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While divorce can be challenging for children at any age, research suggests that children under the age of six are at increased risk for behavioral and developmental delays (Emery, 1999; Hetherington, 1979, Wallerstein and Blakeslee, 1989). Despite their increased risk, the majority of research on children's adjustment post-divorce has focused on older school age children and adolescents (Jennings and Howe, 2001; Mutchler, Hunt, Koopman, and Mutchler, 1992) rather than young children. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the experience of divorce for young children (ages 5-7 old). Results produced five themes regarding children's emotional experience of divorce, which include trying to make sense of the divorce, feelings they experience/how they describe themselves, experience and advice: "]stop fighting,"what they worry about, and coping skills/ways to distract themselves. Discussion conjectures about these themes and makes suggestions for clinical implications and future studies in an effort to mitigate short-term consequences and help children cope with their parents' divorce. / Master of Science

Children living in risk environments can experience traumatic events that could affect their future life. Providing these children with the necessary strategies to cope with adversity and to develop in an optimal way is needed in order to avoid trauma or being damaged for the rest of their lives. Because of this reason, a systematic literature review was performed with the aim to examine how resilience is defined and implemented in studies focusing on young children at risk. The search was done through five electronic databases and conducted during the spring semester of 2016. During the research process, inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken into account and different search words were used for each database. According to the inclusion/exclusion criteria a title/abstract screening was performed. Thereafter, for the articles which were not excluded a full text review screening was conducted, which led to the inclusion of 14 articles in total. Articles were analysed using a data extraction tool (protocol). All the articles were about resilience, aimed at children between 0 and 12 years old. Eight out of the fourteen were studies that evaluated the resilience degree in young children, while seven were aimed at developing resilience with specially designed intervention programmes. A range of definitions of the term resilience were found, showing that resilience can be understood as a process or as ability. On this basis, studies focused on resilience were found to be mainly of two kinds: related to observation or intervention, using different methodologies and tools to measure or develop resilience in children. The outcomes found were in line with previous research, showing the great importance of supportive relationships, developing within a certain environment and having a positive self-perception as facts that can influence the development of resilience.

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Over the last decade there has been a steady growth of work related initiatives in education which have more latterly involved primary schools. There is, however, no clear evidence as to the impact these have made on teachers working with young children. Casual observation would suggest that work-related education remains peripheral in many primary schools and appears to be fragmented even when visible. The reasons for this are unclear but there are indications that certain pressures upon schools along with particular perspectives of teachers and industrialists have proved influential to the decision This study aims to determine what has motivated certain primary school teachers who are positively biased to embark upon work-related education and to ascertain the factors that have informed their views. It also seeks to discover why these teachers feel this aspect of work is important and what they hope to achieve from the activities in which they engage. At the same time the study enquires into the view of industrialists relating to work-related education in primary schools; explores what efforts are being made in this field; and aims to establish what industrialists hope to achieve. The study reveals that the greatest motivation for teachers involved in this study to engage in workrelated education is to prepare young people for life in a rapidly changing world. A positive link is exhibited between teachers who engage in work-related activities and their personal experience of business or industry. It is also revealed that industry, as represented by some of the large corporations, perceive links with primary schools to be essential. These links are, however, less common than links with secondary schools. A lack of some common understanding between educationalists and industrialists as to the outcomes of such endeavours is also disclosed. These points are discussed and a plan of action is offered.

Introduction Acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) remains as a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. With the continued universal vaccination campaign against bacterial pathogens, an increase in relative proportion of respiratory viruses contributing to ALRI is anticipated. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been recognised as the most common pathogen identified in young children presenting with ALRI as well as an important cause of hospital admission. This thesis aims to estimate the aetiological roles and attributable fractions of common respiratory viruses among ALRI cases and investigate the risk factors for RSV associated ALRI in young children. It also aims to estimate the global and regional incidence of RSV associated ALRI in both community and hospital based settings, and the possible boundaries for RSV associated ALRI mortality in children younger than five years old. Methods Systematic reviews were carried out separately for the following three research questions: aetiological roles of RSV and other common viruses in ALRI cases, risk factors for RSV associated ALRI and global/regional burden of RSV associated ALRI, formulating an overall picture of epidemiology of RSV associated ALRI in young children. They all focused on children younger than five years old. The identified studies were selected according to pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The whole process was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines for systematic review and meta-analysis. Unpublished data from RSV Global Estimates Network (RSV GEN) were collected from 45 leading researchers on paediatric pneumonia (primarily in developing countries). They either reanalysed data from their already published work with the pre-defined standardised case definitions or shared hitherto unpublished data from ongoing studies. Data from both systematic reviews and RSV GEN working group were included into further meta-analysis. Random effects model was consistently applied in all meta-analyses. Results There were 23 studies identified through literature search satisfying the eligibility criteria, investigated the viral aetiology of ALRI in young children. Strong evidence was observed for RSV in support of its causal contribution in children presenting with ALRI and the association was significant measured in odds ratio: 9.79 (4.98-19.27). Thus, the corresponding attributable fraction among the exposed was estimated as 90% (80%-95%), which means around 90% of RSV associated ALRI cases were in fact attributed to RSV in a causal path. In total, 27 studies (including 4 unpublished studies) were included and contributed to the analysis. Across these studies, 18 risk factors were described and 8 of them were observed to have significant associations with RSV infection: prematurity - gestational age < 37 weeks, low birth weight (< 2.5 kg), being male, having siblings, maternal smoking, history of atopy, no breastfeeding and crowding - > 7 persons in household. Overall, 304 studies met the selection criteria and were included to estimate the global and regional burden of RSV associated ALRI in young children. These included 73 published articles identified through Chinese language databases and 76 unpublished studies provided by RSV GEN working group, mainly from developing countries. It is estimated that in 2015, there were 33.0 (95% CI 20.6-53.2) million episodes of RSV associated ALRI occurring in children younger than 5 years old across the world. 30.5 (95% CI 19.5-47.9) million of them were in developing countries. 3.0 (95% CI 2.2-4.0) million cases were severe enough and warranted hospitalisation. Around 60,000 children died in the hospital settings with 99% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. The overall mortality from RSV associated ALRI was estimated about 131,000. Conclusion This thesis not only enhanced the epidemiological understanding of RSV in young children, but also provided important information for public health decision makers. It incorporated both data through systematic reviews of published articles in the past 20 years and more than 70 unpublished data sets shared by RSV GEN working group. The population based incidence, hospitalisation, mortality and risk factor data are essential to assess the various severity of illness in a specific age group and region, and inform local public health professionals regarding appropriate and prompt cases management, prevention and vaccine allocation strategies. National sentinel systems of RSV surveillance gathering structured and reasonably representative data are needed. Within the surveillance system, a universal definition regarding disease severity in various settings should be developed, and diagnostic methods with higher sensitivity and specificity should be applied.