Child Indicators Research

Locus of Hope: External Hope in Parents/Guardians as an Antecedent of Adolescents' Internal Hope and Life Satisfaction Abstract While hope has been frequently referenced as a protective factor associated with resilience, limited research exists examining hope's origins. To expand the research base on the origins of hope among adolescents, we conducted 2 studies to test Bernardo's locus of hope theory, along with Snyder's theory that hope originates from attentive caregivers. Two cross sectional studies were performed with 2 independent samples collected from adolescents residing in the South Central United States (Study 1: N′ = 556; Study 2: N′ = 578). Covariance based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test an a priori model of external locus of hope in parents/guardians as an antecedent of life satisfaction mediated by children's internal hope. The results of both studies indicate that the proposed theoretical model provided good fit to the observed data. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results, particularly the potential importance of parenting approaches that involve parents/guardians acting as external agents promoting their adolescents' goals.

Sibling Effects on Adult Earnings Among Poor and Wealthy Children Evidence from Sweden Abstract While previous research in general observes adverse effects of siblings on children, less is known about the ways in which material circumstances condition these effects. Using propensity score matching on longitudinal data, this study estimates the effects of being an only child, being born first, and having a large sibling group on adult earnings. Estimates are made for poor and wealthy children respectively in order to examine whether effects occur for both groups. The results show that being an only child, or having a large sibling group, impacts negatively on adult earnings among poor children. Having one younger sibling furthermore has a positive effect on adult earnings among poor children. No corresponding effects were observed for wealthy children. The results indicate that sibling effects are not linear and that they are dependent on family resources.

Poverty, Parental Mental Health and Child/Adolescent Mental Disorders: Findings from a National Australian Survey Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the association between poverty and child mental disorders, and in particular, address an important knowledge gap by examining the influence of primary carer mental health in these relationships. We extend previous research by differentiating by specific child mental disorders, age group (4–11 and 12–17 year-olds) and gender using data from a 2013/14 national survey of 4–17 year-olds in Australia, Young Minds Matter (N = 6310). Mental disorders were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children – Version IV. Primary carer mental health problems were determined by three self-reported measures. We calculated a poverty line according to OECD standards. The greatest risk of any mental disorders when living in poverty was among 12–17 year-old males (unadjusted OR = 2.77; 95% CIs = 1.91–4.02), a significantly higher risk than for 4–11 year-old males, and particularly strong for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). By disorder type, poverty was most strongly related to Conduct Disorder (CD) and least strongly related to Major Depressive Disorder (unrelated in adolescent females). When adjusting for primary carer mental health problems, the associations between poverty and child mental disorders were not statistically significant, except among 12–17 year-old males, and for CD and ADHD in the whole sample. Further adjustment for family structure and area-level disadvantage accounted for these associations. Our results demonstrated the importance of paying attention to parental and child mental health, and the child's developmental stage and gender when assessing the welfare, social and health service needs of families and their children living in poverty.

The Relation between Multiple Living Environment Profiles and Adolescent Self-Identity: a Person-Centered Approach Abstract Theoretical and empirical evidence illustrates that family and school are the important living environments for adolescent self-identity development. The current study aimed to use the latent profile analysis, a person-centered approach, to test the relation between multiple family and school environment profiles and adolescent self-identity. In the current study, we surveyed 1030 7th-grade students (478 girls, Mage = 12.56 ± 0.33 years) from 26 classes in one junior high school in a moderate-size inland China city. Participants completed questionnaires on 8 living environmental indicators and 6 self-identity indicators. Results showed that four environment profiles were identified: High Family/High School Living Environment (HF/HS LE) (n = 384), Moderate Family/Moderate School Living Environment (MF/MS LE) (n = 377), Moderate Family/Low School Living Environment (MF/LS LE) (n = 151), and Low Family/Low School Living Environment (LF/LS LE) (n = 118). Students in HF/HS LE reported the highest scores and students in LF/LS LE reported the lowest scores on commitment and in-depth exploration in both educational and relational domains. The present study highlighted the important compensatory impacts of school environment on students with disadvantageous family environment. Limitations and implications were discussed.

Validity of the Middle Years Development Instrument for Population Monitoring of Student Wellbeing in Australian School Children Abstract The importance of social and emotional wellbeing has long been recognised by education systems but the measurement of wellbeing still receives far less attention than the measurement of academic achievement. This paper reports on a five-year project to measure student wellbeing across an education system within the state of South Australia using the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI). All schools (Government, Catholic, and Independent) were invited to participate in the collection at no cost and aggregated school reports provided an incentive to participate. A total of 51,574 students completed the MDI between 2013 and 2015, with higher participation rates in Government schools than Catholic or Independent schools (65%, 18 and 13% respectively in 2015). Validity and reliability analyses confirmed that the MDI scales had good psychometric properties (i.e., favourable model fit in confirmatory factor analyses, high internal consistency, and correlations between scales were consistent with theoretical expectations). Test-retest reliability (based on a sub-sample of 82 children) was acceptable for most scales except for the connectedness to adults at school (r = .50) and friendship intimacy scales (r = .40), where test-retest reliability was low. However, several of the MDI scales had ceiling effects, particularly for girls and younger students (10–11 years old), which may present challenges when using these scales for population monitoring, program and policy evaluations. Pragmatic factors for education systems and governments to consider in selecting social and emotional wellbeing tools are discussed.

