3rd Global Conference on Children and Youth

This paper aims to present a project on using Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) to teach Intercultural Communication and Empathy to Spanish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Young Learners of 11-12 years old. Empathy and Intercultural Communication are tightly related (Portera 2008) and are pioneered in the European funded project DIALLS (Dialogue and Argumentation for Cultural Literacy Learning) (Maine 2021). While the foundations of the DIALLS project combined dialogic practices and cultural literacy materials, it did not extend to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. This paper attempts to bridge the gap by developing lesson plans and materials to teach Empathy and Intercultural Communication in Spain. In order to evaluate the materials, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Spanish EFL teachers. The findings include: the Spanish EFL teachers tend to (a) consider empathy as a positive value to strengthen cooperativeness and group cohesion, (b) have positive attitudinal changes on Empathy and ICC after the discussion on lesson plans and materials, and (c) have positive views on the developed materials.

In a multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual society of Nigeria, human rights abuses have become a norm and, therefore, feature in several discourse, in the constitution of Nigeria and in the legal framework. Many untold stories of the marginalisation of children regarding their full access to education abound. One worrisome aspect of the marginalisation of children regarding their education is child labour and child abuse occasioned by family culture and family economic disposition. Nigeria is extremely bedevilled by a very high rate of child abuse and child labour, and this has had a substantial effect on the right of children to education. Legislations abound in the country to give protections to children regarding free and unhindered access to education but having a free and unhindered access to education has hardly been achieved. Adequate access to the education of children in Nigeria will not be achieved significantly if adequate law is not put in place and enforced to protect the rights of children to education, and to check child labour and other cultural practices that hinder children’s access to education. The study used an in-depth interview to collect data from 25 participants; comprising of 5 government officials, working in Post Primary Education Boards, Women and Children Affairs Departments, Lawyers in Ministry of Justice, 10 parents who have children between the ages of 5 – 13 years old and 10 teachers who are concerned with the children’s education from Primary – Junior Secondary School levels. The entire participants were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The study used the thematic analysis procedure to analyse the qualitative data gathered, with the aid of the computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) NVivo 10. Contributions are made from the findings of the study to the theoretical literature on child education. One of the major findings of the study, is that undue influence on the rights of the child, like applying force on children either by beating them into submission on any course of action they are required to take or by denying them necessities like refusing to buy their immediate needs is an action which interferes with the right of children and which is used most often to force children into submission by either parent, the government, the teacher and others involved in caring for the child, impacts negatively in the education of the child. Findings also reveals that government does not seem to show enough commitment on matters concerning the rights of children to their education. Despite the government signing the Children’s Charter, their action does not equate their avowed commitment, as enshrined in the Charter they have signed; this is traceable to indiscipline and corruption on the part of government. Based on the findings the study came up with some propositions on the constructs impacting on the rights of children to free and unhindered access to their education. Further recommendations were made among others that, the Social Welfare Departments in Nigeria which appears not noticeable in terms of their activities should be well funded and adequate monitoring activities should be put in place to detect and handle any case of violation of children’s rights. Also, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes should be put in place for children who have suffered abuse. The principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as contained on the Child Right Convention (CRC) need to be observed in every programme and policy concerning children in Nigeria. Awareness should be raised on the masses and educational programmes for the effective implementation of the principles.

