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Abstract This paper aims to explore the challenges to youth work in capturing the voices of young people in a meaningful way within Meitheal and the Child and Family Support Networks model (Meitheal). This is a prevention and early intervention model for statutory and non-statutory agencies working with children, young people and families. This paper, within the context of Meitheal, will explore how best to achieve positive outcomes for young people, and identify what are the barriers which inhibit their full participation in this model. A total of 16 youth workers completed semi-structured interviews that were transcribed and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The analysis identified three themes: 'Role of youth work in Meitheal', 'Barriers and facilitators of adolescent voices in Meitheal' and 'The young person'. The study found that youth workers recognise advocacy and support of young people as a key role for their profession within models of prevention and early intervention. Barriers to adolescents' active engagement in Meitheal were the formal structure and agenda, but also the need to achieve outcomes in exchange of professional validation. Youth workers are also concerned about the nature of young people's participation as being fully participatory and voluntary in the process, whilst questioning if their voices are truly being included in a meaningful way. Highlights • Youth workers' role within Meitheal is one of support and advocacy of the young person. • The structured and formal setting of Meitheal challenged the participation of young people. • Meitheal can be unsettling and difficult for young people, this limits their involvement as true partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper describes the process of design, development, and implementation of a complex, multi-component, tertiary prevention intervention aimed at stabilizing pathways out of homelessness, the Housing Outreach Project-Collaborative (HOP-C). HOP-C is a multi-organizational, cross-sector, inter-professional collaboration. This process-oriented paper aims to elucidate the rationale for and experience of implementing the three main components of HOP-C: case management, mental health treatment and peer support, as well as the processes that support this wrap-around intervention as a whole. This paper draws on qualitative process-oriented data (i.e. field notes and interviews with staff) collected over the course of the intervention, and integrates perspectives from multiple practitioners involved in this endeavour. Practitioners reported the diversity in the type and intensity of services offered to clients, the building of a close and communicative interprofessional and inter-agency team, as well as the development of broader connectivity between organizations and practitioners as significant strengths of this approach. Challenges and successes in implementation are explored with the intention of providing insight into ways in which other collaborative complex interventions might be approached in the youth homelessness sector. Highlights • Youth homelessness is a complex social problem • HOP-C is a tertiary prevention complex intervention for youth transitioning from homelessness • HOP-C represents a cross-sector, cross-agency, interprofessional collaboration • Intervention provided wrap-around case management, peer, and mental health supports • Individualized supports and close interprofessional teams linked to positive youth outcomes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Research has indicated that empathy and prosocial responding are associated with numerous emotional, psychological and social benefits. However, although adolescence is recognised as a key period for prosocial development, knowledge about the factors that facilitate the development of empathy and prosocial responding among adolescents is limited. A narrative systematic review was conducted of studies examining the significant social and psychological correlates of empathy and prosocial behaviour in adolescents. Empirical research papers focusing on typically developing adolescents, aged 13-18 years were identified and assessed for quality. Findings from a total of 168 papers were extracted and subjected to a narrative synthesis. Results indicated that a number of different contextual and psychological factors significantly influence the levels of other-oriented (empathy and prosocial) responding expressed by adolescents. However, findings indicate that differential relationships may be observed depending on how empathy and prosocial responding are operationalised. Overall, results from this review have important implications for future research and policy. Highlights • Greater understanding about the development of empathy and prosocial responding during adolescence is warranted • Youth empathy and prosocial behaviour are associated with numerous different social/individual factors. • Greater consistency in how empathy and prosocial behaviour are conceptualised and measured in independent research studies is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract For many local authority children and family services in the UK faced with the task of responding to children and families facing difficulties and with declining budgets, there is an increasing imperative on how services can respond more effectively to the diverse needs of families on the edge of care. At the same time policy and paradigm shifts have affected the way in which social workers engage with families. This paper is rooted in research commissioned by one local authority that used an innovative visual 'river of experience' co- production approach to understand better the experiences of children and families on their journeys to the edge of care and to inform how statutory services might respond 'better', and possibly earlier, to prevent children being taken into care. The research highlights the gap between assumptions and practices of child and family services and the realities and needs of children and families. The paper discusses these disjunctions and draws out questions to challenge statutory services. In particular, the paper asks why, in spite of serial involvement of professionals, do children still end up in the care system. The paper contributes to current discourses about rethinking child protection, arguing for a different approach to responding to families facing difficulties involving human centred, holistic family support and a more reflexive and relational approach to professional practice. Highlights • The continuing gap between services and the needs of children and families • Children's voices frequently go unheard in statutory professional interventions. • Insufficient attention to emotional/psychological legacy of early neglect • Reiterates the need for re-imagining child protection as family-centred practice • Need for Children and Family services to be flexible and adaptive learning systems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objective: In Chile, between 7 and 24% of young people claim to be victims of physical violence in their romantic relationships, but there is a lack of validated questionnaires to measure these behaviors and research in this area is still limited. Due to this fact, adapting and validating the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979 ; Straus et al., 1996) with multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in this paper; afterword, it aims to analyze the violence involvement within the young couples (dating violence) in Chile, and its association with the perceived quality of the relationship. Method: 1283 university students participated (69.1% women; 30.9% men; mean age = 21.94; s.d. = 1.871). Results: A bi-factorial model of the CTS (moderate vs severe behaviors) with sex invariance among the youth population in Chile was confirmed. Between 15 and 25% of involvement in moderate violence was pointed out; these behaviors have high percentages of reciprocity and are occasional. The negative quality variables such as imbalance of power or conflicts are related to higher rates of involvement in violence, but not the positive quality variables such as communication. Conclusions: this paper represents a novel contribution for Dating Violence analysis in the Latin American context; it establishes a validated and invariance measure for analyzing Dating Violence with Chilean youth population, and pointed out high rates of involvement on this violent behaviors. Its value for the development of precautionary policies and suitable intervention has to be considered. Highlights • CTS adaptation is a validated and stable instrument for dating violence measurement in the youth population of Chile. • Physical Dating Violence rates in Chile is comparable to some European countries with similar culture characteristics. • The aggressive dynamics established within these couples are mainly correlated with negative relationship quality scales. • The need for education on this subject is clear for avoiding violence and allows people to enjoy love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From ethnographic research with unaccompanied children in the United States and Guatemala, this paper explores emergent and, at times, conflicting narratives of care that young migrants encounter while in U.S. federal custody. They are depicted as ‘ideal’ victims deserving of care and simultaneously as unauthorized outlaws subject to state discipline via detention and deportation. In contrast, Guatemalan youth and their families speak of migration as a cultural elaboration of care in which they are agents of caregiving, employing transnational migration as a collective and historically-rooted survival strategy. By examining the multiple conceptualizations of care that young people encounter and embody, this paper problematizes theorizations of ‘care’ by tracing the conflicting meanings assigned to it. Informed by the perspectives of young migrants and their families, the paper suggests ways that service providers might better serve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focuses on parental perceptions of causes of child labour in rural and urban areas of Ghana. The research is grounded on qualitative research techniques by specifically utilising in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation to collect the necessary data for the study. In this approach, the data gathering happened in Phases 1 and 2 of