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With the 'cultural turn' in geography children have been positioned on the geographical agenda. There is an evident and growing interest amongst undergraduates in the geography of children as a topic for project work and dissertation study. This seems an appropriate time to consider a series of related ethical and methodological issues which are important when working with children. The paper is organised into four parts. First, discussion focuses on the background which has given rise to a growing expectation that social (geographical) investigation should be with children rather than on or for children. These ideas are presented in order to encourage students and their supervisors to think about their work from the perspective of children. Second, a set of ethical issues to do with working with children are discussed. Third, examples of good methodological practice when working with children are presented. Lastly, a range of provocative issues to do with geographers studying children are examined. Throughout the paper, the emphasis is upon how recent changes in human (cultural) geography inform the way in which we get (or expect) students to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notions of time and texture --or the interplay of the temporal and cultural dimensions of social life--as the conceptual foundation for the development of longitudinal qualitative (LQ) methodologies. It illustrates the different ways in which time is theorized among both qualitative and quantitative researchers in order to draw out the creative potential offered by LQ methodologies for understanding the dynamics of everyday life. The paper concludes by exploring how LQ methodologies might be used in the context of childhood research and for revisioning the process of 'growing up'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on recent research that has highlighted both the heterogeneity and agency of youth, this paper reports on how young people experience and negotiate social relations and everyday spaces in a rural community. Taking a case from New Zealand, we consider the sites, activities and social negotiations young people encounter when considering their experiences of ‘community’. These experiences include engagements with the social relations and spaces where young people feel marginalized and/or (sometimes simultaneously) included. We then argue that a ‘politics of youth’ can be read through the strategies young people select while engaging in social relations and activities within ‘community’. We identify three different strategies to illustrate how young people engage with everyday spaces; make their ; and actively negotiate their diverse positions and experiences of ‘community’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 'mixed' was first offered as an option in the ethnicity question in the 2001 England and Wales Census, Britain's recognition of, and interest in, mixed (or 'multiracial') people and families has not abated. Recent studies have focused primarily upon how mixed people identify themselves, or how parents racially identify their multiracial children. But Britain now has a population of multiracial individuals who are themselves parents, about whom we know very little. What are the particular concerns for multiracial individuals who are parents? Do multiracial people (who are parents) want to steer their children toward a particular kind of upbringing, and if so, toward what (and why)? This paper is an in-depth exploration of the various ways in which different types of multiracial people in Britain raise their children. Our main finding is that a significant majority of multiracial parents engage in parenting practices that emphasize a cosmopolitan ethos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is a short overview of Japanese practices and rituals associated with each significant stage in a child's life, from the moments before birth--announcing and celebrating the pregnancy--to the ceremony that marks the beginning of life as an adult. I have borrowed Arnold Van Gennep's concept of "rites of passage" in order to emphasize the idea of transition from one age to another, each being a joyous occasion that requires formal celebration. In my description of family traditions such as Obi-iwai, Miya-mairi, Hina-matsuri, Kodomo-no-hi, Shichi-go-san, or Seijin-shiki, I try to analyze the relationship between the sacred and the community, as well as the shift from a religious practice (making offerings to appease the gods and acquire their benevolence towards the new member of the community) to social ritual--the practice that focuses on the individual, and his/her bond with the family and the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the changes in fatherhood in Lithuania, focusing on the experiences and attitudes of men, who became fathers in two different historic periods – the soviet time and in the years of societal transformations after the collapse of communist regime. The narratives of 24 men (born in 1950–1965 and 1970–1985) are explored, the data come from the qualitative research, conducted in 2012. It is maintained that the construction of fatherhood in late socialism can be described in terms of modern fatherhood metanarrative, while the features of a ‘new father' can be traced mainly among the younger males of ‘independence generation’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary Japan, people labeled as 'burakumin' ('hamlet people') are commonly described as the descendants of Tokugawa-era outcasts of Japan, who were engaged in special occupations (e.g., leather industry, meat packing, street entertainment, drum making) and compelled to live in separate areas. Despite the heterogeneity of these populations, determination of 'buraku origin' ( buraku shusshin) has remained fixed over time and is based on one's birth, former or current residence in a buraku, and engagement in the buraku industries. This paper illustrates representations of the buraku through local and community-based initiatives and narratives. It explores the short story 