Qualitative assessment of interorganisational partnership at a perinatal and family substance abuse centre: stakeholders' perceptions of quality and development of their collaboration.

Partnerships are required in health and social care services to meet the increasingly complex needs of vulnerable populations. It is essential to assess these partnerships to ensure partners are supported as they strive to improve their practices. This qualitative study assessed the quality and development of the partnership of an integrated service centre for pregnant women and substance-abusing parents and their young children aged 5 and under. The data were gathered over a period of three years, by means of group and individual interviews. Twenty respondents (practitioners and managers) shared their perceptions of the interagency collaboration at the beginning, the midpoint and the end of the project funding period. Their responses were examined by means of thematic analysis. Conditions facilitating or hindering implementation of the partnership included (a) partners' participation and engagement; (b) nature of the project and its functioning (aspects of governance); (c) partners' joint work with families; and (d) social and political issues. The study highlights critical elements to consider for the development and success of a partnership project. Participants reported a number of barriers to effective collaboration; the main ones, the importance of thorough planning of project implementation, as well as the challenges relating to communication and shared leadership, are discussed.

Randomized Control Study of the Implementation and Effects of a New Mental Health Promotion Program to Improve Coping Skills in 9 to 11 Year Old Children: Passport: Skills for Life.

Passport: Skills for Life is a universal, primary school mental health promotion program to increase children's coping skills. A stratified randomized control study with pretest, post-test and 1-year follow-up included 1,492 3 rd to 6 th grade children, from higher and lower socio-economic levels, randomly assigned by school to receive the program or a control group. Implementation and effects were evaluated by questionnaires and focus groups with children, parents and teachers as well as classroom observations. Program activities were well implemented and greatly appreciated, with perceived improvements in resolving conflicts, communicating feelings and coping. Compared to the controls, participants had increased emotional awareness, sustained 1 year later; conceived of more ways to cope in fictitious situations and reported using more, and more useful strategies, sustained 1 year later. Positive Academic Behaviors increased, but were not sustained the following year. This is a promising program to improve coping and emotional awareness that merits further research on its effects.

Prediction of health, education, and psychosocial professionals' attitudes in favor of parental use of corporal punishment.

BACKGROUND: To date, there have been few studies pertaining to the knowledge and attitudes regarding the use of corporal punishment (CP) among professionals working with parents and children. Yet, many parents turn to these professionals for advice on child discipline. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe professionals' legal knowledge about parental use of CP and their attitudes toward this practice. METHOD: A study was conducted among professionals working directly with children or their parents through an online questionnaire. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1,758 respondents from three sectors of training (psychosocial, health, education) completed the questionnaire. RESULTS: The results showed that professionals have little knowledge of the legal guidelines surrounding the use of CP in Canada. This poor knowledge as well as the perceived impacts of CP on children acted as predictors of favorable attitudes toward this disciplinary practice. According to the regression analyses, other personal and professional factors also explain a person's approval of CP, including violence in childhood, religious practice, and sources of knowledge. The results also highlighted some findings related to the respondents' professional sectors. CONCLUSIONS: The study results emphasize the need to better train professionals by targeting cognitive, personal, as well as professional factors.

Why do extracurricular activities prevent dropout more effectively in some high schools than in others? A mixed-method examination of organizational dynamics.

This study describes policies and practices implemented in 12 high schools (Quebec, Canada) that more or less effectively leveraged extracurricular activities (ECA) to prevent dropout among vulnerable students. Following an explanatory sequential mixed design, three school profiles (Effective, Ineffective, and Mixed) were derived based on quantitative student-reported data. Qualitative interviews with frontline staff revealed that in Effective schools, ECA had a unique overarching goal: to support school engagement and perseverance among all students, including vulnerable ones. Moreover, in these schools staff had access to sufficient resources-human and material-and implemented inclusive practices. In Ineffective schools, ECA were used as a means to attract well-functioning students from middle-class families, and substantial resources were channeled toward these students, with few efforts to include vulnerable ones. Schools with a Mixed profile had both strengths and weakness. Recommendations for school-level policies that bolster ECA's ability to support students' perseverance are provided.

Visible minority, Aboriginal, and Caucasian children investigated by Canadian protective services.

The aim of this descriptive study was to compare the report profiles of Caucasian, Aboriginal, and other visible minority children whose cases were assessed by child protective services in Canada. The results show that children of Aboriginal ancestry and from visible minority groups are selected for investigation by child protective services 1.77 times more frequently than are children in the general population. Physical abuse is reported and substantiated more often for Asian children, whereas neglect is chiefly an issue with Aboriginal and black children. Child vulnerability factors and parental and housing risk factors alone cannot explain the higher substantiation percentages, except for Aboriginal children, for whom the risks are higher than for the other groups. The individual and family profiles of Asian and black children appear to be significantly less of a burden than those of Aboriginals and Caucasians. These results may reflect a certain degree of racial bias in the identification and reporting of maltreatment cases to child protective services and in decisions about the substantiation of maltreatment.

