The 2011 Indian Census indicates that children under the age of 18 constitute more than 400 million, and most of them are Children at Risk (CAR). This study suggests that the care and protection of children at risk is not a twentieth- or twenty-first-century secular enterprise but has precedents in Protestant missions in India from the late eighteenth century. In the first section, the study focuses on evaluating contemporary Protestant mission contexts in India and a brief historical survey of Protestant missions to CAR in India through case studies. The evaluation concentrates on the implications of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) for the predominant Protestant models of mission in contemporary India - which may be summarised as child evangelism, child compassion and child advocacy. The thesis argues that child care and protection is increasingly becoming secularised and professionalised. Moreover, with the emergence of new laws and with increasing, vigilance from international and national agencies, and from Hindu fundamentalists, Christian mission to CAR is itself at risk. Under these circumstances, the study also investigates whether there is a transition from ideas of 'saving' CAR to ideas of protecting the human rights of CAR. In the second section, this hypothesis is further substantiated by case studies of select Protestant churches and Christian NGOs engaging with CAR in the cities of Bangalore and Chennai. Using empirical data, it then claims that the predominant Protestant approaches of evangelism, compassion, and advocacy are still underdeveloped and inadequate primarily because the majority of caregivers working with children still perceive CAR as objects of their mission - an assumption that may be contrary to UNCRC (Articles 14 and 30). Further, it argues that the churches and agencies most active among CAR are from a 'conservative' background, who are often exclusively 'spiritual' and otherworldly in their concerns. The final and most constructive section, based on the evaluations of the empirical data, seeks to recommend a preliminary theology of mission in and through the idea of 'childness' based on Matthew 18: 2-5, an idea developed by Adrian Thatcher in the context of a theology of child participation. Based on these foundations, it suggests that UNCRC can be integrated as a set of principles for contemporary Christian missions with CAR in South India through a missiological process called 'dialogue,' emerging from a pluralistic Indian context. It further proposes that adults and children are to be perceived not as either independent (liberational) or dependent (paternalistic) agencies, but as interdependent agencies working together in God's mission. This thesis finally proposes basic principles for Christian mission to/for/with CAR - a multi-dimensional approach integrating CAR as subjects of God's mission and not just as objects.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:44:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4166.pdf: 640336 bytes, checksum: 80394a2355787e24b01541f7afc91b93 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-17 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The birth of a child preterm and with low birth weight is considered one of the main risk factors that can lead to changes and delays in neuro-psychomotor development. Among these changes are the difficulties in motor, learning, and visual-motor integration areas, as well as sensory and perceptive problems that alone or in combination, ultimately will impact the child's social participation, especially in carrying out activities of daily living, school and play. Considering playing as the main activity for children, this study aimed to investigate possible correlations between the performance of the ludic behavior of children with a history of preterm birth and their neuro-psychomotor development. We tried to understand this phenomenon in the pre-school period, in order to produce knowledge in a preventive perspective in relation to schooling. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Universidad Federal de São Carlos. It is a descriptive and correlational study involving 52 children divided into three groups: Study group GI (consisting of 12 children with a history of prematurity and low birth weight at risk of developmental delay detected), Study group GII (consisting for 14 children with a history of prematurity and low birth weight without developmental delay detected) and the comparison group GIII (without the mentioned history and with 26 children from the same socioeconomic class according to the classification made by the Criteria Questionnaire Brazil). Three methods were used to perform the evaluations: TSDD-II (Screening Test Denver II), the EPP-DP (teacher s perception scale on student s performance and participation in the school environment), and ELPK-rb (Knox s Pre-school