The Norwegian Ombudsman for Children on child participation

The adoption in 1989 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has seen a quantum leap in the recognition- and expansion of initiatives to uphold children’s participation rights. The Ombudsman for Children plays an important role in promoting children’s rights, thus stressing the importance of authorities taking children’s opinions and experiences into consideration when making decisions which affect them. This article examines how the staff at the Ombudsman for Children in Norway understand and experience child participation through expert meetings and expert groups, in which children are regarded as the experts. The findings suggest that the existence of a consultative approach, where children’s views influence decisions, depends on the effectiveness of the Ombudsman’s representative function. While there is evidence of the recent growth of platforms for children to express their views, the core elements of participation largely remain monopolized by adults. We argue that active participation should be deliberately promoted beyond adult-led realms, and extended to ordinary contexts in which children interact with the society

Children and childhood in Chile

English This study explores understandings of children and childhood among 21 social workers from five child protection services in Chile. To help grasp multiple ideas about children and childhood, we use Q methodology and the ‘child visibility’ concept. The object is to explore dissimilar and/or similar views on child visibility among social workers and the characteristics of these viewpoints. The results reveal three distinct views on child visibility. Based on the characteristics of these perspectives, we have conceptualized the workers associated with them as: activists, buffers and experts. The activists vigorously seek children’s own perspectives, and produce an image of capable children with unique perspectives. The buffers and the experts, however, typically define children’s needs from their own perspectives. Nevertheless, through differing logics, the experts focus on children’s vulnerability and protection needs, while the buffers are more inclined to view children in terms of their contextual risk and on the margins in an underfunded child protection context. Despite these differences, there are shared viewpoints among the social workers, for example, by understanding children as relational. The results are discussed in light of current theory within childhood studies. Spanish Niños e infancia en Chile: Perspectivas de los trabajadores sociales. Este estudio explora las concepciones que sobre los niños y la infancia desarrollan 21 trabajadores sociales de cinco servicios de protección infantil en Chile. Para comprender estas múltiples ideas, utilizamos la Metodología Q y el concepto de “visibilidad del niño”. El objeto es explorar perspectivas similares o diferentes respecto a la visión que tienen los trabajadores sociales sobre este grupo social, así como las características de esos puntos de vista. Los resultados revelan tres tipos de visión distintivos sobre los niños. Con base a las características de estas tres perspectivas, hemos conceptualizado a los trabajadores sociales asociados con ellas como: activistas, baluartes, y expertos. Los activistas buscan vigorosamente las perspectivas de los propios infantes y producen una imagen de que los niños poseen capacidades y perspectivas únicas. Los otros dos grupos, sin embargo, típicamente definen las necesidades de los niños desde sus propias representaciones. A través de lógicas distintas, los expertos se enfocan en la vulnerabilidad de los infantes y sus necesidades de protección; mientras los baluartes están más inclinados a ver a los niños en términos de sus propios riesgos contextuales, y en los márgenes de un contexto de protección infantil con financiación insuficiente. A pesar de estas diferencias, existen puntos de vista comunes entre los trabajadores sociales, por ejemplo, al entender a los niños en términos relacionales. Estos resultados son discutidos a la luz de las teorías actuales dentro de los estudios de la infancia

Do Foster Parents and Care Workers Recognize the Needs of Youth in Family Foster Care with a History of Sexual Abuse?

Children in family foster care have the right to participate in decisions regarding their life, however, adults often advocate on behalf of children. This Q methodological study explored whether shared perspectives among foster parents and care workers resemble shared perspectives of youth regarding the psychosocial needs experienced by youth with a history of sexual abuse. Participants sorted a set of statement cards according to what they thought was most important for youth. By-person factor analyses examined how the Q sorts of foster parents and care workers related to those of youth. The results showed that foster parents mostly recognized the group of youth who value an instrumental relationship with their carers, while care workers mostly recognized the group of youth who value support of both foster and birth parents with regard to their preparation for independent living. The two youth groups characterized by ambivalence and autonomy were barely recognized. Results are discussed in light of the expected roles of foster parents and care workers, and youth’s contact with birth parents. Lastly, this study highlights the importance of youth participation, because youth offer unique and varying perspectives about their needs

Psychosocial Needs of Children in Foster Care and the Impact of Sexual Abuse

Children in family foster care, especially those who have experienced sexual abuse, require a safe and nurturing environment in which their psychosocial needs are met. However, there is limited knowledge on how youth prioritize various needs and what impact previous experiences have on these needs. In this study, we asked youth (formerly) in family foster care to indicate their psychosocial needs, and analyzed if youth with a history of sexual abuse have different needs. A Q methodological study was conducted with 44 youth (age 16–28). Fifteen of them reported sexual abuse during their childhood. Using by-person factor analyses, respondents who share similar subjective views were grouped together. Qualitative interpretations of the factors show differences and similarities between and within the two groups, related to help from others, being independent, processing the past, and working toward the future. Although the needs of youth with and without experiences of sexual abuse seem mostly similar, one group of sexually abused youth specifically indicated not wanting an emotional connection to foster parents, but instead a strictly instrumental, professional relationship. This study captured the diverse perspectives of youth themselves, revealing that children in foster care differ with regard to what they consider as (most) important safety, belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization needs

