Culture and development in children and youth.

Although culture has long been recognized as having a significant impact on human development and its variations, many child and adolescent psychiatrists and mental health clinicians assume a universal nonvariance to normal development, with the risk of identifying variations as pathologic. This article reviews the conceptual basis for the role of culture in human development, particularly psychosocial and cognitive development, presents evidence and support from field observations of children in diverse cultures, and discusses the emerging evidence from the field of cultural neuroscience. Implications for these different perspectives on future research, childhood education, and even intercultural relations are presented.

Searching for success: boys, family aspirations, and opportunities in Gabon, ca. 1900-1940.

Boys growing up in rural Gabon between 1900 and 1940 negotiated with many challenges: the rise of migrant labor, famines and hardships brought on by World War I, the growth of Christianity and African-based spiritual traditions, and the undermining of clans, which had been the main form of social and political organization in the nineteenth century. Parents, extended family members, missionaries, and European businesses recruited boys to serve their varied interests. Boys in turn developed new self-understandings by leaving their homes as students, workers, and clients of older men. This article examines the life histories of four boys to trace the successes and challenges that individual boys encountered in this turbulent era. Interestingly, older biological relatives of boys generally succeeded in maintaining their authority over children living far from home, although the education and wages that boys received forced older men to offer boys more benefits.

Children in the archives: epistolary evidence, youth agency, and the social meanings of "coming of age" in interwar Nyasaland.

This study looks at multiracial boys and girls, often referred to as "half castes," in Nyasaland. It reconstructs the status and agency of these children by assessing the ways in which they maneuvered local African and European communities to explore opportunities that would improve their individual situations. At times they took initiative by writing letters to the Nyasaland administration for financial support. Furthermore, state responses to these letters provide evidence of how the state perceived these children, particularly the moral responsibility felt given that their fathers were often white settlers and at times colonial officials. This article also discusses the general challenges and opportunities that childhood experiences raise, with specific attention to the kind of subaltern social knowledge that such evidence presents--knowledge that challenges conventional visions of what constitutes history and who makes it.

"Perplex't paths": youth and authority in Milton's Mask.

This essay argues that John Milton's "A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle" (1634) is influenced by early modern concepts of childhood in a way that critics have not recognized. Childhood was a problematic concept in contemporary religious, pedagogical, and legal discourses. Children were depicted as models of submission, but prone to impetuous indiscretion, and their path to adult agency was strewn with pitfalls, especially in the liminal period of youth. "A Mask" engages with and transforms these discourses. It rejects the political quietism routinely associated with childhood and shows that the child's unique sensitivity may offer a route to a particularly powerful kind of voice.

Fatherhood, childism, and the creation of society.

This essay argues for a new religious ethical approach to fatherhood centered on children and their expanding capabilities for participation in society. Under the notion of "childism"­in analogy to feminism, womanism, humanism, and the like­it takes the perspective of the experiences and concerns of childhood as such. In contrast with a soft patriarchal argument for fatherhood that dominates much religious discourse today, it argues for a larger and more hopeful vision of fatherhood as directed toward the human social good. This requires, methodologically, a richer hermeneutical circle between religion and the social sciences. Substantively, it calls for Christian and other religious ethicists to re-imagine fatherhood as an integrated public­private responsibility that aims to cultivate children's fully human social creativity as images of their Creator.

A randomized trial of practice-based education to improve delivery systems for anticipatory guidance.

BACKGROUND: Communication between physicians and patients is an important component of medical encounters and has been identified by the Institute of Medicine as a point of intervention to increase quality of care. In pediatric health maintenance visits, substantial recommended communication, in the form of anticipatory guidance, is not provided. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of an intervention of continuing medical education and process improvement methods to implement "office systems" to improve the delivery of anticipatory guidance for parents of young children. METHODS: We performed a randomized controlled trial of a practice-based quality improvement intervention among 44 pediatric practices in North Carolina. In the 22 intervention practices, project staff coached practice staff in auditing performance and identifying, testing, and implementing new care processes to improve delivery of anticipatory guidance. We surveyed parents of 1-month-olds and 6-month-olds regarding their recollection of anticipatory guidance as well as parent knowledge and parent behaviors and used cluster analysis to determine the effects of the intervention. RESULTS: The proportion of parents of 1-month-olds who reported that they received all age-appropriate anticipatory guidance changed from 15.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.9%-26.7%) to 10.0% (95% CI, 5.1%-18.8%) in the control practices and from 7.3% (4.1%-12.9%) to 24.0% (95% CI, 14.6%-36.9%) in the intervention practices (difference between 2 differences, P = .002). The proportion of parents of 6-month-olds who reported that they received all age-appropriate anticipatory guidance changed from 8.2% (95% CI, 3.6%-17.8%) to 5.4% (95% CI, 2.8%-10.2%) in the control practices and from 2.2% (95% CI, 0.8%-5.9%) to 18.1% (95% CI, 10.3%-29.9%) in the intervention practices (difference between 2 differences, P = .001). There were no differences in self-reported parent knowledge and parent behavior. CONCLUSION: An office system intervention improved parent reports of quantity of anticipatory guidance but did not change parent knowledge or parent behavior. Future research should examine how to use systems improvement methods to improve the impact of anticipatory guidance.

