The economic costs of early vulnerability in Canada.

OBJECTIVE: The study estimates the economic costs of early vulnerability in the light of population-level data showing that between 25% and 30% of Canadian children do not arrive at kindergarten meeting all of the developmental benchmarks they need to thrive both now and into the future. METHODS: The study examines Early Development Instrument (EDI) data across Canada as of 2008/09, and across time within British Columbia since 2001. We then link the BC EDI data with school achievement results on standardized tests in grades four and seven, along with graduation records and criminal justice information. RESULTS: The result is a synthetic cohort with which we can simulate the impact on economic growth of reducing early vulnerability in BC from its current rate of 29% to 10%, a threshold above which child vulnerability is biologically unnecessary. DISCUSSION: Nearly three times what it should be, a rate of early vulnerability that approaches 30% signals that the country now tolerates an unnecessary brain drain that will dramatically deplete our future stock of human capital. Economic analyses reveal that this depletion will cause Canada to forgo 20% in GDP (gross domestic product) growth over the next 60 years. The economic value of this loss is equivalent to investing $2.2 trillion to $3.4 trillion today at a rate of 3.5% interest, even after paying for the social investment required to reduce vulnerability.

The potential contribution of emancipatory research methodologies to the field of child health.

The knowledge production of researchers interested in improving the health-care of young clients through the employment of emancipatory research methodologies may be limited by the complexity that working with young children presents to the research process. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether emancipatory research methodologies have application within the context of research with children. Critical examination of the challenges inherent in emancipatory research with children reveals that the application of aspects of these approaches presents possibilities for contributing significantly to our knowledge development for the nursing of children.

Mothers who smoke: confessions and justifications.

Interviews with mothers who smoke were analyzed to examine the influence of social discourses. Women presented themselves as knowledgeable about the health risks of tobacco, confessed guilt and shame, attempted to deflect accusations of neglect for smoking or exposing their children to tobacco, provided rationalization that they smoked for the sake of their children, and, although they were all smokers, demonstrated an antismoking stance. The findings indicate that mothers are in a "bind" when it comes to smoking and fulfilling societal expectations of a good mother. Health professionals must be cognizant of how discourses constrain women's choices in relation to tobacco.

Interviewing young children: explicating our practices and dilemmas.

Qualitative research studies have demonstrated that very young children can provide important insights into their daily lives and health experiences. Despite the shift to include children's perspectives in research and document principles related to good data collection with children, there has not been a parallel move within the scholarly community to lay bare the practical challenges inherent in conducting interviews with children. In this article, the authors consider the degree to which well-known standards for qualitative research apply to research interviews with young children. They make practical recommendations that build on existing theoretical work about the conduct of qualitative interviews with young children.

Strength in adversity: motherhood for women who have been battered.

Research into violence against women in intimate relationships has begun to uncover women's experiences of abuse. However, there is a paucity of research addressing women's mothering experiences in the context of partner abuse. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of motherhood from the perspective of women who have been battered. The methodology used was interpretive description, a qualitative research approach in which the women's accounts could be conceptualized as constructed narratives. Five mothers who had been battered were interviewed twice. Analysis revealed that the abuse shaped their experiences of motherhood and that they faced complex mothering challenges, but that motherhood nevertheless acted as a buffer against the abuse and as a source of strength. The findings extend our understanding of the complexities of mothering in the context of abuse and provide direction for improving health-care support for mothers who have been abused.