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Ronald Hughes, Judith Rycus, and their colleagues have produced a seminal review of differential response (DR) programs implemented across the nation. Their review questions nearly every aspect of the DR movement, beginning with the concept on which all DR programs are based and ending with serious concerns about the quality of evaluations conducted to date. Given current support for DR initiatives and wide variation of existing DR models, not all in the social sciences will agree with their conclusions. Nevertheless, this review represents the type of analysis critical to advancing practice in the field. Although many issues are raised in the Hughes et al. review, our response focuses on four critical points, which we believe represent the core problems identified. These include the concept that serves as the foundation for the DR movement, the role of assessments, and the primary problems with evaluations conducted to date.

Child welfare decisions have life-impacting consequences which, often times, are underpinned by limited or inadequate data and poor quality. Though research of data quality has gained popularity and made advancements in various practical areas, it has not made significant inroads for child welfare fields or data systems. Poor data quality can hinder service decision-making, impacting child behavioral health and well-being as well as increasing unnecessary expenditure of time and resources. Poor data quality can also undermine the validity of research and slow policymaking processes. The purpose of this commentary is to summarize the data quality research base in other fields, describe obstacles and uniqueness to improve data quality in child welfare, and propose necessary steps to scientific research and practical implementation that enables researchers and practitioners to improve the quality of child welfare services based on the enhanced quality of data., (© 2023. National Council for Mental Wellbeing.)

A national survey identified key elements of post-1980 position papers on the health, education, and welfare of children up to eight years old. Content analysis revealed consistent themes and a consensus of professional thought on recommended responses to concerns voiced in the position papers. Survey results revealed the need for expansion and refinement of nomenclature related to advocacy. (GLR)

While there is a substantial body of leaving care research, the theorization of care leaving has been more limited. Only a few studies have incorporated a life course perspective, mainly in Global North contexts where life course perspectives may differ significantly from those in the Global South, including Africa. Drawing on findings from a feasibility research study, this paper contributes to the emerging international literature on theorizing care leaving by applying a life course perspective to the experiences of youth leaving care in four African countries. The paper highlights how life course can be a useful conceptual framework for understanding the experiences of care leavers with an emphasis on four core concepts: biography, linked lives, waithood, and agency. Implications for policy and practice are outlined with a focus on interdependence, participatory practice, biography, and cultural transition planning alongside efforts to redress systemic, oppressive barriers facing care leavers in society.

Background: Successful priority setting is increasingly known to be an important aspect in achieving better family planning, maternal, newborn and child health (FMNCH) outcomes in developing countries. However, far too little attention has been paid to capturing and analysing the priority setting processes and criteria for FMNCH at district level. This paper seeks to capture and analyse the priority setting processes and criteria for FMNCH at district level in Tanzania. Specifically, we assess the FMNCH actor's engagement and understanding, the criteria used in decision making and the way criteria are identified, the information or evidence and tools used to prioritize FMNCH interventions at district level in Tanzania., Methods: We conducted an exploratory study mixing both qualitative and quantitative methods to capture and analyse the priority setting for FMNCH at district level, and identify the criteria for priority setting. We purposively sampled the participants to be included in the study. We collected the data using the nominal group technique (NGT), in-depth interviews (IDIs) with key informants and documentary review. We analysed the collected data using both content analysis for qualitative data and correlation analysis for quantitative data., Results: We found a number of shortfalls in the district's priority setting processes and criteria which may lead to inefficient and unfair priority setting decisions in FMNCH. In addition, participants identified the priority setting criteria and established the perceived relative importance of the identified criteria. However, we noted differences exist in judging the relative importance attached to the criteria by different stakeholders in the districts., Conclusions: In Tanzania, FMNCH contents in both general development policies and sector policies are well articulated. However, the current priority setting process for FMNCH at district levels are wanting in several aspects rendering the priority setting process for FMNCH inefficient and unfair (or unsuccessful). To improve district level priority setting process for the FMNCH interventions, we recommend a fundamental revision of the current FMNCH interventions priority setting process. The improvement strategy should utilize rigorous research methods combining both normative and empirical methods to further analyze and correct past problems at the same time use the good practices to improve the current priority setting process for FMNCH interventions. The suggested improvements might give room for efficient and fair (or successful) priority setting process for FMNCH interventions.