The main purpose of this paper is to shed light on the issue of child marriage as one of the most vulnerable groups in Albania. Therefore, this study aims to examine and analyze the vulnerability of child marriage in Western Balkans, with specific reference to Albania; to provide a clarification on conceptual aspects of child marriage based on international and national legal frameworks related to the issue; and to identify some of the most prevalent forms of child marriage in Albania. Additionally, the study will be examining the public policy dimension of child marriage by pointing out the disparities that exist in the public institutions and legal framework. One last point of the study is to evaluate the gaps between the recorded and existing cases of child marriage using various sources of reporting. To examine the said phenomenon, this paper further poses these research questions: Why is there a big gap between the actual child marriage cases and reported ones? Why are there disparities in handling child marriage issues in Albania? How do economic inequalities develop the said phenomenon? In order to answer these research questions, this study has employed an elite survey questionnaire conducted with 452 individual elite respondents from central government, local government, NGOs, judiciary, academia, and the media. This study has combined the quantitative and qualitative research approaches through data and statistics published by various stakeholders. The study concludes that there is a need to reinforce the existing legal framework and the responsible public institutions should be improved, in cooperation with relevant national and international organizations and collaboration with the private sector and civil society as well as all other stakeholders in order to create appropriate policies and programs and implement efficiently.

Pregnancy termination is a sensitive topic in Africa, despite 15% of pregnancies being terminated. Uganda has a high rate of adolescent pregnancy and parenting. Its policies and laws on sexual and reproductive health and rights are based on colonial, Euro-western religious values and moral ethics that merge with traditional beliefs. Although studies show that at least 46% of Ugandan adolescents have had sex, government programs and policies assume that girls under 18 are asexual, leading to limited access to contraceptive information and services, including pregnancy termination, which is illegal except for life-saving purposes. However, past research indicates that induced abortion occurs successfully in Uganda despite the existing restrictions (e.g. Kagaha & Manderson, 2021; Sully et al., 2018). This qualitative study analyzes the narratives of pregnant and parenting girls collected using the life history method. The paper discusses girls’ funds of knowledge in navigating pregnancy termination in an illegal context and recommends policy and practice changes.

Exposure to war, and forced migration have been widely linked to child subsequent adaptation. What remains sparse is research spanning multiple risk and protective factors and examining their unique and relative implications to difficulties in mental health among refugee girls. This study investigated the mechanisms through which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), emotion dysregulation , neuroticism, and behavioral and emotional disorders in Syrian refugee girls is impacted by exposure to war traumas, age and other risk and protective factors such as coping styles, family relationships and school environment. The sample consisted of 539 Syrian refugee girls who ranged in age from 7 to 18 years attending public schools in various governorates in Lebanon and Jordan. Two school counselors carried out the interviews with children at school. Results indicated that war trauma, older age and a combination of negative copying style associated with conflict in the family could lead to an overall state of emotion dysregulation, neuroticism, behavioral and emotional disorders, and PTSD in refugee girls. On the other hand, lapse of time since resettlement in host country, positive copying style, cohesion and expressiveness in the family would lead to more positive mental health status including lower levels of emotion dysregulation, neuroticism, behavioral and emotional disorders, and PTSD . Enhanced understanding of the mechanistic role of risk and protective factors in contributing to difficulties in mental health in refugee girls may contribute to the development of effective interventions to target the psychological effects of the refugee experience.

Based on a two-year engagement with twenty rescued children and about 60 adult care-givers assigned to them to perform various care-roles, I contend that the term ‘welfare’ has contradictory meanings for both groups of persons leading to serious policy implications for the children’s future. While the adult care-givers feel that the rescued adolescent children do not comprehend their own ‘best interests’ so should be pushed back to their respective villages as per law of the land, children assert their wish to stay in the city, move forward, and create better life opportunities for themselves and their families. Also, they feel that adult care-givers tend to make decisions on their behalf without their informed consent, even active participation. In other words, the principles of active ‘child-participation’ in determining ‘best interests of the child’ are not applied in spirit even though India has ratified the UN Convention on Rights of the Child that greatly emphasizes them. This paper is derived from a qualitative study of trafficked and rescued children living at two purposively selected Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in Delhi for my doctoral thesis. The girl’s CCI followed a non-custodial/nonprison-like care model. It allowed children the space and scope for participating in a study like this where freedom of candid expression was a prerequisite, especially considering the largely conservative Indian mindset. The boy’s CCI was also relatively progressive and child-friendly despite being a custodial home. Like the girl’s CCI, it also allowed the children to freely interact with the researcher.