the research study at the research sites in rural areas, and urban areas. The 60 participants included government officials, representatives from NGOs, and both parents whose children were involved in child labour and parents whose children were not involved. Much theoretical and empirical evidence is presented to argue that child labour has a multiplicity of causes including cultural practices, socialisation, poverty, and lack of mechanisation of work. This paper finds that the socio-cultural contexts of child labour play a critical role in children's involvement in farming in the rural area while poverty also contributes to children's engagement in artisanal fishing work in the slum urban communities in Ghana. This paper recommends that child labour must be tackled in a coordinated manner on a cross-sectoral basis and there is the need to adopt policies that would address the category of work that falls within worst forms of child labour (WFCL). Additionally, policy-makers and NGOs must consider the link between economic deprivation and child labour when implementing programmes designed to combat the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child welfare agencies are increasingly required to leverage their limited resources to meet nearly limitless demands. As a result, agencies are searching for new opportunities to efficiently improve policy and practice, and advances in data availability and technology have brought increased attention to the utility of predictive modeling. While the literature has often highlighted the considerable potential of predictive models leveraging “big data”, discussions of the methodology and the associated best practices remain critically absent. To address this gap, this paper provides an illustrative case involving the development and testing of models used to predict the probability of whether U.S. foster children would achieve legal permanency. The models were trained and tested using a national administrative dataset of 233,633 foster care children that discharged from state child welfare systems in 2013. The optimal model, a boosted tree, predicted whether children would achieve permanency with 97.66% accuracy. The paper concludes with a discussion of best practices detailing how agencies can utilize predictive modeling to enhance policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to debates about how people's adult lives unfold after experiencing childhood adversity. It presents analysis from the British Chinese Adoption Study: a mixed methods follow-up study of women, now aged in their 40s and early 50s, who spent their infant lives in Hong Kong orphanages and were then adopted by families in the UK in the 1960s. Sixty-eight women participated via questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The paper draws on both quantitative analysis (using standardised measures and systematically coded data on adult life events) and qualitative analysis of interview data to identify the context and subjective meaning of the quantitative findings. We found that most of the women lived largely positive, stable, well-supported lives although punctuated by challenging periods. Using regression analysis, two variables were significantly associated with poorer mid-life functioning over and above other potential influences: a) feeling unhappy about being adopted, and b) partnership adversity after age 25. No associations were found between childhood experiences and patterns of adult adversity. Illustrations are given, based on the interviews, of the women's multi-faceted perspectives on the long-term impact of being internationally adopted and on professional support. We conclude that when early orphanage care (of reasonable quality) was followed by a good quality adoption, most women were able to negotiate the majority of later difficulties successfully. The findings suggest two important implications for understanding mid-life outcomes: a) that experiences in both childhood and adulthood should be taken into account and b) individuals' subjective views on being internationally adopted may help explain divergent outcomes within groups with similar early experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Participants reporting moral injury described a re-orientation of their narratives through meaning making. • Hope, gratitude, forgiveness and courage were themes in the re-orientation of morally injurious narratives. • Supportive relationships, engagement with spiritual beliefs and practices, and prosocial engagement supported narrative re-orientation. • Participants' advice highlighted the need to enhance foster youths' relationships with professionals and care providers. This paper is the second in a series of papers from a mixed methods study examining moral injury in childhood and adolescence as described by emerging adults with histories of child welfare involvement. This paper focuses on the ways emerging adults may alleviate their moral injury, grow and develop. Twenty -eight emerging adults (18–26 years) who reported exposure to morally injurious events during childhood or adolescence on a modified version of the Moral Injury Events Scale (MIES; Nash et al., 2013) participated in life story interviews. Life story analyses of psychosocial contexts considered resiliency, especially any re-orientation of participants' narratives of moral injury away from the anomie, guilt, shame, and rage characteristic of moral injury, and towards themes such as hope, forgiveness, and gratitude. In addition, psychosocial-spiritual contexts that may support these shifts in meaning were explored through thematic analyses. Findings indicate that supportive relationships, especially with caring adults, engagement with spirituality, and access to prosocial activities provide foster youth with opportunities to re-orient their moral injury narratives, and provide a foundation on which to build towards recovery. Implications for policy, practice and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Despite reform efforts, the juvenile justice system is permeated with inequities. • Partnering with stakeholders, we developed an integrated model of juvenile justice. • The model layers public health, socioecological and restorative justice frameworks. • Applied examples illustrate how this approach can benefit youth and communities. • Recommendations for engaging in community-driven reform efforts are provided. Approaches to juvenile justice have undergone significant change in recent years, shifting away from retributive models and toward greater focus on rehabilitation and recognition of the unique developmental needs of youth. However, the juvenile justice system is still permeated with significant challenges, including the overrepresentation of vulnerable youth, particularly youth of color, and limited community-based interventions for youth at risk for justice involvement. Current models of juvenile justice do not fully address the needs of at-risk and justice involved youth, and have struggled to effectively reduce racial and ethnic disparities within the system, suggesting there is a need for a model that is better able to conceptualize and respond to youths' needs. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Integrated Model of Juvenile Justice (IMJJ), a novel conceptual approach to juvenile justice reform, which integrates the public health, social-ecological, and restorative justice models. We worked collaboratively with justice system stakeholders in Connecticut to develop the IMJJ, which proposes that juvenile justice practice must take into account and provide for youths' multi-level needs. Through an applied example, this paper describes how the IMJJ can be utilized to target youth offending and promote equitable treatment of youth in the juvenile justice system. Recommendations for justice system stakeholders are provided and implications for policy and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Child protection system building in the Middle-East and North Africa is under-researched. • Lebanon's child protection system has undergone significant reform since 2015, moving towards a more integrated, procedural, and standardised model. • Unifying state, non-governmental, and religious stakeholders under one framework however remains challenging. • This paper recommends greater inclusion of community-based protection mechanisms and reengagement with religious family courts. Lebanon's fledgling child protection (CP) system has been criticised for being fragmented and overly crisis-driven to the detriment of the children served. This article conceptualises Lebanon's 'pluralistic' model and is the first to examine the contentious government reforms which have taken place since 2014. Drawing on 54 semi-structured stakeholder interviews, we examine how the state has wrested power from religious authorities, introduced national CP practice standards, and increased supervision of non-governmental services. This paper argues that these reforms have moved Lebanon further towards an integrated, legalistic and procedural CP approach. However, unresolved challenges remain to reconcile the competing roles, interests and capabilities of the state, the non-governmental sector, and religious authorities under one cohesive framework. This paper recommends strengthening support for the non-governmental sector, improving inclusion of community-based protection mechanisms, and reengagement with religious family courts to better meet the needs of children. The study not only has important implications for the development of Lebanon's protection system but also for the theories and practice debates surrounding system building in low and middle-income countries and the Middle-East and North African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study reviewed the prevalence of mental health disorders among Looked After Children in the UK. • Prevalence rates varied across studies. • The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was the most frequently used tool to assess mental health. • There is still uncertainty about the scale and nature of mental health difficulties in this group. Care-experienced children and young people are more likely to experience poorer mental health relative to the general population. Some of the most highly cited literature in this area is becoming increasingly outdated, however, and as the gap between mental health service availability and provision is steadily growing, it is imperative that we understand the scale and