This study adds to the existing body of research by (a) including a comprehensive analysis of published reviews and primary studies investigating the effects of early identification of hearing loss and intervention on language outcomes; and (b) using advanced statistical techniques to further examine existing data on nearly 5,200 children with hearing loss. Analysis of reviews of primary studies showed these reviews exhibited severe sampling bias, lacked systematic methods for analyzing studies, and did not include a common metric for comparing results across studies nor a mechanism for analyzing how findings from primary studies covaried with other important factors such as parental involvement, fidelity of intervention, or study quality. Without a more rigorous analysis of primary studies, the conclusions drawn from these reviews are questionable. The review of primary studies revealed many methodological problems including weak experimental designs, small sample sizes, attrition or questionable sample selection methods, differences in length of treatment and characteristics of the participants, and inadequate reporting. Many researchers unjustifiably concluded that earlier intervention produced better developmental outcomes. However, almost half of the studies in which children were assessed at older ages showed no relationship between age at identification or intervention and language outcomes. Use of structural equation modeling (SEM) with the SKI*HI National Data Set did not result in models that adequately fit the underlying data. As such, these methods did not result in findings from which we can draw strong conclusions regarding the relationship between age at identification of hearing loss or intervention and child outcomes. To conclude, we know too little about whether earlier identification and intervention is better for children born with hearing loss or who acquire it at young ages. In addition to stronger research designs with sufficient sample sizes, use of reliable measures to collect a broader array of data related to important covariates, better collection of data, and measurement of intervention characteristics, perhaps we should also be asking different questions. We need to know more about what interventions, in which order, provided by whom, and in what ways are most effective for improving developmental outcomes for children with hearing loss.

In the presence and aftermath of armed conflict and war, there has always been contact between armed troops and civilians ranging from superficial to intimate; and from these contacts children have been born. These children are so-called Children Born of War (CBOW), who are typically fathered by foreign soldiers and born to local mothers. Their existence is a worldwide and timeless, yet widely ignored reality – to the disservice of these children and their communities. German and Austrian Occupation Children (GOC resp. AOC), whom I will investigate in this dissertation, are subgroups of this worldwide population of CBOW and are fathered by a soldier of the allied forces “occupying” Germany and Austria after World War II and born to a German resp. Austrian mother. 74 Several studies have described the hardships these children faced when growing up in postwar Germany and Austria, being born as a child of the enemy and out of wedlock into a defeated and tarnished former National Socialist society, in which losing the war and the regime did not equal losing the National Socialist mindset. Studies already showed that growing up as an occupation child in postwar Germany likely included experiences of discrimination and stigmatization (e.g. Aßmann et al., 2015), as well as heightened risks to be subjected to child maltreatment and to suffer from depression, somatization, PTSD, and long-term attachment issues (Glaesmer et al., 2017; Kaiser et al., 2016, 2015; Kaiser, Kuwert, & Glaesmer, 2015). There have been case-studies and reports from the field of history and social sciences about occupation children voicing problems with identity and identity formation, but systematic, empirical studies covering this topic have been lacking thus far. This dissertation intended to close this gap in literature by systematically investigating identity issues and questions of identity that occupation children face. We applied a mixed-method approach in an effort to gain different types of data and ultimately a better coverage and understanding of these topics.:INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 4 Historical Background ...................................................................................................... 4 Theoretical Background ................................................................................................... 8 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................ 14 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 15 Study Design & Samples .................................................................................................. 15 Instruments ...................................................................................................................... 17 CORE PUBLICATIONS OF THIS DISSERTATION ...................................................... 21 Publication I ..................................................................................................................... 22 Publication II ................................................................................................................... 34 Publication III .................................................................................................................. 47 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................... 61 Summary of Findings ....................................................................................................... 61 Strengths and Limitations ................................................................................................. 62 Outlook ........................................................................................................................... 63 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 65 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................... 72 1. Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 72 2. Zusammenfassung der Arbeit ..................................................................................... 73 3. Erklärung über die eigenständige Abfassung der Arbeit .............................................. 77 4. Darstellung des eigenen Beitrags ................................................................................. 78 5. Curriculum Vitae ........................................................................................................ 79 6. Publikationsverzeichnis ............................................................................................... 80 7. Danksagung ................................................................................................................ 81 8. Teilnahmebestätigung „Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis“............................................... 83 9. GOC Questionnaire ................................................................................................... 84

