievements and school absence have opposite effects on cyber victims, the former increasing the odds of being cyber victims and the latter decreasing them. The results emphasize the role of family and peers in adolescents’ cyber behavior. Limitations and conclusions are discussed.