As a social worker I was fortunate to meet a number of children and young people who I would describe as ‘resilient’. The work of Gilligan (2001) was highly influential on my practice and I considered ways in which I might foster resilience in the children I worked with, particularly those children to whom we owed corporate parenting responsibilities… Read More »
Resilience – continuing the conversation
It’s not a surprise that our seminar, ‘The Troubling Concept of Resilience’, received such interest. In recent years, fostering resilience has become a central dimension not only of early years, education and youth policy, but wider social policy and practice. The concept has, arguably, come from a sensible place: research that has sought to understand why, and in… Read More »
Evaluating the Bookbug programme in Scotland
A little yellow bug in red dungarees has become a familiar part of Scottish family life. It’s name – and you will likely know this if you have young children – is Bookbug, and it’s the mascot of Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years programme.… Read More »
‘Trust me, I know exactly how you feel’: Undisclosed thoughts on researching single mums when you are one
“Yup. Uh huh. Ok… Could you tell me more about that?” This is my side of the interview. I listen intensely, nod my head along, and utter some phrase along these lines. It seems rather monotonous, but it’s necessary. This does several things for me and the other person: it ensures active listening, encourages the conversation to continue, and keeps a flow and rhythm to our interaction.… Read More »
Making rights real for children. What a welcome strapline for Scottish Government’s children’s policy and service reform
As recognised in the recent seminar series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Scotland, Scotland has made considerable progress in realising children’s rights. But we still have much further to go: for example, in comprehensively recognising all of children’s human rights and in ensuring children and young people’s participation is meaningful… Read More »
Strength and power: autistic pupils and their parents’ experiences of support in secondary school
In recent years there has been a significant driving force to teach and include autistic pupils in mainstream schools (Humphrey, 2008). Beardon (2017) asserts that it is autism and the environment that equates to the outcome. For example, surroundings can impact on the level of difficulties experienced. Therefore, the focus should be on adapting environments to better … Read More »
Challenging settings where child sexual abuse can thrive
Sexual abuse scandals involving the leading American film producer Harvey Weinstein, British music colleges such as Chetham’s and Royal Northern College, and football clubs throughout the UK might seem to have little in common.… Read More »
Supporting children and families in early childhood: When does community action let the Government off the hook?
In Tanzania too many people live hand to mouth, as deep and shallow poverty exist side by side. The prevailing belief is that children unite a family, but that they should defer to adults. Until recently young children have been considered by the Government to be the responsibility of the family and not a group that warrants any services beyond health care.… Read More »
Beyond victims and perpetrators: The hidden side of violence against women
“Global epidemic.” The phrase evokes an image of a world ravaged by infectious disease and the urgent need for science to find a cure. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is often framed as a “global epidemic”, for instance, by the World Health Organisation and UN Women. … Read More »
Person-centred cultures in dementia care – learning to communicate ‘Beyond Words’
Person-centred care is widely advocated within health and social care policy in the UK (Department of Health 2010, Scottish Government 2017). In practice, however, person-centred care is often reduced to person-centred ‘moments’ (McCormack and McCance 2017). The challenge is to create person-centred cultures within our health and social… Read More »
Transition, transition, successful transition: What is it anyway?
Nurseries, schools, colleges and universities go to a lot of effort to make sure that learners have ‘successful transitions’. Similarly, families do their utmost to support children to have successful transitions. But what does ‘successful transition’ mean and from whose perspective? What does transition mean for that matter? … Read More »
Buying Sex in Scotland: Understanding the motives and incentives for paying for sexual services
The best current estimates suggest that between 11-18% of the adult male population in the UK regularly pays for sexual services. These numbers suggest that paying for sexual services is not as rare, or deviant, as many would assume.… Read More »
“A cup of tea and a fag”: doing family in the context of imprisonment.
When a person receives a prison sentence, the impact upon their family can be profound and serious. In addition to causing considerable emotional distress, the imprisonment of a family member can disrupt housing, finances and childcare arrangements. Where the family choose to support the person in custody, this can come with significant costs as… Read More »
Researching love can illuminate ongoing obstacles to the involvement of fathers
There is very little research on the subject of the love shared between parents and children, and the contemporary father’s role in relation to masculinity. My research looked at a specific group of fathers, who are present (‘involved’) in the lives of their children, and their experiences of love. I considered involved fathers as embedded within and … Read More »
Research as an intervention: A case study on violence against children in Peru
Preventing violence against children is becoming more of a focus for policy makers, with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals including targets that aim to eliminate violence everywhere. How governments can achieve this is not so straightforward, however.… Read More »
When is it safe to disclose childhood sexual abuse?
There have been on-going efforts to improve the identification of children who have been sexually abused and to encourage disclosures. It is important to consider, however, if disclosing actually promotes well-being and resilience among survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). If it does, how can we promote disclosures, and with that resilience, with children … Read More »
Serious concerns for child protection?
Several points about the absolute discharge given in Scotland last week by Lady Scott to Daniel Cieslak, who was convicted of raping a 12 year old girl, will greatly concern child protection campaigners for their potentially far-reaching implications.… Read More »
Measuring the impact of the book-gifting programme Bookbug
Bookbug is the Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years programme, encouraging parents and children to share stories, songs and rhymes from birth. The Scottish Book Trust’s Early Years programme has gifted free bags of books and resources to children in Scotland for many years, and there are Bookbug Sessions taking place every day… Read More »
Monitoring compliance with Article 12: Council of Europe Assessment Tool
Prior to the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989, children’s rights were primarily defined in terms of protection. The inclusion of Article 12 in the CRC transformed the status of children from passive recipients of adult protection and care, to active agents entitled to … Read More »
Maybe he’s caring: responding to disabled women who experience domestic abuse
by Dr Jenna Breckenridge In this post Dr Jenna Breckenridge (Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh) explores the unique domestic abuse experiences of disabled women and discusses opportunities and challenges for improving the response to this important issue. Disabled women are two times more likely to experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women. A large study of domestic abuse prevalence across Europe (including 28 different countries) found that 50% of disabled women have experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime[1]. Disabled women are four times more likely to experience sexual abuse [2]. On average, disabled women experience abuse for up to 2 years longer than non-disabled women [3]. This is a significant problem in which gender discrimination and the widespread oppression of disabled people, known as disablism, collide. Disablist attitudes portray disabled people as weak and dependent, meaning that perpetrators may perceive disabled women to be easier to control and overpower. Society often portrays disabled women as asexual, undesirable and undeserving of intimate relationships and, as a result, they are often disbelieved when they disclose domestic abuse. This is especially the case when the perpetrator of abuse is also the woman’s main carer. A unique form of abuse Although disabled women experience all … Read More
Why is it so hard to be a schoolgirl mother/mother-to-be and continue in education?
Schoolgirl mothers/mothers-to-be are objects of public dismay for dropping out of education and not valuing or using it as a route out of their poverty and into a secure economic position. Despite this, academic literature and government agendas/policies do not consider why schoolgirl mothers/mothers-to-be are more likely to drop out of education… Read More »