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Objectives: We set out to examine the volume, scope and quality of research related to First Nations peoples' perceptions of, and experiences with, child rearing and/or parenting programs. Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature published between 2000 and 2020. Sixty-eight studies identified through electronic databases and references lists met inclusion criteria. Results: The study found an 8% increase in publications in the field each year (P -value = 0.002), mostly conducted in Australia with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (n = 29, 41%). Scope included positive and negative experiences relating to: parenting from adult (n = 19 studies) and teenager (n = 4) perspectives; and pregnancy, antenatal and postnatal care from the perspective of adults (n = 23) and teenagers (n = 2). Descriptive studies included qualitative (n = 40; 58%), quantitative (n = 8, 12%) or mixed methods (n = 7, 10%). Thirteen experimental studies reported the development, acceptability and/or effectiveness of programs (19%), of which three met the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care design criteria. Conclusions: Despite an overall increase in volume, research efforts do not demonstrate a clear scientific progression. Further methodologically rigorous studies examining child rearing and/or parenting programs developed in collaboration with First Nations populations are needed. What is known about the topic? Examining research output, effectiveness and acceptability of existing existing parenting and child rearing programs for First Nations parents can inform research priorities and service development.. What does this paper add? Rigorous research to inform the development and evaluation of parenting programs is limited. Strengths-based, community-wide approaches should integrate community identities, expertise and resources, encourage ownership and engagement, and build capacity.. What are the implications for practitioners? Continued efforts are necessary to develop programs uniquely informed by, and tailored to, First Nations parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many developed countries lone parent families face high rates of child poverty. Among those lone parents who do get child maintenance there is a hidden problem. States may retain all, or a proportion, of the maintenance that is paid in order to offset other fiscal costs. Thus, the potential of child maintenance to alleviate poverty among lone parent families may not be fully realized, especially if the families are also in receipt of social assistance benefits. This paper provides an original comparative analysis exploring the effectiveness of child maintenance to reduce child poverty among lone parent families in receipt of social assistance. It addresses the question of whether effectiveness is compromised once interaction effects (such as the operation of a child maintenance disregard) are taken into account in four countries Australia, Finland, Germany and the UK using the LIS dataset (2013). It raises important policy considerations and provides evidence to show that if policy makers are serious about reducing child poverty, they must understand how hidden mechanisms within interactions between child maintenance and social security systems can work as effective cost recovery tools for the state, but have no poverty reduction impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's research and knowledge base on cultural competency has been slow to develop. To help address this gap, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) funded a large scale study in this area, which included a detailed literature review. The paper reports on key findings from that review including that collectivist values are at odds with 'child-centred' philosophies of child protection; there is an inherent tension between the right to equal protection from harm and the right for respect in cultural differences in parenting and family functioning ('cultural absolutism' versus 'cultural relativism'); there are factors that uniquely characterise 'the migrant context' (especially lack of awareness of child protection laws and systems, economic disadvantage, and fear of authority); and that cultural competency is separable from cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity, and also different from addressing language barriers. However, in reviewing the literature it became apparent that the specific roles and responsibilities of workers, agencies, and systems were not clearly delineated. Thus this paper also aimed to address this unmet need. Identifying their unique roles and responsibilities can help ensure that the delivery of child protection services are efficiently and effectively mobilised from both the 'top' and 'bottom' to benefit all ethnic minority families. Moreover, any implementation of cultural competency needs to move beyond the emphasis on culture and acknowledge the dimensions of inferiority and oppression to truly promote value for diversity and protect ethnic minority children from the dangers of systematic disadvantage that institutional racism represents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT HAS GAINED increasing importance in determining life chances. Parents hoping to secure a learning advantage for their offspring are increasingly focused on the preschool years. This downward shift from primary schooling has been prompted by the 'first three years' movement, with its emphasis on infancy and early childhood as critical periods for development and learning. So what does this mean for early years parenting? Do parents try to secure a learning advantage in the preschool years and how do they do it? This paper highlights the four resource-dependent strategies Australian parents employ, both individually and in combination, to promote their child's early learning: 'parenting for cognitive development', outsourcing for cognitive development, 'concerted cultivation' and 'redshirting'. By highlighting these resource-dependent strategies, this study highlights the socioeconomic gap in children's access to opportunities that parents believe give children a learning advantage in the preschool years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhoods are important spaces of interaction for children. This paper explores the perceptions of residents from seven suburbs in the inner area of Newcastle, Australia concerning what makes a good neighbourhood for children. Key factors