The overall aim of the thesis was to explore everyday functioning in six year-old children born preterm, from the children’s perspectives and from their parents’ perspectives. The relation between everyday functioning and neonatal risk factors, behavioural characteristics was studied with descriptive and correlational statistics, ANOVA and multiple linear regression (I). Patterns of everyday functioning were explored in a cluster analysis following a person-oriented approach (II). In a mixed method approach, the children’s and their parents’ perceptions on children’s competence in everyday activities were explored with a pictorial instrument and analysed with descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis (III). The children’s perceptions of meaningful everyday life situations were explored in a photo voice study, analysed with qualitative content analysis. In total, 144 children born preterm and 222 children born at term and their parents were involved. The results indicated that from the parents’ perspective most children born preterm and full-term were perceived with strong everyday functioning featuring strong motor, process and communication skills, a positive interaction pattern and low levels of behaviour problems. As a group, the children born very preterm were perceived weaker in their everyday functioning than the full-term group but the pattern of performance skills, interaction and behaviour varied similar to that of children born full-term. Further, it was found that preterm birth was not the main predictor, instead hyperactivity had most influence on everyday functioning. Moreover, the children born preterm perceived themselves to be overall strong performers of everyday activities. They wanted to be active and do things and for that they wanted to have skills and significant others i.e. siblings, parents, friends and pets to interact with and to feel safe and loved. Further, the children born preterm expressed a will to develop, improve and gain new skills and to have more opportunities to do meaningful things. In conclusion, the results in this thesis indicate that young children born preterm are able to reflect on their everyday functioning, and express needs and desires for their participation in meaningful everyday life situations. Moreover, preterm birth is not the sole predictor of everyday functioning more critical is the interaction of individual, behavioural and contextual factors.

Objective: Children Born of War (CBOW) are an international and timeless phenomenon that exists in every country involved in war or armed conflict. Nevertheless, little is known on a systematic level about those children, who are typically fathered by a foreign or enemy soldier and born to a local mother. In particular, the identity issues that CBOW often report have remained largely uninvestigated. In the current qualitative study we began filling this gap in the scientific literature by asking how CBOW construct their identity in self-descriptions. Method: We utilized thematic content analysis of N = 122 German CBOWs' answers to an open-ended questionnaire item asking how they see themselves and their identity in the context of being a CBOW. Results: We identified five key themes in CBOW' identity accounts. Loneliness and lack of belonging appeared as a paramount aspect of their self-descriptions next to narratives about belonging and positive relationship. On a less interpersonal basis, we found fighting and surviving and searching for truth and completion overarching aspects of their identities. There were also few accounts growing up unaffected by the fact of being born a CBOW. Although all themes portray different perspectives, they all (but the last one) clearly indicate the impeded circumstances under which CBOW had to grow up. Conclusions: Integrating our findings with existing interdisciplinary literature regarding identity, we discuss implications for future research and clinical and political practice.

The intention of this study is to approximate the attitude to children born out of marriage and their mothers in the years 1750-1849. The nominal excerpts from parish registers were used to find numbers of births and proportion of illegitimate children at the manor of Škvorec, the area located at the eastern border of Prague. The proportion of children born out of marriage is compared with contemporaneous regulations that could influence attitudes and behavior of contemporary society. The study also investigates the social status of born children, their fathers and godfathers. The results show that the position of unmarried mothers and their children has improved in the followed period. The results suggest that many unmarried mothers already lived with their partners in the companienate marriage in that time.

The main subject of the research is the social discourse about the ethnic identity of children born of rape during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. Acts of rape are considered to be part of the war tactics of major rivals (Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Army of Republika Srpska, and Croatian Defence Council) and paramilitary units. Forced fertilization and disallowance of abortion was carried out as an accompanying factor of ethnic cleansing. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has recognized these acts as war crimes. The main objective of the research is to pursue a cross- societal discussion on the issue of inheritance of identity in the case of children of war: first, through a discourse analysis of the media, which significantly contribute to the image of these children, and second, through the contribution of interviews conducted during the field research. The way in which the children born of war are depicted and perceived affects various aspects of their lives. The results of the project will contribute to the discussion of war crimes and their impact on contemporary Bosnian society.

