Living in a broken world : how young children's well-being is supported through playing out their earthquake experiences

The therapeutic value of play can be shown in spontaneous play situations following children’s experiences of traumatic events. Following the events of the Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand in 2010 and 2011, an investigation was conducted of how children used the earthquake event as a catalyst in pretend play with peers and in discussions with teachers. Supporting children’s well-being is a focus area in New Zealand early childhood education as it is a strand of the national curriculum, Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 1996). In this article, children are observed engaging in pretend play episodes and with Learning Story books to explore personal reflections of the earthquake, prompting the children to make reference to things being ‘broken’ and needing 'fixing.' Analysis shows how the content of the pretend play experiences helped the children to come to terms with their experiences. Affording children time and interactional opportunities to play out and discuss traumatic experiences contributes to the psychological well-being of participants following a traumatic event.

Children, Adults, Autonomy and Well-Being

I explore the implications of a view – that children and adults enjoy a markedly different moral and political status, wherein the latter can and should be permitted to make choices as to how they lead their lives, whereas the former should not be permitted to make such choices – for how we think about the relationship between autonomy and welfare, and in particular, in consequence, for how we evaluate paternalism. I discuss the problem of drawing a line and the ‘threshold problem’, and consider how one might, as the UNCRC requires, give a weighted role to the views of the child on matters affecting its own interests.

Building an index of well-being for children living in Ireland: conceptual, measurement and policy considerations

This study conceptualised and measured children’s well-being in Ireland and considered how such conceptualisations and approaches to the measurement of well-being might inform social policy for children and families living in Ireland. This research explored what is meant by children’s well-being and how it can be conceptualised and measured so as to reflect the multi-dimensionality of the concept. The study developed an index of well-being that was both theoretically and methodologically robust and could be meaningfully used to inform social policy developments for children and their families. For the first time, an index of well-being for children was developed using an explicitly articulated unifying theory of children’s well-being. Moreover, for the first time an index of wellbeing was developed for 13-year old children living in Ireland using data from Wave 2 of the national longitudinal study of children. The Structural Model of Child Well-being (SMCW), the theoretical framework that underpins the development of this study’s index, offers a comprehensive understanding of well-being. The SMCW builds on, and integrates, a range of already-established theories concerning children’s development, their agency, rights and capabilities into a unifying theory that explains well-being in its entirety. This conceptualisation of well-being moves beyond the narrow focus on child development adopted in some recent studies of children’s well-being and which perpetuate individualised and self-responsibilising conceptualisations of well-being. This study found that the SMCW can be meaningfully applied, both theoretically and operationally, to the construction of an index of well-being for children. While it was not the purpose of this study to validate the SMCW, in the process of developing the index, I concluded that there was a theoretical ‘fit’ between the conceptual orientation of the SMCW and the wider children’s well-being literature. The ‘nested’ structure of the SMCW facilitated the identification of domains, sub-domains and indicators of well-being reflecting typical conventions of index construction. The findings from the resulting index, in both its categorical and continuous forms, demonstrated how a comprehensive theory of well-being can be used to illustrate how children are faring and which children are experiencing poorer or better well-being. Furthermore, this study demonstrated how the SMCW and the resultant index can be meaningfully used to support the implementation and review of the national policy framework for children and young people in Ireland.

Mindfulness Practices and Children’s Emotional and Mental Well-Being: Activities to Build and Strengthen Everyday Resilience Adapted for Primary School Teachers

This project reviewed current research on mental health and Canadian children, and then examined the practice of mindfulness as a means of supporting well-being and circumventing the potential detrimental effects of mental health problems. By contextualizing these findings within the recently released educational vision of the Ontario Ministry of Education (2014), which identifies well-being as one of the core principles of education in Ontario, this project investigated how mindfulness-based practices can be brought into the primary grade classroom. The ultimate purpose of this project is the development of a handbook for Ontario teachers of students in grades 1 to 3 (ages 6 to 8). This resource was developed from a comprehensive literature review and provides educators with easy-to-follow activities to use in the classroom to encourage the development of resilience and emotional well-being through mindfulness. The handbook also includes additional information and resources regarding both mindfulness and mental health that may be helpful to teachers, students, and parents.

