Parent Perceived Barriers and Facilitators of Children’s Adventurous Play in Britain: A Framework Analysis

Background: From a public health perspective there is growing interest in children’s play, including play involving risk and adventure, in relation to children’s physical and mental health. Regarding mental health, it is theorised that adventurous play, where children experience thrilling, exciting emotions, offers important learning opportunities that prepare children for dealing with uncertainty and help prevent anxiety. Despite these benefits, adventurous play has decreased substantially within a generation. Parents have a key role in facilitating or limiting children’s opportunities for adventurous play, but research identifying the barriers and facilitators parents perceive in relation to adventurous play is scarce. The present study therefore examined the barriers to and facilitators of adventurous play as perceived by parents of school-aged children in Britain. Methods: This study analysed data from a subsample of parents in Britain (n=377) who participated in the nationally representative British Children’s Play Survey. Parents responded to two open-ended questions pertaining to the barriers to and facilitators of children’s adventurous play. Responses were analysed using a Framework Analysis, an approach suitable for managing large datasets with specific research questions. Results: Four framework categories were identified: Social Environment; Physical Environment; Risk of Injury; Child Factors. Social Environment included barriers and facilitators related to parents, family and peers as well as community and society. Dominant themes related to perceptions about the certainty of child safety, such as supervision and the safety of society. Beliefs about the benefits of adventurous play for development and well-being were important facilitators. Physical Environment factors focused on safety and practical issues. Risk of Injury captured concerns about children being injured during play. Child Factors included child attributes, such as play preference, developmental ability and trait-like characteristics. Conclusions: Improved understanding of what influences parent perceptions of adventurous play can inform public health interventions designed to improve children’s opportunities for and engagement in adventurous play, with a view to promote children’s physical and mental health.

Challenges to Parental Involvement in Children’s ESL Learning

This paper highlights the findings from the research question, namely: “How do the participating parents work with their children at home?” This is a qualitative study involving seven participating parents of struggling readers of ESL in a Malaysian primary classroom. Interviews were conducted to obtain information from the participants and data was inductively analysed encompassing a co-construction of meaning between the participants’ expressions and researcher’s own interpretation. Two major themes emerged from the data namely involvement; and challenges. In this paper, the results of one of the main themes developed, that is challenges will be discussed. This paper focuses on three types of challenges reported by the participating parents of this study which are “parents and family factors”, “school and teacher factors” and “child factors”. The findings of this study suggest some implications for the system surrounding struggling readers in the Malaysian context including strengthening home-school relationship and establishing educational program for parents.

The Demographics Behind the Courage to Tell for Survivors: Child Sexual Abuse Experiences in Kenya

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is both a global and national social issue, as well as an epidemic in various societies. Non-disclosure of CSA only worsens and extends survivors’ suffering, and CSA’s long-term effects can be devastating. Several studies have been done in the field of CSA and its health implications but rarely have previous studies addressed child sexual abuse disclosure (CSAD). The current study aimed at examining child factors of CSAD at Thika Level 5 Hospital (TL5H) in Kiambu County, Kenya. The study is a case study using a phenomenology approach where the primary data was collected from the sexual abuse survivors and caregivers using a mixed-method analysis. Interviews were conducted with 30 CSA survivors, 25 girls, and 5 boys: 5-17 years. The study utilised the convergent QUAL (investigative open-ended questions and storytelling) design with a Quan component (structured survey) to identify CSA survivors’ experiences while receiving medical treatment and therapeutic intervention at TL5H. Descriptive and thematic approaches were applied to analyse qualitative data that revealed survivors’ lived experiences with CSA. Informed by Bronfenbrenner’s Socio-Ecological Model (SEM), saliency analysis was applied to code the recurring and important themes from the data in order to identify which child factors. Survivors gave detailed accounts of types of threats and manipulation applied by perpetrators to stop them from disclosing abuse. Survivors said disclosing or not disclosing helped them cope with abuse trauma. Quantitative results revealed that 58% of the survivors who completed the disclosure process aged between 9-13 years, 83.3% were female, and 70% had achieved a lower level of education.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability: A Pilot Study Exploring Associations between Child Sleep Problems, Child Factors and Parent Factors

Sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, few studies have undertaken group comparisons of sleep profiles and factors associated with poorer sleep between children with ASD without intellectual disability (ID; hereafter referred to as ASD) and ASD with co-occurring ID (hereafter referred to as ASD + ID). This study aimed to (1) compare child (sleep problems and emotional and behavioural problems (EBPs)) and parent factors (parenting stress and mental health) for children with ASD compared to children with ASD + ID, and (2) examine the associations between sleep problems and child and parent factors in both groups. Parents of 56 children with ASD (22 ASD, 34 ASD + ID) aged 6–13 years took part in the study. No statistically significant differences in sleep problems were found between children with ASD compared to children with ASD + ID. However, total EBPs were independently associated with child sleep problems in both groups. Further, ‘Self-Absorbed’ and ‘Communication Disturbance’ EBPs were significantly greater in the ASD + ID compared to the ASD group. Overall treatment outcomes for children with ASD may be further improved if consideration is given to the specific types of EBPs being experienced by the child and their association with sleep problems.

Maternal and child factors associated with early initiation of breastfeeding in Chad: evidence from nationally representative cross-sectional data

Background Early initiation of breastfeeding (EIB) is an inexpensive practice but has a substantial potential to reduce neonatal morbidity. Therefore, this study investigated the maternal and child-related factors associated with EIB and makes recommendations that could help improve the practice in Chad. Methods We used data from the children's recode file of the 2014–2015 Chad Demographic and Health Survey. A total of 3991 women ages 15–49 y who had last-born children in the 2 y preceding the survey were included in our study. The outcome variable for the study was EIB. Both descriptive (frequencies and percentages) and inferential (binary logistic regression) analyses were carried out. All results of the binary logistic analyses are presented as adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results We found the prevalence of EIB in Chad to be 23.8%. In terms of maternal factors, the likelihood of EIB was high among non-working women (aOR 1.37 [95% CI 1.18 to 1.59]), the richest wealth quintile women (aOR 1.37 [95% CI 1.04 to 1.79]) and non-media-exposed women (aOR 1.58 [95% CI 1.24 to 2.02]) compared with working women, the poorest wealth quintile women and media-exposed women, respectively. EIB was lower among children whose mothers had one to three antenatal care visits (ANC; aOR 0.73 [95% CI 0.61 to 0.87]) and four or more ANC visits (aOR 0.80 [95% CI 0.66 to 0.97]) compared with those who had no ANC visits. With the child factors, EIB was higher among mothers of children who were smaller than average size at birth compared with those of larger than average birth size (aOR 1.47 [95% CI 1.24 to 1.74]). Mothers of children of fifth-order or more births compared with those of first-order births (aOR 1.51 [95% CI 1.07 to 2.12]) and those who were delivered through vaginal birth compared with those delivered through caesarean section (aOR 4.71 [95% CI 1.36 to 16.24]) were more likely to practice EIB. Conclusions Maternal and child-related factors play roles in EIB in Chad. Hence, it is important to consider these factors in maternal and neonatal health interventions. Such initiatives, including training of outreach health workers, health education, counselling sessions and awareness-raising activities on breastfeeding geared towards EIB should be undertaken. These should take into consideration the employment status, wealth quintile, exposure to mass media, size of the baby at birth, ANC visits, parity and delivery method.

Evolutionary Perspectives on Maternal Parenting

This chapter focuses on maternal care, including the specialized psychological mechanisms designed to shape maternal solicitude and the various factors to which these mechanisms are sensitive. It identifies factors that influence levels of maternal parental investment. Maternal factors that lead to increased investment include the amount of resources available, potential for future mating opportunities and maternal age, and number of offspring. Child factors that lead to greater investment include reproductive value, age of the child, sex, offspring need, and relatedness to the mother. Although there has been an abundance of research on maternal parental investment, most of the studies have focused on individual factors that influence parental investment levels with only a few investigating interactive models. Therefore, more research investigating interactive models is necessary to better understand under which circumstances mothers would be more or less likely to invest in their offspring.