Ludic Scale - Revised). The first test was used to compose samples, the second to raise the awareness of teachers of the development of children, and the latter to the specific assessment of ludic behavior. The data were analyzed quantitatively in order to verify the presence of significant differences in ludic behavior in the three groups. To verify the significance of possible associations between groups of preterm and term infants, with the results obtained from the TSDD-II, we chose Fisher s Exact Test. After verifying the association between the variables of interest, we used the Kruskal-Wallis Test in order to ascertain whether or not differences exist between the scores obtained by the classes of variables in the ELPK-rb participation fields. The results of this study revealed that from a detailed analysis of the play behavior of children, that is, the way the play you can identify the presence of changes in global development, as well as in more specific areas of human development. Regarding the performance of children with a history of prematurity ande risk for developmental delay 8% had unsatisfactory results and 17% were assessed as having a partially satisfactory performance, something that was not repeted in the other groups analyzed, which had in most cases very satisfactory performances. A similar picture was observed when analyzing the performance of children in fine motor activities, where children with a history of prematurity had inferior performances to those of children born at term, principally when comparing the results obtained from children of group GI with those obtained from children in group GIII. Regarding the results obtained in evaluating the ELPK-rb participation field, lmost all children from groups GI, GII and GIII presented co-operative play behavior, or would rather play only with other children. Another factor that draws our attention when observing the results of participation fields, was the presence of a greater difficulty for children with a history of prematurity and risk for developmental delay in playing games with simple rules (being that 17% did not show the expected behavior and 25% played tentatively). Still with respect to the participation field, when analyzing the results related to the language area it was observed, again, a lower performance among children with a history of prematurity, especially among children in group GI, when compared to children born at term. Regarding the children s performance in the ELPK-rb field of make believe/symbolic games, it was noted that children of the group GI obtained results lower tah those of children from GII and GIII, especially in sub-items interprets more complex emotions and demonstrates function in the games for or with others . By establishing the association between the results obtained by the groups in ELPK-rb, with those presented in TSDD-II, it was observed that there are changes in play behavior of children with a history of prematurity, due to possible delays in neuro-psychomotor development, once working with all comparisons involved, the results presented by children in strata 1 (with a history of prematurity and risk for developmental delay) differed from the children in strata 4 (born at term and with the presence of caution ). However, we cannot say that the presence of risk for developmental delay detected by TSDD-II, as well as changes in play behavior of children are unique conseqyuences of prematurity, but that they results from multiple factors that add up and influence, concomitantly, the development of motor, cognitive, psychological, and social skills of children. It is confirmed then, that pratical education, health, and social skills of children. It is confirmed then, that pratical education, health, and the promoting of development occur in conjunction, contributing to the detection of risk factors and promoting the quality of interactions and the environment in which children are placed. In this sense, it is necessary to invest in the training of educators/caregivers/pages, since they can provide protective factors in children s development, minimizing/offsetting the negative effects arising from the presence of social and biological risk factors through play, as this constitutes one of the main activities performed by children in preschool, and whose primary essence is the promotion of cognitive and bio-psychomotor development in the subjects. To give children opportunities to play is to give them much more than the act itself, because it provides to each of them a better perspective of life and natural and healthy development. / O nascimento da criança pré-termo é considerado um dos principais fatores de risco que pode levar às alterações e atrasos no desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor. Dentre estas alterações estão as dificuldades nas áreas motoras, de aprendizagem, da integração visomotora, problemas