Child protection professionals (N=242) were surveyed regarding their picks for the best papers or book chapters in the field. A citation search was also conducted. Eight papers appeared in the top 15 of both the professional survey and the citation search, with "The Battered Child Syndrome" (Kempe, et al., 1962) appearing at the top of both lists. (Author/PB)

Background: Feasibility studies are often a helpful prelude to constructing fundable research proposals. Where the intended research is in a foreign country, focuses on a vulnerable population, and is aggravated by political and pragmatic challenges, feasibility studies become essential. Albinism, a genetic condition of reduced melanin synthesis, is a major public health issue in southern Africa. Whilst much is known about the health needs of children with albinism, little is understood about how to address these effectively in low income countries. Further, the child care and protection needs of children with albinism are largely unexplored. Zimbabwe's current political and economic climate presents additional challenges to research on the topic., Method: The technical, economic, legal, collaborative, operational, schedule and political feasibilities (acronym TELCOSP) to undertaking a study on children with albinism in Zimbabwe were explored over a six week period of fieldwork in the country., Results: Using the TELSCOSP framework allowed a deconstruction of each challenge to provide innovative solutions. The economic and legal feasibility aspects presented some difficulties that will require flexibility and perseverance to overcome., Conclusion: With the assistance of the local communities and people with albinism in Zimbabwe, the obstacles appear surmountable. The feasibility study provided a productive framework for addressing potential challenges in studying the needs of Zimbabwe's children living with albinism.

Many position stands and review papers have refuted the myths associated with resistance training (RT) in children and adolescents. With proper training methods, RT for children and adolescents can be relatively safe and improve overall health. The objective of this position paper and review is to highlight research and provide recommendations in aspects of RT that have not been extensively reported in the pediatric literature. In addition to the well-documented increases in muscular strength and endurance, RT has been used to improve function in pediatric patients with cystic fibrosis and cerebral palsy, as well as pediatric burn victims. Increases in children's muscular strength have been attributed primarily to neurological adaptations due to the disproportionately higher increase in muscle strength than in muscle size. Although most studies using anthropometric measures have not shown significant muscle hypertrophy in children, more sensitive measures such as magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound have suggested hypertrophy may occur. There is no minimum age for RT for children. However, the training and instruction must be appropriate for children and adolescents, involving a proper warm-up, cool-down, and appropriate choice of exercises. It is recommended that low- to moderate-intensity resistance exercise should be done 2-3 times/week on non-consecutive days, with 1-2 sets initially, progressing to 4 sets of 8-15 repetitions for 8-12 exercises. These exercises can include more advanced movements such as Olympic-style lifting, plyometrics, and balance training, which can enhance strength, power, co-ordination, and balance. However, specific guidelines for these more advanced techniques need to be established for youth. In conclusion, an RT program that is within a child's or adolescent's capacity and involves gradual progression under qualified instruction and supervision with appropriately sized equipment can involve more advanced or intense RT exercises, which can lead to functional (i.e., muscular strength, endurance, power, balance, and co-ordination) and health benefits.

Aims: In this study we evaluated indicators of the feasibility, reliability, and validity of the Child Health Questionnaire-Child Form (CHQ-CF). We compared the results in a subgroup of adolescents who completed the standard paper version of the CHQ-CF with the results in another subgroup of adolescents who completed an internet version, i.e., an online, web-based CHQ-CF questionnaire., Methods: Under supervision at school, 1,071 adolescents were randomized to complete the CHQ-CF and items on chronic conditions by a paper questionnaire or by an internet administered questionnaire., Results: The participation rate was 87%; age range 13-17 years. The internet administration resulted in fewer missing answers. All but one multi-item scale showed internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha > 0.70). All scales clearly discriminated between adolescents with no, a few, or many self-reported chronic conditions. The paper administration resulted in statistically significant, higher scores on 4 of 10 CHQ-CF scales compared with the internet administration (P < 0.05), but Cohen's effect sizes d were

