Jóvenes que estuvieron en el sistema de protección social a la infancia : reflexiones a partir de una investigación realizada en Girona, España = Young people who were in the child protection system : reflections from a study done in Girona, Spain

Research on residential care is still scarce despite its high implementation in Spain. This article presents the results of a research using qualitative methods. The study analyses the situation experienced by young people who lived in foster care in the province of Girona (1994-2002) based on their opinions and perceptions expressed in a semi-structured interview. The results, clustered into subcategories, show lack of knowledge about the reasons why they needed foster care, if it was better being there than staying with their parents, and the lack of support for transition to adulthood. The study shows implications for children and youth policies, professional practice and research

The Child Protection System from the Perspective of Young People: Messages from 3 Studies

This article reports findings and reflections based on the results of three different research projects conducted between 2008 and 2013 and focusing on the perspective of young care leavers in Spain. The overall aim was to examine these young people’s perceptions and evaluations of how they were treated while in the public care system, mainly residential care. Reviewing these qualitative studies, the most common and relevant issues highlighted by young people were related to the following themes: (a) entering care; (b) stability and emotional bonds in care; (c) education; (d) friends; (e) labelling, stigmatization, rights and opportunities; (f) autonomy and responsibility versus overprotection; (g) contact with parents, siblings and extended family; (h) maltreatment in care; and (i) leaving care. One of the main elements used in their assessments was comparison (i) between their previous situation within their birth family and the quality of care experienced in the residential home; and (ii) between what these young people commonly refer to as “normal children” and children in care. Recommendations deriving from their advice and opinions are also debated

Barnbyn Skå (Skå, la vila dels infants) 1947-1972: L’experiència terapèutica de Gustav Jonsson amb infants «irrecuperables»

The article presents the trajectory of the Swedish psychiatrist Gustav Jonsson (1907-1994) who, in the 1940s, revolutionised the therapeutic and educational treatment of children and young people, considered irreclaimable from the social point of view, who were committed to educational institutions. It analyses the social development of the Welfare State in Sweden, the legal framework of child protection, as well as the context of Swedish residential care centres for children and young people in the first half of the 20th century in order to go further into the psychological and educational work conducted with the Barnbyn Skå group. Jonsson redirected the analysis of violent behaviours that were manifest in these children and young people which made them intractable from the educational point of view and established elements of psychoanalytical understanding, based on a systemic approach in which the family context became essential in order to understand the children’s difficulties. Barnbyn Skå was the centre which, under the guidance of Jonsson, developed this new therapeutic and pedagogic approach. The educational work carried out there exceeded the traditional model in terms of control and surveillance. The methods were considered radical from within pedagogy and caused great controversy which led the centre to continuous investigations on behalf of the Social Services of Stockholm between 1960 and 1970. For several decades Barnbyn Skå has been considered a pioneering experience in the field of Scandinavian child psychiatry.

Innovación socioeducativa para el apoyo de adolescentes en situación de acogimiento familiar

Este artículo presenta los resultados de la investigación sobre los adolescentes acogidos en familias extensas. Este proyecto se sitúa en la investigación cooperativa. La muestra está compuesta por 57 jóvenes acogidos y 79 técnicos expertos en protección de la infancia de ocho regiones españolas. Los resultados indican que los jóvenes acogidos tienen deseos diferenciales que demandan una respuesta específica que hemos concretado en la creación del «programa de apoyo para adolescentes de acogida». A continuación se mostrarán las principales características de este programa; se hará, también, una reflexión sobre sus aspectos fundamentales, es decir, la ayuda a los técnicos para que ellos puedan obtener un nuevo recurso de formación e intervención grupal introduciendo como método la promoción de la resiliencia.

Factors affecting foster care breakdown in Spain

La ruptura del acogimiento familiar se ha definido como aquella situación en la que alguna de las partes implicadas causa una terminación de la intervención antes de haber alcanzado los objetivos establecidos en el plan de caso. Este trabajo presenta un estudio llevado a cabo en una muestra española de 318 casos cerrados de niños que fueron acogidos en familia ajena y extensa. Los datos se obtuvieron a través de la revisión exhaustiva de los expedientes de protección y acogimiento, complementada conentrevistas a los técnicos encargados de cada caso. La tasa de ruptura del conjunto de la muestra fue de 26,1%, si bien fuesignificativamente diferente en familia extensa (19,7%) que en familia ajena (31,2%). Los resultados de este estudio indican que las variables relacionadas con la ruptura dependen de la modalidad del acogimiento, en familia ajena o extensa. En el primer caso destacamos las variables relacionadas con las características del niño, especialmente los problemas de conducta y escolares, con especial relevancia en el grupo de 9-12 años, y el haber estado en acogimiento residencial previamente. En cambio, en extensaresulta más importante la problemática en los padres (prisión, salud mental) y el tener una medida de tutela. También el hecho de que se realice el acogimiento tras pasar por hogares de acogida resulta trascendental. Finalmente, la disponibilidad de recursos económicos e incluso los estudios de los acogedores parecen ser variables relacionadas con la ruptura de la acogida

Investor protection, risk sharing and inequality

This paper studies the relationship between investor protection, financial risk sharing and income inequality. In the presence of market frictions, better protection makes investors more willing to take on entrepreneurial risk while lending to firms. This implies lower cost of external finance and better risk sharing between financiers and entrepreneurs. Investor protection, by boosting the market for risk sharing plays the twofold role of encouraging agents to undertake risky enterprises and providing them with insurance. By increasing the number of risky projects, it raises income inequality. By extending insurance to more agents, it reduces it. As a result, the relationship between the size of the market for risk sharing and income inequality is hump-shaped. Empirical evidence from a cross-section of sixty-eight countries, and a panel of fifty countries over the period 1976-2000, supports the predictions of the model.