sensoriais e perceptivos que isolados ou de forma combinada, acabam por repercutir na participação social da criança, especialmente na realização das atividades da vida diária, escolar e no brincar. Considerando-se o brincar como uma das principais atividades infantis, o presente estudo teve por objetivo investigar possíveis associações entre o desempenho do comportamento lúdico de crianças com histórico de prematuridade ao nascimento e seu desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor. Buscou-se compreender este fenômeno na etapa pré-escolar, ou seja, no momento exato em que antecede a escolaridade formal (ingresso no ensino fundamental) a fim de se produzir conhecimentos numa perspectiva preventiva em relação à escolarização. A presente pesquisa fora aprovada pelo Comitê de Ética da Universidade Federal de São Carlos. Trata-se de um estudo analítico, observacional, e de coorte retrospectivo, composto por 52 crianças distribuídas em três grupos: Grupo de estudo GI (constituído por 12 crianças com histórico de prematuridade e baixo peso ao nascimento com risco para atraso no desenvolvimento detectado); Grupo de estudo GII (constituído por 14 crianças com histórico de prematuridade e baixo peso ao nascimento sem atraso no desenvolvimento detectado) e o Grupo Comparado-GIII (sem o referido histórico) composto por 26 crianças pertencentes a mesma classe socioeconômica de acordo com a classificação realizada por meio do Questionário Critério Brasil). Para realização das avaliações foram utilizados três instrumentos: TSDD-II (Teste de Triagem Denver II), a EPPDP (Escala de percepção dos professores sobre o desempenho e participação do aluno no ambiente escolar), e a ELPK-rb (Escala Lúdica Pré-escolar de Knox-Revisada). O primeiro instrumento foi utilizado para definir a composição das amostras, o segundo com o objetivo de aferir a percepção dos professores frente ao desenvolvimento das crianças, e o último para realizar a avaliação específica do comportamento lúdico. Os dados coletados foram analisados de forma quantitativa, no intuito de se verificar a presença de diferenças significativas no comportamento lúdico em relação aos três grupos. Para verificar a significância de possíveis associações entre os grupos de prematuros e crianças nascidas a termo, com os resultados obtidos a partir do TSDD-II, optou-se pelo Teste Exato de Fisher. Depois de verificada a associação entre as variáveis de interesse, foi empregado o teste de Kruskal-Wallis no intuito de verificar a existência, ou não, de diferenças entre os escores obtidos pelas classes de variáveis analisadas, nos domínios da ELPK-rb. Os resultados deste estudo revelaram que a partir de uma análise detalhada do comportamento lúdico das crianças, ou seja da maneira como elas brincam, é possível identificar a presença de alterações no desenvolvimento global, como também em áreas mais específicas do desenvolvimento humano. Em relação ao desempenho das crianças nas atividades que envolvem a coordenação motora global, observou-se que entre as crianças com histórico de prematuridade e risco para atraso no desenvolvimento 8% obtiveram resultados insatisfatórios e 17% foram avaliadas como tendo um desempenho parcialmente satisfatório, o que não se repetiu nos demais grupos analisados, os quais obtiveram na maioria dos casos rendimento muito satisfatórios. Um quadro semelhante foi observado ao se analisar o desempenho das crianças nas atividades motoras finas, onde as crianças com histórico de prematuridade apresentaram um desempenho inferior aos das crianças nascidas a termo, principalmente ao se comparar os resultados obtidos pelas crianças do grupo GI com os obtidos pelas crianças do grupo GIII. Em relação aos resultados obtidos na avaliação do domínio da participação da ELPK-rb, a quase totalidade das crianças dos grupos GI, GII e GIII apresentaram um brincar cooperativo, ou seja, preferiam brincar com outras crianças do que só. Outro fator que nos chama a atenção ao observar os resultados referentes ao domínio da participação, foi a presença de uma maior dificuldade das crianças com histórico de prematuridade e risco para atraso no desenvolvimento em participar de jogos com regras simples (uma vez que 17% não apresentaram o comportamento esperado e 25% o realizaram de forma hesitante). Ainda com relação ao domínio da participação, ao se analisar os resultados referentes à área da linguagem observou-se, novamente, um desempenho inferior entre as crianças com histórico de prematuridade, principalmente entre as crianças do grupo GI, quando comparadas às crianças nascidas a termo. Sobre o desempenho das crianças no domínio do faz-de-conta/jogo simbólico da ELPK-rb, notou-se que as crianças do grupo GI obtiveram resultados inferiores aos das crianças dos grupos GII e GIII, principalmente nos subitens interpreta emoções mais complexas e desempenha função nas brincadeiras para/ou com os outros . Ao