The importance of social support for students with intellectual disability : an intervention to promote mental health and well-being

Children and adolescents with intellectual disability have higher rates of mental health problems compared with there typically developing peers. Social support has been identified as an important protective factor for psychological well - being. In this paper we discuss the benefits of social support networks, and consider approaches for promoting children’s perceptions of the availability of social support. We describe an evidence-based intervention that has been specially adapted and implemented for students with intellectual disability in school settings. In a randomised controlled trial, the Aussie Optimism Resilience Skills Program was associated with improved perceptions of social support following a 10-week intervention. Educators need to be aware of the increased vulnerability of students with intellectual disability to the development mental health problems and the proactive ways in which they can promote psychological well - being within their classrooms.

The effects of maltreatment on children's health and well-being.

Although our society has put in place various forms of legislation to protect children's rights, many children are still subject to various forms of maltreatment such as sexual, physical or emotional abuse and/or physical or emotional neglect. All of these can have serious detrimental effects on the victims. Previous literature in this area has tended to focus on sexual abuse. In contrast, this paper provides an overview of all the different types of maltreatment in terms of characteristics of victims, the range of consequences, mediating factors and types of interventions that may be offered.

“It’s like a problem that doesn’t exist”: The emotional well-being of mothers caring for a child with brain injury.

Background: Although research has shown that significant burden and adverse psychological impact are associated with caring for a child with brain injury, limited knowledge exists concerning the qualitative experience and impact of this burden.
Objective: To provide an account of the experiences of mothers who care for a childhood survivor of brain injury.
Research design: Postal survey.
Methods and procedures: A self-report questionnaire was sent to a consecutive sample of mothers (n=86) of children (aged 8-28) with acquired brain injury, registered with a UK children’s brain injury charity. Five essay style questions enabled mothers to reflect on and describe at length their caring experiences, with particular emphasis placed on the perceived impact on emotional well-being.
Main outcomes and results: Thematic analysis identified five key themes: Perpetually Anxious, The Guilty Carer, The Labour of Caring, A Self-Conscious Apologist and Perpetually Grieving. Collectively, these themes highlight two core processes shaping mothers’ caring experiences and concomitant mental well-being. Firstly, the collective and enduring nature of caregiver burden over time. Second, the crucial role played by socio-cultural values in perpetuating caregiver burden.
Conclusions: Societal norms, particularly those relating to the nature and outcome of brain injury and motherhood, serve to marginalise mothers and increase feelings of isolation. Findings suggest the value of peer support programs as an effective means of providing appropriate social support.

Working with fathers to improve children's well-being: Results of a survey exploring service provision and intervention approach in the UK

Interventions for fathers are a recent growth area in family services. Although some specific approaches are beginning to be evaluated, there is little known about what kinds of interventions are more generally being used in practice. A web-based survey of practitioners was conducted in the UK, with contact being made via local authority service managers. Two hundred and twenty-one responses were received from 53% of local authorities. Both interventions specifically for fathers and services for both parents were targeted in the survey. Results are reported on organisational location; targeting of services; type of intervention; numbers and percentages of men attending services, recruitment of fathers; evaluation strategies; and ideological and theoretical approaches. Numbers of fathers engaged are relatively low - e.g. the median annual number of fathers attending structured parenting courses was eight and in courses for both parents, 21% of those attending were men. Responses on ideological and theoretical approaches suggest that overt gender politics play only a small part, but that the dominant views of practitioners are in line with mainstream approaches to parenting support. Cognitive and behavioral approaches were the most popular.

