Fostering Children and Adolescents in Situations of Abandonment, Violence and Separation

Childhood protection is undergoing several changes. Our study aimed to outline the complex network of meanings which includes adoption as well as institutional and family foster care, by combining theory, research and practice. We investigated various contexts and protagonists: judicial system, foster institutions, birth parents, foster and adoptive parents, and families and their children. Diverse data collection procedures were used: socio-demographic investigations, case-studies, follow-ups, interviews, analysis of foster institutions and legal court documents. Results pointed to "invisibility" of birth family, frequent child (re)abuse, failures in the network of protection, meanings of "healthy family" and role of attachment concepts. Implications for social policies and social practices are discussed.

Metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents - criteria for diagnosis

In recent years, there has been a greater concern about the presence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. However, there is no consensus regarding the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. It is evident that each component of the syndrome must be identified as early as possible in order to prevent definitive lesions. The question is how to do this and which cut-offs must be adopted for this diagnosis. For a matter of convenience, the definition chosen as the most appropriate is the one proposed by the IDF, with cut-offs fixed for pressure, lipids and glycemia, and abdominal circumference points assessed by percentile. Although on the one hand this definition could fail to include some children in the diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome, on the other hand, it would be of easier acceptance as it does not use multiple tables to assess several anthropometric and metabolic criteria.