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Roma are the largest and most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Europe often facing generational poverty, and limited access to education, employment, housing, and various types of services. Despite many international and national initiatives, children from marginalized Roma communities face multiple risks and are being disadvantaged as early as from conception onward. We, therefore, aimed to identify measures and/or interventions targeting equity in early childhood health and development in marginalized Roma communities which implementation is considered to be urgent but not feasible. We used a group concept mapping approach-a participatory mixed research method-and involved 40 experts and professionals from research, policy and practice. From 90 measures and interventions proposed to achieve early childhood equity for children from marginalized Roma communities, 23 measures were identified as urgent but not feasible. These concerned particularly measures and interventions targeting living conditions (including access to income, access to housing, and basic infrastructure for families) and public resources for instrumental support (covering mainly topics related to financial and institutional frameworks). Our results reflect the most pressing issues in the area of equality, inclusion and participation of Roma and expose barriers to implementation which are likely to arise from public and political discourses perpetrating a negative image of Roma, constructing them as less deserving. Measures to overcome persistent prejudices against Roma need to be implemented along with the measures targeting equity in early childhood health and development. ispartof: FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH vol:10 ispartof: location:Switzerland status: published

Background This study aims to assess which measures could improve the healthy early childhood development of children from marginalized Roma communities and to identify priority measures. Methods Concept mapping approach was used, using mixed methods. In total 54 professionals, including social workers, educators, health care providers, municipality representatives, and project managers participated in our study. Results Four distinct clusters of measures targeting living conditions, public resources, healthcare and community interventions, and 27 individual priority measures of highest urgency and feasibility were identified. The cluster ‘Targeting living conditions’, was rated as the most urgent but least feasible, whereas the cluster ‘Targeting health care’, was considered least urgent but most feasible. Among the 27 priority measures, ‘Planning parenthood’ and ‘Scaling up existing projects’ had the highest priority. Conclusion Our results reflect the public and political discourse and indicate significant barriers to implementation. Reducing inequalities in early childhood needs to be addressed through coordinated efforts.

Článok je krátkou reportážou zo stáže v Burosovom centre pre testovanie na University of Nebraska v Lincolne. V úvode je opísané zameranie Burosovho centra a jeho publikačná činnosť, s podrobnejším popisom jednotlivých publikácií. Hlavná časť článku približuje osobnú skúsenosť s prácou v centre počas roka stráveného štúdiom na University of Nebraska a opisuje náplň práce študentského pracovníka. Článok ďalej hovorí o pomoci pri príprave Mental Measurement Yearbook a v závere sumarizuje históriu Burosovho centra a vyzdvihuje jeho prínos pre psychometriku.The article is a short report from an internship at the Buros Center for Testing at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. The introduction outlines the focus of the Buros Center and its publishing activity, with more detailed descriptions of individual publications. The main part of the article talks about the personal experience with working at the centre during an exchange program at the University of Nebraska and illustrates the work of a student worker. The article further describes the help with preparing the Mental Measurement Yearbook and in the end of this article summarizes the history of Buros Center and highlights its contribution to psychometrics.