Although there have been major advances in the treatment of childhood cancer with an overall survival rate of more than 70%, cancer continues to be the leading cause of death in children resulting from disease. In 1998, 2,500 children in the United States died of cancer-related causes. Each year cancer kills more children than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome combined. The Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses (APON) is the leading professional organization for nurses caring for children and adolescents with cancer and their families. The highest standards of nursing practice are achieved through education, research, certification, advocacy, and affiliation. It is the position of APON that pain in the child dying of cancer can be effectively managed. This can be accomplished by making the prevention and alleviation of pain a primary goal, partnering with the patient and parents, and aggressively using appropriate pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions. The pediatric oncology nurse has an essential role in the child's pain management at the end of life through nursing assessment, identifying expected outcomes, and performing and evaluating interventions., (Copyright 2002 by Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses)

Social workers carry much of the frontline authority to define risk to children and discuss it with families. Assessment reports and other institutional documents record professional views about family information, and also have the potential to convey the 'voice' of the family to institutions. Social workers have responsibility for sharing these documents with families, yet little is known about how they do this. This paper focuses on episodes when social workers introduce institutional documents in home visits, and on the family responses elicited. These are high-stakes encounters which, when they go seriously wrong, emerge in the press as tragedies and scandals. For families, these documents carry an emotional depth-charge as intimate, potentially shaming and sometimes inaccurate details of their lives are inscribed in them by and for others. Latour's (1996) concept of interobjectivity sheds light on the use of documents, while concepts of epistemic authority (Heritage and Raymond, 2005) and epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) are employed to examine how social workers respond to parental testimony about themselves and their children. Learning how to present institutional documentation in ways that reduce the risk of emotional reactivity and treating family perspectives with epistemic justice may enhance social work practice. At a policy level, the design of documents warrants review, so that they facilitate rather than obstruct social workers' efforts to build what are already fragile relationships with families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three quarters of a century, international guidelines and regulations have undergone significant changes in how children are problematised as participants in biomedical research. While early guidelines enacted children as vulnerable subjects with diminished autonomy and in need of special protection, beginning in the early 2000s, international regulatory frameworks defined the paediatric population as vulnerable due to unaddressed public health needs. More recently, ethical recommendations have promoted the active engagement of minors as research partners. In this paper, I adopt a post-structuralist approach to policy analysis to examine deep-seated assumptions and presuppositions underlying the changes in the problematisation of children as biomedical research participants over time. While biomedical research ethics focuses on the autonomy and vulnerability of minors, ethical guidelines are situated in specific sociocultural contexts, shaped, among other things, by contingent public health needs and changing conceptions of the value of research and science for society. In the process, I demonstrate the challenge of moving away from an approach that in taking adults as the model overshadows the complexity of children's lived experiences as well as their personal, cultural, and social lives. The lack of acknowledgement of this complexity makes children vulnerable to epistemic injustice, which is particularly crucial to address in public involvement initiatives.

Discusses symposium papers focused on the socioeconomic determinants of infant mortality, the relationship between fertility and child development, the effects of maternal employment on child welfare, the consequences of urban migration for children, and indigenous education in the developing world.(Author/RH)

The presence of multiple bleeding symptoms and/or severe bleeding symptom(s) contribute to a higher score and therefore a greater chance of a bleeding disorder diagnosis. There is bleeding at a critical site (e.g., ICH, retinal haemorrhage, gastrointestinal haemorrhage, intraspinal haemorrhage, haemarthrosis) with no correlating history of trauma or other explanation that adequately accounts for the bleeding. ISTH/SSC bleeding assessment tool: a standardized questionnaire and a proposal for a new bleeding score for inherited bleeding disorders. A standardised bleeding assessment tool, e.g., the International Society for Haemostasis and Thrombosis Bleeding Assessment Tool (ISTH-BAT), can be used to quantitate bleeding symptoms in order to generate a bleeding score. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the criticism of the Indigenous child welfare legislation tabled at Canadian House of Commons. Topics include the federal government's proposal for Indigenous legislation instead for First Nations laws, the financing of child and family service agencies in Canada, and the issue of self-determination in First Nations laws. The difference in child welfare laws of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit indigenous regions is also discussed.

