Street children in Latin America

Worldwide, millions of children live on the streets. These children typically have access to neither health care nor education. Sometimes subjected to violence in the home before taking to the street, street children are seen by many as worthless, and many countries have used violent and punitive measures to eliminate them. New approaches have recently been implemented to return these children to society and their families. In the case of South America, children who are on the street are home-based and spend much of the day on the street, but have some family support and usually return home at night. Children of the street are street-based children who spend most days and nights on the street and are functionally without family support. Studies suggest that 80-90% of street children in Latin America have some contact with their families. Surveys also indicate that street children in Latin America are 8-17 years old, with 9 years old being the average age upon entering the street. Girls comprise 10-15% of street children and Black and mixed race children may be over-represented among street children in the region. Both published and unpublished research findings are used to shed light upon the status of street children in South America. The authors consider how many street children there may be, why there are street children, the problems they encounter, and what can be done to help them.     

Opinions of Honduran adults about street children

The purpose of this study was to determine the beliefs parents of working children and business people have about two types of street children, those who work on the street and those who are abandoned and live on the street. In 1991 forty-nine parents of working children and 49 business people from Tegucigalpa were administered a questionnaire listing 36 beliefs about the lifestyles of abandoned and working children and causes of children adopting these ways of life. Among parents of working children, education was significantly lower and mothers were more likely to be single women than in the business people sample. There were many beliefs about the lifestyles of street children on which both groups agreed, but parents of working children held the youngsters more accountable for choosing to work or live in the street. Parents also seemed to be more aware of the health risks to both types of street children than business people who felt working children were at less risk than abandoned children. Business people perceived abandoned children to be victims of single parenthood and solvent abuse. A deeper exploration of the views held by families of street children may assist those seeking to help them.     

Preschoolers' attention to and memory for attachment-relevant information

This study examined the relation between attachment quality in infancy and attention and memory at 3 1/2 years. Sixty-eight children participated in 2 attention tasks and 1 memory task. In the first attention task, children were shown several sets of drawings; each set depicted a different mother-child dyad engaged in positive, negative, and neutral interaction. Insecure/avoidant children looked away from the drawings more than the other children. In the second attention task, children were shown different sets of drawings; each set depicted a mother-child dyad engaged in positive interaction and an adult dyad expressing neutral affect. Insecure/avoidant and insecure/ambivalent children looked away from the mother-child drawings more than the secure children; when children did look at a drawing, insecure children were less likely than secure children to look at the mother-child drawing. In the memory task, children were read 6 stories in which a mother responds to her child's bid for help. In 2 stories the mother responds sensitively to her child, in 2 stories the mother rejects her child, and in 2 stories the mother provides an exaggerated response to her child. Secure children recalled the responsive stories better than insecure/avoidant children and the rejecting stories better than the insecure/ambivalent children. Findings are discussed in terms of the proposition from attachment theory that attachment experiences influence attention and memory processes.     

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in African Americans

OBJECTIVE: To examine racial differences in disease expression in African American and Caucasian children with pauciarticular and polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted of 35 African American and 137 Caucasian children with pauciarticular and polyarticular JRA. RESULTS: African American children were significantly older than Caucasian children at the time of presentation. This was true both for the group as a whole and for each of the disease onset subtypes. African American children were less likely to have positive antinuclear antibody tests than Caucasian children. This finding paralleled a low incidence of uveitis in African American children. African American children were also more likely to have IgM rheumatoid factors (detected by latex agglutination) than Caucasian children. This was true even for African American children with pauciarticular JRA. CONCLUSION: There are significant phenotypic differences between African American and Caucasian children with JRA.     

Testing parental instructions to schizophrenic and normal children: A pilot study.

Hypothesized that parents communicate to their schizophrenic children in conflicting ways. An experiment was designed where parents instructed their children in a task. Instructions were given from a separate room and were tape recorded so they could be played to matched samples of children. Parents of schizophrenics, of nonschizophrenic abnormal children, and of normal children were contrasted. The achievement of the children in the task was measured, and matched samples of children listened to the instructions of a group of parents of schizophrenics and a group of parents of normal children. Indications were that parents of schizophrenics do not communicate in more conflicting ways than parents of normal children when the measurement is the success of a child in following their instructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The etiology of pneumonia in malnourished and well-nourished Gambian children