A child-friendly city prioritises the needs and rights of children in the city. The lack of spaces available for children to play in urban areas has affected urban children's ability to play freely outside their homes in a safe and enjoyable built environment. In relation to the promotion of safe space in a city, the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) are an approach that has been used by many local governments worldwide in promoting safe cities and can be applied at various scales of the built environment. This research examined children's perceptions towards existing space and the built environment that surrounds them based on the CPTED threat categories involving children ages 7 to 12 years old living in an urban village located about 10km from the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. Collective mapping method was used to help the children visualise their experiences and map them out to identify the gaps in this research. This qualitative study contextualised "meso space" as an intermediate space between home and the city in promoting a safer space in a city, especially for children.

With the widespread use and availability of smartphones and the internet, the social networking platforms gained huge popularity among the young generation. The rural teens are no exception in this case, along with the urban teens. Recently, many short-form video sharing platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook reels, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, have gained massive popularity among these young users. But overutilization of these platforms can form an addiction. In this paper, we analyze and compare the level of addiction to short-form video sharing platforms in the light of gambling disorder, which is an established threat, between urban and rural teens. We conducted the survey on two different groups of participants for our study and found that the impacts of short-form video sharing applications on youth in urban and rural areas were not the same. We also sought to investigate a little bit the academic performance of these teenagers, who were dependent on short-form video apps, and found that the situation in urban areas was marginally improved. The results show that 43.12% of the rural teens are addicted to the platforms, while in the case of urban teens, the rate is 32.17%. The reasons behind the higher rate of addiction in rural teens may include a lack of entertainment sources, sudden easy access to online services, etc. More research should be conducted in this field, and we believe that our findings will be useful for any future research on adolescents and short video sharing platforms as a whole.

This study tackles the topic of challenges facing mothers to protect the children from misguided ideas at social media, throughout reaching at the following objectives: • Defining social challenges facing mothers to protect the children from social media. • Defining psychological challenges facing mothers to protect the children from social media. • Defining the pedagogical challenges facing mothers to protect the children from social media. • Defining the most important suggestions to protect children from social media. The study was used the questionnaire to gather data, and this questionnaire was directed to children`s mothers at Saudi society. To reaching this objective, the researchers have depended on using the analytical descriptive methodology, as coinciding with the nature of study. The questionnaire was prepared as a tool to gather data, submitting to specialist arbitrators, and distributing after amending on random study sample, from the mothers at Saudi society in Riyadh city. In addition, the proper statistical means were used throughout using SPSS. The study was concluded that many of results are as the followings: 1. The mothers agreed that it must occupy the child, within leisure, with tasks developing his-her skills, whereas referring to the highest relative weight 92.4 2. The majority of mothers noticed that the mother tongue for children, is mixed with foreign language watching at social media and the relative weight refers to 69.8 3. The mothers agreed that the communication is less than between her and her child, due to social media, whereas the relative weight refers to 67.2. 4. The majority of mothers agreed that their children become more irritable, whereas the relative weight refers to 78.2 The most recommendations of study are as the followings: 1. The researchers and postgraduate students will benefit by this study to reach at more suggestions, which limiting the challenges facing the families and mothers to protect misguided ideas published by social media. 2. Directing to social workers, who are working at the school field and pioneers of student activities with the importance of reinforcing the awareness and protective programs for students about the risks of misguided ideas published by social media. 3. The family guidance centers shall benefit by this study to awareness Saudi families from risks of misguided ideas, which published by social media.

