"In recent years children have become an increasingly important consumer market, and there is growing concern about the commercialisation of childhood. This book sheds light on these debates, offering new empirical data and challenging critical perspectives on childrens engagement with consumer culture from a wide range of international settings"--

A must-read book equipping you to better protect your child. Day after day the media reveal the latest cases of child abuse, but do we believe these could happen in our street, our church, our home? Policing Innocence is a ground-breaking book for any adult who cares for a child - family, professionals, church leaders and workers, friends, neighbours. Protecting children is a battle, and Policing Innocence is one of the most powerful weapons available to fight that battle. It empowers you by revealing the truth about the pervasive and invisible dangers children face in their everyday lives. Policing Innocence is the best armour you have to protect them; it is never offensive, always appropriate and totally practical. Drawing on her experience as a police officer in the Paedophile Unit, mother of two, and church member, Rebecca Andrews navigates us through a challenging yet vital issue with an entertaining style full of humour and honesty. This book is one of the most important you can read; it is unique in addressing such essential issues, and its easy-to-read style ensures that you will enjoy it. Policing Innocence has been acclaimed on nationwide BBC radio, and addresses crucial subjects like the Justice System, parenting, the Internet, grooming mechanisms, female abusers, the Sex Offenders Register and critically, why so many abusers target churches. Rebecca addresses the burning 'how does it happen' questions, and with refreshing honesty she tells us how she does her job. Policing Innocence is powerful, challenging, shocking, funny, revealing, un-missable - it is a book your child needs you to read

This provocative book takes a look at children's consumption of sexualized media messages while providing parents, teachers, and professionals with strategies for abating their influence. In this eye-opening book, experienced child psychologist Jennifer W. Shewmaker contends that the manner in which a child is raised influences how they respond to media messages, particularly those shaded by sexual overtones. This text takes a hard look at the impact of advertisements, products, and entertainment on a child's psyche and offers strategies for helping kids become critical, active media consumers. Drawing from research in a wide variety of disciplines, this book explores the interpersonal factors within children's lives that impact how they learn to process sexualized media messages. The book argues that an increase in marketing to children along with media-based fabrications of beauty, masculinity, and femininity impact the confidence and character of young children who are often greatly affected by what they see and hear. The author shares invaluable tips for promoting strengths in children and adolescents of both genders and presents the protective influence of communities to help children dismiss distorted media images. Provides a quick overview of previous works in child development, communication, and education Discusses four mediating variables influencing children's values: culture of celebrity, family factors, gender, and community systems Includes an "In Their Voices" section featuring specific responses from children, adolescents, parents, and professionals Covers television, movies, music, and other media Demonstrates the impact of both positive and negative media messages

With 70 per cent of its people under the age of 30, Africa is the world's youngest continent. African youngsters have been largely characterized as either vulnerable victims of the frequent humanitarian crises that plague their homelands, or as violent militarized youth and 'troubled' gang members. Young people's contributions to processes of educational provision, peace building and participatory human development in Africa are often ignored. While acknowledging the profound challenges associated with growing up in an environment of uncertainty and deprivation, African Childhoods sheds light on African children's often constructive engagement with a variety of societal conditions, adverse or otherwise, and their ability to positively influence their own lives and those of others.

This text provides insights into the field of international human rights politics - the protection of children and their rights - by looking at the negotiations leading to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

aChildren and Youth in a New Nation is a rich and welcomed introduction to the many faces of childhood in America from the Revolution to the eve of the Civil War. The history of childhood is often treated as a marginal topic, disconnected from major historical themes. This volume seeks to correct that misperception by demonstrating that the growth of the republic and the emergence of new ideas about childhood and the shifting experience of actual children were inextricably linked.a
--Steven Mintz, Columbia University, and author of "Huckas Raft: A History of American Childhood"

In the early years of the Republic, as Americans tried to determine what it meant to be an American, they also wondered what it meant to be an American child. A defensive, even fearful, approach to childhood gave way to a more optimistic campaign to integrate young Americans into the Republican experiment.

In Children and Youth in a New Nation, historians unearth the experiences of and attitudes about children and youth during the decades following the American Revolution. Beginning with the revolution itself, the contributors explore a broad range of topics, from the ways in which American children and youth participated in and learned from the revolt and its aftermaths, to developing notions of aideala childhoods as they were imagined by new religious denominations and competing ethnic groups, to the struggle by educators over how the society that came out of the Revolution could best be served by its educational systems. The volume concludes by foreshadowing future achild-savinga efforts by reformers committed to constructing adequate systems of public health and child welfare institutions.