identified by residents include the types of dwellings found in the neighbourhood (with detached houses being seen as preferable for children) and the quality of neighbourhood resources. Another important feature was social interactions within the neighbourhood, including interactions between children and adults and interactions between groups of children. The paper examines how different features of neighbourhoods interact to create adult perceptions about whether a neighbourhood is appropriate for children. The paper also points to the ways that children are seen to actively produce the neighbourhood in which they live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Young children engage in a constant process of negotiating and constructing rules, utilizing these rules as cultural resources to manage their social interactions. This paper examines how young children make sense of, and also construct, rules within one early childhood classroom. This paper draws on a recent study conducted in Australia, in which video-recorded episodes of young children''s talk-in-interaction were examined. Analysis revealed four interactional practices that the children used, including manipulating materials and places to claim ownership of resources within the play space; developing or using pre-existing rules and social orders to control the interactions of their peers; strategically using language to regulate the actions of those around them; and creating and using membership categories such as ‘car owner’ or ‘team member’ to include or exclude others and also to control and participate in the unfolding interaction. While the classroom setting was framed within adult conceptions and regulations, analysis of the children''s interaction demonstrated their co-constructions of social order and imposition of their own forms of rules. Young children negotiated both adult constructed social order and also their own peer constructed social order, drawing upon various rules within both social orders as cultural resources by which they managed their interaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Children's poverty has long been a central concern for policy makers and policy researchers. The body of extant research conducted and the range of programmatic interventions undertaken by successive governments in this and other countries is extraordinary. Nevertheless, children remain in poverty. Clearly there are many reasons for this, not least of which is the maintenance and intensification of market capitalism with its attendant blatant inequalities. Even so, the moral, political, social and economic imperatives for developing workable responses to children's poverty remain. This paper argues that we, in Australia, should adopt an approach increasingly taken in the UK. Drawing on, among other things, the new sociology of childhood, this approach begins not with the expertise of adult researchers and policy makers, but with that of children. In doing so, the case is made for why children's perceptions and experiences of poverty are key concerns for policy. The paper outlines in theoretical terms why children's voices matter. Invoking the new sociology of childhood and the sociology of identity, a conceptual framework for understanding why policy scholars and makers should carefully attend to the voices of their subjects is sketched - in this case, the subjects are children. Finally, some methodological implications of this for undertaking policy research informed by this approach are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foster carers' knowledge of caring for abused and neglected children is a largely under-researched area. We know very little about the nature of carers' knowledge in relation to caring for children who have been abused or neglected. This paper reports on an exploratory study which examined the knowledge of caring. Qualitative data were analysed based on in-depth interviews with 10 foster carers in Queensland, Australia. A range of knowledge was identified showing an interaction of both personalized and formal understandings in the caring response. Given the breadth of knowledge recognized from the analysis, this paper presents one dimension of their knowing: theory and abuse-indicated understandings. Participants' responses in these areas were at times sound, but many struggled to provide convincing and well-formed explanations of topics, such as attachment, harm and child development which may suggest that their understandings are not what they could be. Although further research is needed on a larger scale, this study does highlight the necessity to re-examine processes and strategies for carer knowledge support, so as to strengthen their understanding of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the authors’ primary concern is to outline the cultural and spatial boundaries delineated in the representation of children and childhood in a selection of Australian feature films. To this end they explore in some depth the depiction of children’s worlds in three films: The Kid Stakes (1927), Smiley (1956), and Storm Boy (1976). The analysis canvasses class, gender, race and ethnic, as well as geographic, boundaries. These films demonstrate the historicity of the concept of childhood in Australian cinema. They show how over time the boundaries between children and adults became blurred and, while free movement through the landscape was maintained, children’s worlds became more restricted and emotionally laden. In Weberian terms, childhood became increasingly disenchanted. These findings are supported by childhood research based on other approaches and sources. At the same time the authors contextualize the films under discussion and begin the larger task of constructing a map of the two genres of Australian feature films concerning childhood: children’s films and films about children. To this end, the paper traces the brief prominence of the child as central character in The Kid Stakes, through the 1950s when there was something of a ‘golden age’ of films about children, to the re-emergence of child-centred films in the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing instances of divorce, de-facto separation and non-marital childbirth in westernised states have led to growing numbers of fathers living separately from their children. In Australia these non-resident fathers now number approximately 400,000. Despite increasing evidence that fathers can be central to their children’s education, health and wellbeing, and that for many