Revealing Children’s Experiences and Emotions through Q Methodology

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It was originally published in the journal Child Development Research.Over the last two decades, there has been a greater readiness to view children as competent contributors to our understanding of children’s lives and experiences. As a consequence of this, we have witnessed an increased focus on including children in research. When research aims at revealing children’s perspectives, experiences, and emotions, we need to employ methods that are easy-to-use means for obtaining their stories. In this paper, we argue that Q methodology is particularly suitable for facilitating children’s participation in research. We will give a brief presentation of the methodology and demonstrate its relevance for research with children.We do so by presenting two research examples aiming at revealing children’s experiences and emotions in challenging life circumstances. In the first example, Q methodology was used with five-year-old children where the research topic was divorce. The second example is a study on family perceptions among adolescents in foster home care

The Concept of ‘family’ among Norwegian adolescents in long-term foster care

In Norway, about 8,000 children live in foster homes (about 3.300 in age group 13–17). What does ‘family’ mean to these children? We explored the views and feelings about ‘family’ among 22 adolescents who are living in long-term foster care. Three patterns emerged. Most of the participants expressed confidence and adjustment in the foster home placement and felt bonded to both their foster family and to their birth family. Other adolescents expressed a strong sense of membership to their birth family but not to their foster family, and the remaining adolescents described a weak bond to birth family but a strong bond to their foster family. The main implications of the three patterns are discussed in the light of policy and practice

The needs of foster children:A Q-sort study on the differences between the psychosocial needs of foster children with and without a history of sexual abuse

Children in family foster care have a specific set of psychosocial needs, stemming from previous caregiving, (traumatic) experiences, and living in a foster family. Foster parents are expected to learn about these needs and incorporate them into their parenting and nurturing. When foster children have a history of sexual abuse prior to placement, foster parents are more often challenged with behavioral, emotional and educational difficulties and sexual risk behavior. In general, studies have focused on the problems encountered by this group, with a focus on the prevalence of behavioral problems, placement breakdowns, and possible interventions that could be used to minimize this. Yet, needs as described by Maslow (1943), and Deci and Ryan (1985) have not received much attention, even though this can guide foster parents in their caregiving practices. This study therefore aims to describe what foster children consider their most important needs, how these needs can be met during their foster care placement and how these needs differ for children with a history of sexual abuse. First, based on interviews with 15 adolescent and former foster youth (ages 15-23) and 7 foster care workers in The Netherlands, 45 statements describing possible psychosocial needs of foster children were constructed. Examples are: ‘I want to have a nice time with my biological parents during contact visits’ and ‘I want to be able to take time and space to think about and process my past’. Second, a Q-sort methodology was chosen to capture the subjective opinions of (former) foster children about their most important needs. The 44 (former) foster children that participated in the Q-sort study were aged 16 to 28 (M = 21, SD = 2.9), were mostly woman (80%) and 15 had experienced sexual abuse during their childhood. The participants sorted the statements in a set grid, ranging from ‘most important’ to ‘most unimportant’, according to their own personal point of view. Using the program PQMethod, three principal component factor analyses with varimax rotations were performed on the participant’s Q-sorts (by-person factor analysis). In the first two analyses, we included participants with and without sexual abuse experiences separately. Participants who found similar needs important or unimportant were grouped together in a factor. The third analysis was a higher order factor analysis, comparing the factors of both the abused and non-abused groups to search for similarities and differences in their needs. The results show that the needs of the non-abused group were focused on people they do (or explicitly do not) want to have a close relationship with, for example with their foster or biological parents. In contrast, the abused group was more focused on themselves and on what other people could do for them. The second order factor analysis confirmed this, and showed that although some needs between the abused and non-abused group overlapped, the abused group also had a specific set of needs. This group strongly felt foster parents and foster care professionals should help them, while warm relationships with those people seemed less important. In conclusion, although some needs seem equally important for all foster children, both groups show inter-individual differences in what they consider their most important needs. In addition, the analysis shows that for the children with a history of sexual abuse, using other people’s help as a resource is more important than developing close relationships. This study provides researchers, practitioners and foster parents insight into the needs of foster children and how these differ on an inter-individual level, especially for children with and without a history of sexual abuse. The next step is to optimally meet the needs of this diverse population