realizar a associação entre os resultados obtidos pelos grupos na ELPK-rb, com os apresentados no TSDD-II, observou-se que há alterações no comportamento lúdico das crianças com histórico de prematuridade, decorrentes de possíveis atrasos no desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor, uma vez em todas as comparações realizadas, os resultados apresentados pelas crianças do estrato 1 (com histórico de prematuridade e risco para atraso no desenvolvimento) diferiram das crianças do estrato 4 (nascidas a termo e com presença de cautelas ). No entanto, não é possível afirmar que a presença de risco para atraso no desenvolvimento detectado pelo TSDD-II, bem como as alterações no comportamento lúdico das crianças sejam conseqüências exclusivas da prematuridade, mas sim que são decorrentes de múltiplos fatores que se somam e influenciam, concomitantemente, no processo de desenvolvimento das habilidades motoras, cognitivas, psicológicas, e sociais das crianças. Confirma-se, então, a necessidade das práticas de educação, saúde e promoção do desenvolvimento ocorrer em conjunto, contribuindo para a detecção de fatores de risco e para a promoção da qualidade das interações e do ambiente em que as crianças encontram-se inseridas. Neste sentindo, é necessário realizar investimentos na capacitação de educadores/cuidadores/pajens, uma vez que estes podem constituir-se em fatores protetivos ao desenvolvimento das crianças, minimizando/anulando os efeitos negativos advindos da presença de fatores de riscos sociais e biológicos mediante a estimulação das habilidades que englobam o desenvolvimento infantil, principalmente através do brincar, já que este se constitui como uma das principais atividades realizadas pelas crianças em idade pré-escolar, e cuja essência primordial é a promoção do desenvolvimento biopsicomotor e cognitivo dos sujeitos. Ao oferecer às crianças a possibilidades de brincar, dá-se a estas muito mais que o ato em si mesmo, pois proporciona-se a cada uma delas uma perspectiva melhor de vida e um desenvolver de forma natural e saudável.

My Diploma work is called ``Reasons for Children´s Placement in Institutional and Correctional Facilities``. The aim of the work was to find out and analyse why children were transferred into the facilities of institutional and correctional education and to map all legal measures which could procede. The theoretical part deals with socio-pathological phenomena in families, legal framework of placing children in special-care facilities, children´s social and legal security, different school institutions and their inmates´ rights and duties as well as psychological impact of institutional care on children´s development. In the practical part a method of quantitative sociological research, a secondary data analysis, has been used. The research database consisted of all children who were placed in any special-care facility as a result of court-ordered institutional and correctional education, preliminary measures or parent agreed-to placement in an diagnostic institute. Three hypotheses based on the professional literature findings were defined. 1. The main reason why children are placed in institutional facilities is a dysfunctional family where the children´s education is threatened by some sociopathological phenomena. 2. Children are mostly placed in the institutional facilities aged 12 {--} 15. 3. The fact schools do not solve the behavioural problems in children in the long term affects negatively more than one quarter of institutionalised children. The first hypothesis was not confirmed while the other two were.

This thesis focuses on the skills necessary to detect children being at risk from the adults in their surroundings based on the signals that the children manifest. The specific signs are described in the theoretical part, for example, different child expressions (on psychological, physical or behavioural level etc.) which can accompany risk exposure. The thesis also focuses on analysis of different environments in which these signals can be detected (family, school, medical examination etc.). Risk factors of children being exposed to danger in their own families are also analysed. Knowledge of these factors can facilitate the detection by surrounding people. The empirical part examines the signals most frequently used for the detection of children at risk by the adults in their proximity, as well as signs which don't get much attention (the adults are unable to perceive those signals, or they don't consider them as important). This analysis uses the data from "Children Crisis Center" (Dětské krizové centrum). Quantitative content analysis was used for the data survey. The quantity of signals registered by the family carers was compared to the quantity of signals only discovered by psychological examination. The conclusion reached by this analysis suggests, that family carers are not yet very...