non-resident fathers contact with their children is important and highly desirable but inadequate, research on non-resident fathers, fatherhood and family as aspects of contemporary western society is lacking. In particular, few investigators have explored the qualitative dimensions of non-resident parent–child contact and the role of leisure within this. This paper establishes parameters for future investigation into the levels, nature, meanings and impacts of leisure involving non-resident fathers and their children. Drawing on an international literature and with particular emphasis on the Australian context, it critically analyses the context of non-resident fathers’ leisure with their children. It examines the problematic terms of ‘father’ and ‘non-resident father’, describes the models of contact that occur between non-resident fathers and their children, and summarises the factors affecting that contact. The paper then turns to research into family and leisure, drawing attention to the salience of leisure in non-resident parenting while also highlighting the lack of substantive research into this area. Particular attention is paid to the trivialising of ‘leisure’ as a parenting activity in this context, and the underplaying of the positive qualities that leisure-based interaction may contribute. The paper concludes by suggesting initial directions for research into the role of leisure within the relationship that non-resident parents have with their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS PAPER EXPLORES THE Better Beginnings family literacy program over a period of four years through the eyes of mothers of young children from four diverse communities. It focuses on their reported perceptions of the program and related practices. Better Beginnings, which involves strong cooperation between health professionals, local government and public libraries, was developed by the State Library of Western Australia to encourage parents to share books, songs and rhymes with their babies and young children. The mothers responded to four annual surveys, in which they were asked about their perceptions of the program and its influence on literacy practices and beliefs. Overall, results showed that these mothers reported that they were highly positive about the program; were confident in and valued book-sharing activities; shared books on a regular basis, as did some other family members; and that their child was actively involved in book sharing and related activities. Of particular interest were the mothers' reports of their changing practices as their child matured over the four years of the study and also their child's language- and literacy-related behaviours. Many mothers attributed these changes in practices and behaviours to the Better Beginnings program and gave valuable evaluative feedback for modifications to the program, which has informed its further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A similar trend is apparent in Australian and Canadian programs to enhance work incentives and program effectiveness, but the Canadian provinces are increasingly insisting that low-income mothers with school-age children enter the workforce rather than accept social benefits to care for their children at home. There is no Canadian counterpart to the Sole Parent Pension or Parenting Allowance, although the provinces pay higher rates of social assistance to needy families than to individuals. Furthermore, there is little public support for the idea that low-income mothers should care for school-aged children at home at the taxpayer's expense. This paper discusses the similarities and differences in rhetoric and policies for low-income mothers, and seeks reasons for the stronger social support for mothering at home in Australia. Although the current discourse of economic rationalism suggests that enhancing work incentives and 'employability' will bring prosperity, this paper illustrates that neither paying mothers to care for their children at home nor pushing them into the workforce has reduced family poverty. To make employability programs more effective, governments need to deal with low female wages, the shortage and high cost of child care, and the lack of full-time permanent jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores South-Sudanese parents' accounts of parenting conflicts in Australia through oral narratives collected in an interview setting. The paper takes a historical perspective looking back to the early years of settlement, focussing on the way participants positioned themselves and voiced their parental agency (and lack of it). The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of cultural conceptions of good parenting and intergenerational conflicts in culturally and linguistically diverse migrant communities. The study provides empirical evidence for the utility of positioning theory in unpacking identity positionings vis-à-vis moral duties and rights and social forces as entextualised in storylines (Slocum-Bradley, 2009). The results of this study demonstrate that South Sudanese parents felt disempowered in their parenting role and feared the consequences for their children's future. The study has implications for education and parenting in intercultural contexts and the study of identity work in oral narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS ARTICLE IS CONCERNED WITH the interplay between Indigenous children and their families' equitable access to government-approved childcare services and their respective participation in such services. Specifically, it focuses on key factors that affect access and that serve as barriers to participation. The paper draws upon a national consultation funded by the Australian Government and conducted throughout 2005-2006 to respond to these concerns, and is situated within a substantial body of work which already provides a context for Indigenous children's access to, and participation in, early childhood services. In recognition of the diverse circumstances and requirements of Indigenous families, the research methods included focus groups, community consultations, and interviews with other stakeholders in the childcare sector nationally. An analysis of national and international literature on the research theme was made. The research findings correspond with other studies in this area, highlighting that accessibility (availability of places and transport), affordability, acceptability, and appropriateness are indicators which measure how well—or not—a service is