'Yomigaetta Kurobe' ('Resurrected Kurobe') by Kawamoto Yoshikazu and the role and activities of the Archives Kinegawa Museum of Education and Leather Industry, located in Kinegawa in Sumida Ward (Tokyo) with a special focus on children's participation. By reinterpreting the 'Edo tradition,' activists, educators, children, and other individuals in the community transform the 'otherness' and blur the boundaries to normalize yet take pride in the 'specialness' of the buraku. They do so by drawing on commonplace factors including hard work and the everyday usefulness of objects, as well as special qualities such as skills and craftsmanship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Son preference is widespread in a number of developing countries despite substantial improvements in education levels and economic development. One potential explanation for the persistence of this phenomenon is that individual household members like the mother derive large non-monetary benefits from giving birth to a son and therefore prefer boys to girls. Qualitative evidence suggests that such benefits exist and may depend on the child’s age. This paper uses large nationally representative datasets from India and tests whether having a son leads to higher decision-making powers for mothers than having a daughter. Since the number and gender composition of children is likely to be non-random for families that want a son, I focus on first-born children for whom the sex ratio of girls relative to boys is normal. The main analysis also focuses on young children of up to six months, which gives parents little time to adjust desired birth-spacing intervals that could be systematically correlated with decision-making powers and child gender. The results show little evidence of consistently large female benefits shortly after birth, and any positive impacts of having a son disappear after the first six months. There are also no large benefits for adult sons. These empirical patterns do not support qualitative evidence suggesting that women benefit from the birth of a son through larger decision-making powers in the household because of increased respect by other household members. The benefits also do not heavily depend on the child’s age, which is not consistent with a channel predicting a better bargaining position for women with adult sons who start taking over the running of the household. Overall, these results extend our understanding of individual-specific incentives for son preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is at the top of the world's agenda due to the major problems it creates. It is a subject that concerns all humanity and living things with its many different dimensions, from economy to social life. However, it is children who are most affected by the problems arising from climate change and will be affected in the future. Within this scope, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of climate change on children through the current literature and to interpret the studies on this subject in Turkey. The research was conducted in a qualitative way and content analysis method was used. The content of the study was limited to researches focusing individuals aged 0-12, including early and late childhood. National studies in Turkey on climate change for children and their education are included in the scope. According to the results, there has been a noticeable increase in studies on the effects of climate change on children and their education, especially in the last five years. Furthermore, most of the studies focus on examining dimensions such as knowledge, awareness, perception and attitude. However, there is a great need at the moment to teach children, who are the architects of the future, permanent environmentally and eco-friendly behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the transition to a first union of descendants of Turkish immigrants in France. We use data from the project The Integration of the European Second Generation, 2007, and apply event-history techniques. We find that descendants of Turkish immigrants who grew up in France enter a first union earlier and more often in a direct marriage than do young adults without an immigrant background. We then describe the type of union in more detail and estimate the likelihood of a transnational partner choice, that is, between a young adult born in France of Turkish immigrant parentage and an immigrant from Turkey. We pay attention to social factors such as education, city of residence, and to cultural factors such as the rules of affinity in Turkey and the attachment to the norm of virginity at marriage as factors that orient partner choice. Finally, we discuss what anthropological methods could contribute to this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Millions of children and others across the world are being dangerously exposed to tobacco smoke and toxins in their own homes. Whilst there is limited interest in laws and interventions controlling tobacco use in public places in Bangladesh, no attention has been given to preventing tobacco-use inside homes. This study explores the familial and socio-cultural factors that provide obstacles for ensuring tobacco-free homes in Bangladesh. Materials and methods: A mixed-method design was adopted and from among the 1,436 tobacco users identified in a population of 11,853, 400 (tobacco users) were selected for cross-sectional survey. This survey involved a probability proportional sampling procedure, and 24 In-Depth Interviews. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to explore the association of familial and socio-cultural factors with tobacco-use at home adjusted by other demographic characteristics. Thematic content analysis was done on the qualitative data, and then inferences were drawn out collectively. Results: This study revealed that the prevalence of tobacco-use in the home was 25.7% in urban residential areas in Bangladesh. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that familial and socio-cultural factors were significantly associated with tobacco-use at home: marital status (OR 3.23, 95% CI: 1.37–6.61), education (OR 2.14, 95% CI: 1.15–3.99), smoking habits of older family members (OR 1.81 95% CI: 0.91–2.89), tobacco being offered as hospitality and for entertainment (OR 1.85, 95% CI: .94–2.95) and lack of religiosity practice (OR 2.39, 95% CI: 1.27–4.54). Qualitative findings indicated that social customs, lack of religious practice, tobacco-use of older family members, and lack of family guidance were key obstacles for enabling tobacco-free homes in urban areas. Conclusion: Use of tobacco at home is continuing as part of established familial and socio-cultural traditions. If tobacco-use at home is not addressed seriously by the authorities then the emerging threat of second-hand smoke exposure and harmful consequences of tobacco- use will be exacerbated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of minors unaccompanied by adults from the northern countries of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) to the United States has risen sharply in recent years, surpassing the numbers that migrated during the political conflicts in the region in the 1980s and early 1990s. While the migration of minors from the northern region of Central America may appear as a homogeneous flow, significant sociodemographic and regional differentials exist in their migration. A conceptual model of institutional conditions is presented to conceptualise how changing institutional conditions in communities of origin can produce 'push' effects for the unaccompanied migration of minors in the northern countries of Central America. The goal of the model is to conceptually advance the analysis of migration by the unaccompanied minors to the root level of structural change. US response to the migration of unaccompanied minors in the future is uncertain given that a new administration has taken charge of the Executive Branch, promising to further restrict unauthorised immigration at the southwest border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early stages of schooling, many children are exposed to different learning disabilities, usually manifest as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. Those disabilities impact on the normal academic achievement of the child and may even affect its social life. Learning disorders have neurobiological origins and are often inherited regardless of the geographical region or the socio-economic status. It should not be seen as physical disorders (visual or hearing handicaps or mental retardation). They are simply a different way of acquiring new knowledge and skills. Learning disabled children only require an early intervention, adjustments in the teaching process, and compensatory efficient strategies. They need more encounters with words and more practice and revision opportunities. For the reason to follow the normal academic achievement process, either manual or electronic tools have been introduced to help children with learning disabilities (LD). Our contribution is a set of games for children with dyslexia and dysgraphia. The games delicately target Arabic learning disabilities and lend a helping hand to the child with LD to overcome his/her reading and writing complications. This set of games is evaluated and tested by 46 pupils, aged from seven to nine years old, from whom 20 pupils are considered as individuals with learning problems in general and 5 students determined as dyslexics. The results statistically reflect the system’s efficiency and its distinctive role in improving the learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional stimuli processing during childhood helps us to detect salient cues in our environment and prepares us for our social life. In early childhood, the emotional valences of auditory and visual input are salient and relevant cues of social aspects of the environment, and it is of special interest to understand how exactly the processing of emotional stimuli develops. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a noninvasive neuroimaging tool that has proven valuable in studying emotional processing in children. After conducting a systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases, we examined 50 NIRS studies performed to study emotional stimuli processing in children in the first 2 years of age. We found that the majority of these studies are done in infants and the most commonly used stimuli are visual and auditory. Many of the reviewed studies suggest the involvement of bilateral temporal areas in emotional processing of visual and auditory stimuli. It is unclear which neural activation patterns reflect maturation and at what age the emotional encoding reaches those typically seen in adults. Our review provides an overview of the database on emotional processing in children up to 2 years of age. Furthermore, it demonstrates the need to include the less-studied age range of 1 to 2 years, and suggests the use of combined audio-visual stimuli and longitudinal studies for future research on emotional processing in children. Thus, NIRS might be a vital tool to study the associations between the early pattern of neural responses and socioemotional development later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Child marriage harms girls’ health and hinders progress toward development goals. Randomized studies have shown that providing financial incentives for girls’ education can effectively delay marriage, but larger-scale interventions are needed in light of slow progress toward curbing the practice. Many sub-Saharan African countries eliminated primary school tuition fees over the past two decades, resulting in massive increases in enrolment. We measured the effect of these policies on the probability of primary school completion and of marriage before 15 and 18 years of age. Methods: We used Demographic and Health Surveys to assemble a dataset of women born between 1970 and 2000 in 16 countries. These data were merged with longitudinal information on the timing of tuition fee elimination in each country. We estimated the impact of fee removal using fixed effects regression to compare changes in the prevalence of child