The objective of this paper is to inform a critical analysis of how the media portray family support in Ireland. Findings of a content analysis carried out on national and regional Irish newspapers between 2014 and 2017 are presented which describe communication about family support services provided by Tusla-Child and Family Agency. Results show that even though child protection was not used as a specific search term, news items on the Child and Family Agency and family support were usually focused on child protection and children in care. Results also show that family support activities are reported more positively in local papers compared to national papers. In the discussion, we argue that these findings are important as the media plays an important role in how the public understand, view, and engage with integrated child protection and welfare systems. We consider the implications of the research and advocate working with the media to inform their interpretation and understanding of family support. We suggest this is important as the manner in which the media communicate and frame family support as part of the overall child protection and welfare system is one of the main influences on public understandings and awareness of preventative family support and child welfare services.

The purpose of this paper is to present a reading of child protection and welfare practice in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, with reference to several popular concepts in social work. The focus is on the relevance of these concepts to the contemporary circumstances in which child protection and welfare social workers often now find themselves. The specific intention is to extract learning from four traditionally popular approaches in social work, namely, resilience-building, systems theory, ACES and trauma-informed approaches. This will be achieved by first introducing, and then explaining key ideas and conventions of each approach. Here, relevant and established literature will be referenced to inform explanations. As the utility of the systemic perspective for child protection work is already well established, the paper considers how this perspective can be extended to assist in work with children and young people in the pandemic who have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). In this paper, exploration of the detail of that extension lies in resilience building and trauma-informed practice. Whilst concepts of trauma-sensitivity and resilience are variously embedded in ACEs literature, their mutual treatment tends to be deficient in one regard. Specifically, these concepts are often not thought about in a systemic manner, necessitating the inclusion of a systemic lens. Overall, the case of child protection and welfare social work offers an important focus by which one might question the relevancy of these approaches to contemporary practice in a global pandemic. In concluding, the paper's core proposition is revisited. Specifically, it is argued that the focal approaches, traditionally popular in social work, remain both instrumental and imperative, for understanding the complexities of child protection and welfare unfolding in a global pandemic.

The narratives of immigrant Latinx mothers are often excluded from discourses on motherhood. This study centers on a shared experience with Child Protective Services (CPS) for two such mothers. One mother had CPS called on her family, the other was the teacher who made the call. This paper analyses their experiences in relation to disability, documentation status, power, and privilege. Connections are also made to the societal constructions of motherhood, abuse, and child welfare. The paper concludes with recommendations on how to make school to CPS contact more equitable and just for immigrant mothers.

This article suggests that there exists a dichotomy within social work related to listening to the voice of the child, contributing to a diminution of social works practical, ethical and legal obligation to enact Article12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The article gives an in-depth exploration of this phenomenon and offers insights as to why this dichotomy exists, arguing that if social work is to realise its obligation to listen to the voice of the child, it must find solutions that accommodate the professions responsibilities to listen to children. One such solution is offered within the paper that may assist social work resolve its problematic relationship with Article12. An adapted model of Honneth's recognition theory is offered as a unique theoretical and practical method to help social work accommodate its duty to safeguard children whilst simultaneously listening to their wishes and feelings at individual, State and societal level. The theory can be used to critique current practice, offering social workers a template to build participatory practices, based on the equal recognition of children's citizenship and agency. Honneth's theory can be used to evaluate how well new participatory practices satisfy the criteria of love, rights and solidarity. By accepting Honneth's theory of recognition, social work can begin to make progress addressing the practice dichotomy concerning participation aspiration and reality. The article offers an innovative and unique contribution to the literature on children's participation by adapting Honneth's recognition theory and applying it exclusively to the participation rights of children known to social services, offering novel ways social workers can enable this group of children to lay claim to their right to participate.

