The prevalence and impact of child maltreatment and other types of victimization in the UK: Findings from a population survey of caregivers, children and young people and young adults

Objectives: To measure the prevalence of maltreatment and other types of victimization among children , young people and young adults in the UK; to explore the risks of other types of victimization among maltreated children and young people at different ages; using standardised scores from self-report measures, to assess the emotional wellbeing of maltreated children, young people and young adults taking into account other types of childhood victimization, different perpetrators, non–victimization adversities and variables known to influence mental health. Methods: A random UK representative sample of 2,160 parents and caregivers, 2,275 children and young people and 1,761 young adults completed computer-assisted self-interviews. Interviews included assessment of a wide range of childhood victimization experiences and measures of impact on mental health. Results: 2.5% of children aged under 11 years, 6% of children and young people aged 11 to 17 years had one or more experiences of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, or neglect by a parent or caregiver in the past year and 8.9% of children under 11 years, 21.9% of young people aged 11 to 17 years and 24.5% of young adults had experienced this at least once during childhood. High rates of sexual victimization were found, 7.2% of females aged 11 to 17 and 18.6% of females aged 18 to 24 reporting childhood experiences of sexual victimization by any adult or peer that involved physical contact (from rape to sexual touching). Victimization experiences accumulated with age and overlapped. Children who experienced maltreatment from a parent or caregiver were more likely than those not maltreated to be exposed to other forms of victimization, to experience non-victimization adversity, a high level of polyvictimization and to have higher levels of trauma symptoms. Conclusions: The past year maltreatment rates for children under age 18 were seven to seventeen times greater than official rates of substantiated child maltreatment in the UK. Professionals working with children and young people in all settings should be alert to the overlapping and age related differences in experiences of childhood victimization to better identify child maltreatment and prevent the accumulative impact of different victimizations upon children’s mental health

Researching the lives of disabled children and young people

Why a Special Issue of Children & Society dedicated to disabled children and young people? The simple answer to that question is ‘because disabled children are children first and foremost’. The vast majority of disabled children and young people in the western world live at home with their families, most attending mainstream schools, and disabled children and young people worldwide have rights to inclusion and equal treatment enshrined in national legislation and international conventions. Yet they often remain left out – from generic children’s research, from policy-making about children’s services and, in their everyday lives, from inclusion in friendship groups and social and sporting activities

Beings in their own right? Exploring Children and young people's sibling and twin relationships in the Minority World

This paper examines the contributions that the sociological study of sibship and twinship in the Minority World can make to childhood studies. It argues that, in providing one forum within which to explore children and young people's social relationships, we can add to our understanding of children and young people's interdependence and develop a more nuanced understanding of agency. As emergent subjects, children, young people and adults are in a process of ‘becoming’. However, this does not mean that they can ‘become’ anything they choose to. The notion of negotiated interdependence (Punch 2002) is useful in helping us to grasp the contingent nature of children and young people's agency

Parenting Latino Toddlers and Preschoolers: Clinical and Nonclinical Samples

Parenting practices contribute significantly to the social-emotional development of young children. There is limited literature that addresses the role of culture in parenting, particularly among Latino families who have very young children with significant behavior problems. The current study compared the parenting practices of 30 low-income Latino mothers whose young children had been referred for mental health services for their behavior problems with a similar group of 30 mothers of children without behavior problems. Results showed that mothers in the clinical sample nurtured their children less often and used more frequent verbal and corporal punishment as discipline than the nonclinical sample. The clinical sample also had a significantly higher incidence of mental health problems in their families. Results also showed the significant toll that raising young children with challenging behaviors takes on their mothers. The implications of these findings for the early identification of these children are discussed

Ethical and methodological issues in engaging young people living in poverty with participatory research methods

This paper discusses the methodological and ethical issues arising from a project that focused on conducting a qualitative study using participatory techniques with children and young people living in disadvantage. The main aim of the study was to explore the impact of poverty on children and young people's access to public and private services. The paper is based on the author's perspective of the first stage of the fieldwork from the project. It discusses the ethical implications of involving children and young people in the research process, in particular issues relating to access and recruitment, the role of young people's advisory groups, use of visual data and collection of data in young people's homes. The paper also identifies some strategies for addressing the difficulties encountered in relation to each of these aspects and it considers the benefits of adopting participatory methods when conducting research with children and young people

Parenting young children

Parents have the primary role of guiding and nurturing their child, ensuring all the child’s physical, social and emotional needs are met, enabling them to develop and become an important part of the community in which they live. The challenge is to effectively support parents to be able to undertake this vital role in a manner that provides the best outcomes for the child, the family and the community as a whole. This Policy Brief explores the factors that influence parenting practices and the impact of these factors on a child’s development. The features of effective parental support are also examined. Why is this issue important? Scientific evidence shows that parenting plays a central role in the cognitive, language, social and emotional development of children (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), and is \u27probably the most important public health issue facing our society\u27 (Hoghughi, 1998). Surveys of parents in Australia and overseas show that parents view the task of parenting as critically important and personally rewarding; they also report that being a parent is demanding and can be stressful (Sanders et al, 1999; Oldershaw, 2002). Of particular concern is that many parents feel unsupported (Oldershaw, 2002) and relatively few participate in formal parenting education (Sanders et al, 1999).&nbsp

Care in mind : improving the mental health of children and young people in state care in Scotland

Some five thousand children and young people are in residential and foster care in Scotland. Many experience poor outcomes and concern about the quality of care has led to a number of government initiatives including the registration of care services and the social care workforce. Children and young people in state care experience a high level of mental health problems. Mental health services, however, have not served this vulnerable group well. The issue of the mental health of children and young people is now high on the government's agenda. A national needs assessment has set out an important agenda for the development of services. In addition, a number of innovative projects have focused on meeting the mental health needs of children and young people in state care. It is important that these developments lead to integrated and flexible mental health services in order to improve outcomes and well-being of children and young people in state care in Scotland

Health of children and young people in secure settings

This small-scale descriptive study was commissioned by the Children and Young People's Public Health team within the Department of Health, in partnership with Offender Health, in order to inform preparation and implementation of an Offender Health Strategy document for children and young people. The overall aim was to review what is currently known about healthcare for children and young people in the secure estate, covering all three types of settings (Young Offender Institution, Secure Training Centre and Secure Children's Home) and all aspects of health, but with a particular focus on physical health since more is already known about mental health and substance misuse among young people in secure settings