marriage over time between women who were exposed to tuition-free primary schooling and those who were not. Results: The removal of tuition fees led to modest average declines in the prevalence of child marriage across all of the treated countries. However, there was substantial heterogeneity between countries. The prevalence of child marriage declined by 10–15 percentage points in Ethiopia and Rwanda following tuition elimination but we found no evidence that the removal of tuition fees had an impact on child marriage rates in Cameroon or Malawi. Reductions in child marriage were not consistently accompanied by increases in the probability of primary school completion. Conclusions: Eliminating tuition fees led to reductions in child marriage on a national scale in most countries despite challenges with implementation. Improving the quality of the education available may strengthen these effects and bolster progress toward numerous other public health goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aims to cross-culturally adapt the original English-language COHIP-SF 19 to Arabic culture and to test its psychometric properties in a community sample.Methods: The Arabic COHIP-SF 19 was developed and its psychometric properties were examined in a population-based sample of 876 schoolchildren who were aged 12 years of age, in Benghazi, Libya. The Arabic COHIP-SF 19 was tested for its internal consistency, reproducibility, construct validity, factorial validity and floor as well as ceiling effects. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the mean scores of COHIP-SF 19 by participants' caries status and self-reported oral health rating, satisfaction and treatment need.Results: The Arabic COHIP-SF 19 was successfully and smoothly developed. It showed an acceptable level of equivalence to the original version. Overall, the internal consistency and reproducibility were acceptable to excellent, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.84 and an intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.76. All hypotheses predefined to test construct validity were confirmed. That is, children who had active dental caries, and who rated their oral health as poor, were not satisfied with their oral health or indicated the need of treatment had lower COHIP-SF 19 scores (P < 0.05). Floor or ceiling effects were not observed. The exploratory Factorial analysis suggested a 4-component solution and deletion of one item.Conclusion: The Arabic COHIP-SF 19 was successfully developed. The measure demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity to estimate OHRQoL in a representative sample of 12-year-old schoolchildren. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study avoided the typical laboratory context to determine instead whether over-imitation—the disposition to copy even visibly, causally unnecessary actions—occurs in a real-world context in which participants are unaware of being in an experiment. We disguised a puzzle-box task as an interactive item available to the public within a science engagement zone of Edinburgh Zoo. As a member of the public approached, a confederate acting as a zoo visitor retrieved a reward from the box using a sequence of actions containing both causally relevant and irrelevant elements. Despite the absence of intentional demonstration, or social pressure to copy, a majority of both child and even adult observers included all causally irrelevant actions in their reproduction. This occurred even though causal irrelevance appeared manifest because of the transparency of the puzzle-box. That over-imitation occurred so readily in a naturalistic context, devoid of social interaction and pressure, suggests that humans are opportunistic social learners throughout the lifespan, copying the actions of other individuals even when these actions are not intentionally demonstrated, and their causal significance is not readily apparent. The disposition to copy comprehensively, even when a mere onlooker, likely provides humans, irrespective of their age, with a powerful mechanism to extract maximal information from the social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown a connection between negative parenting practices and child conduct problems. One of the most commonly used measures to assess parenting practices is the Alabama parenting questionnaire (APQ). The current study aimed to culturally adapt and assess the psychometric properties of a short version of the APQ for use in Arabic cultures, using a sample of 251 Qatari parents of children ages 4-12. An exploratory factor analysis proposed a five-model solution that corresponds to the original proposed model in the full version of the APQ. The five constructs of the APQ correlated in the expected direction with the Conduct Problem Subscale from the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. This study provides support for the utility of the 15-item short version of the APQ in Arabic cultures. More studies are needed to validate the performance of the short version of APQ in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the termination of a marriage, children involved inevitably experience dramatic changes in different facets of their lives. This article makes use of narrative accounts of divorced single parents to investigate how their marital dissolution has impacted and changed their children's lives. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 25 Singaporean divorced parents. Within the policy and social context of Singapore society, I highlight transformations in three specific aspects of the children's lives: one, the reconfigurations of familial relationships and formation of a new family unit; two, the creation of and adaptation to new family practices and routine; three, the adoption of new social identity following parental divorce. This article hopes to present a more nuanced understanding of the divorce experience by emphasizing both the precarious and productive aspects in the children's lives, contra to the existing divorce literature that typically focuses on the former. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mealtimes and their associated rituals are recognised as important aspects of human socialisation; however, much of the research about mealtimes in early childhood education settings has focused on health or on adult–child discursive exchanges. The present study aimed to investigate children's interactions with each other and their influence on the structural aspects of mealtime. The participants were four toddlers and their teachers at one community-based childcare in New Zealand. Narrative data were interpreted from video observations and discussions with teachers. Findings showed that the toddlers playfully cooperated with each other in order to develop their own ritual. This ritual subverted the routine, communicated togetherness and reinforced the toddlers’ identity as separate to that of the adults. This article posits that teachers should seek to understand and respond sensitively to toddlers’ peer rituals, where such rituals engender positive effects on the children's sense of togetherness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study set out to examine whether Chinese parents, more than people from other nations, over-estimate the intelligence of their son (little emperor) compared to their daughter. In this study, 155 pairs of married couples from mainland China estimated their own, their partner’s and their only child’s overall intelligence and 13 “multiple intelligences.” They also completed a short measure of the Big Five personality traits. Replicating previous studies, fathers rated themselves higher than mothers for almost all types of intelligence. Results revealed, however, no parental sex differences in the estimates of children’s multiple intelligences. Both parents attributed higher overall, verbal, and musical intelligence, but lower existential intelligence to their child than to themselves. Multiple regressions indicated that estimates of verbal, logical–mathematical, spatial and intrapersonal intelligence were the best predictors of estimates of overall intelligence. Participants’ openness and neuroticism were significant predictors of self-rated intelligence. The results were interpreted in relation to specific Chinese social and cultural influences, though there seemed to be no “little emperor” effect. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is growing interest in examining the use of mobile technology among children. The present study extended this literature among a sample of 9–11-year olds in Wales, UK in three ways. First, to examine the level of mobile phone ownership; second, to consider how mobile phones are used, investigate timescales and expectations when communicating via a mobile phone; and third to explore the emotional impact of not having a text or phone call responded to. A sample of 57 children completed a self-report questionnaire focusing on the expectations and levels of understanding when making and receiving mobile phone calls and text messages. Results suggest that ownership and usage of a mobile phone is high amongst young children; however a lack of developmental and emotional maturity, highlighted by the expectation of immediate responses and the egocentric reasons given, may cause unnecessary distress among a proportion of children. Directions for future work are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Finnish pupils’ views of religious education (RE) in a pluralistic educational context. The focus is on pupils’ views of the aims and different approaches to RE in a multi-faith school. The study utilised a mixed method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data. It employed a survey (n=1301) and interviews (n=38) of pupils from grade levels 3, 6, and 9 (age groups 9–10, 12–13, 15–16) in Finnish comprehensive schools located in Helsinki and Pori. This article focuses on the data sets from the sixth and ninth grades. Besides the overall description of the pupils’ views, the influence of gender, age group and the place or residence were examined. Many differences were found between the genders, age groups and between the pupils living in the more diverse capital city and those growing up in a smaller and less diverse town context. In presenting the findings, statistical analyses are presented together with some interview extracts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Revista Paulista de Pediatria is the property of Assocoacao de Pediatria de Sao Paulo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates factors in the home environment and their influence on children’s analytical, creative, and practical skills. A sample of 294 gifted children (195 male) was recruited from grades 4–7 in Saudi Arabia, where the family context is highly influenced by the principles of Islam. Results did not confirm the effect of birth order, but showed that (1) mother’s education was an important factor for gifted children’s creativity; (2) the number of boys in the family was negatively associated with gifted boys’ creativity (r = −.21); and (3) Quran-related learning experiences were positively related to gifted girls’ analytical (r = .46) and creative (r = .42) skills. Implications for understanding non-Western environments for gifted children are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The development of metalinguistic awareness for linguistic politeness was examined in 68 Japanese-speaking child ten aged between three and five years old. A politeness judgement task was administered together with several phonological judgement tasks and false-belief tasks. Four- and five-year old Japanese children, but not three-year-olds, made correct judgements for polite and impolite linguistic expressions by matching the expressions to appropriate social attitudes on the part of the protagonists. Developmental transitions across the age groups were similar for politeness and phonological judgements, with the exception of onset detection. Politeness and phonological judgement performances correlated with each other and were independent of the children's age and receptive vocabulary. However, neither of the aspects correlated with false-belief