Rootedin the historical literature and primary sources, Children and Youth in a New Nation is a key resource in our understanding of origins of modern ideas about children and youth and the conflation of national purpose and ideas related to child development.

Comparing the educational experiences of adolescents from a variety of 'visible' ethnic minority groups across Europe, and focusing on underprivileged urban contexts, this book reveals the structural inequalities, as well as the often conflicting inter-ethnic relations which develop in classrooms, playgrounds and larger communities.

Normally, our relationships with our brothers and sisters are the longest relationships in our lives, outlasting time with our parents, and most marriages today. The sibling relationship is emotionally powerful and critically important, giving us a sense of continuity throughout life. So what happens when a child loses contact not only with his or her parents, but with siblings too? That is what happens in thousands of cases each year inside the child welfare system. Children are surrendered by parents - or taken by the government - and placed in the foster care system. There, they are often separated and sent to different foster families, or adopted by different couples. In this work, a team of top experts details for us how this added separation futher traumatizes children. This stellar team of internationally known researchers - some of whom are themselves adoptees - shares with us hard, poignant, and personal insights, as well as ways we might act to solve this widespread problem.

Contributors address not only the importance of nurturing sibling bonds and mental health strategies to support those relationships, but also the legal rights of siblings to be together, as well as issues in international adoptions. Emerging and standing programs to encourage and facilitate adoptions that keep siblings together are featured, as are programs that at least enable them to stay in contact.

In its various manifestations, the campaign to end child soldiering has brought graphic images of militarized children to popular consciousness. In the main, this has been a campaign that has seemed to speak to African contexts without as much reflection on the myriad ways in which the lives of children are militarized in advanced (post)industrial societies. Proceeding from this quite striking omission, the contributors to this volume move beyond the usual focus on the global South. Making what will be an important contribution to a much needed critical turn in the vast and still rapidly growing child soldier literature, they address multifarious ways in which childhood is militarized beyond the global South through enactments of militarism that have drawn much less in the way of critical inquiry.

'Street Girls' tells the inspirational story of the Meninadan a Project - a charity established to reach out to the street-girls of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. It will introduce you to the Street Girls themselves and inspire you with stories of how God has brought hope to their lives through Matt Roper and the Meninadanca team. Its personal, readable style coupled with a poignant immediacy make this a uniquely compelling and moving read.

This handbook describes evidence-based methods of assessing psychological, educational, behavioral, and developmental problems in children and adolescents. It provides state-of-the-art analyses of leading assessment tools and methods. Chapters provide an overview of childhood assessment issues, diagnostic classification systems, interviewing and report writing, traditional assessment tools and methods, such as Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). In addition, chapters address daily living, academic, and social skills, commonly encountered psychological conditions, and developmental disorders, reviewing definitions and etiology, history of assessment and diagnosis, possible comorbid conditions, and current measures and procedures. The handbook also covers specific childhood disorders that often present assessment challenges in children, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, pain, and feeding and eating disorders. Topics featured in this handbook include: Adaptive and developmental behavior scales. Diagnostic classification systems and how to apply them to childhood problems and disorders. Intelligence testing and its use in childhood psychological assessment. Assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in persons with developmental disabilities. Self-Injurious behavior in children. Prevalence and assessment of common sleep problems in children. The Handbook of Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Assessment is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and related therapists and professionals in clinical child and school psychology, pediatrics, social work, developmental psychology, behavioral therapy/rehabilitation, child and adolescent psychiatry, and special education.

Nuclear family and kibbutz childrearing practices are compared from a Rawlsian perspective of justice. Based upon the kibbutz educational system, which has reinstituted the family, Geiger and Fischer propose a model of educational change for consideration in the United States. This model is designed to strengthen the nuclear family while improving the prospects of disadvantaged, anomic, and unattached youth.