During a 2-year period 159 malnourished children ages 3 months to 5 years with radiologic evidence of pneumonia were investigated to determine the cause of their pneumonia. In addition 119 malnourished children without pneumonia, 119 well-nourished children with pneumonia and 52 well-nourished children without pneumonia were studied as controls. Percutaneous lung aspiration was performed on 35 malnourished and 59 well-nourished children with pneumonia. Bacteria were isolated from the blood, lung or pleural fluid of 28 (18%) malnourished children with pneumonia, 42 (35%) well-nourished children with pneumonia and from the blood of 5 (4%) malnourished children without pneumonia. Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae, which were the two organisms isolated most frequently in both groups of children with pneumonia, were found in 17 (11%) malnourished and 39 (33%) well-nourished children with pneumonia. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was detected in 5 malnourished children with pneumonia. A potentially pathogenic virus was identified in 35% of malnourished children with pneumonia and 40% of well-nourished children with pneumonia, and from 25% of children without pneumonia. The viruses identified most frequently were adenovirus and respiratory syncytial virus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The demographic characteristics of Medicaid-eligible uninsured children

OBJECTIVES: This study estimated the number of uninsured children in 1993 who were eligible for Medicaid. METHODS: Data from the March 1990 and 1994 Current Population Surveys were analyzed. RESULTS: At least 2.3 million Medicaid-eligible children were uninsured in 1993. These children were more likely to have a working parent than children on Medicaid. Higher proportions of uninsured children less than 6 years of age, children who lived in female-headed single-parent families, and African-American and Hispanic children were eligible for Medicaid. CONCLUSIONS: Many eligible children do not enroll in Medicaid, and they differ in specific ways from enrolled children.     

Thrombin regulation in children differs from adults in the absence and presence of heparin

The physiologic mechanisms that protect children from thromboembolic complications are not known. We investigated the regulation of thrombin in children because of its central importance to thrombosis. The capacity to generate thrombin in vitro (chromogenic assay) was decreased by 26% in plasmas from children (1-16 yrs; n = 102) compared to adults ([20-45 yrs; n = 20; p < 0.001]). The addition of purified prothrombin to plasmas from children increased thrombin generation to adult values. The capacity of plasmas to inhibit 125I-alpha-thrombin was increased by 21% in children compared to adults (p = 0.020), with significantly more thrombin complexed to alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) in children. When DVT occur in children, adult guidelines for heparin therapy are used. At low heparin concentrations (0.1 and 0.2 U/ml), thrombin generation was decreased by 30% in children compared to adults (p < 0.001). At high heparin levels (0.4 U/ml), thrombin generation was negligible in all plasmas. ATIII inhibited over 95% of thrombin in all plasmas in the presence of heparin. In summary, thrombin regulation differs in children from adults and may protect children from thromboembolic complications. When DVT do occur, heparin requirements may differ in children compared to adults.     

EMR and nonretarded children's reactions to contradiction

Sensitivity to logical contradiction, as manifested by surprise reaction to the Jastrow illusion, was investigated in nonretarded children, EMR children equaled for CA, and EMR children equated for MA. Each subject was asked to select the "big" ring segment; then the position was reversed and the subject was asked to identify the "little" segment. The lower segment in this illusion always appears to be larger. Changing position results in what was previously identified as big by the subject now appearing to be little. MA-matched peers (nonretarded and EMR children) performed at a similar level on the task and at a significantly higher level than EMR children equated with the nonretarded children for CA. These results indicated that sensitivity to logical contradiction is more fundamentally related to MA than to CA in EMR children when their performance is compared to that of nonretarded children.     

Cognitive and educational outcome of very-low-birthweight children in early adolescence

A cohort of 138 very-low-birthweight (VLBW) 12-year-old children and matched control children were assessed on objective cognitive and educational measures. School performance was rated by teachers and by the children themselves. VLBW children were shown to have lower IQ scores, and poorer scores on all objective educational measures compared with control children. Controlling for IQ differences, mathematics and reading-comprehension scores remained significantly lower for VLBW children. Teachers rated VLBW children lower in all curriculum areas. Significantly more VLBW children were found to be 'failing' in one or more subject and an increased proportion compared with the control children had received remedial education. The VLBW group showed no evidence of 'catch up' between 6 and 12 years of age. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify predictors of cognitive and educational outcome. The duration of mechanical ventilation in the neonatal period was inversely related to outcome. Full-Scale IQ at 6 years, motor-skills score at 6 years, and head circumference at 12 years all predicted outcome at 12 years, as did maternal education, family income and size. Individually, many VLBW children perform satisfactorily, but as a group VLBW children appear to be at a long-term disadvantage to peers in the areas of cognitive and educational performance.     

Shyness and symptoms of illness in young children.