understanding once age and vocabulary were accounted for. The findings suggest that pragmatic awareness of politeness register develops as early as four years old, in synchrony with phonological aspects at the syllable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing consensus in popular and academic commentary suggests the lived reality of Western childhood differs considerably from its dominant cultural construction as an innocent period free from adult responsibilities. Sociologically, this disjuncture is conceptualised as adultification. Adopting a critical theoretical lens, we question if Australian high-stakes standardised testing and reporting, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) andMy School, evidences adultification of childhood experience in primary and secondary schools. Qualitative critical analysis of 270 submissions to NAPLAN’s 2010 Senate Inquiry demonstrates adultification in Australian schools, with children subjected to developmentally inappropriate expectations, pressure, stress and precocious knowledge in response to NAPLAN testing and reporting. Adultification, we argue, is a side-effect of individualisation, managerialism and neo-liberal government policy played out in Australian schools and exposing children to the harsh realities of political, economic and social life. De-politicalisation and de-marketisation of children is argued as urgently needed to foreground a critically considered ‘best practice’ when promoting or measuring educational progress and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the term appeared in 2003, popular media and academics have been interested in the phenomenon of 'opting out' - elite women choosing to leave their jobs to stay at home with their children. Although it is unclear whether the opt-out revolution actually exists, this conversation has resulted in a wealth of scholarship on women leaving successful jobs to care for their children, particularly how maternity might be a graceful time to exit gendered organizations. However, there is not scholarship considering women without children who opt out of the dominant career model. In this study, I look at three popular autobiographies of women who left successful careers to pursue alternative work (farming, baking). I found that the women sought meaning in their work, control over their labour process, and a new definition of success. These narratives provide broader insight into the constraints of the dominant career model and gendered organizations as well as the particular difficulties for non-mothers to opt out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C; Döring et al., 2010) assesses children's values through self-report and thereby depicts Schwartz's theory of universal human values at an early age. Despite evidence on the PBVS-C's structural validity, there remains an open question: Does the PBVS-C measure the same values as does Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ; Schwartz et al., 2001), an established assessment instrument for adult and adolescent respondents? To answer this question about the PBVS-C's validity, Polish (N = 167) and German (N = 119) children's values were measured with both instruments. The multitrait–multimethod correlation matrix (Campbell & Fiske, 1959) of value items from both instruments was analysed with multidimensional scaling (MDS), as proposed by Borg and Groenen (1997). Our structural expectations for the MDS output about the distinctiveness (1) of Schwartz's higher order value types (i.e., traits) and (2) of the two assessment methods (PBVS-C and PVQ) were confirmed in both samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remembering parentage and parents in life writings in Britain c. 1760-1830 served four functions. First, recounting parentage enabled the writer to situate himself or herself in terms of social status, personal value, and worth. Second, memories of parents helped an individual understand and make meaning of the path his or her life had taken. Third, the process was bound up with a range of emotions, which gave parents power after childhood and had repercussions and meaning throughout the writer's life. Finally, the memories selected and accorded specific significance were often those from times of emotional crisis and disruption and recalling them may have enabled writers to impose some stability upon the insecurities of life. Overall, such memories offer insights into attitudes toward family, indicate the emotional significance of the role that parents played in their offsprings' lives from childhood to old age, and were important in the formation of personal identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a reassessment of the contemporary relevance of the political thought of Henry Adams through a focus on his ideas about the relationship between family and politics. Adams' ideas have been dismissed by contemporary thinkers, like Richard Rorty, who rely on similar ideas about the role family should play in politics. The article traces the role of ideas about family as a unifying theme in Adam's history, fiction, and autobiography. It shows both why Adams believed familial sentiments, especially feminine and motherly love, were crucial to political unity, and why he thought these sentiments had become increasingly difficult to rely upon. In showing how Adams wrestled with the difficulties that emerge in putting familial sentiments to use for politics, the article suggests that Adams' ideas offer useful lessons for contemporary thinkers interested in the relationship between family and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children are essentially invisible in theories of consumer society and culture, despite their presence and centrality in everyday life. In this article, I argue that children and childhood, and thus mothers and motherhood, must be acknowledged and investigated as constitutive of - rather than derivative of or exceptional to - commercial, consumer culture generally. The focus here is not on how to better accommodate children and childhood (and mothers and motherhood) within extant notions