This thesis deals with the System of care for vulnerable children in the Czech Republic and the increasing number of children in institutional care. While processing was used mainly qualitative methods of collecting data through its own survey in the offices of municipalities with extended competence of employees engaged in the exercise of social and legal protection of children and interviews with selected staff of facilities for institutional care. There was also carried out a secondary analysis of data. Finally, there are some partial measures, whose implementation could improve the situation of vulnerable children in society and reduce the number of children placed in institutional care.

While many studies focus on the links between multiple risk factors and negative outcomes such as child maltreatment, less is known about the influence of protective factors in the face of risks. The theoretical base of this study was a social ecological model of interactive influences including individual parent, family, and neighborhood level factors to predict outcomes. Protective Factor Index (PFI) and Risk Factor Index (RFI) predictors were developed to explore potential multi-level protective factor buffering effects on key child development and parenting outcomes. Participants were first time mothers enrolled in a randomized controlled study of the Healthy Start/ Healthy Families Oregon (HS/HFO) home visitation program (treatment group) who completed a follow-up phone survey at the child’s 12 month birthday (n = 405). Families were offered HS/HFO services prenatally after meeting risk screening eligibility criteria on the New Baby Questionnaire (NBQ). Program mothers having received at least one home visit (n = 248) were included in the final analyses. Families had an average of 3.1 (SD = 1.2) NBQ risk factors at enrollment and 83% reported having trouble paying for basic needs. Families received an average of 16 home visits in the first 6 months of the program. Thirty-one percent of mothers were aged 19 or younger, 60% were White and Non-Hispanic, 31% were Hispanic, and 9% were another race/ethnicity. Hierarchical regression models with main effects (RFI, PFI, race) and an interaction term (RFI X PFI) were developed to predict eight outcomes. Interaction effects models were not significant. Five RFI main effects were significant: higher RFI scores were associated with greater likelihood of child welfare involvement, greater parenting stress, less favorable scores on child health and well-being, lower parent responsiveness and ii acceptance, and less supportive learning environments. One PFI main effect was significant: higher PFI scores predicted lower parenting stress. A trend level result showed higher PFI scores were associated with less child welfare involvement. Race was significant in two models: White/Non-Hispanic families were more likely to have a home visitor report child welfare involvement and had more frequent parent-child activities compared to other race/ethnicity families. Unpacking the results with separate single risk factor (12 items) and protective factor (10 items) regression models followed. Results showed parent’s prior family history of maltreatment and younger maternal age predicted child welfare involvement (home visitor report), while protection was seen for those with access to housing support. Social support and family functioning protectors were linked to lower parenting stress, while maternal depression showed the opposite finding. Better scores on a child health and well-being measure were seen with higher neighborhood cohesion and greater participation in HS/HFO; in contrast, neighborhood violence and frequent mobility were linked to worse scores. Developmentally supportive home environments were seen for families participating in additional parent support programs, in which the mother had greater knowledge of infant milestones and behavior, and if the family had access to housing supports. Unemployment proved to be associated with less enriched home environments. In summary, there was no support for the cumulative PFI in buffering risk for negative outcomes in this model. The RFI was also a more robust predictor of outcomes compared to the PFI in the main effects models. Overall, study findings provide some evidence for the utility of specific protective factors, as well as cumulative and specific single risk factors, for screening families for effectively targeting services and guiding the conceptual development of program and evaluation formats.

Children are being removed unnecessarily from their families and placed into substitute care because service programmes lack resources to keep families intact. There are overseas programmes, which provide home services to families, with children at risk of out of home placement. Although there has been an IFPS project there is no established intensive short-term programme in South Africa that deals with families at the brink of dissolution.The objective of the research is to investigate whether an Intensive Family Preservation Programme is feasible in South Africa. The researcher received training in the United States and met with leaders in the field, to discuss the development and implementation of the programme in South Africa. Surveys obtained the attitudes and opinions of the local social workers and commissioners of Child Welfare in Durban towards the programme. The results from opinion surveys indicate that an Intensive Family Preservation Programme is feasible in South Africa. / Social Science / M.A.(Social Work)

The activity of Vilnius non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) working with children at risk while strengthening social cohesion is analysed in the research work. The problems of children at risk are multiplying and public institutions need help of NGO’s. General characteristics of NGO’s are reviewed and systematised in the theoretical part of the work. The legal regulation and topics of activity in strengthening social cohesion are presented in this part as well. Besides the analysis of social exclusion and its factors, the situation of children at risk in Lithuania is described and the politics of Lithuanian government in regard to children at risk is discussed.