nature of the mental health needs of this group. A systematic review of all literature published from the UK was conducted in March 2022 using APA PsycINFO, ASSIA, Cochrane Library, Medline, PubMed, Scopus, Social Policy and Practice, Social Services Abstracts, and Web of Science. Papers were included if they 1) sampled young people (aged 0 to 18 years) with care experience and, 2) used either a standard or non-standardised measurement tool, or health records to assess mental health prevalence rates (reported as a percentage). Risk of bias assessed used the QuADS tool (Harrison et al., 2021) and data was extracted. Thirty-nine studies were included and summarised. The estimated prevalence of mental health disorders of young people in care ranged from 1 to 82 %. The most frequently used tool to assess mental health was the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) and, while over half of studies utilised prevalence information from a comparator group, this was most commonly young people in the general population. The results of the systematic review demonstrate that estimates of mental health disorders among care-experienced young people in the UK vary considerably. Further consideration should be given toward what measures are used to assess mental health in this population and how we can optimally assess and characterise their support needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This co-produced study explores how young people experience and conceptualise 'feeling (mis)understood' by adults. • Feeling understood by adults has a positive impact on young people's mental health and help-seeking. • When young people feel misunderstood by health and social care professionals, it can negatively impact help-seeking. • Health and social care professionals should help young people to feel understood in to support engagement. The subjective and emotional experience of feeling (mis)understood by another person is distinct from being literally (mis)understood. While there is literature exploring young people's experiences of feeling (mis)understood in therapeutic or clinical settings by adults and the impacts thereof, there is limited exploration of young people's conceptualisations and perspectives of feeling (mis)understood within a range of young person-supporting adult relationships. This paper reports on the first stage of a project that was co-designed and co-produced by young people, exploring how young people experience and conceptualise 'feeling (mis)understood' in the context of receiving support from adults in their lives. This initial stage of the project captures young people's views on what feeling (mis)understood feels like, its impact on their mental health, and how adults can help young people to feel understood. Conceptualisation, design, fieldwork, analysis and writing were all co-produced with peer-researchers. Data for this project was generated through four workshops each held in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A total of 26 participants aged between 16 and 24 years of age took part in these workshops, and each workshop was facilitated by two peer-researchers and a member of university staff. Data was analysed through collaborative thematic analysis. The study found that feeling understood by supporting adults has a very positive impact on young people's wellbeing, mental health and help-seeking behaviour. Feeling misunderstood was found to have the converse effect, and in addition was found to make young people less likely to seek further support. Young people also identified a number of key actions adults can take to help the young people they support feel better understood. The findings of this research suggest that practitioners in the health and social care sector working with young people should consider the ways in which they can help young people feel better understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Online disinhibition positively associated with cyberbullying activities. • Online disinhibition functioned through moral disengagement and low self-control to influence cyberbullying. • Most studies focused on the effects of anonymity on cyberbullying, and the results were inconsistent. • Online invisibility had no effect on cyberbullying. • Asynchrony influenced cyberbullying directly and indirectly through moral disengagement. There has been a growing focus on researching adolescent cyberbullying in recent years. Increasing studies highlight the role of online risk factors—online disinhibition and its specific characteristics—in cyberbullying among adolescents. Systematic searches were performed in MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycArticles, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. There were 837 papers in total, 410 of which were non-duplicated, and 15 were ultimately included. Based on the current empirical findings, it has been observed that a heightened perception of online disinhibition corresponds with an increased likelihood of engaging in cyberbullying activities. In addition to the direct effect of online disinhibition on cyberbullying, research also found that online disinhibition functioned through moral disengagement and low self-control to influence cyberbullying. Furthermore, the effects of specific characteristics of online disinhibition on cyberbullying were also investigated. However, most studies (six out of seven) merely focused on the effects of anonymity on cyberbullying, and the results were inconsistent. Additionally, the effects of perception of invisibility and asynchrony on cyberbullying were also examined in limited research. The results showed that online invisibility had no effect on cyberbullying. Asynchrony contributed to cyberbullying directly and indirectly through moral disengagement. Further research is required to investigate the impacts of solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimizing authority on the occurrence of cyberbullying. These findings are discussed, and practical as well as policy implications and guidelines for future studies are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mentoring literature contains diverse, but as yet unclassified, mentoring relationship types. • Mentoring for young people young people transitioning out of care must address specific contextual needs and barriers. • More attention is needed in mentoring literature on the policy context and the nature of the gender and power in mentoring relationships. In Australia, out-of-home care (OoHC) is provided to safeguard children and young people unable to live with their families. Typically, this care stops at 18 years of age, leaving many young people without the relational support to find employment and stable accommodation. Mentoring is increasingly proposed as a way to support young people exiting care, though the types of mentoring and contextual factors vary considerably. This rapid review aims to identify key features of mentoring programs that support young people in OoHC. This paper utilised a rapid review methodology to survey the academic literature on mentoring programs with young people in OoHC. The authors conducted literature searches in October 2022 using a search string designed to provide targeted exposure to the literature. Articles were limited by year and location, with the specific search string and limitations applied to the Scopus database, and Proquest and Informit platforms. Utilising literature, we identified five overlapping models for mentor–mentee relationships into a provisional typology of five categories based on varying levels of formality and familiarity in the relationships: 'formal', 'natural', 'near-age', 'peer', and 'therapeutic'. In doing so, we identified seven important features of mentor–mentee relationships: shared experiences, relationship duration, boundaries and other relationships, identity and self-worth, educational contexts, power and participation, and role modelling. We identified four issues relating to mentoring in OoHC that are informed by the needs and barriers experienced by young people: training and support for mentors, unique challenges faced by young people in OoHC, transition out of care, and the matching process. Lastly, we established what might impact mentoring programs buy critically reflecting on the policy context and notions of empowerment. This rapid review of mentoring programs for care-experienced young people seeking employment offers valuable insights to inform future programs. The findings highlight diverse and unclassified mentoring relationship types, the absence of anticipated gender-specific findings, a lack of examination of the policy context, and a need for more robust conceptualisations of empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A large proportion of children (16.7 %) dropped out during school closure. • Disadvantaged children were less inclined to engage in learning activities during school closure. • Drop-out children during school closure were less likely to return to school upon re-opening. • Disadvantaged children faced limited access to online or digital learning during school closure. School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic shifted education from traditional face-to-face classrooms to online learning settings. This abrupt change interrupted learning, worsening the existing inequality in education. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on educational inequality in a low- and middle-income country by using nationally representative data of 4,920 children in Vietnam. In particular, we examine whether there were educational inequalities between disadvantaged and advantaged children (i.e., rural and urban, poor and non-poor, or having many and few young dependents in a family) during the pandemic. Our results reveal that during school closure, disadvantaged children were less likely to engage in learning activities, indicating their higher likelihood of dropping out relative to advantaged children. These disadvantaged children also had fewer learning days and fewer chances to access online learning. Additionally, drop-out children during school closure were less likely to return to school upon re-opening. Accordingly, we discuss some implications to tackle or mitigate educational inequality during and after the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings of a study exploring professionals' understanding of the County Lines phenomenon. Employed across two voluntary sector young peoples' supported accommodation projects a purposeful sample of fifteen (n = 15) practitioners were recruited as study participants. The study purpose was to explore professional perceptions of criminal exploitation in the context of County Lines and identify how practitioners recognised and responded to children and young people at risk. Questions guiding the study included: (1) What are practitioners' perceptions of criminal exploitation and County Lines? (2) How do practitioners recognise and respond to children and young people at risk? With a review of literature, data collection methods comprised a: (1) case study vignette and (2) self-reporting questionnaire. Utilising aspects of content analysis combining highest frequencies of most common terms and references presented in data, comparable participant responses were coded into four (n = 4) key categories. Categories included: (1) Knowledge of criminal exploitation and County Lines (2) Recognising risk and vulnerability factors (3) Understanding methods of exploitation and responding to risk and (4) Practitioner attitudes, bias and stereotypes. Findings highlight disparities in professionals' understanding in relation to: (1) what County Lines is (2) how and why some children and young people are criminally exploited in the context of County Lines and (3) how practitioners identify and respond to children and young people at risk. Need for development of enhanced knowledge-depth for safeguarding practice is identified as required around practitioners' understanding of: (1) risk, vulnerability factors and the signs of criminal exploitation through County Lines (2) importance of ensuring multi-agency statutory safeguarding referrals and responses are undertaken (3) how legal frameworks including the National Referral Mechanism and Modern Slavery Act (2015) can offer victims protection and (4) importance of theoretically informed relationship-based practice with children and young people guided by trauma-informed principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Care-experienced young people experience high levels of mental health problems. • System resources, cultures and stakeholder values, impact interventions. • Care-experienced young people valued meaningful relationships in interventions. • Carers felt interventions often overlooked their expertise and experiences. • Future interventions should support carers' time and emotional commitment. The mental health and well-being of care-experienced children and young people remains a concern. Despite a range of interventions, the existing evidence base is limited in scope, with a reliance on standalone outcome evaluations which limits understanding of how contextual factors influence implementation and acceptability. The Care-experienced cHildren and young people's Interventions to improve Mental health and wEll-being outcomes Systematic review (CHIMES) aimed to synthesise evidence of intervention theory, outcome, process and economic effectiveness. This paper reports the process evaluation synthesis, exploring how system factors facilitate and inhibit implementation and acceptability of mental health and wellbeing interventions for care-experienced children and young people. Sixteen databases and 22 websites were searched between 2020 and 2022 for studies published from 1990 and May 2022. This was supplemented with contacting experts in the field, citation tracking, screening of relevant systematic reviews and stakeholder consultations. We drew on framework synthesis of qualitative data and incorporated a systems lens, taking account of contextual influences across socio-ecological domains. Quality appraisal assessed reliability and usefulness. Confidence in synthesised findings was assessed with the GRADE-CERQual tool. We report the review in accordance with relevant elements of both the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), and the Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (ENTREQ) checklist. Searches retrieved 15,068 unique study reports, and 23 of these were eligible for process evaluation synthesis, reporting on sixteen interventions. Studies were published between 2003 and 2021. Nine interventions were from the UK and Ireland, six interventions were from the USA, and one was from Australia. They were largely classified as interpersonal, where the aim was to modify carer-child relationships. Five key context factors were identified that supported and prohibited intervention delivery: (1) lack of system resources; (2) intervention burden, which encompasses the time, cognitive, and emotional burden associated with implementation and participation; (3) interprofessional relationships between health and social care professionals; (4) care-experienced young people's identity; and (5) carer identity. We identified several supportive and restrictive factors across social and health care systems that may impact intervention implementation and acceptability. Key implications include: the importance of involving diverse stakeholders in intervention development and delivery; the need to better resource and support those involved in interventions, particularly training and support for carers; and ensuring future evaluations integrate process evaluations in order to optimise interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We examined the educational aspirations of migrant children in urban China. • Migrant children with agricultural hukou showed higher aspirations of completing at least tertiary education. • Family social capital benefited migrant children's aspirations more than it did for their non-migrant counterparts. • Academic segregation of schools channeled migrant children with agricultural hukou to a less desirable condition. Rural–urban migrant children are a rapidly growing population in Chinese cities. There is emerging literature on the educational inequality faced by migrant children, but most studies focus on their educational performance or attainments and use non-migrant children with non-agricultural hukou in urban areas as one single reference group. This paper argues that Chinese society is segmented by both hukou type and location, and examines the educational aspirations of migrant children from the perspective of segmented assimilation theory. On the basis of the 2013–2014 wave of the China Education Panel Survey, the results show a segmented assimilation pattern: migrant children with non-agricultural hukou had a similar likelihood of aspiring to tertiary education or above; whereas migrant children with agricultural hukou showed higher aspirations of completing at least tertiary education, and the disparity remained significant after considering family resources and school segregation. In family resources, social capital, in form of social communication with parents, benefited migrant children's aspirations more than it did for their non-migrant counterparts, regardless of their hukou type. In school segregation indicators, academic segregation channeled migrant children with agricultural hukou to a less desirable condition. These findings carry practical and policy implications for understandings of migrant children's educational aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Every tenth child in Norway is in contact with child welfare services (CWS). • About 40% of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged children have received a CWS initiative. • CWS children are more likely to have criminal charges, be prescribed drugs for mental health and ADHD, fail in the educational system, and experience labor market marginalization. • CWS children constitute a heterogeneous group regarding family background and life-course patterns. • Adolescents with multisystemic therapy or stays in childcare institutions have the most unfavorable life-course patterns. Every tenth Norwegian child has been in contact with the child welfare services (CWS) before age 18. This paper describes the variation in background characteristics of CWS children with different types of services and their life-course patterns from ages 10 to 25, compared to other children. We use high-quality population-wide Norwegian register data, covering about 860 000 children from birth cohorts 1987–2001, of which roughly 85 000 have received a CWS initiative. CWS children typically have lower socioeconomic backgrounds than other children. In terms of individual outcomes, they are more likely to have a criminal charge, be prescribed drugs for mental health and ADHD, fail in the educational system, and experience labor market marginalization. However, the heterogeneity among CWS children receiving different initiatives is more pronounced than differences between those in contact and those not. Adolescents with multisystemic therapy (MST) have the most unfavorable life-course patterns, in line with children in childcare institutions. Still, MST youth enter CWS late and have an advantaged family background compared to other CWS children, suggesting that individual-level risk factors are particularly important for sorting into MST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Exposure to harmful online content increases cyberbullying perpetration. • Parental support decreases cyberbullying perpetration. • Parental support moderates the effect of exposure to harmful online content on cyberbullying perpetration. • Parental support increases cyberbullying perpetration for at-risk students. Cyberbullying has grown into a global issue with the Internet becoming a readily accessible commodity around the world. During the outbreak and spread of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), most personal and professional activities shifted to the virtual environment, increasing the time children spent online and the opportunities to engage in deviant behavior such as cyberbullying. In this paper, we analyzed cyberbullying data drawn from a nationally representative survey of South Korean adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Correlates of cyberbullying perpetration were examined in addition to the moderating impact of parental support. Policy implications and future research directions were discussed based on the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Protocol for a study of quality improvement in Australian ECEC services. • A sequential three-phase mixed-methods design informed by ecological systems theory. • Research-industry partnerships with government authorities and early childhood researchers. • Scale and depth in sample identification, data selection and