Placement Trajectory : mapping the journeys of children and young people in out-of-home care

Significant problems confront our child protection out-of-home care system including: high costs; increasing numbers of children and young people entering and remaining in care longer; high frequency of placement movement; and, negative whole-of-life outcomes for children and young people who have exited care. National policy and research agendas recognise the importance of enhancing the evidence base in out-of-home care to inform the development of policy, programs and practice, and improve longitudinal outcomes of children and young people. The authors discuss the concept of placement trajectory as a framework for research and systems analysis in the out-of-home context. While not without limitations, the concept of placement trajectory is particularly useful in understanding the factors influencing placement movement and stability. Increasing the evidence base in this area can serve to enhance improved outcomes across the lifespan for children and young people in the out-of-home care system.

The contribution of physical activity and sedentary behaviours to the growth and development of children and adolescents : implications for overweight and obesity

The obesity epidemic is a global trend and is of particular concern in children. Recent reports have highlighted the severity of obesity in children by suggesting: “today's generation of children will be the first for over a century for whom life expectancy falls.” This review assesses the evidence that identifies the important role of physical activity in the growth, development and physical health of young people, owing to its numerous physical and psychological health benefits. Key issues, such as “does a sedentary lifestyle automatically lead to obesity” and “are levels of physical activity in today's children less than physical activity levels in children from previous generations?”, are also discussed. Today's environment enforces an inactive lifestyle that is likely to contribute to a positive energy balance and childhood obesity. Whether a child or adolescent, the evidence is conclusive that physical activity is conducive to a healthy lifestyle and prevention of disease. Habitual physical activity established during the early years may provide the greatest likelihood of impact on mortality and longevity. It is evident that environmental factors need to change if physical activity strategies are to have a significant impact on increasing habitual physical activity levels in children and adolescents. There is also a need for more evidence-based physical activity guidelines for children of all ages. Efforts should be concentrated on facilitating an active lifestyle for children in an attempt to put a stop to the increasing prevalence of obese children

Disputes in Everyday Life : Social and Moral Orders of Children and Young People

"The research presented in this volume has been undertaken in a range of settings and across ages, to display the rich, varied, and complex aspects of children and young people's everyday lives. The papers contribute to understanding children's disputes, framed as forms of social practice, by closely examining children's talk and interaction in disputes to offer insight into how they arrange their social lives within the context of school, home, neighborhood, correctional, and cafe settings. As such, this volume contributes to an emerging body of edited volumes that investigate children and young people's everyday interactions (Cromdal, 2009; Cromdal & Tholander, in press; Gardner & Forrester, 2010; Goodwin & Kyratzis, 2007; Hutchby & Moran-Ellis, 1998). Each paper has been peer reviewed, by respected researchers of the field, in some cases authors of this volume, and revised. We also thank Charlotte Cobb-Moore who so ably assisted in the final preparation of the manuscripts."---publisher website

Introduction : disputes in everyday life – Social and moral orders of children and young people

Volume 15 of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth (SSYC) presents a rich description of children’s and young people’s disputes. Children and young people live and experience their youth in a variety of contexts, settings and situations in contemporary society, and the studies discussed in this volume draw on empirical data to investigate the interactional procedures used by children and young people as disputes arise in varying contexts of their everyday life. The aim of this volume is to extend current understandings of on children’s disputes by examining how, in the varying arenas and social worlds of children and young people, matters of ownership, alignment and social and moral order are always at play. Applying a sociological perspective, the research papers in this special volume show that disputes can offer analytic opportunities to examine, and make visible typically unseen social and moral orders. This consideration provides rich accounts of dispute practices within social and institutional contexts.

Citizenship, community, public space and the marginalisation of children and young people

Throughout Australia (and in comparable urban contexts around the world) public spaces may be said to be under attack by developers and also attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, rebrand and reframe them. A consequence of the increasingly security driven, privatised and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion and displacement of those considered flawed and unwelcome in the ‘spectacular’ consumption spaces of many major urban centres. In the name of urban regeneration, processes of securitisation, ‘gentrification’ and creative cities discourses can refashion public space as sites of selective inclusion and exclusion. In this context of monitoring and control procedures, children and young people’s use of space in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to the social order, requiring various forms of punitive and/or remedial action. This paper discusses developments in the surveillance, governance and control of public space used by children and young people in particular and the capacity for their displacement and marginality, diminishing their sense of place and belonging, and right to public space as an expression of their civil, political and social citizenship(s).

Public Space and the Marginalisation of Children and Young People

Throughout much of the world, urban and rural public spaces may be said to be under attack by property developers, commercial interests and also attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, reframe and rebrand these spaces. A consequence of the increasingly security driven, privatised, commercial and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion and displacement of those considered ‘flawed’ and unwelcome in the ‘spectacular’ consumption spaces of many major urban centres. In the name of urban regeneration, processes of securitisation, ‘gentrification’ and creative cities initiatives can act to refashion public space as sites of selective inclusion and exclusion. The use of surveillance and other control technologies as deployed in and around the UK ‘Riots’ of 2011 may help to promote and encourage a passing sense of personal safety and confidence in using public space. Through systems of social sorting, the same surveillance assemblages can also further the physical, emotional and psychological exclusion of certain groups and individuals, deemed to be both ‘out of time and out of place’ in major zones of urban, conspicuous, consumption. In this harsh environment of monitoring and control procedures, children and young people’s use of public spaces and places in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to social order, requiring various forms of punitive and/or remedial action. Much of this civic action actively excludes some children and young people from participation and as a consequence, their trust in local processes and communities is eroded. This paper discusses worldwide developments in the surveillance, governance and control of the public space environments used by children and young people in particular and the capacity for their displacement and marginality, diminishing their sense of belonging, wellbeing and rights to public space as an expression of their social, political and civil citizenship(s).