Children are being removed unnecessarily from their families and placed into substitute care because service programmes lack resources to keep families intact. There are overseas programmes, which provide home services to families, with children at risk of out of home placement. Although there has been an IFPS project there is no established intensive short-term programme in South Africa that deals with families at the brink of dissolution.The objective of the research is to investigate whether an Intensive Family Preservation Programme is feasible in South Africa. The researcher received training in the United States and met with leaders in the field, to discuss the development and implementation of the programme in South Africa. Surveys obtained the attitudes and opinions of the local social workers and commissioners of Child Welfare in Durban towards the programme. The results from opinion surveys indicate that an Intensive Family Preservation Programme is feasible in South Africa. / Social Science / M.A.(Social Work)

Background: Child abuse in South Africa is a significant public health concern with severe negative outcomes for children; however, little is known about risk and protective factors for child abuse victimisation. This thesis investigates prevalence rates, perpetrators, and locations as well as predictors of physical, emotional and sexual child abuse victimisation. It also examines the influence of potential mediating and moderating variables on the relationships between risk factors and child abuse. Methods: In the first study, a systematic review of correlates of physical, emotional and sexual child abuse victimisation in Africa was conducted. The review synthesised evidence from 23 quantitative studies and was used to inform the epidemiological study. For study two to four, anonymous self-report questionnaires were completed by children aged 10-17 (n=3515, 57% female) using random door-to-door sampling in rural and urban areas in two provinces in South Africa. Children were followed-up a year later (97% retention rate). Abuse was measured using internationally recognised scales. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, multivariate logistic regressions, and mediator and moderator analyses. Results: The first study, the systematic review, identified high prevalence rates of abuse across all African countries. It identified a number of correlates which were further examined using the study data from South Africa. The second study found lifetime prevalence of abuse to be 54.5% for physical abuse, 35.5% for emotional abuse, 14% for sexual harassment and 9% for contact sexual abuse. Past year prevalence of abuse was found to be 37.9% for physical abuse, 31.6% for emotional abuse, 12% for sexual harassment and 5.9% for contact sexual abuse. A large number of children experienced frequent (monthly or more regular) abuse victimisation with 16% for physical abuse, 22% for emotional abuse, 8.1% for sexual harassment and 2.8% for contact sexual abuse. Incidence for frequent abuse victimisation at follow-up was 12% for physical abuse, 10% for emotional abuse and 3% for contact sexual abuse. Perpetrators of physical and emotional abuse were mostly caregivers; perpetrators of sexual abuse were mostly girlfriends/boyfriends or other peers. The third study found a direct effect of baseline household AIDS-illness on physical and emotional abuse at follow-up. This relationship was mediated by poverty. Poverty and the ill-person’s disability fully mediated the relationship between household other chronic illnesses and physical and emotional abuse, therefore placing children in families with chronic illnesses and high levels of poverty and disability at higher risk of abuse. The fourth study found that contact sexual abuse in girls at follow-up was predicted by baseline school drop-out, physical assault in the community and prior sexual abuse victimisation. Peer social support acted as a protective factor. It also moderated the relationship between baseline physical assault in the community and sexual abuse at follow-up, lowering the risk for sexual abuse victimisation in girls who had been physically assaulted from 2.5/1000 to 1/1000. Conclusion: This thesis shows clear evidence of high levels of physical, emotional and sexual child abuse victimisation in South Africa. It also identified risk and protective factors for child abuse victimisation which can be used to inform evidence-based child abuse prevention interventions.