Student Perspectives of the Context of Recess; Implications for Student Well-Being

With most students in Canada spending approximately 180 days a year in school, averaging more than six hours a day (Morrison & Kirby, 2011), Wei, Szumilas and Kutcher (2011) argue that this places educational institutions in an unique position in terms of influencing the health and well-being of students. This brings forth the need for school environments to be utilized in ways that are conducive to promoting student development. Much of the educational and developmental components embedded within the school system as well as experiences within greatly influence student’s health and well-being. A national statement was made a concerning American children’s education and mental health that is greatly applicable to the Canadian school system. It was stated that schools “must be active partners in the mental health care of our children” because of the “important interplay between emotional health and school success” (Lazarus & Sulkowski, 2011, pp. 15-16). This identifies the need to ensure that all students, as much as possible, are being provided with safe environments and sufficient support in order to encourage positive developmental trajectories of student health and well-being.

Children, health and well-being:policy debates and lived experiences

This book brings together new and leading scholars, who demonstrate the importance of research with children and from a child perspective, allowing for a fuller understanding of the meaning and impact of health and illness in children’s lives. •Demonstrates the importance of research with children and research from a child perspective, in order to fully understand the meaning and impact of health and illness in children’s lives •Encourages critical reflection on contemporary health policy and its relationships to culturally specific ways of knowing and understanding children’s health •Brings together new and leading scholars in the field of children’s health and illness •Moves the highly important issue of children’s health into the mainstream sociology of health and illness

INTERGENERATIONAL SUPPORT AND WELL-BEING OF OLDER ADULTS IN CHANGING FAMILY CONTEXTS

This dissertation consists of three papers that examine the complexities in upward intergenerational support and adult children’s influence on older adults’ health in changing family contexts of America and China. The prevalence of “gray divorce/repartnering ” in later life after age 55 is on the rise in the United States, yet little is known about its effect on intergenerational support. The first paper uses the life course perspective to examine whether gray divorce and repartnering affect support from biological and stepchildren differently than early divorce and repartnering, and how patterns differ by parents’ gender. Massive internal migration in China has led to increased geographic distance between adult children and aging parents, which may have consequences for old age support received by parents. This topic has yet to be thoroughly explored in China, as most studies of intergenerational support to older parents have focused on the role of coresident children or have not considered the interdependence of multiple parent-child dyads in the family. The second paper adopts the within-family differences approach to assess the influence of non-coresident children’s relative living proximity to parents compared to that of their siblings on their provision of support to parents in rural and urban Chinese families. The study also examines how patterns of the impact are moderated by parents’ living arrangement, non-coresident children’s gender, and parents’ provision of support to children. Taking a multigenerational network perspective, the third paper questions if and how adult children’s socioeconomic status (SES) influences older parents’ health in China. It further examines whether health benefits brought by adult children’s socioeconomic attainment are larger for older adults with lower SES and whether one of the mechanisms through which adult children’s SES affects older parents’ health is by changing their health behaviors. These questions are highly relevant in contemporary China, where adult children have experienced substantial gains in SES and play a central role in old age support for parents. In sum, these three papers take the life course, the within-family differences, and the multigenerational network perspective to address the complexities in intergenerational support and older adults’ health in diverse family contexts.

How the whiteness embedded in health services impacts on the health and well-being of Aboriginal peoples

Aboriginal women are treated differently by non-indigenous health care providers based on perceptions of Aboriginality and skin colour and white race privilege within health care environments. The experiences shared below are from some of the Aboriginal woman respondents in a research project undertaken within Rockhampton, a regional area in Central Queensland (Fredericks, 2003). The experiences give an insight into how the Aboriginal women interviewed felt and their observations of how other Aboriginal women were treated within health care settings based on skin colour and perceptions of Aboriginality. A number of the women demonstrated a personal in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding place, skin colour and Aboriginality. For example, one of the women, who I named Kay, identified one particular health service organisation and stated that, ‘it is a totally white designed space. There is nothing that identifies me to that place. I just won’t go there as a client because I don’t feel they cater for me as a black woman’. Kay’s words give us an understanding of the reality experienced by Aboriginal women as they move in and out of places within health environments and broader society. Some of these experiences are examples of direct racism, whilst other examples are subtle and demonstrate how whiteness manifests and plays out within places. I offer acknowledgement and honour to the Aboriginal women who shared their stories and gave me a glimpse of their realities in the research project from which the findings presented in this chapter are taken. It is to this research project that is the subject of this chapter.