This SEND case-study is set in a town in UK within an independent school in a local jurisdiction and focuses on the SEN needs for a visually impaired 10-year-old child currently out of school, who was denied his basic right to education for 5+ years (2017-2023) for reasonable adjustments due to system failure, malpractices of the educational institution and the negligence of local authorities, systemic discrimination, victimization, and blatant dereliction of duty induced to a child in direct contradiction to the UK Equality Act 2010. This is one of the many cases evident and available for study and stands to represent all those in an attempt, to uncover the contradiction between theory and practice in relation to children and youth rights in the UK. Additionally, this case-study aims to provide an eye-opening guideline in the future for leaders, stakeholders, and decision makers in both public and private sectors, so such matters are seriously dealt with in time to safeguard the rights of the children.

Uganda has made strides toward ending child marriage; however, the numbers remain high. According to the UNFPA 2020 State of the World Population Report, 43% of girls in Uganda are married before the age of 18, and 25% of girls aged 15-19 either have a child or are pregnant. Shines Children’s Foundation (SCF) is a Non-Governmental Organisation that addresses the challenges that hinder Ugandan children from reaching their full potential. In 2021, SCF conducted a study to explore the drivers of child marriage and how they can be mitigated in Masindi District. This study included in-depth interviews with focus groups made up of young married girls, local leaders, district leaders, cultural leaders, and religious leaders. The findings indicate that young girls were often lured into marriage without their consent under the guise of cultural normality. Young girls are seen as a source of income since they can be married off early in exchange for a bride price. Child marriages result in lower enrolment and retention rates of girls in school and high levels of poverty. Limited access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programs, poor parenting, and poor implementation of child policies are all factors that lead to a higher prevalence of child marriages. Increasing girls' access to education, dissemination of SRHR, continuing dialogue with cultural and religious leaders about the effects of child marriage, supporting the livelihood of young mothers, and increasing social protection are will significantly lower the rate of child marriage in Masindi District.

The central focus of the present theoretical exposition is to meticulously scrutinize and elucidate the impact of educational and learning capitals on the education of gifted learners in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The article commences with an overview of the current state of gifted education within the country, encompassing the manifold challenges that are encountered and the expenditures that are expended by both public and private educational establishments. Subsequently, the article expounds upon the ten educational and learning capitals, as they pertain to gifted education in Jordan, relying upon a wealth of evidence-based literature as a foundational basis. The paper culminates by providing astute insights into the cost of gifted education, the definition and recognition of gifted individuals, teacher training, and the optimal utilization of educational resources for gifted students.

The experiences of three Child Care Institutions (CCIs) functioning in the programmatic setup of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) in India complicate and contextualizes some of the macro-social characterizations of child protection as enshrined in the United Nation Convention on Rights of Children (UNCRC). Following the anthropological approach to governance, this study captured the everyday practices and perceptions of actors and agencies involved in the running of three CCIs. In doing so it problematizes the discursive binary of universal and localized ideas of childhood and child protection. Although the three CCIs examined here are rooted in the same schematic (ICPS), temporal, and spatial (Karnataka) setting, surprisingly they interpret, understand, and materialize very different conceptualizations of child protection in their daily practices. These variances not merely reflect the turbulent ways in which the universal idea of child protection is being translated, contested, and indigenized in unique ways but also exhibit the ‘multiple identities of local’ competing, collaborating, and strategizing to construct a heterogeneous understanding of child rights. The heterogeneity of child rights provides fertile epistemic terrain to reframe child rights governance as a collective claim-making exercise that runs against the neoliberal appropriation of child rights governance hinged upon the idea of privatized child rights.

Nepal, a landlocked country in South Western Asia, is one of the few places in the world where rates of child marriage are not slowing. In certain areas, they are increasing. Although child marriage in Nepal has been illegal for over fifty years, 40% of Nepalese women between the ages of 20 and 24 were illegally married before their eighteenth birthday. Young boys are equally at risk. The number of child grooms is disproportionately high when compared to the rest of the world. Nepal has the third highest rate of child marriage in Asia. Despite laws against it, the practice remains widespread in the country. Child marriage threatens the lives and health of girls, and limits their future prospects. Girls pressured into child marriage often become pregnant while still adolescents and are at higher risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. UNFPA is working closely with all its partners in Nepal towards a society that is free of violence and harmful practices for all women and girls, including child marriage. Under the Global Programme to End Child Marriage, jointly implemented by UNFPA and UNICEF with local partners in Nepal, both agencies have made concrete efforts to promote policies and programmes designed to end child marriage.

