International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies

STAKEHOLDERS’ INSIGHTS INTO CHILD AND ADOLESCENT TO PARENT VIOLENCE AND ABUSE (CAPVA): A METASYNTHESIS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

2025-12-20T06:12:17-08:00

Child and adolescent to parent violence and abuse (CAPVA) is one of the more complex areas within the domestic abuse domain. There is no clear consensus about the definition of CAPVA, nor are there widely accepted policies and guidelines about how to approach it. By reanalyzing findings collected from 21 qualitative studies that included children, adolescents, and parents who have experienced CAPVA and professionals who supported them, the current metasynthesis aims to contribute to the growing body of research in the area and to move towards developing more coherent policies and professional guidelines. Current findings highlight how the cycle of CAPVA impacts and is impacted by inherent terminological contradictions, relational tensions between parents and their children, the perceived attribution of its causes, and the accessibility of support systems. The multiple interconnected factors that were found lead to a comprehensive psychosocial model of CAPVA with practical implications for related services.

PARENT APPROACH AND AVOIDANCE TEMPERAMENTS AND PARENTING BEHAVIORS: CHILD BEHAVIORS AS MODERATING MECHANISMS

2025-12-20T06:12:16-08:00

Parents’ temperaments are assumed to be involved in their parenting behaviors, but empirical evidence is limited. Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a guiding framework, this study examined the associations between parents’ approach and avoidance temperaments and parenting behaviors over a 7 month period. Children’s manifestations of inattention and prosociality were explored as moderators. A sample of 101 parents (79% mothers) with a child in Grade 4 or Grade 6 participated in this study. Findings indicate that approach temperament positively predicted autonomy-supportive and structuring behaviors, while avoidance temperament positively predicted controlling behaviors. Distinct association patterns were also observed for involvement and structure depending on the children’s behavioral characteristics: approach-oriented parents were more likely to engage in structuring behaviors with low prosocial and highly inattentive children. Moreover, avoidance-oriented parents, although less likely overall to employ structuring behaviors, were also more prone to adopt those behaviors when engaging with low prosocial children. Results suggest that SDT-based parenting responses (autonomy support, structure, involvement) as well as controlling responses to children’s behaviors may be driven by parents’ approach and avoidance dispositions. Implications for theory, research, and the prevention of negative parenting behaviors are presented.

CULTURE, POVERTY, AND RELIGION AT A CROSSROADS: CAUSES AND IMPLICATIONS OF CHILD MARRIAGE IN THE SLUMS OF KARACHI

2025-12-20T06:12:15-08:00

Child marriage continues to be prevalent in South Asia, including Pakistan, despite national laws and international agreements prohibiting it. This article aims to discover the causes of child marriage and its implications for child brides. We identify gaps in the implementation of laws, good practices, and program designs, and we propose necessary initiatives. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, a mix of quantitative and qualitative information was obtained from focus group discussions and from a survey of 131 early married females. We found that the cause of child marriage in Pakistan is not simply poverty: it is also deeply rooted in social customs, cultural norms, and traditional and religious beliefs. The psychological, economic, social, and physical consequences of child marriage can be excruciating for these girls, whose education may be curtailed and who are likelier than their unmarried peers to experience emotional, sexual, and physical violence. This study identifies parental decision-making, societal pressures, and entrenched gender roles as key drivers of child marriage. A lack of awareness about the legal marriage age and limited access to education further exacerbate the problem. Our recommendations include standardizing the legal marriage age at 18 years, implementing mass birth registration campaigns, and ensuring access to education for girls. Community-based awareness programs should challenge cultural norms and promote the benefits of delayed marriage. Strengthening laws and empowering local authorities to enforce them are also essential. Moreover, comprehensive poverty reduction programs, vocational training for women, and education reforms are needed if the root causes of child marriage and its often devastating consequences are to be successfully addressed.

EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE FOR IMMIGRANT FAMILIES AND CHILDREN: A PAN-CANADIAN JURISDICTIONAL SCAN OF SETTLEMENT AGENCIES

2026-01-02T13:11:04-08:00

High-quality early learning and child care programs are in a position to support immigrant family settlement, reduce socioeconomic inequities, and enhance children’s overall development. In Canada, these can be delivered either as provincially or territorially licensed programs or through settlement agencies. The goal of this research was to understand what factors influence the implementation of child care in settlement agencies across Canada. We conducted an environmental scan of settlement agencies and invited key informants to participate in interviews and surveys. Overall, the 38 participating organizations identified factors influencing the successful implementation of child care delivery at settlement agencies at both the system level (licensing and regulation, funding, workforce changes) and operational level (enhanced access to child care, cultural and linguistic diversity of educators). The findings also suggest a need to continue to emphasize broader purposes for early learning and child care programs, such as providing support to the whole family by allowing parents to access other services such as language training and information classes. Strategic connections between settlement agencies and provincially or territorially licensed programs will contribute to the professionalization of the field and to greater access to child care for immigrant families across the country.