This paper explores modes of expectation among care-experienced young people when navigating educational success. Luhmann's theoretical framework is used to conceptualise experiences of educational success and the role of uncertainty. We identify three modes of expectation: trust, risk and danger. To illustrate these modes, we draw on selected examples from an interview study with 28 care-experienced young people focusing on their experiences of support and aftercare while transitioning out of care. The trust mode of expectation is based in a confidence that the future entails a positive outcome--in the case of this study, regarding educational success. This expectation is characterised by the young person's feelings of belonging, underpinned by a safety net of unconditionally supportive caregivers. The risk mode of expectation is characterised by the young person's feeling of being overwhelmed and burdened by the complexity of the educational system in combination with unknown future circumstances when leaving care. The battle against child welfare services to keep supportive measures increases levels of uncertainty. The danger mode of expectation emerges when educational success is disrupted by the interference of child welfare services. The system is seen as unpredictable and powerful, making the young person withdraw from formal support. We conclude that educational success for care-experienced young people is closely linked to their mode of expectation with regard to managing the uncertainty of the future and that their mode is highly dependent on their social, institutional and biographical contexts.

Post-secondary educational outcomes for care-experienced youth are poor. This has been a consistent finding across studies in many countries. Most studies do not distinguish between different types of post-secondary educational pathways and outcomes, however. There has been limited attention to the potential for post-secondary vocational education (PSVE) as a viable educational path that may lead to positive employment and social outcomes. In this paper we examine PSVE for care leavers by reviewing available data, examining policy context and utilising relevant theories. We offer next steps in policy, practice and theory development.

In this paper, we explore the critical praxis approach of an equity initiative with students who have left care. We contend that 'praxis' ("International Studies in Widening Participation," 2018, 5: 10-20) -- understood here as the close, dialogic and iterative relationship between research and practice, can be a powerful tool for approaching ordinarily rigid equity categorisations as a means for interrogating their conceptual efficacy while simultaneously creating more exploratory approaches to equity populations and initiatives. We examine how unproblematised notions of care leavers migrate between fields and institutions, arguing for a more robust and rigorous interrogation of the salience of the concept of a care leaver as it is integrated into the field of higher education. We contend that rigid definitions of care that narrowly define people only through their relationship to formalised state-legitimated forms of welfare intervention risk making 'absent' ("Epistemologies of the south: Justice against Epistemicide," 2014; Routledge) the substantial population of people nearby this experience of care. This includes people who have escaped official definitions as policies change, circumstances that are similar or identical to people placed in care that have not been included in the official definition of care, or the overlapping and intersecting conditions of marginality that often shape the conditions for being removed into state care. Critical praxis is offered here as providing the basis for allowing the category of 'care leaver' or 'care experienced' to become an in-road for expanding practice initiatives and research understandings to further dimensions of marginalisation and social vulnerability.

This article reports on research carried out on 189 child welfare files from the largest welfare authority in Northern Ireland from 1950 to 1968. The literature review provides a commentary on some of the major debates surrounding child welfare and protection social work from the perspective of its historical development. The report of the research that follows offers an insight into this important period of child welfare history in Northern Ireland between the two Children and Young Persons Acts (1950 and 1968). Using a method of discourse analysis influenced by Michel Foucault, a detailed description of the nature of practice is offered. This article is offered as a work in progress, focusing specifically on the case file analysis. Further work is planned for dissemination of more detailed analysis and discussion of the broader context within which the practice operated. The research seeks to raise questions based on problems identified in the present with our current understandings of child welfare and protection histories. While recognising the limitations of this study and the need for contextualisation surrounding child welfare practice at the moment, it is argued that some salient conclusions can be drawn about continuity and discontinuity in practice that are of interest to practitioners and students of child welfare social work and can raise questions for further research. (Contains 6 tables.)

Presents the official position of the National Association for the Education of Young Children on the role of early childhood programs in preventing child abuse. Outlines recommendations on early childhood program policies; staff screening, recruitment, and retention policies; and policies to promote close partnerships with families. Offers guidelines on the role of family, public regulation, and early childhood professionals. (TJQ)