Compliance with physical activity guidelines : prevalence in a population of children and youth

PURPOSE To use objective monitoring of physical activity to determine the percentages of children and youth in a population that met physical activity guidelines. METHODS A total of 375 students in grades 1–12 wore an accelerometer (CSA 7164) for seven consecutive days. Bouts of continuous activity and accumulation of minutes spent in physical activity at various intensities were calculated to determine how many students met three physical activity guidelines. RESULTS Over 90% of students met Healthy People 2010, Objective 22.6 and nearly 70% met the United Kingdom Expert Consensus Group guideline, both of which recommend daily accumulation of moderate physical activity. Less than 3% met Healthy People 2010, Objective 22.7, which calls for bouts of continuous vigorous physical activity. For the United Kingdom Expert Consensus Group guideline, compliance decreased markedly with age, but gender differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Prevalence estimates for compliance with national physical activity guidelines varied markedly for the three guidelines examined. Objective monitoring of physical activity in youth appears to be feasible and may provide more accurate prevalence rates than self-report measures.

Public space and the marginalisation of children and young people

Throughout Australia (and elsewhere in the world) public spaces are under attack by developers and also attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict and reframe them. A consequence of the increasingly security driven, privatised and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion and displacement of those considered flawed and unwelcome in the “spectacular” consumption spaces of major urban centres. In this context of monitoring and control procedures, children and young people’s use of public space in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to social order, requiring various forms of punitive and/or remedial action. This paper discusses developments in the surveillance, governance and control of public space used by children and young people in particular and the capacity for their displacement and marginality, diminishing their sense of belonging, wellbeing and right to public space as an expression of social, political and civil citizenship.

Urban public space and the marginalisation of children and young people

In the 21st century city, public space for a range of users, but especially children and young people, has come under threat. Watson proposed that “public space itself has come under attack from several directions-thematisation, enclosure into malls and other controlled spaces, and privatisation, or from urban planning and design interventions to erase its uniqueness”. Largely as a result of these trends, Scott observed that “young urbanites form a marginalised age class movement is restricted, out of fear and distrust, within aims to protect, monitored by city surveillance methods within the security-obsessed fabric”. The use of public space by children and young people is a contentious issue in a number of countries and a range of measures deployed to control public space curtail the rights of children and young people to claim the space for their use through curfews, oppressive camera surveillance and at times, the unwarranted attentions of police and private security personnel.

Critical review of Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry into abuse of children in foster care : social work's contribution to reform

This paper profiles Queensland's recent Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry into the abuse of children in foster care. The authors welcome the outcome as an opportunity to highlight the problems encountered by child protection jurisdictions in Australia and internationally, and they applaud some of the Inquiry's findings. However, the paper argues that the path to reform is hampered by insufficient accountability by government and management, and an inadequate challenge to the ideologies underpinning contemporary child protection policy and practice. The authors conclude with a call to value and assert social work's contribution to child protection systems so as to vastly improve outcomes for children and families.

A comparison of children's needs models in the Australian and Chinese context

The diverse needs of children have been drawing global attention from both academic and practitioner communities. Based on semi-structured interviews with 23 kin caregivers and five school personnel in the Shijiapu Town of Jilin Province, China, this paper presents a needs model for rural school-age children left behind by their migrant parents. This Chinese model is compared to the needs identification mechanism developed by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and youth. The paper outlines the common needs of children in different contexts, and also highlights the needs that are not explicit in the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth framework, such as empowerment and agency or perhaps given insufficient weight, such as education. In discussing relationships among different needs, aspects that are missing in the framework it is argued that culture should be more explicitly recognised when defining need.

The relationship of loneliness and social anxiety with children's and adolescents' online communication

Children and adolescents are now using online communication to form and/or maintain relationships with strangers and/or friends. Relationships in real life are important for children and adolescents in identity formation and general development. However, social relationships can be difficult for those who experience feelings of loneliness and social anxiety. The current study aimed to replicate and extend research conducted by Valkenburg and Peter (2007b), by investigating differences in online communication patterns between children and adolescents with and without selfreported loneliness and social anxiety. Six hundred and twenty-six students aged 10-16 years completed a questionnaire survey about the amount of time they engaged in online communication, the topics they discussed, who they communicated with, and their purposes of online communication. Following Valkenburg and Peter (2007b), loneliness was measured with a shortened version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) developed by Russell (1996), whereas social anxiety was assessed with a sub-scale of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (La Greca & Lopez, 1998). The sample was divided into four groups of children and adolescents: 220 were “non-socially anxious and non-lonely”, 139 were “socially anxious but not lonely”, 107 were “lonely but not socially anxious”, and 159 were “lonely and socially anxious”. A one-way ANOVA and chi-square tests were conducted to evaluate the aforementioned differences between these groups. The results indicated that children and adolescents who reported being lonely used online communication differently from those who did not report being lonely. Essentially, the former communicated online more frequently about personal things and intimate topics, but also to compensate for their weak social skills and to meet new people. Further analyses on gender differences within lonely children and adolescents revealed that boys and girls communicated online more frequently with different partners. It was concluded that for these vulnerable individuals online communication may fulfil needs of self-disclosure, identity exploration, and social interactions. However, future longitudinal studies combining a quantitative with a qualitative approach would better address the relationship between Internet use and psychosocial well-being. The findings also suggested the need for further exploration of how such troubled children and adolescents can use the Internet beneficially.