analytical techniques. International recognition of the early years as a crucial foundational period has led to the design and implementation of quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) that define, communicate, and monitor the components of quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The aim of these policies is to achieve effective quality assurance and improvement through a system-oriented approach to assessment and evaluation. Informed by ecological systems theory, this paper outlines a three-phase, mixed-methods design for researching a national sample of child care centres that showed overall improvement on the Australian National Quality Standard (NQS) assessment and rating (A&R) criteria. The study samples are drawn from a national dataset of centre-based child care services with two or more A&R rounds and an initial rating of Working Towards NQS (N = 1,935). The results of this study will provide insights into the macro-, exo-, meso- and micro-systems level factors and strategies that support quality in ECEC services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Practice directions should recognise multiple models of CSE and a wider context of vulnerability and unmet needs. • Anxieties about young people's sexual behaviours can detract from CSE making it challenging to identify and respond. • Outreach and support that addresses young people's emotional, social and practical needs are valuable directions. • Suitable placements and ensuring young people have a safe and stable home environment is vital to any response to CSE. • CSE responses should be guided by child-centred practice and informed by young people's perspectives. There is a growing interest in understanding and responding to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Australia, but limited empirical research from Australian contexts. The research reported here contributes to the evidence base by considering challenges and best practices for responding to CSE from the perspectives of 15 caseworkers in a statutory child protection and out of home care environment in one Australian region. In so doing, the paper also offers insight into CSE along with consideration of the emerging practice directions and systems surrounding these in the Australian context. Findings point to potential problems arising from existing frameworks for understanding and responding to CSE. Participants held concerns about a narrow focus on young people's sexualised behaviours in the wider multi-agency care context. This was understood to obscure a more complex understanding of CSE and its broader context of vulnerability and connection to unmet needs – some of which can arise from the care context itself – making identification and intervention difficult. Findings align with research that emphasises outreach and intensive support for young people centring on strengthening connections, identifying and addressing unmet needs and sustaining safety through consideration of placements and living circumstances. Consideration of practice challenges and opportunities signals the importance of child-centred, wellbeing-oriented directions allowing for multiple models of CSE victimisation, underpinned by a shared language in the multi-agency context and enhanced provision in existing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Various social, human and physical capitals are needed for home schooling. • Pre-existing capitals cannot predict the emergence of successful home schooling. • Homeschooling requires continuous internal and external interaction. • Social workers support families in interaction and promote necessary capitals. As a response to prevent the spread of COVID-19, during the spring of 2020, home schooling replaced classroom education. From the social worker's perspective, this paper explores how home school was organised among the social work client families and what types of resources were needed and launched to control the complexity of home schooling during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The conceptual frameworks applied to theorise the self-organisation of home school and how resources were mobilised are complexity theory and social capital theory. The empirical analysis is based on digital diaries written by 33 Finnish social workers and analysed using a thematic qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate the intertwined combination of social (social environment and communication), human (cultural, psychological and pedagogical) and physical (technological, spatial and biological) capital needed for the successful self-organising of home schooling. These capitals cannot predict the emergence of successful home schooling, nor can they function as a resource alone because self-organisation requires interactions between all essential dimensions. The results provide a deeper understanding for social work professionals regarding schooling and organising multidimensional support for children and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The pandemic affected adolescent girls in unique ways with wide social implication in terms of gender equality, educational attainment and social inequality. • Poverty and wealth intersect with other forms of inequality delimiting the options available to girls. • Girls are key to households' coping strategies through economizing behaviors, work, and care. • Post-pandemic responses should be age and gender sensitive. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to widen inequalities and hamper the SDG commitments of gender equality and poverty reduction. In Africa, it is feared that the social consequences of the pandemic will undo the progress in gender equality achieved over the last two decades. Through in-depth qualitative telephone interviews with 37 adolescent girls in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone this paper sheds light on the economic consequences of the pandemic on girls. Adolescent girls' experience of the pandemic is strongly mediated by their household configuration, resources and geographical context. Our data identifies three groups: i) sheltered from the economic impact of the pandemic, ii) coping or adjusting, and iii) severely affected. We also identify a fourth group of girls, found only in Burkina Faso, whose lives have been affected by conflict and who perceive the impact of the pandemic to be minor compared to enduring violence and trauma. Our analysis shows the unequal impact of COVID-19 and the measures implemented to contain it is likely to increase economic inequality, particularly in areas with longer-lasting restrictions, as coping mechanisms erode over time. Furthermore, the pandemic is likely to accelerate marriages and the end of schooling thus increasing gender inequality. Such effects are also mediated by resources girls have access to. We argue that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) ideals requires innovative, appropriate and sustainable solutions with the combined effort of governments and the development community that respond to the lived experiences of adolescent girls. Finally, necessary attention to the consequences of the pandemic should not detract from addressing ongoing issues affecting adolescent girls, including poverty and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Young people leaving care are often described as 'vulnerable', but this is often poorly understood. • They are subjected to, and experience, a range of forms of vulnerability, which form 'institutionalised vulnerability'. • Understanding vulnerability is important to prevent the production of stigmatising discourses, policies and practices. Care leavers are often considered to constitute some of the most disadvantaged young people in society, and there exists a significant body of research that seeks to understand why some young people 'succeed', whereas others struggle due to accumulated 'vulnerabilities'. Despite this extensive research base, policy and practice aiming to support young people leaving care remain diverse, indicating a lack of consensus on why some experience 'poor outcomes' and what might be done better to support them. This article focusses on the experiences of young people leaving care in the Russian Federation and makes two contributions; firstly, it provides theoretical insights through a critical discussion of the notion of vulnerability. We argue for attention to institutional vulnerabilities, which heavily structure the potential outcome of transitions available to young people leaving care in Russia. We note discourses and practices of dependency-related victim-blaming, which indicate the operation of 'attribution errors' in the Russian care and post-care systems, erroneously positioning individuals as responsible for their vulnerability rather than the dysfunction of systems of care. To fully understand the reasons for many young people's 'poorer outcomes', we suggest refocussing attention towards the combined operation of discourses, systems and structures through the conceptual approach of 'institutionalised vulnerability'. Secondly, the paper provides an empirical contribution in shedding light on the experiences of young people transitioning out of the care system as well as practitioners working in both the state and third sector in Russia, as the country experiences an ongoing process of deinstitutionalisation. This is important for other contexts given global efforts to deinstitutionalise residential child care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Developing an inclusive school culture is a core dimension of inclusion in education. • Home-school communication and partnership affect parents' attitudes towards inclusion. • Interaction and communication between parents lead to more positive attitudes towards inclusion. • Teacher training plays a central role in developing positive attitudes toward inclusive education. • Pre- and in-service teacher training programs need to balance the theory and practice of inclusive education. Inclusive education is one of the key educational reforms introduced by the Ministry of Education and Science in Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan, 2011). Although many studies have explored the attitudes of key stakeholders towards inclusive education in various educational settings, research has yet to explore the attitudes of key stakeholders towards inclusive education in early childhood education settings in Kazakhstan. This paper examined the attitudes of key stakeholders toward inclusive early childhood education in Kazakhstan. The sample comprised 986 parents, 963 teachers, and 97 senior managers. The surveys are composed of several sections covering themes ranging from attitudes and beliefs to the quality of educational services and the inclusivity culture of the setting. The teacher and senior manager surveys included an additional section on initial teacher training, continued professional development and assessment. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that a high inclusivity culture of early childhood settings was a potent factor leading to positive attitudes towards inclusion across all key stakeholders. Several teacher-related background variables were associated with teachers' positive attitudes toward inclusion (e.g., education qualifications, age, previous work experience and class size). This research provided rich insights into key stakeholders' attitudes and teachers' and senior managers' views on pre-and in-service teacher training for early childhood educators. Recommendations are made to inform future policy development to strengthen inclusive early childhood education for all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Soviet extracurricular education system provided universal access and equality of extracurricular activities for all children; • After the collapse of the USSR, educational inequality in extracurricular education exponentially increased: territorial and financial accessibility of extracurricular activities decreased, as well as the enrollment rate – on average up to 40% in all 15 former Soviet republics; • There is a gender asymmetry in participation in extracurricular activities, which was not relevant for the Soviet period; • After the USSR's collapse, extracurricular activities became available for children with disabilities and special educational needs: the focus on inclusion is still weak, but it is gradually becoming a trend in the public and private sectors; • Post-Soviet transition has led to more excellent serviceability and competitiveness of extracurricular programs, which try to consider the needs of families and children and integrate into the global and national education development agenda. Broad access to educational services and a universal enrolment policy were declared crucial elements of the Soviet extracurricular education model. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the process of transforming the Soviet model of extracurricular education began. This process included changes in management and financing mechanisms, the structure and scope of the network, and content and ideas. These changes have had a significant negative impact on the equality of opportunities for children in terms of participating in extracurricular activities. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the above-mentioned inequality in different aspects: territorial, gender and socio-economic. We are also interested in the representation of this problem in the educational policy agendas of post-Soviet countries. We use three data sources: regulation documents, national and departmental statistics, and semi-structured interviews with leading experts and heads of national organisations of extracurricular education in all 15 countries of the former Soviet Union. In addition, we identify common and specific features in the structure and factors of inequality in extracurricular education in post-Soviet countries. Despite the general increase in inequality, we observed increased client orientation and inclusivity in the extracurricular sector. We also note the trend of expanding access opportunities in some countries. We discuss the role of extracurricular educational inequality as a part of broader educational and socio-economic formation and development of inequality in the post-Soviet space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) is the only source of nationally representative, longitudinal data on the well-being of children and families involved with the child welfare system. • The baseline data collection for the third cohort (NSCAW III) was completed in March 2022 and data have been archived for researchers. • Methodological and operational challenges faced during the baseline wave of NSCAW III required the identification and implementation of creative solutions for sampling, child welfare agency recruitment, instrumentation, data collection, and weighting. • This paper shares lessons learned and solutions from NSCAW III that may be relevant to other studies utilizing similar methods and/or collecting data from child welfare-involved populations. The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) is a national survey that follows children and families who have been the subjects of investigation by child protective services agencies. NSCAW is the only source of nationally representative, longitudinal data on the well-being of children and families involved with the child welfare system (CWS). The survey examines child and family well-being outcomes in detail and seeks to relate those outcomes to experience with the CWS and to family characteristics, service needs and receipt, community environments, and other factors. To date, there have been three cohorts of NSCAW. The design of NSCAW III was guided by three priorities: (1) keeping NSCAW III as comparable to the two previous cohorts as possible, (2) minimizing response burden for all participants, and (3) updating the NSCAW III sample and instruments as needed to reflect the composition and characteristics of children being served by the CWS in 2017. NSCAW III includes 3,298 children ranging in age from 0 to 17.5 years old at the time of sampling. Children were sampled from child welfare investigations closed between July 2017 and September 2021. We provide information about methodological and operational challenges faced during the enrollment of NSCAW III (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, state-level refusals) that required a new level of persistence and creativity, a pivot from past approaches, and the identification of solutions to maintain the integrity of this nationally representative study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Multi-component interventions showed the greatest promise in housing stabilization. • Flexibility is an important factor within housing support intervention design. • Housing stability was linked with housing first, transitional and outreach programs. • Further evidence on these interventions and underrepresented groups is needed. This scoping review synthesized the academic literature within North America that focuses on housing stabilization interventions for young people experiencing homelessness. A scoping review method was used to identify literature relevant to the question: What is the existing evidence in the peer-reviewed literature regarding housing stabilization interventions for youth who have experienced homelessness? The databases of PubMed, Scopus, PsychInfo and Google Scholar were searched, identifying 31 papers that were selected for the review. Three housing stabilization themes were identified, which included: 1) Multidisciplinary and outreach interventions, 2) Housing first models and 3) Transitional, Supportive and Independent Living programs. Results indicated improvements in housing stability among youth across types of housing stabilization interventions as well as promising impacts in areas of mental health, addictions, employment, education, and independent living skills. The evidence base, however, is limited, highlighting a need for future research to include more pragmatic design and examine what works best for who and when. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The home visiting field lacks a standard definition for what "high-quality" program implementation means. • We engaged experts from the field in a co-design process to develop a framework to understand home visiting quality. • The framework captures the multiple levels of the home visiting system and theorized key aspects of quality. Early childhood home visiting is a two-generation approach to promote positive health and well-being outcomes among people who are pregnant and families with infants and young children. A popular family support strategy for the past several decades, home visiting expanded exponentially in the United States when the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) was authorized in 2010 through a provision within the Affordable Care Act. MIECHV currently funds evidence-based home visiting services in underserved and historically marginalized communities in all 50 states, 22 tribes, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. It is widely accepted that achieving intended child and family outcomes through home visiting services requires "high-quality" program implementation, but the field lacks a standard definition or empirical evidence for what "quality" means in the context of home visiting. With the rapid expansion of home visiting that has accompanied MIECHV, there is increased interest from the field in having a shared understanding of home visiting implementation quality that is applicable across models and accounts for dimensions of quality across the entirety of the home visiting implementation system. This paper describes the process used to develop a conceptual framework to understand home visiting quality. We engaged MIECHV awardees and other experts from the fields of home visiting, early childhood, implementation science, and health equity in a co-design process that involved initial brainstorming, a series of iterative framework drafts, and finalization of the model. The resulting framework captures the multiple levels (i.e., the contexts, agencies, entities, and individuals) that are part of the home visiting system and the theorized key aspects of quality that are applicable across the levels of the systems. We discuss potential uses of the conceptual framework, as well as lessons learned from the co-design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Adaptation and validation the scale of Positive Parental Practices for children 0- to 3 years. • Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed with 950 participants. • This study provides the standardization of the Spanish scale scores in parental competences. • The final version for the Spanish population is composed of 27 items and 7 subscales. • This scale is considered useful for assessing parental competences in parents of young children. This study aims to adapt and validate the scale of Positive Parental Practices of the Caregiver (SP + C), in the version for children from 0 to 3 years. First, the process of cross-cultural adaptation was performed. Subsequently, for the validation of the scale, we analyzed a sample of 950 participants, with children aged between 0 and 3 years. The participants' native language was Spanish or it was the language spoken at home. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed with Sample 1 (n = 483 participants), yielding 7 factors: Daily Involvement, Mentalization, Sensitivity, Promoting Learning, Attention and Organization of Daily Life, Monitoring of Parental Activity, and Parental Self-Care. Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) was performed with Sample 2 (n = 467), which confirmed the factor structure of the scale. Reliability analysis showed that the scale had an adequate internal consistency. To determine criterion validity, bivariate correlations were calculated with other variables that evaluate parental competence, expecting to find significant positive relationships between them. This paper provides the standardization of the Spanish scale scores. In conclusion, the final validated scale is composed of 27 items and 7 subscales, with adequate psychometric properties. It is considered useful for the evaluation of parental competences in parents of young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Specific ethical issues arising during ethnographic research at families' home. • How children express their views even unasked. • Need for researchers to interpret the children's perspective. • Need for adaptability of ethical decision-making in the field. This article draws from ongoing PhD research investigating an innovative child protection practice in France called "at-home placements." While the researcher conducted ethnographic field research, she shadowed social workers during home visits at the parental homes where the children lived. Based on her experience of observing intimate elements of family lives and families' interactions with social workers, this paper describes and addresses some ethical gaps she encountered. The authors describe two case studies to illustrate her work on interpreting the children's perspective and including it in her research design. The case is made to leave some space for 'micro-ethics' to adapt the research process to the perspective children express during the ethnographic data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study investigates attitudes towards inclusive education among parents in post-soviet countries. • Parents of children with disabilities feel more subjectively empowered and hold more proactive and self-confident views towards individual struggles or public issues. • Vulnerable parents can collaborate for more public participation. • Subjective empowerment might mitigate limited resources, discrimination, and stigmatization. • Further research is needed on universal applicability beyond Eurasia. Subjective (dis)empowerment in inclusive education may lead to parents of children without disabilities feeling disempowered compared to parents of children with disabilities because of the lack of membership in third sector organisations, associations, and self-help groups. This, in turn, may lead to a more passive and objectified view with regards to civic activism. In this paper, we used data from "Inclusive Education and Society: Strategies, Practices, and Resources" project to distinguish multi-dimensional attitudes towards inclusive education between parents of children with disabilities and parents of children without disabilities in eight post-soviet countries. Then, focusing on Russia, we checked whether there is a connection between opposite attitudes towards inclusive education in two groups with proxy variables representing subjective (dis)empowerment. We confirmed that the parents of children with disabilities experience subjective empowerment as expressed open, proactive, and self-confident views on approaching, dealing with, and solving individual struggles or public issues. Parents with children without disabilities presented views which reflect more general distrust of political institutions and skepticism towards social solidarity common among the Russian population. Additional social and economic vulnerabilities serve as a point for collaboration and an additional resource to build on own public participation for parents with children with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from qualitative research undertaken in Australia with children and young people who have experienced domestic violence aged 9 to 19 years. The aim was to explore children and young people's perspectives on fathering in the context of domestic violence as well as the key messages they believe fathers who attend a program to address their violence need to know. This paper will focus on some of the findings of the study, with a particular focus on the issue of reparation which was identified as a strong theme in children and young people's accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Literature debates whether young persons' participation in social work decisions is tokenistic in nature or it empowers them to shape their world. By and large, young persons deemed at risk remain the targets of intervention. This paper aims to underscore the need to move beyond soliciting young persons' voice merely in order to corroborate information provided by adults and professionals in social work assessment and intervention. Instead, it explicates the philosophical foundation for social workers to treat young persons as knowledgeable agents capable of contributing to professional knowledge. Findings Through reinterpretation of a published case study on children of sex worker mothers in India, this paper highlights how young persons are active agents of their own lives even in extreme dire situations. These children of sex worker mothers were capable of advocating for their own rights as well as that of their mothers. Through the secondary analysis of data, we illustrated the dynamic process of knowledge construction by young persons. Application By paying attention to the young persons' capacity as knowledgeable agents we propose social workers to intentionally incorporate their knowledge in their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a mixed methods research design that combines qualitative and quantitative data from low-income parents to increase understanding of the dynamics of their child care decision-making. The paper relies on a graphically depicted conceptual model of the decision-making process. In the model, individual characteristics found in prior research to affect child care decisions are clustered into constructs: family, community, child care preferences, constraints and barriers, and financial assistance. Findings demonstrate that when controlling for other characteristics, most of the characteristics captured in the conceptual model predict type of child care selected. Study data include measures of employment constraints and a verified measure of subsidy receipt, both of which are important to understanding child care decisions of low-income parents and on which research is limited. We find both to be strong predictors of child care selection decisions. Parents' child care selection preferences emerge as the strongest predictors of the type of care selected. Parents' prioritization of support for learning and trust in the provider were the most likely to predict a specific type of care. Findings from this study have direct implications for policy and practice, especially as states implement the changes associated with the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 with its emphasis on helping parents select arrangements that support the child's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Figures from 2015 show that two hundred and five children entered secure accommodation from England and Wales. 47% were placed because they were on remand or sentenced for committing a serious offence. 43% were placed by social services under a child welfare order. The remaining 10% were secured by their local authority on criminal justice grounds. This paper uses the example of girls in secure care to explore understandings that are applied to young people considered ‘vulnerable’ and ‘troublesome’ simultaneously. While policy around secure accommodation claims that it offers a therapeutic intervention, to help young people work through their problems and learn appropriate coping mechanisms, it also keeps them ‘safe’ by physically locking them away from the world in which they have been entrenched. Using detailed ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores the experiences of girls living in a setting usually exempt from scrutiny and showcases their views of being ‘worked with’ in an institution designed to enable reform. Significantly, findings show that girls rejected the ‘vulnerable’ label that was ascribed to them and instead felt that vulnerability was better defined by life experience instead of age. By examining girl's own perspectives of their complex pathways into secure care, this paper will contest the binding of childhood and vulnerability and argue that such an act disenfranchises girls from the services that are designed to help them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational progress, experiences and attainment of children in out-of-home care and care leavers continue to be an issue of concern internationally. A growing body of research from countries such as the UK, USA, and Sweden indicates that care leavers tend to have lower levels of educational attainment than their majority population peers. Recent evidence suggests that low educational attainment of individuals with care experience may be the result of a "complex combination" of various individual characteristics as well as pre- and in-care experiences (O'Higgins et al., 2015: 13). White and Wu (2014) have highlighted the value of applying a life course perspective to child welfare research noting the potential of this approach given its emphasis on social context, individual development, and the effect of change over time. This paper embraces their case by advocating for use of the life course perspective as a guiding research paradigm when investigating the educational experiences of adult care leavers. Applying a life course perspective to research in this area has the