[Intervention study on healthy lifestyle of children].

OBJECTIVE: To set up valid, feasible and reliable intervention to help children with a healthy life-style. METHODS: Children of grades 3, 4 and 5 in Taoyuan elementary school in Taiyuan city, Shanxi province were studied by self-administered knowledge, attitudes and behaviors questionnaire on health, in May 1999. Results indicated that there were some problems in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on health among children. Children were assigned to intervention group and control group. The balance between the two groups was tested statistically. Children of the intervention group received intervention for half a year. After intervention, knowledge, attitude and behavior of children on health in both groups were assessed again. RESULTS: After intervention the mean scores of health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of intervention group were significantly higher than that in control group (P < 0.01). After intervention, the total mean score of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on health has been improved from 125.70 +/- 16.95 on pre-test to 156.84 +/- 21.72 on post-test in intervention group. The mean score of knowledge on health was increased form 47.54 +/- 10.07 to 68.19 +/- 12.92 while the mean score of attitudes increased from 17.87 +/- 3.66 to 20.92 +/- 4.31 and the mean score of healthy behavior increased from 60.30 +/- 9.08 to 67.74 +/- 10.44 respectively. CONCLUSION: Methods used in the intervention study seemed to be appropriate and the contents suitable.

Consulta pediátrica: efeito de procedimentos instrucionais sobre os temas tratados / Pediatric consultation: effect of instructional procedures on the treat subjects

A consulta pediátrica é uma ocasião para acompanhamento da saúde da criança e para orientar os cuidadores sobre as ações básicas, incluindo a promoção do desenvolvimento da criança...

[Process of institutional child guidance counseling reflected by the Central Continuing Education of the Federal Conference for Child Guidance Counseling]. / Vorgehensweisen der institutionellen Erziehungsberatung im Spiegel der Zentralen Weiterbildung der Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung.

The Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung (bke) is the federation for child guidance and family-counseling in Germany. Members are the working groups for child guidance and family-counseling of the Länder, where the employees of the child guidance are organized. The federation was founded in 1962. It is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth. Further education for professional youth workers is central mission of bke. The constitution of the federation lais down these contents. Every autumn the bke publishes the program for further education for the following year in a brochure called Zentrale Weiterbildung--the program for child guidance, family counseling and youth counseling. A special Kommission Zentrale Weiterbildung acquires the contents of the program for further education und selects the referents. Since 1968 the Zentrale Weiterbildung of Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung offers events for professional youth workers in child guidance, family counseling. The program for further education contributes the quality of the institution of child guidance. After a time with above average use of the program for further education with therapeutical focal point, the orientation of the program changes to child and youth services. A constant number of counselors use the program. Beside the change of contents there was a change to effectiveness of contents and a reduction of participants.

Prevençäo a perdas auditivas: um caminho que passa pela escola / Preventive measure loss hearing: open way in the school

O trabalho que relatamos aqui foi realizado em uma escola particular em Porto Alegre. Propöe-se mostrar que o eixo do trabalho do fonoaudiólogo näo se encontra somente na relaçäo terapeuta-paciente, mas amplia-se na relaçäo fonoaudiólogo-sociedade, trazendo em si a responsabilidade e participaçäo deste profissional nos fatos sociais, o que lhe permite conscientizar e prevenir distúrbios nas diversas áreas de comonicaçäo. Nesse sentido, a escola se mostra o caminho mais aberto e acessível para essa tarefa, possibilitando a intervençäo do fonoaudiólogo na formaçäo educacional dos futuros cidadäos

Family outreach: a program for the prevention of child neglect and abuse.

A Texas volunteer program designed to prevent child neglect and abuse also stresses promotion of the public's awareness of its responsibility to report suspected cases.

The verbal helping skills of trained and untrained human service paraprofessionals.

The verbal helping skills of human service paraprofessionals in a youth service agency were studied. Workers who had previously completed a 10-week systematic training program in basic helping skills were compared to untrained volunteer staff. Using simulated helping interviews, it was found that training made a significant impact on trainees' verbal helping responses. Skill level was maintained at a 2-month follow-up for certain responses whereas others returned to pretraining levels. Trainees were found to use significantly more "helpful" responses than volunteers. The need for training even carefully selected paraprofessionals is discussed.