No description available.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como objetivo discutir a relação entre infância, estupro e representação das crianças nascidas de estupro em contextos de guerra no cenário internacional. Mais especificamente, o objetivo central é entender as razões pelas quais saímos da invisibilização da existência de crianças nascidas de estupro na política internacional para a sua construção discursiva como um problema de segurança que merece atenção internacional. Por meio da análise de documentos das organizações que compõem o Sistema ONU, demonstramos que o reconhecimento dessas crianças como vítimas que necessitam da atenção internacional é derivado da evolução do debate do estupro como arma de guerra na política internacional, sobretudo com os genocídios de Bósnia (1992-1995) e Ruanda (1994). Desse modo, como o próprio acrônimo sugere, esse grupo tem seu reconhecimento vinculado ao estupro, e não pelas marginalizações que sofrem enquanto indivíduos vitimados por um conflito. Além disso, o fato do termo crianças nascidas de estupro se aplicar a pessoas em qualquer idade faz com que esses indivíduos tenham sua agência limitada, uma vez que as construções sociais acerca da infância colocam a criança como vulnerável, dependente e com capacidade reduzida de exprimir suas demandas. O arcabouço teórico pós-estruturalista adotado nessa pesquisa nos permite examinar como as representações sociais e culturais desse grupo excluem uma série de outros indivíduos nascidos de estupro fora de contextos de conflito. / [en] The dissertation discusses the relationship between childhood, rape and representation of children born of rape in wartime rape in the international scenario. The main purpose is to understand the reasons why we left the invisibility of the existence of children born of wartime rape in International Politics to its discursive construction as a security problem that deserves international attention. Through the analysis of documents from the organizations that make up the UN System, we demonstrate that the recognition of these children as victims who need international attention is derived from the evolution of the debate on rape as a weapon of war in International Politics, especially with Bosnian (1992-1995) and Rwandan (1994) genocides. In this way, as the acronym itself suggests, this group s recognition is linked to rape, and not to the marginalization they suffer as individuals victimized by a conflict. In addition, the fact that the term children born of wartime rape applies to people of any age means that these individuals have limited agency, since social constructions about childhood place the child as vulnerable, dependent and with a reduced ability to express themselves their demands. The poststructuralist theoretical framework adopted in this research allows us to examine how the social and cultural representations of this group exclude a series of other individuals born of rape outside conflict contexts.

Lone-parent family households in Czech and Slovak Republic after 1970 in the context of socio-economic and demographic development. Abstract This paper introduces the topic of families and households. The shift of attitudes and social values which are connected with single-parent family households is studied based on statistical surveys. This work elaborates changes in number and structure of single-parent family households in Czech and Slovak Republic since 1970 till present. The first part outlines the view of experts on a broad concept of family and the family cycle. The next part evaluates the long-term evolution of marriage, divorce, fertility and changes in society values. The changes in society values are correlated with formation, structure and number of single parent family households in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic before and after 1990. Keywords: family, household, lone-parent family, nuptiality, divorce, fertility, children born outside marriage, consensual unions, changes of values in society

Sexual violence perpetrated against women during armed conflicts represents a severe violation of their fundamental human rights. This heinous act not only inflicts significant harm on the women themselves but also results in the birth of children conceived due to wartime rape. Previous research has marked that children born of war encounter various forms of discrimination, stigma, neglect, abuse, and sometimes limited access to education and healthcare. As a vulnerable group, children born of war often have single mothers who have experienced sexual violence, resulting in potential lack of support from their family and communities. This paper investigates the circumstances and obstacles faced by children born of war but also what is necessary to properly support these children, according to the five organisations interviewed. It shines light on the need for comprehensive support systems to address their specific needs in the future, such as the urgent need for early interventions and psychological support, along with providing children born of war the opportunity to connect with their biological heritage to foster a sense of identity amongst others.