Defining and evaluating stability in early years assessment

Stability is an important underlying assumption in any form of assessment-supported decision-making. Since early years development is frequently described as unstable, the concept plays a central role in the discussion surrounding early years assessment. This paper describes stability as a set of assumptions about the way individual scores change over time. Here, an analytical framework developed by Tisak and Meredith (1990), which can be used to evaluate these assumptions, is extended and applied to evaluate the stability of mathematics scores of 1402 children between kindergarten and third grade. Multilevel models are used to evaluate the assumption that each child has a unique individual growth rate, as well as the assumption that the ranking of children’s test scores is consistent over time. The results show that for a large proportion of the children, assuming unique individual growth rates leads to similar predictions as assuming that children develop at an equal pace. While individual differences in growth rate may provide relevant information, these differences only become apparent after several test administrations. As such, decisions should not be based on perceived stagnated or accelerated growth over a short period

Forced Return of Embedded Asylum-Seeking Families with Children to Armenia from a Children’s Rights Perspective:A Qualitative Study of Their Developmental Needs and Best Interests

Asylum-seeking families with children can be forced to return to their country of origin after staying several years in the Netherlands. The best interests of the child should play a role in return decisions. It is unclear whether the development of these children is threatened after forced return. This study aims to gain insight from a children’s rights perspective into the situation of children who were forced to return to Armenia. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with 17 children and their parents. Results show that children are negative about their lives in Armenia after forced return. They experience psychosocial, identity and physical problems. Access to basic needs, care and education is limited. The parents’ emotional availability decreases. From a children’s rights perspective, it can be concluded that the decision to return children in this study did not meet their developmental needs, their best interests and children’s rights are contravened

Participation of Children Involved in the Child Protection System – Validation of the Meaningful Participation Assessment Tool (MPAT)

Children have the right to participate in child protection investigations. Although research suggests that participation is related to positive outcomes of children in the child protection system, children’s participation is not always facilitated in practice. Therefore, it is important to validate tools that can be used to further investigate children’s participation. We examined the psychometric properties (i.e., reliability, internal validity, and external validity) of the Meaningful Participation Assessment Tool (MPAT), which measures the degree in which child protection professionals enable children’s participation in child protection investigations. The MPAT is based on the Model of Meaningful Participation (Bouma et al. 2018) and distinguishes three domains of children’s participation in child protection: 1) informing, 2) hearing, and 3) involving in decision-making. It consists of 13 items. We validated the MPAT based on data from 292 child protection cases. We concluded that the MPAT was reliable, internally valid and externally valid. The MPAT’s reliability was reflected by substantial Cohen’s Kappa coefficients ranging from .63 to .92. The Mokken scale analysis revealed a strong scale of 8 items (H = .70, Rho = .89). Items on seeing and hearing children about child protection topics seemed relatively more easy to achieve compared to items on providing children with information, which suggests that child protection workers may struggle most with informing children. Lastly, we concluded that the MPAT might be externally valid because we found higher MPAT scores for subgroups based on child protection institution, age, and gender, which was in line with our expectations

Static and dynamic factors underlying placement instability in residential youth care:A scoping review

Placement instability in residential youth care is an important issue. Youth in residential care have the highest number of previous placements compared to youth in other types of out-of-home care (e.g., foster care), and the high number of previous placements can be experienced as traumatic events. Placement instability is associated with negative outcomes for youth, such as mental health problems. However, there is no review of the factors associated with placement instability in residential care. In this study, we reviewed research (qualitative and quantitative) on factors related to placement instability in residential youth care. A search in four databases (PsycINFO, ERIC, SocINDEX, and Medline) resulted in 10,299 hits. After selecting on the inclusion criteria, we included fifteen articles in our analysis. We identified several youth, family, decision-making, care, and, organizational factors associated with placement instability in residential care. In general, the number of studies focusing on placement instability is small. Most studies focused on static (i.e., unchangeable) youth factors, such as sex and age. We found some indications that dynamic (i.e., changeable) family, care, and organizational factors, such as poor parenting skills, low staff competence and turnover of professionals are positively associated with placement instability. It is striking that most of the included studies focused mainly on static youth factors. We need more knowledge about dynamic factors to reduce placement instability in residential youth care. Future research should focus on elements that might prevent placement instability.</p

Child and Youth Coaching in families experiencing complex and multiple problems:A longitudinal evaluation study