capacity to add new dimensions to our understanding of the issue. This is due to the long-term perspective that this approach takes as well as its capacity to consider the interaction of individual and social factors and change over time. The paper begins with an outline of the key themes and concepts of the life course perspective followed by an overview of existing literature related to the educational experiences and attainment of children in care and care leavers. There follows a discussion of how using this perspective as a guiding research paradigm, with its accompanying themes and concepts, may facilitate a deeper understanding of the educational progress and experiences of adult care leavers. Throughout this discussion we will draw on a composite worked-case example from an ongoing PhD study of the educational experiences of adult care leavers in Ireland to highlight the value of applying a life course perspective to this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation are problems of significant proportion for children & young people living in out-of-home care. The aim of this review was to conduct a scoping exercise of the evidence about preventing these problems with the intent of summarising and disseminating knowledge to policy-makers, practitioners and researchers. Five electronic databases were searched in November and December 2016, including: PscyhINFO; Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts; SocINDEX; Web of Science; and Education Resource Information Centre. The search was guided by the research question: What is known about preventing Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation for children & young people living in residential out-of-home care settings? Twenty papers were included in the review, including: seven peer-reviewed journal articles; three reports for government; two presentation transcripts; two literature reviews; one qualitative research report; one report for a government inquiry; one submission to a government inquiry; one consultation paper for a government inquiry; one guideline; and one educational resource. Three major thematic categories were identified in the evidence: (i) constructing educative interventions for children & young people and workers ; (ii) targeting grooming and problematic sexual behavior ; and (iii) providing a holistic response and a way out . The review revealed that the current prevention response to Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation for children & young people living in residential care is under-developed. Promising program, service or practice elements relating to the prevention of Harmful Sexual Behavior and Child Sexual Exploitation were identified and three interventions suggested for future prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings from a study designed to explore whether predictive analytics and machine learning could improve the accuracy and utility of the child welfare risk assessment instrument used in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida). The findings from this study indicate that, indeed, predictive analytics and machine learning would significantly improve the accuracy and utility of the child welfare risk assessment instrument being used. If the predictive analytic and machine learning algorithms developed in this study would be deployed, there would be improved accuracy in identifying low, moderate and high risk cases, better matching between the needs of children and families and available services and improved child and family outcomes. This paper also identifies further areas of research and study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in and leaving state care are more likely than the general population to become parents at a young age. Relatively little is known about the experiences and progress of care leaver parents and their children, but emerging evidence suggests an increased risk of intergenerational state intervention. Drawing on data from the Wales Adoption Study, this paper examines the prevalence and profiles of care leavers amongst birth parents whose children were placed for adoption. Findings showed that more than a quarter (27%) of birth mothers and a fifth (19%) of birth fathers with children placed for adoption were themselves care leavers. There were no significant differences between care leaver and non-care leaver birth parents in terms of involvement in crime or substance misuse, but carer leaver birth parents were distinguishable from other birth parents by their own experiences of abuse and neglect. Care leaver birth mothers were also more likely than their non-care leaver counterparts to have diagnosed mental health problems and were less likely to appeal the adoption plan. The profiles of children placed for adoption between care leaver and non-care leaver birth parents were similar. The findings presented in this paper strengthen the moral imperative to address the over-representation of care leavers amongst birth parents whose children are placed for adoption. There is an urgent need to revise how children and young people in state care are prepared for parenthood and supported as parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), initiated by the Indian Government, and UNESCO's School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) Program started providing gender-specific toilets in government schools in the late nineties. This paper examines the connection between separate female toilets and the gender parity indices of enrollment and participation in the primary (grades I–V) and upper primary (grades VI–VIII) levels of education for 28 states and four union territories of India between 2007 and 2015. Additionally, this paper investigates whether separate female toilets improve the gender parity index of education for scheduled-caste students. The results show that separate female toilets in schools are positively associated with the gender parity indices of enrollment and participation at the upper primary level only for all castes combined. This paper finds no evidence to suggest that separate female toilets can improve the gender parity indices of enrollment and participation for scheduled-caste students at the upper primary level. Additionally, separate female toilets in schools are negatively associated with the gender parity index of enrollment for scheduled-caste students at the primary level, which indicates tremendous caste-related discrimination in Indian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It is high time we explored the embryonic issue of cyberbullying among youth. • The paper aims to categorize the aspects of cyberbullying encountered by young females in developing countries. • Eight hundred sixty research papers published in the Web of Science and Scopus databases between 2007 and 2021 were explored. • Forty-seven relevant publications were identified and synthesized using the PRISMA flow diagram. • Based on the bibliometric data, term co-occurrence network maps were created using VOSviewer. • Cross-mapping the bibliometric terms with the detailed qualitative interviews piloted in a developing country, the authors developed three themes, i.e., social bullying, psychological bullying, and invasion of privacy. In today's tech-mediated world, cyberspace has spread beyond the Internet and as a result, it is high time we explored the embryonic issue of cyberbullying among youth. This qualitative systematic review aims to categorize the aspects of cyberbullying encountered by young females in developing countries. A total of 860 research items published in the Web of Science and Scopus databases between 2007 and 2021 were explored. Using the PRISMA flow diagram, 47 relevant publications were identified and synthesized. Based on the bibliometric data, term co-occurrence network maps were created using VOSviewer. Subsequently, cross-mapping the bibliometric terms with the detailed qualitative interviews piloted in a developing country, the authors developed three themes, i.e., social bullying, psychological bullying, and invasion of privacy. This research reveals that cyberbullying comprehends social, psychological, and invasion of privacy aspects for young females in developing countries. Finally, this qualitative paper concludes with future research directions in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the approximately 70 low-to-middle-income (LMI) oil-and-gas-rich countries, almost all are victims of the resource curse or paradox of plenty, which conceptualizes the development patterns with petroleum and mineral resources. Lifting the resource curse can positively change the trajectory of global development. After the failure of the implementation of natural reserve funds in most oil-and-gas-rich LMI countries, scholars suggested the direct distribution of natural resource revenues to the population to escape the resource curse. The paper suggests an evidence-based asset-building policy, child development accounts (CDA), linked to oil and gas revenues being directly distributed to the population. CDAs are saving accounts specifically targeting children, started in the late 1980s, to help families to fulfill life goals for their children such as postsecondary education, homeownership, business development, and retirement security. The elements of the recommended policy are based on the findings of three qualitative studies carried out in Azerbaijan in 2017 and 2018, and in six post-Soviet countries in 2019 and 2020. Primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with key informants (N = 94), such as ministers, deputy ministers, representatives of the oil funds, academicians, financial institutions, and local and international nonprofit organizations. Secondary data came from archival records, such as governmental reports, publications from national and international agencies, published research, and statistics from relevant government agencies. Purposive sampling techniques were used. The inclusion criteria were being a senior policy-maker, having a deep understanding of the policy-making process, and having deep knowledge of social protection and child well-being systems in Azerbaijan. The data were analyzed by NVivo. The paper used 10 CDA design elements recommended by Michael Sherraden and his colleagues as well as national CDA policy models from across the globe. Azerbaijan, an oil-and-gas-rich LMI country was chosen as a case study for the recommended policy design [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]