This article compares the treatment of minors under Jewish law and English common law in regards to accountability for harm caused by their actions. While common law generally holds minors accountable for their harmful acts, Jewish law does not require compensation from minors, as they lack the requisite mental capacity. This article examines the ambiguity in the definition of minors in Jewish law and explores the need to balance the protection of minors with compensation for victims. The article argues that the common law can benefit from adopting a more nuanced approach to accountability, one that considers the developmental stages of minors and the social context in which they act. By examining the principles and mechanisms of accountability in Jewish law, the article proposes a framework for accountability that is sensitive to the needs of minors and their victims. The article suggests that the common law can learn from Jewish law's approach to accountability, which takes into account the social and psychological contexts in which minors act. By contributing to ongoing debates about the appropriate scope of accountability for minors in the common law, the article aims to provide a framework that balances the needs of minors and their victims.

The integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) into high school education has become increasingly important and has been adopted by many schools as a critical approach to pedagogy in today's fast-paced, technology-driven world. However, there is a lack of research on how youths perceive the integration of STEM in their education and how it affects their learning outcomes in these subjects. This paper explores youths' attitudes towards STEM integration in high school education and its impact on their learning outcomes. A mixedmethod study that includes a survey and focus group interviews with students from high schools in Southeast Asia is conducted. The survey examines students' attitudes towards STEM integration and their perceived learning outcomes while the focus group interviews explore in greater depth their experiences of STEM integration in their education. The paper also studies the importance of integrating STEM in a more connected manner in the context of real-world issues so as to make the subjects more relevant and engaging. Drawing on existing research, I will discuss the advantages of an integrated STEM approach that touch on student interest, motivation and achievement, while acknowledging the challenges and barriers that come with the implementation of the approach.

The global COVID-19 pandemic challenged the education system worldwide. In Spring 2020, in Switzerland schools and kindergartens were in lockdown and learning and teaching became virtual almost overnight. Important physical and social spaces (Lefebvre, 1974/1991) for children were only limited available and relevant experiences in early childhood development were significantly impacted during the lockdown. While there are numerous international studies on how children and adolescents experience the pandemic at school age (Huber et al. 2020), the area of early childhood seems to be underrepresented. The project aims to explore children`s well-being and the transformation of spaces during the COVID19 lockdown. In our study, we address the questions of how kindergarten children experience the lockdown, how they cope with this challenging situation and what role space plays in children’s wellbeing. The collected data includes multimodal data such as WhatsApp written and audio messages, videos and photos, as well as interviews with thirteen children and their parents. To analyse the multimodal data, a conversational analysis approach (Sidnell, 2010) and Bohnsack’s (2011) documentary method were applied. The interpretation of the interviews was carried out using Charmaz’s (2006) grounded theory. The results of the study indicate that fear, lack of social contact with peers and extended family members, and thus boredom and loneliness, affect the well-being of children. Moreover, we found significant transformation of physical and social spaces in the context of the pandemic. We will present the reconstructed coping strategies of the children and discuss the notion of transformational spaces.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the highest increase rate of child marriage in the last two decades and threatens the progress in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 of gender equity. To better grasp the determinant factors of child marriage during a pandemic, this review paper presents a comprehensive picture of the conditions and provides strategies to prevent them. We conducted literature searches in March 2023 in PubMed and Cochrane Library to gather studies on this issue. UNICEF predicted an additional 10 million adolescent girls facing the risk of child marriage due to the pandemic. However, the national prevalence of child marriage rate during the COVID-19 pandemic is limited. This study found that the highest child marriage rate globally is in Sub-Saharan Africa (35%) and South Asia (29%), and India with the highest absolute number of girl brides (15.6 million). The evidence supports several factors contributing to child marriage: economic reasons, school closure, sociocultural influences, and lack of awareness towards the consequences. Child marriage is a human rights violence, risking the health and well-being of adolescent girls, robbing their childhood and chance to education, hence weakening two generations. Therefore, this study suggests that multidisciplinary collaboration between governments, schools, communities, and private sectors is essential to mitigate the risk of child marriage in vulnerable families in times of crisis.