meeting the needs of Indigenous children, their families and communities in relation to child care. To ensure that all children have equitable access to the service best suited to their needs, the Commonwealth of Australia, together with all states and territories, must understand and incorporate these requirements in childcare service provision for all Indigenous children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweeping changes to the Australian Child Support Scheme were recently introduced, featuring a dramatically different system for the calculation of child support. The reforms were intended to respond to ongoing concerns about equity and changes in social expectations and practices in gender, work and parenting. The extent to which the new Scheme is fairer' and will improve the well- being of children and their families needs to be tested. Drawing on published Government data, this article examines the initial distributional impacts of the new Scheme and discusses key policy and research issues arising from these data. At a general level, non-resident parents (mostly fathers) were more likely than resident parents (mostly mothers) to experience net gains under the new Scheme. Low-income families, and resident parents with part-time or casual employment, appear to be among those most likely to have been hardest hit by the recent reforms, though the government modelling suggests that net losses are likely to be $20 or less a week in absolute terms. While the paper does not assess behavioural changes resulting from the child support reforms, it is important to keep a watching brief of how the new Scheme is evolving on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early years in a child's life are widely acknowledged as significant for development and learning, yet in Australia a co-ordinated approach where emergent literacy is acknowledged and prioritised is not evident, particularly in early childhood settings during the period prior to school. Despite a large body of International and Australian research conducted with young children, families and teachers where results emphasise the need for emergent literacy opportunities to be made available for all, there is little evidence that changes are being made in early childhood settings in Australia. This paper describes a study of emergent literacy conducted in two early childhood classes in the year immediately prior to Year 1 in North Queensland where teachers embedded emergent literacy opportunities within their play-based programs. Design-based research, an emerging paradigm, was utilised and both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Results showed young children's emergent literacy understandings improved significantly on a number of measures over a period of five months and teachers' perceptions of emergent literacy pedagogy changed due to the experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral history narratives construct the 1950s as a time of immense freedom for Australian children; roaming the streets happily and safely until night-fall. These idyllic recollections are framed by a set of contemporary concerns about the over-protected twenty-first century child. And yet the introduction, by a range of government agencies, of a variety of strategies to protect juvenile safety suggests that adult fears for children existed in the post-war years. This paper explores the seeming contradiction between the existence of such restrictions and the memories of carefree youth in 1950s Victoria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The care and education of children below school age is an area of intense public debate and the subject of considerable policy innovation in Western democracies. Child care raises complex philosophical and policy issues ranging from broad questions about the relative responsibilities of state, market and family to technical aspects of policy design such as the interaction of child care subsidies with income support, family payments and taxation. Across the developed world, countries are finding new ways to address the growing need for child care, with market-based solutions looming large in several countries. This paper analyses Commonwealth policy towards long day care in Australia since the early 1990s. It explores the shift towards market-based, for-profit care for children below school age, especially the growth of publicly listed child care corporations. In allowing a single corporation to assume a dominant position in the provision of long day care, Australia has embarked on a vast experiment in the care of children, unparalleled in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Ninth Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, titled "Families Matter," which was held in Melbourne on 9-11 February 2005. The conference was opened by the Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator the Hon. Kay Patterson. The conference concluded with a panel discussion on the topic "Family policy in the Asia Pacific region." Early childhood development, early intervention strategies and the development of effective children's services continue to be enduring themes of Institute conferences. A number of papers discussed children's well-being in childcare. A number of sessions were dedicated to exploring the interaction between family life and community life. The participation of international delegates provides an important networking opportunity for Australian researchers and policy makers attending the Institute's Conference. Feedback from delegates attending the conference was very positive. During and immediately after the conference, research presented at the conference was reported in more than 800 media items.

The article focuses the research paper "Working Women and Child Care." The article explores issues relating to the use of child care by non-English-speaking background women, English-speaking background women and Australian women.

This article focuses on the report "Child Care at the Crossroads: National Child Care Summit." It presents papers delivered at a child care summit organized by Community Child Care Victoria. across Australia. The author argues that Australia is now at a turning point in the history of children's services. Recent moves by governments suggest a distancing from responsibility for children's services. The community must demand that governments acknowledge their responsibility to protect and nurture children and show their commitment to intervention and regulation in the marketplace.