The Child is father of the man: implications for the demographic transition

We propose a new theory of the demographic transition based on the evidence that body development during childhood is an important predictor of adult life expectancy. This theory is embodied in an OLG framework where fertility, longevity and education all result from individual decisions. The model displays different regimes, allowing the economy to move slowly from an initial Malthusian regime towards the Modern era. The dynamics reproduces the key features of the demographic transition, including the permanent increase in life expectancy, resulting from improvements in body development, the hump in both population growth and fertility, and a late increase in secondary educational attainments.

Investor protection and income inequality: risk sharing vs risk taking

This paper studies the relationship between investor protection, entrepreneurial risk taking and income inequality. In the presence of market frictions, better protection makes investors more willing to take on entrepreneurial risk when lending to firms, thereby improving the degree of risk sharing between financiers and entrepreneurs. On the other hand, by increasing risk sharing, investor protection also induces more firms to undertake risky projects. By increasing entrepreneurial risk taking, it raises income dispersion. By reducing the risk faced by entrepreneurs, it reduces income volatility. As a result, investor protection raises income inequality to the extent that it fosters risk taking, while it reduces it for a given level of risk taking. Empirical evidence from a panel of forty-five countries spanning the period 1976-2000 supports the predictions of the model.

Nominal plural marking of nonce words in child Spanish

This study addresses the issue of Spanish plural marking considering data from three sources: existent words, loan words and nonce words. Specifically, we are interested in the role of stress placement and word-final sound in the use of /-es/ for plural formation. We present data concerning the interaction of these two features for children and adults. Our findings suggest that this phenomenon is a classic example of over generalization in acquisition. Stress does not seem a determining feature by itself. Its main effect is produced when it interacts with the structure of the syllable

Seeds of hope: Assessing the effect of development aid on the reduction of child mortality

The Millennium Declaration (2000) set as one of its targets a substantial reduction in child mortality. This paper studies whether the massive increase in development aid can account for part of the reduction in child mortality observed in developing countries since the year 2000. To do so, we analyze a panel of more than 130 developing countries over the 2000-2008 period. We use the time trend evolution of aid to identify an exogenous source of variation. Total aid has had no statistically significant effect on child mortality. However, a disaggregate analysis identifies certain sectors of aid that have had a significant impact. The effects have been larger in high mortality countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa. Projections based on our estimates strongly support the concern that most countries in that region will miss the Millennium Goals target on child mortality.

Neither Private nor Public: The Effects of Communal Provision of Water on Child Health in Peru

The literature on local services has focused on the effects of privatization and, if anything, has compared the effects of private and mixed public-private systems versus public provision. However, alternative forms of provision such as cooperatives, which can be very prevalent in many developing countries, have been completely ignored. In this paper, we investigate the effects of communal water provison (Comités Vecinales and Juntas Administrativas de Servicios de Saneamiento) on child health in Peru. Using detailed survey data at the household- and child-level for the years 2006-2010, we exploit the cross-section variability to assess the differential impact of this form of provision. Despite controlling for a wide range of household and local characteristics, the municipalities served by communal organizations are more likely to have poorer health indicators, what would result in a downward bias on the absolute magnitude of the effect of cooperatives. We rely on an instrumental variable strategy to deal with this potential endogeneity problem, and use the personnel resources and the administrative urban/rural classi fication of the municipalities as instruments for the provision type. The results show a negative and signi cant effect of comunal water provision on diarrhea among under- five year old children. Keywords: water utilities, cooperatives, child health, regulation, Peru. JEL Classi fication Numbers: L33; L50; L95

Enhancing MPLS QoS routing algorithms by using the network protection degree paradigm

IP based networks still do not have the required degree of reliability required by new multimedia services, achieving such reliability will be crucial in the success or failure of the new Internet generation. Most of existing schemes for QoS routing do not take into consideration parameters concerning the quality of the protection, such as packet loss or restoration time. In this paper, we define a new paradigm to develop new protection strategies for building reliable MPLS networks, based on what we have called the network protection degree (NPD). This NPD consists of an a priori evaluation, the failure sensibility degree (FSD), which provides the failure probability and an a posteriori evaluation, the failure impact degree (FID), to determine the impact on the network in case of failure. Having mathematical formulated these components, we point out the most relevant components. Experimental results demonstrate the benefits of the utilization of the NPD, when used to enhance some current QoS routing algorithms to offer a certain degree of protection

Minimum interference routing with fast protection

One of the most effective techniques offering QoS routing is minimum interference routing. However, it is complex in terms of computation time and is not oriented toward improving the network protection level. In order to include better levels of protection, new minimum interference routing algorithms are necessary. Minimizing the failure recovery time is also a complex process involving different failure recovery phases. Some of these phases depend completely on correct routing selection, such as minimizing the failure notification time. The level of protection also involves other aspects, such as the amount of resources used. In this case shared backup techniques should be considered. Therefore, minimum interference techniques should also be modified in order to include sharing resources for protection in their objectives. These aspects are reviewed and analyzed in this article, and a new proposal combining minimum interference with fast protection using shared segment backups is introduced. Results show that our proposed method improves both minimization of the request rejection ratio and the percentage of bandwidth allocated to backup paths in networks with low and medium protection requirements