“I THINK, SHE DOES NOT KNOW THIS ANY MORE”: CHILD AGENCY NEGOTIATED THROUGH THE DYNAMICS OF FAMILY INTERACTIONS IN GERMANY DURING COVID-19

2025-12-20T06:12:11-08:00

We examined child agency in terms of prevailing theories of childhood (seeing children as “been”, “being”, or “becoming”) in the context of interviews about COVID-19 experiences. In our study we focused on conversations between the interlocutor (a child or a parent) and additional family members and used a discourse approach for analyzing and interpreting the interactions. In total, 9 families of diverse sociocultural backgrounds (13 parents and 16 children aged 6–‍15 years) were interviewed about their individual COVID-19 experience in Germany. Irrespective of age, children were able to describe events and experiences during COVID-19 times and were thus aware of the “been”. These ranged from enjoying playtime with parents to playgrounds being cordoned off and classmates being ill. Interview interactions underscored a dynamic of children’s agency that alternated between active involvement in their own and the parent’s interview and reactively referring questions to a parent or letting the parent take control of the interview situation. Neither parents’ views of children nor children’s own behavior could be consistently assigned to the category of “being” or “becoming”. Rather, our study highlighted children’s agency along a being–becoming continuum through an interactive transformational process in terms of interdependent agency between children and parents in a particular context. This process of negotiated agency should be explored further in future studies with children and parents.

A SCOPING REVIEW OF TRAUMA-INFORMED EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE IN CANADA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

2025-12-20T06:12:09-08:00

Among child care policymakers, government officials, and providers alike, there is growing interest in mitigating the impacts of adversity and trauma in children’s early years. While emerging literature examines the prevalence and impacts of traumatic events on the lives of children and families, a focus on trauma-informed approaches within the early learning and child care sector remains nascent. This scoping review examines the current state of knowledge in peer-reviewed and grey literature on trauma-informed approaches in the early learning and child care sector in Canada. Critical analysis of the findings highlights a concerning gap in the empirical evidence on trauma-informed approaches, obscure and individualistic understandings of trauma, and considerable variance in how trauma-informed approaches are implemented. We call for explicit shifts toward understanding trauma as inclusive of interpersonal and structural forms of trauma and violence and a broader scope of “trauma- and violence-informed child care” (TVICC).

HAPPINESS PERCEPTIONS OF PRESCHOOLERS AND PARENTAL STRATEGIES USED TO INCREASE CHILDREN’S HAPPINESS

2025-12-20T06:12:07-08:00

This qualitative research study aimed to evaluate how preschoolers aged 4 to 5 perceived “happiness” and the strategies parents use to make their children happier. The criteria sampling approach, a purposeful sampling technique, was utilized to create the study group, which included 20 preschoolers and their parents who had applied for assessment by the Child Development Polyclinic of a maternity and pediatrics hospital in Istanbul, Türkiye. Apart from demographic information, the data employed in the study comprised semi-structured interviews and children’s descriptions of their drawings; these were analyzed using content analysis. The study’s findings showed that the children used adjectives that express positive emotions, such as “laughing”, “joyful”, and “loving”, to describe their feelings, and were reported being happy when they engaged in play-based activities such as playing video games, watching television, engaging in sports, and visiting the beach or the park. The children’s picture drawings of happiness mostly featured aspects of play and nature. One of the research’s most significant results is that parents employed a variety of methods to make their children happy, like playing games, taking them on walks, taking them to the park, and cooking their desired foods. The article concludes with suggestions based on the findings obtained from the research.

ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR USING CONFLICT-SENSITIVE APPROACHES TO IMPROVE DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES IMPACTING YOUTH AND CHILDREN: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH

2025-12-20T06:12:06-08:00

This article examines the evidence base for using conflict-sensitive approaches to improve development outcomes in human-serving sectors. The study employed a systematic review methodology to identify and analyze evidence from a corpus of 49 studies that met inclusion criteria from a universe of 571 papers. Results from this review indicate that the evidence base is underdeveloped for demonstrating outcomes from integrating conflict-sensitive practices within human-serving sectors. We find that the evidence gaps may be the result of inconsistencies among the definitions and methods of measurement for conflict-sensitive practice and subsequent evaluations of such practices. Evidence from our review suggests that the education sector has developed the largest number of concrete conflict-sensitive tools and practices that can be formally evaluated for impact on outcomes and brought to scale for the benefit of the sector and the broader development community.