Displaying 1 - 10 of 177
Abstract
Many children who experience serious adversity with their birth family have to be placed in family-based alternatives, such as foster care, or adoption. Caregivers and parents are then expected to show these children nurturing patterns of relating to others through affectionate and stimulating interactions. These are essential for establishing positive bonds within new families. In the present study, we explored the adult-child interactions that took place in 116 families from Spain: 28 long-term non-kin foster families, 34 adoptive families, and a community comparison group made…
Abstract: The number of unaccompanied minors (UAMs) arriving in the European Union (EU) has been increasing dramatically over recent years resulting in the formulation of EU policy directives around safeguarding and well-being. Notably, the majority of UAMs enter Europe irregularly through two main gateways to the European continent: via Italy, using the Central Mediterranean Sea route; or through Greece, transiting through the Eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey, mostly via sea. Profiles of UAMs travelling via the two different routes are significantly diverse, reflecting Italy’s and…
Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of adults’ interactive moves and strategies on children’s participation and agency at dinnertime in two Italian residential care facilities, one of the most widely used alternative care life-context for children and youth coming from vulnerable families. Participants are 14 children and 11 educators living in two residential care facilities in Rome (Italy). Adopting an interactional and multimodal analytic approach, this paper focuses on two dinnertime activities: the routine activity of praying before eating and the very frequent one of talking…
Abstract
Unaccompanied minors who reach the age of majority often experience this transition as a complex stage. Insecurity and helplessness may arise and, in some cases, survival without the support of the institutions and services that previously protected them as minors in the host country may mean becoming at risk for social exclusion. The objective of the present study was to characterize unaccompanied minors in Portugal (N = 67) and understand the processes of transition into the age of majority, using a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative (survey) and qualitative (…
Abstract
This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork in an Italian reception centre for male ‘unaccompanied minors’. Drawing on the concepts of ‘hostipitality’ (Derrida), the Black Mediterranean, and ‘intimate citizenship’ (Plummer), we examine the political ambivalence of hospitality for young African men as they transition to adulthood and how this is experienced through the intersections of age, gender and race. The biographical transition to adulthood thus offers a unique empirical opportunity to examine the extent of hospitality, as the (uninvited) Black child guest crosses the…
Abstract: Research on residential care has been well established in the literature. Nonetheless, research drawing from the actual experiences of adolescents is relatively scarce. A qualitative study was designed highlighting the voices of children, analysing their fostering experience, interpersonal relationships, their participation in daily decisions, and future aspirations. The sample included 33 early adolescents in residential care aged 12–14 in Portugal (n = 17) and Spain (n = 16). Results showed that there was agreement in terms of the importance given to education, their satisfaction…
Abstract
This article examines the housing and social policies for URMs in Greece. The main argument is that the social policies pursued have residual characteristics and focus on emergency housing services, a form of management that does not favor the social integration of URMs. Instead, it traps them in dismal conditions that violate the human rights. The findings of the scholarly review and the field research shed further light on another aspect of the shrinking of the welfare state which, along with the EU refugee repression policies, trap a vulnerable group in extreme forms of…
Abstract
This paper presents data from a unique programme evaluation of the parenting programme titled ‘Learning together, growing as a family’ applied in 14 cities in Spain and targeting families at risk of neglectful behaviour. The programme evaluation is based on the voices of children using the qualitative methodology of art‐based research. Eighty‐six children 6–12 years of age were interviewed in groups. The outcomes of the evaluation reveal that children perceive improvements in the parental competencies of their parents and in themselves and that these changes serve as a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the consequences of the last great recession on the child protection system (CPS) in Spain, to estimate whether there is any kind of relationship between the conditions of socio-economic crisis and its protective activity.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on child protection legal measures issued by the CPS and socio-economic data from 8 of the 17 regions of the country were cross-checked. Using the chi-square test, it was possible to determine the significance and intensity of the relationship between the different variables in each of…
Abstract
This cross-national study compares and contrasts how two states- one in the U.S. (Illinois) and one in Spain (Catalonia)—support care leavers as they transition into adulthood. Twenty-seven individuals from NGOs and public agencies that provide services to care leavers were interviewed. Although both states are seen as leaders in the development of policies and in the provision of services that support care leavers within their national contexts, important differences exist in the types of support available to care leavers and the approach taken to provide those supports. Some of…