The Impact of Poverty on Children and Young People’s Use of Services

This article describes a qualitative study exploring the impact of poverty on children’s access to and use of services, which took a comparative approach to gather the views of children from more and less affluent households. Findings suggest affordability and related factors including limited mobility constrained service use for less affluent children, resulting in cumulative missed opportunities. However, extended family, friends and agencies facilitated service access, mitigating the impact of poverty on service use to some extent. Research implications include the importance of listening to and taking account of the views of children from lower income families in service planning.     

Deaf Children and Young People’s Experiences of Using Specialist Mental Health Services

Deaf children have an increased prevalence of mental health problems compared with hearing children. Generic Child And Adolescent Mental Health Services do not have the skills or expertise to meet the mental health needs of this group of children. Three teams in England provide specialist mental health services for deaf children. This research explored children’s experiences of using these services. Twenty‐four deaf children participated in the study. Overall children valued and benefited from the service. The expertise of the staff and the presence of deaf clinicians were key to these positive experiences.     

‘Religious Parents… Just Want the Best for Their Kids’: Young People’s Perspectives on the Influence of Religious Beliefs on Parenting

Challenging some of the current predominantly negative representations of the effects of religion on young people requires further research into faith and family life, particularly from the perspective of young people themselves. This article presents a preliminary report of a study of 40 young people, mostly Christians and Muslims, aged 13–15 years. Three themes – defining religion, religious parenting and life in a religious family – are illustrated with reference to data collected from discussion groups in six schools and recent research literature. We conclude that religion still provides a positive influence on family life and parenting from the perspective of young people.     

Conflict Resolution,Restorative Justice Approaches and Bullying in Young People’s Residential Units

Restorative justice has been an increasing feature in the discourses within adult and youth justice criminal justice systems in recent years. This article examines interpersonal conflicts arising from crime, bullying and antisocial behaviour in residential care, and the advantages and disadvantages of utilising such approaches in relation to these forms of conflict, based upon an evaluation of restorative principles and approaches from the perspectives of young people, residential workers and managers. The article sets out how the staff in the units studied modified restorative justice approaches to take into account the specific relationships within group care settings.     

Being Judged,Being Assessed: Young People’s Perspective of Assessment in Youth Justice and Education

Research from the Economic and Social Research Council programme on Pathways Into and Out of Crime prioritised young people’s ‘voices’ in exploring experiences of crime and a range of intervention services. Drawing on data from interviews with 110 young people, this paper explores their perspectives of professional assessment. Embedded within neo‐liberal youth welfare policies are a number of contradictions. Policies encourage ‘individualisation’, ‘responsiblisation’ and ‘self‐realisation’ while also needing to maintain control and regulation of ‘risky’ populations. This paper explores the implication of these contradictions through examining the experiences of young people being assessed in youth justice and education. The impact on their identities as neo‐liberal citizens is discussed in the conclusion.     

Adult’s Involvement in Children’s Participation: Juggling Children’s Places and Spaces

While children and young people’s participation is a well‐established research field, much less has been written about the roles that adults play in supporting this participation. This article examines the involvement of adults within participatory forums in English schools and local authorities. Drawing on empirical data from research on children’s participation in pupil and civic councils, the article discusses the complex and sometimes contradictory pressures on adults in their advisory roles with young participants. The article goes on to explore these roles within a broader conceptual framework that counterposes children’s ‘places’ with children’s ‘spaces’.     

‘The Bad People Go and Speak to Her’: Young People’s Choice and Agency when Accessing Mental Health Support in School

Concerns about the mental health and well‐being of children and young people have been articulated in health and education policy fields as a call for closer working between schools and providers of mental health support services. Drawing from a Scottish study, this article explores issues of access, when mental health initiatives are sited in formal educational settings. In particular, it focuses on the implications for the agency of children and young people seeking support from those services when and how they choose. The study argues that over‐reliance on teachers as the main referral route to service influences what is deemed to be a problem, who is thought to need support and how the interventions are viewed by the children and young people. Alternative approaches are discussed, which offer opportunities for children and young people to explore the available services and make their own choices about their level of engagement.     

‘Here and There’: Children and Youth’s Perspectives of Borders in Mexico–United States Migration

This article explores children’s perspectives regarding migration and family separation on both sides of the Mexico‐U.S. border. ‘Transnational care constellations’¹ that connect separated siblings allow children to imagine the other side of the border and to explore their thoughts and perspectives through the lenses of inequality, as well as through a sense of belonging and family. This article presents ethnographic data of families that capture the dynamism of families that are both ‘here and there’ as children assemble their ideas and narratives of how transnational lives exist.     

