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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2005.10.011 Byline: Mona Khoury-Kassabri, Muhammad M. Haj-Yahia, Asher Ben-Arieh Keywords: Children's rights; Palestinian adolescents; Israeli adolescents Abstract: With the universal ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child societies have recognized children as human beings entitled to their own rights. This recognition calls for a thorough investigation of children's understanding of the concept of children rights at large and their own rights in particular. It further calls for an examination of the role of context in the formation of the concept of children's rights. The study reported here, examined adolescents' approach to children rights among three ethnic and national groups: Jewish adolescents, Palestinian adolescents from Israel (PI) and Palestinian adolescents from the Palestinian Authority (PA). The results indicated that for most of the items Jewish adolescents have higher agreements with children rights than PI and PA adolescents that were similar to each other in their acceptance of most aspects of children rights. However, this trend was not consistent over all types of children rights examined in the study. For instance, PA adolescents were more similar to Jewish adolescents than to PI adolescents in supporting the idea of children rights. Also, the three groups were similar in their low agreement with the idea of giving children rights in governmental matters. The paper discusses several interpretations and assumptions to explain these findings, such as the statehood conditions of Israel and the Palestinian Authority and cultural values of each group. Recommendations for future research are discussed. Author Affiliation: The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel Article History: Received 19 August 2005; Revised 27 September 2005; Accepted 15 October 2005

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2005.08.004 Byline: Asher Ben-Arieh Keywords: State of the child; Children well-being; Social indicators; Measuring and monitoring Abstract: Recent years have brought growing attention to the efforts to measure and monitor children's well-being. This growing attention can be seen in the quantity of various 'State of the Child' reports. This study reevaluates how the field studies the state of children around the globe. Findings support earlier research showing that the field is going through three major shifts: from a focus on a child's mere survival to a focus on well-being and other attributes; from a focus on negative aspects in children's lives to one focused on positive aspects; and from a focus on well-becoming (attaining eventual well-being in adulthood) to well-being (attaining well-being during childhood). The study further demonstrates these shifts to be correlated with changes in the 'philosophy' or approach of many of the more recent reports (e.g., the incorporation of subjective perception as well as the child's perspective and the use of the child as the unit of observation). Finally, the study predicts that the field will continue to move in these three directions but likely at a considerably faster pace. We further anticipate that the continuation of the current trends will lead to children becoming active participants in such efforts rather then subjects for research. Author Affiliation: Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel Article History: Received 6 May 2005; Revised 21 July 2005; Accepted 25 August 2005 Article Note: (footnote) [star] This paper is based on a research which was partially funded by the Anne E. Casey Foundation during his sabbatical at the Institute for Families and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University.