Geiger and Fischer examine, within a Rawlsian perspective, several child-rearing institutions affecting children. Justice as fairness would consider a child-rearing institution and its inequalities as fair if there are no alternative arrangements under which the prospects of least-advantaged children could be improved. Among these least-advantaged children are those who are neglected, abused, and stripped of self-respect. As the nuclear family disintegrates, the authors ask whether it can fulfill its child-rearing function. Utilizing a self-report study conducted on socialization and delinquency in Israel as well as several other observational studies, the authors demonstrate that in a more egalitarian structure such as the kibbutz, least-advantaged children have more opportunities to develop into autonomous responsible individuals. For Americans, the kibbutz educational system shows new paths for change from nursery school through high school that would allow for greater bonds between the family, school, work, and the community. An emerging sense of community would also stimulate the moral and intellectual growth of disadvantaged youth. This book is recommended to researchers and policy makers in the areas of education, delinquency, and social welfare.

Even after 20 years of children's rights and new thinking about childhood, children are still frequently seen as apolitical. All over the world there has been a growing emphasis on 'participation', but much of this is adult-led, and spaces for children's individual and collective autonomy are limited. "Children, politics and communication" questions many of the conventional ways in which children are perceived. It focuses on the politics of children's communication, in two senses: children as political actors, and the micropolitics of children's interaction with each other and with adults. It looks at how children and young people communicate and engage, how they organise themselves and their lives, and how they deal with conflict in their relationships and the world around them. These are children at the margins, in various ways, but they are not victims; they are finding ways to take charge of their own lives. The book is also about adults and how they can interact with children and young people in ways that are sensitive to children's feelings, empowering and supportive of their attempts to be autonomous. With international contributions from a range of disciplines, "Children, politics and communication" is timely and relevant for policy makers, practitioners and researchers engaging with children and young people.

In Kids Those Days, Lahney Preston-Matto and Mary Valante have organized a collection of interdisciplinary research into childhood throughout the Middle Ages. Contributors to the volume investigate childhood from Greece to the "Celtic-Fringe," looking at how children lived, suffered, thrived, or died young. Scholars from myriad disciplines, from art and archaeology to history and literature, offer essays on abandonment and abuse, fosterage and guardianship, criminal behavior and child-rearing, child bishops and sainthood, disabilities and miracles, and a wide variety of other subjects related to medieval children. The volume focuses especially on children in the realms of religion, law, and vulnerabilities. Contributors are Paul A. Broyles, Sarah Croix, Gavin Fort, Sophia Germanidou, Danielle Griego, Maire Johnson, Daniel T. Kline, Jenni Kuuliala, Lahney Preston-Matto, Melissa Raine, Eve Salisbury, Ruth Salter, Bridgette Slavin, and Mary A. Valante.

This volume is comprised of empirical research and theoretical papers within three key areas, namely children's well being, children and youth peer cultures, and the rights of children and youth. These empirical studies include children's voices and experiences from four continents (Asia, Europe, North America and South America) and a range of methodological and theoretical orientations. A clear connection to social policy at a national and international level is made in many of these studies. Topics are wide-ranging and include: Praetorian militarization; school mobility; math and reading achievement gaps; dating and the developmental discourse in a summer camp; and, school and social exclusion for urban young people. Altogether, these studies highlight how structure and culture both limit and enable the life chances of children, how children interpret and construct their social relations and environments, and how children view themselves as well as how others view the rights of children. This volume is a further example of how the "Sociological Studies of Children and Youth" series successfully showcases major strands of current thinking on children and youth in our world today.

In recent decades, sociological research has investigated the nature of the school institution and its uneven effects on the progress of families, societies, and the global community. Yet, relatively little comparative research on schooling has dealt in a serious way with links between schooling and the other major contexts of childhood: families and communities. This edition of Research in the Sociology of Education speaks to the diverse contexts in which children function around the world, and to how these contexts shape school experiences and outcomes. The editions authors are international and interdisciplinary. They offer a pastiche of perspectives on a single topic: how the non-school contexts of childhood interact with the school institution to advance modern and not-so-modern forms of virtue, merit, and attainment, in cultural context.
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*Offers qualitative and statistical portraits of children living in Asian and African countries
*Links educationalopportunities to the child's socialization
*Urges social scientists and policy makers to consider a child's surroundings when modeling the modern school system

Concepts of who and what children are and what childhood consists of have changed over time. Our historical and contemporary notions of childhood also change according to the context of the interaction between the child and the state. This book is concerned with various ideas of what childhood consists of where the child is involved with the legal system. An identification of legal concepts of childhood can offer many insights into our treatment of children,the capacities which we expect them (possibly unfairly) to possess and the extent of any protection which they deserve or can expect from those charged with the responsibility for their welfare. Each essay in this collection focuses on a particular legal discipline which centrally involves children whether as litigants, victims or perpetrators of crimes, owners of property, recipients of welfare services etc. The object of the analysis is to assess how children are regarded by lawyers in each discipline; for example, as objects of concern, requiring protection; as autonomous possessors of rights; as lacking in moral consciousness or full mental capacity; or as fully aware of and accountable for their actions. In order to make comparisons with notions of childhood in other contexts, the substantive part of the book will also include essays on the perspectives on childhood at the core of other disciplines including sociology, psychology, philosophy and literature.