[Not Available]. / Relations spatiales entre les caractéristiques des territoires et les taux d'enfants de groupes ethnoculturels signalés à la protection de la jeunesse.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to 1) map the geographic distribution of rates of children reported to Montreal child protective services by ethnocultural group (Black, other visible minorities, not from visible minorities) and 2) estimate the relative contribution of different territorial characteristics to the rates for those groups. METHOD: The study covered the 505 Montreal-area census tracts for which complete data were available. The reporting rates by group (dependent variables) and various territorial characteristics such as poverty (independent variables) were mapped and subjected to multiple linear regression and geographically weighted regression. The results of the geographically weighted regression were then mapped. RESULTS: The geographic distribution and reporting rates varied greatly by group, with the Black children having the highest rates. Although territorial characteristics explained 51% of variance for the children who were not members of visible minorities, they were clearly less effective in predicting rates in the case of Black children (18%) and other minorities (18%). CONCLUSION: Already well-known territorial risk factors are at work in Montreal, but their influence is not equally strong in all census tracts nor, especially, in all ethnocultural groups. Therefore, when only the distribution and prediction of reports for all children as a whole are examined, important differences are underestimated. Access to and appropriateness of services offered to vulnerable families, including those of visible minorities, could, however, be improved with a better understanding of local dynamics.

Review of child maltreatment in immigrant and refugee families.

OBJECTIVES: Study results on child maltreatment based on general population samples cannot be extrapolated with confidence to vulnerable immigrant or refugee families because of the specific characteristics and needs of these families. The aims of this paper are 1) to conduct an evidence review of the prevalence, risk factors and protective factors for child maltreatment in immigrant and refugee populations, and 2) to integrate the evidence in an analytical ecosystemic framework that would guide future research. METHODS: We used a 14-step process based on guidelines from Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and the Canadian Collaboration for Immigrant and Refugee Health. We searched major databases from "the oldest date available to July 2014". The eligibility criteria for paper selection included qualitative or quantitative methodologies; papers written in English or French; papers that describe, assess or review prevalence, risk and protection factors for child maltreatment; and a studied population of immigrants or refugees. SYNTHESIS: Twenty-four articles met the criteria for eligibility. The results do not provide evidence that immigrant or refugee children are at higher risk of child maltreatment. However, recently settled immigrants and refugees experience specific risk factors related to their immigration status and to the challenges of settlement in a new country, which may result in high risk of maltreatment. CONCLUSION: Future research must incorporate more immigrant and refugee samples as well as examine, within an ecosystemic framework, the interaction between migratory and cultural factors with regard to the prevalence, consequences and treatment of child maltreatment for the targeted groups.

[The health of preschool children: bonds between the formal definition of the point of view of the parents]. / La santé mentale des enfants d'âge préscolaire: liens entre les définitions formelles et le point de vue des pères.

Thirty fathers of preschoolers living in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods described their conceptions of children's mental health. Interviews were submitted to a qualitative content analysis. These fathers hold two opposing views: the first centres on learning to comply with norms and social integration; the other is based on encouraging the child's expression of individuality and autonomy. The second conception is similar to formal definitions of children's mental health proposed by professionals, while the first bears little relation to these definitions. The results raise important questions about the effectiveness of messages promoting children's mental health and well-being to this significant audience.

Facilitators and barriers to implementation of the AIDES initiative, a social innovation for participative assessment of children in need and for coordination of services.

As part of an implementation evaluation, this study aims to identify the conditions of practice that facilitated or hindered implementation of the AIDES initiative, a social innovation to support collaboration between partners involved with vulnerable children. Evaluators conducted qualitative telephone interviews with 36 respondents (19 practitioners and 17 managers) who participated in the AIDES initiative trial. Respondents were chosen to include all participating organisations (child protection services, prevention social services). Participants' comments were submitted to descriptive content analysis. Conditions facilitating or hindering implementation of the initiative included the following dimensions: (1) implementation quality; (2) organisational elements (organisational functioning, cooperation between organisations); (3) socio-political issues; and (4) personal and professional characteristics. The study highlights critical elements to consider in implementing and maintaining significant changes in practice in organisations providing assistance to vulnerable children and their families. Social innovations that do not consider such elements are likely to compromise their implementation and sustainability. We must prevent promising social changes from being considered unrealistic or inappropriate due to contextual barriers.