Shared book reading (SBR) between parents and children is a popular activity to improve children's language abilities, particularly phonological processing skills such as phonological awareness (PA), working memory (WM), and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Although previous research has shown the importance of phonological processing skills for early literacy development, most studies have focused on English contexts and general verbal abilities. This study aimed to address the gaps by examining the relation between SBR and a range of phonological processing skills (i.e., PA, WM, and RAN) during the early years of literacy development in Chinese. Participants were 151 preschool children and their parents from 4 kindergartens in 4 cities in mainland China. Parents reported their involvement in SBR in an online questionnaire. Children’s language tests were conducted by the preschool teachers at their own schools. Results of the partial correlation analysis found that SBR had significant relationships with SBR and all three phonological processing skills (i.e., PA, WM, and RAN). Moreover, the results of the hierarchical analysis showed that SBR had a unique contribution to PA, but not to WM and RAN. Results of the moderation analysis indicated that the associations between SBR and phonological processing skills were significantly stronger in older children, especially evident in K3 children. These findings suggest that parents should enhance specific strategies for PA during preschool, use SBR strategies for older children if the children are too young to benefit from SBR and attach importance to SBR for K3 children to promote their phonological processing skills.

This paper examines the narratives of children working in Global Value Chains with specific reference to children working in the production of cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate. Based on fieldwork undertaken with children in collaboration with Save the Children in Côte d’Ivoire in 2022, it discusses some of the complex, and at times contradictory, issues that arose from collecting data with these children. For example, the data showed that there are strong familial bonds between children and their caregivers but that children’s health and safety are at times put at risk by the actions and choices of these caregivers. However, the novelty of this research is that it also illustrates that while child labour in cocoa has elicited controversy for many years (Berlan 2004; 2009; 2013) and many observers argue the issue is intractable without higher prices and a fundamental re-engineering of the value chain (Cocoa Barometer 2022), a more enabling environment for positive change to occur can be facilitated by appropriate interventions compatible with local values and the realities of the children’s lives. For example, the data showed there was evidence of a strong basis for holding meaningful conversations with children and adults about how the involvement of minors in cocoa might be reshaped away from dangerous tasks in breach of ILO Convention 182. This illustrates the value of using participatory research methods with children and of giving children a voice in research and policymaking.

Due to the prevailing economic and political crisis in their home country, a substantial number of Venezuelans have sought refuge in neighboring nations, including Peru, which has emerged as the second-largest recipient of Venezuelan migrants globally. Within this migratory population in Peru, a particularly vulnerable subgroup consists of unaccompanied and separated children and adolescents (UASC). Despite their significant presence, this demographic remains largely unnoticed by the State, owing to the absence of official statistics on their exact numbers and the lack of a tailored political and normative framework to address their distinctive circumstances as children and migrants. Consequently, this manuscript analyzes the political and legal response of the Peruvian government towards the phenomenon of UASC migration and examines if it aligns with the principles set forth in international human rights standards regarding the protection of children and adolescents in the context of migration. This analysis forms part of a comprehensive fieldwork undertaking, involving interviews with adolescents who migrated unaccompanied to Peru, as well as with government officials. The primary objective is to comprehend the real-life challenges encountered by these young individuals upon their arrival and the corresponding response provided by the authorities. By leveraging innovative and up-to-date research from the region, this study aims to contribute to the global understanding of unaccompanied children and adolescents, while advocating for their rights within the framework of International Human Rights Law.