Investigated the association between shyness and symptoms of illness in young children and the types of symptoms differentiating shy and nonshy children. 16 shy children and 16 nonshy children (mean age 7 yrs 3 mo) were matched on sex, parental education, familial stress, and height-weight ratio. For 4 wks, parents recorded their children's health complaints and their own observations and conclusions of their children's health. There were more days on which shy children complained of unwellness and parents observed symptoms of unwellness than for nonshy children. Shy children made more affective complaints and were observed to experience more gastrointestinal upset. Several interpretations of the results are presented including the possibilities that lower thresholds for arousal in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axes of shy children affected their immunocompetence, that parents of shy children and the children themselves were more sensitive to symptoms of illness, and that feeling unwell may contribute to shy behaviour. Results suggest that the health of shy children merits further study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intellectual stability in children with unilateral brain lesions

Developmental differences in behavior and self-perception were examined in a group of 44 preschool and school-age children referred for evaluation of sexual abuse and 41 comparison children with no history of sexual abuse, matched on age and gender, and from a similar socioeconomic background. Children suspected of having been sexually abused were rated by their parents as having more internalizing and externalizing problems than comparison children. When children rated their self-competence and social acceptance, there were no group differences between children based on their abuse status; however, there was significant within-group variation among the children suspected of having been sexually abused. Preschool children had elevated scores of perceived competence and social acceptance, and school-age children had depressed scores. There were no age differences among the children in the comparison group. The results suggest that among children suspected of abuse, not only does their self-perception vary by their developmental level, but preschool children may respond with elevated perceptions of themselves. Focusing on individual differences in children's response to suspicions of sexual abuse enables us to identify risk and protective factors that contribute to the psychological outcomes of child sexual abuse.     

Social status and patterns of communication in acquainted and unacquainted preschool children.

Communication patterns were investigated related to the emergence and maintenance of social status in young children. 66 preschool children were classified as liked, disliked, or low-impact, using classmates' sociometric nominations. Children were observed interacting in 1 of 2 conditions: as entry child and host to children they did not know, or as entry child and host to children they knew. Results indicated that when entering the play of children they did not know, disliked children were less responsive to peers and more likely to make irrelevant comments than were liked children. With acquainted peers, disliked children were not only less responsive and more irrelevant than liked children, they were also less likely to clearly direct their communication to specific peers. Thus, responsiveness and contributing to coherent conversation appear to be important to both the establishment and maintenance of social status, whereas failure to socially direct communications may occur only after children develop a negative reputation with peers and, thus, may be a factor only in the maintenance of social status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in attitudes toward sex-typed behavior of nonretarded and retarded children

The present study was an initial attempt at understanding gender constancy in retarded children. Stories about retarded or nonretarded boys or girls were given to teachers and caretakers of retarded children and teachers of nonretarded children. The stories described children in four sex-stereotyped activities. Respondents rated each child in the stories on scales of typicality and acceptability. Results indicated that, while nonretarded children were rated as typical when engaging in sex-appropriate, desirable play activities, retarded children were rated as typical when engaging in undesirable activities, regardless of sex appropriateness. Different professional groups appeared to use different criteria when judging the children in the stories.     

The role of Medicaid in ensuring children's access to care

CONTEXT: Congress enacted a series of laws beginning in the mid 1980s to expand Medicaid eligibility for children, especially those in poor families. As a result, Medicaid enrollment of children has nearly doubled over the past decade. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of Medicaid in improving access to and use of health services by poor children. DESIGN: Analysis of cross-sectional survey data from the 1995 National Health Interview Survey. Poor children with Medicaid were compared to poor children without insurance and nonpoor children with private insurance. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 29711 children younger than 18 years (3716 poor children with Medicaid, 1329 poor children without insurance, 14609 nonpoor children with private insurance, and 10057 children with other combinations of poverty and insurance status) included in a nationally representative stratified probability sample of the US noninstitutionalized population. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Usual source of care, access to a regular clinician, unmet health needs, and use of physician services. RESULTS: Poor children with Medicaid compared to poor children without health insurance experienced superior access across all measured dimensions of health care, including presence of a usual source of care (95.6% vs 73.8%), frequency of unmet health needs (2.1 % vs 5.9%), and use of medical services (eg, > or =1 physician contact in past year) (83.9% vs 60.7%). Poor children with Medicaid compared to nonpoor children with private insurance used similar levels of physician services (83.9% vs 84%), but were more likely to have unmet health needs (2.1 % vs 0.6%) and were less likely to have a usual source of care (95.6% vs 97.4%). CONCLUSION: Medicaid is associated with improvements in access to care and use of services. However, there remains room for improvement when Medicaid is judged against private health insurance. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 contains several Medicaid provisions that could stimulate further improvements in access for poor children.     