Studies investigating services for families experiencing complex and multiple problems have emphasized the need for more child-centred support. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether providing child-centred services (Child and Youth Coaching) combined with family-focused services (Ten for the Future) is effective for children growing up in families experiencing complex and multiple problems. Children's psychosocial skills, emotional and behavioural problems, and the quality of their pedagogical environment were measured at baseline, 6 months and 12 months. Parent and coach reports of children indicated for Child and Youth Coaching (n = 57) and nonindicated children (n = 18) were analysed using repeated measures multilevel models. Both parents and coaches reported improved psychosocial skills of children, but changes were only significant for coach reports. In both reports, no significant decrease in emotional and behavioural problems was observed for both indicated and nonindicated children. Many children still experienced considerable problems at case closure. Furthermore, no significant improvement in quality of the pedagogical environment was observed in both groups. Given the limitations in this study, more research is needed to identify whether these findings can be replicated and attributed to the Child and Youth Coaching and Ten for the Future programmes

Fidelity and flexibility of care activities in child-centered youth care for children growing up in families experiencing complex and multiple problems

Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the field of child and family welfare have emphasized the need for child-centered services for children growing up in families experiencing complex and multiple problems (FECMP). However, the provision of evidence-based services for these children requires knowledge of the care activities of these services. The aim of this study was to investigate care activities and considerations related to the care provision of child-centered care for children growing up in FECMP. To study these care activities and considerations we investigated the care process of a program called Child and Youth Coaching. Hybrid coding was used to identify and compare care activities from multiple sources. In the first phase of analysis a coding scheme of care activities was derived from the program manual. Secondly, these care activities were identified from practice using daily care reports, intake forms, and interviews with coaches and the developers of the intervention. During this stage additional care activities were identified from practice. All care activities were compared across sources to assess whether care provision in practice adhered to the program manual (fidelity), and to investigate whether care provision varied across cases (flexibility). Furthermore, considerations that played a role in care provision were identified (considerations). The results showed treatment fidelity for most care activities. However, some treatment standards were only broadly defined in the program manual. Flexibility in treatment was mainly observed in the adaptation of problem assessment to the capabilities and interests of the child. Overall, Child and Youth Coaching promoted child participation by focusing on children’s perspectives in problem assessment, setting care goals, and determining care activities. However, several barriers to child participation were identified such as non-disclosure about the family situation, young age, and a lack of motivation. Although children experiencing these barriers to participation need additional attention in future intervention development and research, we conclude Child and Youth Coaching is a promising program in promoting the participation and wellbeing of children growing up in FECMP

Unaccompanied, but not alone:A systematic review of the influence of social relationships on the transition of unaccompanied refugee adolescents to adulthood

Unaccompanied refugee adolescents often have few years to get settled in their host country before they transition to (a nominal) adulthood. This transition does not take place in a social vacuum. Between arriving and ageing out of care, pre-existing social relations are re-negotiated and new relations are formed. A systematic literature search was conducted in academic journals, focused on the influence of social relations on the transition to adulthood of unaccompanied refugee adolescents. The resulting 71 articles were qualitatively reviewed with reference to the social relations of unaccompanied adolescents, the transition challenges that they influence and the mechanism of influence. Four major challenges were identified as a result: ‘Achieving education and employment’, ‘Preparing for and living independently’, ‘Building a social network’, and ‘Developing a sense of identity and feelings of belonging’. Each of an adolescent's social relations has their own (non-)supporting influence on these challenges, which can be complementary or contrasting with the influence of other relations. This review therefore emphasises the importance of a holistic view on an adolescent's social network in studying and working with transition challenges.</p

Cultural matching factors, child factors, and fostering factors associated with successful foster placement:An explorative study into the perspectives of unaccompanied refugee children, their foster carers and guardians

This paper presents findings from the baseline measurement of a longitudinal Dutch study focusing on cultural matching, child and fostering factors associated with the success of foster placements of unaccompanied refugee children. We assessed the placement from the perspectives of the children, their foster carers and their guardians. The children (n = 39) and their carers (n = 37) were visited at their homes, where they completed several questionnaires (e.g., SDQ, BIC, SLE, RATS, AHIMSA and questionnaires measuring bio/demographic variables, placement success and characteristics of the placement, including cultural characteristics). The guardians (n = 37) were asked to complete a digital questionnaire. The success of the placement was analysed using logistic regression models. The quality of the relationship between child and foster carer(s) exhibited an almost one-to-one relationship with ‘placement success’, for both the child model and the foster carer model. This means that one could also investigate the quality of the relationship between the child and carer to determine placement success. The regression analyses showed that, for children, cultural similarity between a child and their carers was of great importance. However, for foster carers and guardians, cultural similarity was less related to placement success. In addition, a higher score on prosocial behaviour by the child (SDQ self-report) was associated with more positive outcomes regarding placement success (child model). For foster carers, children’s externalizing behaviour (SDQ) was negatively correlated with the success of the placement (foster carer model). For guardians, a higher score on the quality of the caregiving environment (BIC-G) was associated with placement success (guardian model). Implications for research and practice are also discussed