of consumption and consumer culture, but to begin to open up the field of consumption studies to the essential and non-negotiable presence of children and childhood throughout social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Social Work is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay responds to Winter, Thompson and Jeffreys' critique of the UN approach to harmful traditional practices. By questioning why these authors address only a limited set of harmful practices in the West, in particular missing the problem of infant male circumcision, I argue their critique is less radical than it appears. Indeed, the article reproduces what I see as the most problematic and gendered assumptions in the UN's approach: namely, the conceptualization of harmful practices solely in terms of women's victimization and men's benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few researchers have closely examined intersections between race and gender in the social relations of children, and the voices and experiences of African-American girls have been notably absent in the literature on children's peer relations. This article, based on fieldwork with the first-graders in two racially mixed US elementary schools, draws upon Black feminist theory to examine intersections between gender and racialized ethnicity, especially in the experiences of African-American girls. Findings suggest that racial positioning and gender of the African-American girls hold different meanings according to the context. The impact of race and gender as intersecting forces on the girls' peer interactions are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into how parenting strategies affect African-American children's leisure experiences in socially isolated urban neighborhoods. From the perspective of children, we describe strategies used by their parents and families to combat constraints imposed by poverty and the physical risks in their neighborhood. Over a two-year period, 43 children were interviewed about their leisure experiences within the context of their family and neighborhood. Four themes regarding parenting strategies emerged from a qualitative analysis of the data: utilization of kinship networks, serving as arrangers of leisure activities, isolation and confinement, and chaperonage. These parenting strategies allowed some children to participate in mainstream leisure activities, despite risks present in their neighborhood. On the other hand, parental restrictions on children's social interactions with peers and others perceived to be undesirable curtailed the range of leisure for some children. These findings are discussed in terms of (a) constraints to children's leisure and, (b) the programmatic implications for the planning of children's leisure in inner city neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed children's social creativity through interviews during which participants imagined original solutions to interpersonal problems. In addition, we compared performances in the social domain with those obtained in object-oriented problem-solving tasks such as the Unusual Uses of a Box creativity test designed by Torrance (1974) and the Similarities subtest of the WISC (1996). A total of 88 French children participated in this study. First, we observed links between social creativity tasks as well as consistent developmental trends showing that social creativity can be considered as a unitary construct. Second, with regard to the integration or differentiation of creative abilities in children's development, results showed a distinct creative ability in the social domain for younger children and the emergence of a more general creative ability in older children. Third, the relationship between fluency and originality indices was stable across age groups and task domains, supporting Simonton's constant-probability-of-success model (1990) for children. Implications for the study of creative abilities in the social domain and for understanding how children interact with others in various social settings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author explores the Jamaican slave trade in order to systematically compare it to the other major and minor slave trades to the U.S. and Africa. In many respects, the late eighteenth century trade to Jamaica also reflected general patterns to be found in all the important trading zones. Thus the age and sex ratios of the slaves arriving on Jamaican shores were similar to those for the Africans transported to the other major regions of America in the eighteenth century. There is the same dominance of males and of adults, with the majority of slaves being men in their prime years of life. The low ratio of women is reflected in both the adult and the children categories and, at least for the years of the trade covered by the House of Lords register of shipping, seems invariant. Another significant difference is in the importance of children in the two trades. While there is probably some overlap into the adult category in the British returns, which provide only two age categories for the entering slaves, as opposed to the three age categories given by the Spanish customs authorities, there is still little doubt that there were important differences in age as well as in sex balances between the two trades. While the Jamaicans were importing more women than the Cubans, they were clearly importing fewer children.

The article reports on educational inequality in West Germany. The rate of growth in educational opportunities for low status children has been low although the rate of economic growth in the last two decades has been remarkable compared with other European countries. Tables are presented that lists development of educational participation in West Germany from 196-1970, distribution of children by type of school from 1960-1970, and transfer rates of gymnasium students and first year undergraduates by social status and age. Traditionally, education in West Germany has been very elitist. It is a logical argument that attitudes to education are conditioned by tradition and that tradition dies hard.