Mathematics, vocabulary, and reading development in Chinese American and European American children over the primary school years.

Forty European American (EA; 20 girls, 20 boys) and 40 second-generation Chinese American (CA; 20 girls, 20 boys) preschool and kindergarten children (mean age at Time 1?=?5.7 years) and their mothers, fathers, and teachers participated in 3 data collections (1993, 1995, and 1997) to investigate sociocultural and family factors that contribute to children's academic achievement. CA children outscored EA children in mathematics at all 3 times. Initially, EA children outscored CA children in receptive English vocabulary, but CA children caught up to EA children at Time 3. CA children were better readers than EA children at Time 3. According to parental self-reports, CA parents structured their children's time to a greater degree, used more formal teaching methods, and assigned their children more homework. Parents' work-oriented methods and child-specific beliefs at Time 1 influenced children's mathematics performance at Time 3. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standards of fair play in same-age and mixed-age groups of children.

Investigated the hypothesis that children do not use the same standards of fair play in mixed-age situations as in same-age situations. In mixed-age encounters, younger children were hypothesized to use cues associated with older children (i. e., physical size) as a basis for reward deservingness, while older children would base their reward distribution primarily on task performance. 96 1st- and 3rd-grade children were asked to distribute rewards to 2 other children when the relative age, size, and task performance of the other children were independently manipulated. Data support the hypotheses; 1st-grade children were less likely to follow a task-based fair-play rule than were 3rd graders when one of the other children was larger and older. When dealing with same-size age-mates, however, 1st graders were no less likely to follow a task-based rule than were 3rd graders. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental capability of children exposed to lead pollution

'Eleven-plus' school examination scores were obtained for 851 Birmingham children residing since birth in a lead-polluted area and 1642 children residing in two similar but unpolluted areas. It was found that the children in the lead-polluted area actually scored higher on the average than children in the control areas. Within the area of lead contamination, children living closest to the source of pollution did not have significantly lower scores than children living further away. The results indicate that lead pollution of the magnitude reported in this investigation did not have a demonstrable effect on the mental capabilities of children in the affected community.     

Short-term memory and strategy use in children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The present study was designed to examine recall and rehearsal in short-term memory among children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Children with onset of IDDM before age 5 years, children with onset after 5 years, and children without IDDM were administered a measure of short-term memory that provides information about rehearsal as well as level of recall. Children with later onset of diabetes and children without IDDM were expected to recall more words and use more effective rehearsal strategies than children with early onset of diabetes. Results indicate that children diagnosed with IDDM early in life used similar rehearsal strategies but recalled fewer words than children with later onset of diabetes and children without IDDM. In addition, results provide evidence that children who are in poor control of their diabetes did not use strategies designed to increase recall as often, or as well as, children in better control of their diabetes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal assessment of growth in children born to mothers with human immunodeficiency virus infection

OBJECTIVES: To describe and to evaluate the longitudinal growth of children born to mothers with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. DESIGN: Measurements of weight, length (measured in infants in a recumbent position) and height (measured in older children in an upright position), and head circumference were documented and evaluated longitudinally using generalized estimating equations in a group of children born to HIV-infected mothers. Children infected with HIV were compared with uninfected children and with National Center for Health Statistics standards. SETTING: Primary care clinic in an urban hospital devoted to the medical care of children born to HIV-infected mothers. PATIENTS: One hundred nine children born to HIV-infected mothers, 59 HIV-infected and 50 uninfected, between birth and 70 months of age. RESULTS: The mean birth weights of both groups were below the 50th percentile. While the mean weight-for-age curve of uninfected children attained the 50th percentile by age 24 months, the mean birth weight-for-age curve of HIV-infected children remained below the 50th percentile. Weight gain became significantly different between the two groups by age 36 months. The mean birth length-for-age curves of HIV-infected and uninfected children was also below the 50th percentile. The mean height-for-age curve of uninfected children attained the 50th percentile by age 40 months, while that of HIV-infected children remained well below the 50th percentile. Linear growth between HIV-infected and uninfected children diverged earlier than weight, becoming significantly different by age 15 months. CONCLUSIONS: Although children born to HIV-infected mothers are born with weight and length below the 50th percentile, uninfected children catch up, while HIV-infected children remain below the 50th percentile and experience an earlier and more pronounced decrease in linear growth (height-for-age) than in weight-for-age.