Children's Use of Time and Well-Being in Italy Abstract Several studies indicate that the manner in which children spend their time affects their cognitive and social development. But, the time that a child dedicates to compulsory and extra-curricular activities depends on a set of key factors such as family demographic and economic characteristics, social and behavioral norms, and how parents allocate their time. Although these studies focus on the impact of parental investments (time and resources) on child cognitive development, minimal information regarding children's use of time is available. Our empirical approach is based on the assumption that attitudes and behavioral norms may be considered as latent factors related to how both mothers and children allocate their time. Therefore, focusing on the strict connection between time, parental and child resources and attitudes, we estimated in a Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation model how children and mothers spend their time. Data come from the National Time Use Survey 2008–2009 carried out by the Italian National Statistics Office. The use of a simultaneous-equation model to estimate all activities, taking into account the unobservable components included in the error terms, provides an innovative method for analyzing children's time allocation, by identifying the influence of latent variables common to mother and child's use of time. In particular, the estimated correlations between the error terms confirm that parental activities affect the children's allocation of time even through unobservable factors, such as subjective attitudes. The main results support the thesis that the mother's level of education plays an important role in the positive child outcomes. In addition, we found that the same trend that exists between Italian men and women also exists between boys and girls; and that girls spend more time in domestic activities and reading for pleasure and less time in leisure activities.

Social Exclusion and School Achievement: Children of Immigrants and Children of Natives in Three European Countries Abstract Ethnic minorities in Europe show diverging patterns of educational success, but in most national contexts, migrants and children of immigrants have lower achievements in terms of grades than their majority peers. This study asks whether social exclusion in the classroom can contribute to explaining this pattern. While limited access to social resources is often assumed to be of significance for educational success, it has rarely been measured explicitly. In this study, social exclusion is measured accurately and on a large, cross-national scale, by using social network data from 731 classrooms in England, Germany, and Sweden (CILS4EU data). Results show that social exclusion is negatively associated with school grades, but this does not contribute much to understanding grade differences between children of immigrant and children of majority background.

Stress-coping Strategies, Attachment Styles, and Resiliency of Working Children in Tehran, Iran Abstract Child labor is a bitter reality in developing countries and is necessary to be addressed in terms of its psychological aspects. Considering the limitations of the conducted studies and cultural environment in Iran, it is still unknown that how these children cope with their stresses, how the quality and type of their attachment styles are, and how resilient they are to inconveniences. In a causal-comparative study, a sample of 100 working children in Tehran using convenient sampling method and a sample of 150 non-working children using purposive sampling were selected; all the samples were asked to fill Endler and Parker Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations‌(CISS-21), Collins and Read Attachment Styles Scale, and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale‌(CD-RISC).‌The obtained data were analyzed using ANCOVA and MANCOVA in the form of 2 × 2 factorial using SPSS-16. After adjusting for education level, the results showed that working children mostly use emotion-oriented strategy to cope with stress but the avoidance-oriented strategy is less used by these children. Regardless of group member factor, girls and boys used respectively emotion-oriented and avoidance strategies more frequently. However, in the interaction between group and gender, the results revealed that boys in working children group obtained the lowest scores in task-oriented strategy. In addition, working children‌ group (especially girls), compared to non-working children presented more insecurity in terms of attachment style. Finally, it was found that working children were less resilient than non-working children, but the main effect of gender alone and the interaction between group and gender on resilience scores was not statistically significant‌(p > 0.05). The findings emphasized the protective role of resilience and secure attachment in preventing possible psychological and behavioral disorders in working children. Moreover, the results demonstrated that risky role of emotion-oriented strategy and insecure attachment style in exacerbating the problems of these children, especially for girls.

The Daily Life and Reality Behind Child Poverty in Sweden: Children's and Adolescents' Voices Abstract Today, approximately 12% of children growing up in Sweden are living in what could be defined as child poverty. Although the number of children living in poverty has slightly decreased during recent years, social exclusion and segregation between different groups in society have increased. The present study will shed a light on the reality of how children and adolescents living in poverty experience their daily lives. Analytically, the study explores how these experiences connect to different practices concerning child poverty. The study draws from an empirical and theoretical analysis of interviews with children and adolescents published in the Swedish Save the Children's report At the margin. The daily life behind the statistics of child poverty [På marginalen. Vardagen bakom barnfattigdomsstatistiken]. The results reveal that lack of material and financial resources creates social stigmatization for this group of children and adolescents; they have fewer possibilities to spend time with peers, and this quite often also results in self-exclusion. The children's and adolescents' narratives also indicate the importance of the social role of the school, here in relation to the school providing nutritious school lunches and free packed lunch for school excursions.

Eastern and Western Children's Voices on their Well-Being Abstract Few studies are planned to 'give voice' to children from different cultural backgrounds to explore their sources of happiness. To address this gap, the present study analysed focus group discussions with 42 South Indian and 48 European children aged 8 to 17 years. During the discussions, the children were asked about what makes them happy and sad and about what helps them feel good again when they feel sad. The data were analysed based on grounded theory. Data analysis revealed the following seven themes: 'Indian and European children attach different values to school', 'interactions with biological families both support and threaten well-being', 'positive and negative effects of relationships on the self', 'Indian and European children name different exclusive well-being sources', 'cross-cultural and culture-specific coping and relaxation strategies', 'staying physically healthy is important to the children's well-being', and 'material and economic resources are clearly linked with children's well-being'. Moreover, the results suggest that the meaning of the well-being themes is shaped by a child's self-construal, which is either independent (the self is separated from others) or interdependent (the self is connected with others). How culture might influence children's viewpoints regarding their own well-being is discussed.