Becoming,Being and Having Been: Practitioner Perspectives on Temporal Stances and Participation across Children’s Services

This article is based on a study of the changing meanings and experiences of citizenship and participation for young people in transition from primary to secondary school. One of the primary concerns of the study is to better understand how different professional practices impact upon young people’s uptake of participation and adoption of civic identity. To gain some insight into this area the article first looks at the contexts in which participation work is developing and the interrelationships between these developments across children’s services. How different practitioner’s conceptualise participation is tied into different assessments of young people’s or children’s capacity. Recasting questions of capacity as dialogues across differing temporal stances can offer practitioners new ways to reflect upon the power negotiations within their relations with young people. The key role temporality plays in configuring power relationships and transactions is explored as it arises within practitioner life history interviews. The shifts between temporal stances that young people experience as they interact with different practitioners are illustrated through fieldwork data.     

Listening to Children in Care: A Review of Methodological and Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Looked after Children’s Perspectives

This article reviews 44 refereed journal articles published between 2003 and 2008. All of the articles attempt to directly uncover the experiences or perspectives of young people cared for by the state in foster, residential or kinship care homes. The review reveals that this field is developing a rich body of evidence derived from a broad range of methodological and theoretical frameworks. In this sample, research designs appeared to be influenced by placement settings, as well as theoretical orientations, but comparative and longitudinal designs were used in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Participative research designs were only present in qualitative designs within a broadly interpretive theoretical orientation. It is suggested in this article that researchers should critically reflect on the use of constructs that may negatively label young people in care. It is also suggested that there could be fuller reporting of ethical issues. Despite some identified gaps, such as the participation of young people in quantitative research designs and research with younger age groups, the article concludes that there appears to be an encouraging emergence of theoretical and methodological diversity in this research area.     

Listening and Believing: An Examination of Young People’s Perceptions of why they are not Believed by Professionals when they Report Abuse and Neglect

This article explores commonly held perceptions by young people as to why they are sometimes not believed by practitioners when reporting potential or actual instances of abuse or neglect. Using original data gained from telephone, individual and group interviews with over a hundred young people a ‘typology of disbelief’ was constructed and is here presented for consideration. By drawing attention to a range of perceptions frequently articulated by young people, it is hoped to increase understanding of the problems they may face when attempting to disclose abuse and neglect. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation 2010 National Children’s Bureau and Blackwell Publishing Limited.     

Towards an Understanding of Factors Influencing Early Years Professionals’ Practice of Consultation with Young Children

Recent Government agendas in England highlight a need to involve children in policy and service design, provision and evaluation of services they use or which affect them. While consultation with older children has become more common, this is not the case for younger children. This article reports on a study exploring the current practice and experiences, perceptions and views of a sample of early years professionals with regard to consultation with young children. A theoretical model is presented which suggests that the different factors that influence whether or not practitioners consult with young children are connected and interrelated. Policy implications are also discussed.     

“You Can Help People”: Adolescents’ Views on Engaging Young People in Longitudinal Research

We sought to discover adolescents’ thoughts about participation in longitudinal research and identify recruitment and retention strategies that were meaningful to them. We conducted seven focus groups with 10–15‐year‐olds in two large rural centers in New South Wales, Australia, and all focus groups were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Adolescents discussed factors salient to their involvement in focus groups, as well as factors that may influence involvement in a longitudinal study. At the outset of the focus groups, adolescents had a positive view of “research,” but were reluctant to engage in research that involved biologic samples. Effective recruitment of adolescents requires an appreciation of motivators, and time and resources to extend potential participants’ understanding.     

Identification and Integration of Career Theory: Students’ Perspectives on the Process

In many counseling programs, while students are learning about career theory, they may be tasked in a separate course with identifying a theoretical approach to counseling. This may result in a dichotomous situation in which students lack an understanding of the relationship between career theory and counseling theory. Career counselors have long recognized the artificial distinction between career counseling and general counseling. However, counselor education programs generally lag, and there is a dearth of literature regarding the process of identifying and integrating career theory and counseling theory. This phenomenological study examined 6 students’ perceptions of the process of career theory identification and integration. Analysis of in‐depth interviews yielded 5 major themes: theory identification and integration, perceptions of career counseling, resources, personal dimensions, and application across the life span. Findings of this study have the potential to inform counselor education pedagogy regarding career theory identification and its application to the counseling context.     

School Meals and Food Poverty: Children’s Views,Parents’ Perspectives and the Role of School

This paper addresses the importance of school meals in balancing food budgets and diets among 45 low‐income families in Portugal. Drawing on interviews with both parents and children (aged 11–15 years) we found that children’s views on the quality of school meals affect their willingness to eat at school and heighten parental concerns with health, food and resources. For parents, school meals are crucial to ensure children’s dietary variety and balancing tight food budgets. Schools’ role in food poverty alleviation is also critically addressed, contributing to current and future sociological studies of children, school meals and food poverty.     

Supporting the Participation of Disabled Children and Young People in Decision‐making

Increasing children's and young people's participation in decisions, about their own care and about service development, is a policy priority. Although in general participation is increasing, disabled children are less likely to be involved than non‐disabled children and it is unclear to what extent children with complex needs or communication impairments are being included in participation activities. This article presents research exploring factors to support good practice in participation and discusses policy and practice implications.