Bringing together academic and practitioner points of view, this edited collection shows how violence enters into ordinary, routine practices of childhood and children's experiences. The contributing authors seek to understand how violence is enacted against children in infancy, adolescence, in school, in care, at home and on the street.

This unique research tool will lead researchers and practitioners to published materials and documents that can provide answers needed for making informed decisions regarding issues related to today's children. Comprised of approximately 1,400 entries, this guide reflects an interdisciplinary approach citing sources from the fields of psychology, education, sociology, medicine, law, home economics, and the arts. Chapter 12, with its focus on creativity, is unique in its coverage of drama, dance, art, and music. The bibliography of music resources by Marian Ritter is the first of its kind.

Appropriate for a wide range of users, this book is designed for students just beginning to seek answers to questions concerning children, as well as professionals with years of experience in dealing with childhood problems. It will also be helpful for those wishing to learn about using databases in the literature searching process. A carefully organized table of contents and complete subject index allow for ease of entry location.

Only scant attention has been given to the issue of children's bioethics. Even when such a discourse took place, it hardly touched upon children as social agents. In this novel work, Maya Sabatello looks at the "body politics" of religious and cultural medical practices - from "harmful traditional practices" to genetic engineering. Building on literature from medical anthropology, cultural studies, disability studies, social sciences, and law, she explores the international discourse on children's bioethics from a previously uncharted child-centered approach. In light of the existing multiculturalism, she contends that in the discourse on children's bioethics, not only must the medical, social and, anthropological nexus of the child be taken into account, but that incorporating identity claims into the legal discourse is also essential for the child's voice to be heard.

As social scientists, we are called to investigate society. A powerful component of understanding society can be found when researching the lives of children and youth. "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children" stated Nelson Mandela. This volume provides a glimpse into the lives of children and youth; thus, The Soul of Society: A Focus on the Lives of Children & Youth.

An examination of the cultural values of working class Chicana adolescents with an emphasis on the social, political, and economic factors that shape these cultural values. This book addresses a gap in the literature on youth gangs and youth culture by examining the motivations and issues of gang affiliation, teen pregnancy, and academic failure from the point-of-view of teenage girls. Furthermore, the book emphasizes female participation in gangs as well as the impact that gangs have on non- participating adolescents. The author also discusses how current public policy is based on erroneous assumptions associated with the culture of poverty model. This book attempts to explain what appears to be self-defeating behavior of many Chicana adolescents. It explores the logic underlying their life choices and examines the connection between these choices and larger social processes. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty in ethnic studies, multicultural studies, Hispanic Studies, Sociology, and Women's Studies. In addition social service professionals and related professionals will find it helpful.

This book is a pioneering study of trust dynamics in children's lives that develops a new theoretical angle for studying children's participation and citizenship. Trust and mistrust are concepts that often figure in sociological research on childhood but despite their significance they remain under-theorized. Drawing on a wealth of empirical evidence from a range of institutional and cultural contexts, this book explores the impact of trust dynamics in shaping children's participation, citizenship and well-being that sets the agenda for future research.

What is happening to young adults in contemporary Europe? How central is ethnic background to their prospects and lives? This book provides a comparative analysis of the situation of over 2500 children of international migrants in Europe. Focussing on Britain, France and Germany, it examines nine ethnic/nationality groups including Pakistanis and Indians in Britain, Magrebians in France and Turks in Germany. The book includes new empirical material on language use, educational experiences, labour market entry, political incorporation and cultural behaviour of young adults in these three countries based upon a unique comparative international survey. Roger Penn and Paul Lambert offer an antidote to the hysteria surrounding international migrants that has become increasingly evident in the media since 2001. Their findings indicate that there is a widespread process of assimilation underway in each of the three countries, alongside the maintenance of cultural and religious identities associated with parents' country of birth.