“Sometimes,Somebody Just Needs Somebody – Anybody – to Care:” The power of interpersonal relationships in the lives of domestic minor sex trafficking survivors

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of U.S. minors for the purposes of a commercial sex act. DMST victims and survivors often become involved with state-level systems including the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems. This study presents exploratory qualitative findings regarding the role of interpersonal relationships in the lives of system-involved DMST survivors from the perspectives of DMST survivors. Results indicate survivors perceive interpersonal relationships as key to promoting risk, providing protection, and fostering resiliency over DMST. Findings from the current study not only provide a context for understanding the role of interpersonal relationships in the lives of DMST survivors but also point to directions for development of interventions targeted toward this population.     

Identifying best practices for “Safe Harbor” legislation to protect child sex trafficking victims: Decriminalization alone is not sufficient

Several states have recently enacted “Safe Harbor” laws to redirect child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking from the criminal justice system and into the child welfare system. No comprehensive studies of Safe Harbor law implementation exist. The nine state Safe Harbor laws enacted by 2012 were analyzed to guide state legislators, health professionals, law enforcement agents, child welfare providers, and other responders to the commercial sexual exploitation of children on the development and implementation of state Safe Harbor laws. The authors conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with Safe Harbor experts in these states. Participants conveyed that Safe Harbor legislation signified a critical paradigm shift, treating commercially sexually exploited youth not as criminals but as vulnerable children in need of services. However, Safe Harbor legislation varied widely and significant gaps in laws exist. Such laws alone were considered insufficient without adequate funding for necessary services. As a result, many well-meaning providers were going around the Safe Harbor laws by continuing to incarcerate commercially sexually exploited youth in the juvenile justice system regardless of Safe Harbor laws in place. This was done, to act, in their view, in what was the best interest of the victimized children. With imperfect laws and implementation, these findings suggest an important role for local and state responders to act together to protect victims from unnecessary criminalization and potential further traumatization.     

Teacher Control over Interagency Collaboration: A Roadblock for Effective Transitioning of Youth with Disabilities

Poor post-school outcomes for youth with disabilities have consistently been reported internationally. Interagency collaboration between school systems and post-school services is critical and key to improving post-school life for these youth. An initial Queensland study that benchmarked the teacher practice of 104 transition teachers and associated personnel indicated that interagency collaboration practices had the lowest levels of implementation. These results were the motivation behind a second study which investigated the hypothesis that lack of teacher control over interagency collaboration practice formed a roadblock for effective transitioning of youth with disabilities. Results generally confirmed the hypothesis and provide further understanding about the multi-faceted nature of interagency collaboration and the stakeholders involved in this process. Three interconnected actions are proposed to bypass identified roadblocks. If these actions are put in place, schools should improve their connections with post-school services, teachers should enhance their practice, and students should achieve improved post-school outcomes.     

Working towards inclusion: Reflections from the classroom

This article explores developments towards inclusive education being undertaken in some schools in India. Drawing on data collected through interviews with key professionals working in schools and classroom observations, the study focused on the practices and experiences of professionals involved in these efforts. Findings suggest that these schools had provided access to children who would otherwise have been denied admission to the mainstream due to their disabilities. However, these children remained the ‘included’ children and did not necessarily become a part of the classroom. Thus, evident in these schools were a range of exclusionary practices that continued to exist alongside efforts towards inclusion. I therefore argue that there is not only a need to provide stakeholders with the knowledge and skills for developing inclusive teaching practices, but also a need to challenge existing values, beliefs and attitudes to ensure the full participation of all children in the curriculum and culture of their school setting.     

Finding Nexus: connecting youth work and research practices

Participation in educational and social research helps to develop understanding of how young people learn and to consider wider aspects of their lives to enable their voices to be heard and acted upon. Research also facilitates the articulation and sharing of methodologies across a range of professional practices. We assert that theory and practice in educational youth work offers a position of strength from which to undertake research. In making this assertion, we suggest cross‐disciplinarity between youth work and research practices in order to build research mindedness among youth workers who, through this nexus, are well‐placed to engage in practice based research. Drawing on discourses about young people, youth work and youth participation, we identify five elements of youth work practice that can be aligned with research processes: reflexivity; positionality and bias; insider cultural competence; rapport and trust; power relationships. The article examines how these elements are present in youth work and a range of research settings. We identify youth work methods and dispositions as enhancing research capacity which could also be useful in building participatory research methods in disciplinary areas beyond education. Yet, in making these connections, we also identify a range of factors that show this nexus as complex and contestable. Reflecting on the lessons learned from our experiences as youth work practitioners and academic researchers, we propose that finding nexus, which in this instance is between youth work and research paradigms, could inform educational research practices and contributes to developing a meaningful praxis.     

A qualitative examination of critical feedback processes in project-based youth programs

When an adolescent receives critical feedback from adults on what they should change, they may feel discouraged; however, such feedback can be key to learning. This study explored how adolescents attending project-based youth programs experienced critical feedback from adult leaders and the strategies these leaders employed when providing feedback. Qualitative analyses of interviews with 49 youth and 24 leaders indicated that youth participants found critical feedback to be useful because leaders intentionally provided straightforward, clear, and balanced feedback in a manner that was empathetic and involved dialogue that privileged participants’ ownership of their work. Using extant literature, we discuss why the features identified may be especially important during the period of adolescence.     

Improving methods of consulting with young people: Piloting a new model of consultation

National and international legislation has increasingly placed a duty on professionals to consult with young people about matters affecting their lives. Consequently, conducting consultation exercises with young people in order to improve the quality of services available is becoming established practice in many areas. Following on from previous research which asked children and young people about ways they prefer to be consulted, this study developed a new model of consultation to enhance the effectiveness of meetings that young people attend in order to discuss their additional support needs. This model was implemented in a series of consultation meetings in three secondary schools, and was evaluated by examining the views of the key stakeholders (pupils, parents, school staff, visiting professionals) through questionnaires and interviews. The findings suggest that this new model did have a positive impact on the young people who were involved and was perceived positively by all stakeholder groups. This model can provide guidance for EPs and other professionals who wish to effectively involve children and young people in the consultation process.     

Ethnocentric perception of childrearing practices in protective services

The protective services system in the United States may be committing a form of institutional abuse of minority families if the professionals who work in that system are not sufficiently well versed in the unique childrearing practices of each culture in the communities the system represents. It is easy for misunderstandings to occur from an ethnocentric perspective, and these misunderstandings are unlikely to be in the minority group's favor. Although there is wide agreement that this represents a problem, there is not enough information readily available to allow protective service professionals to adopt a cross-cultural perspective in conducting their work. To discover some of the possible misunderstandings by the dominant American culture of subculture childrearing practices, this study was conducted through in-person interviews with members of six minority groups, Mexican-, Japanese-, Vietnamese-, Filipino- and Samoan-Americans and Blackfeet Indians, in three communities in conjunction with an evaluation of child abuse prevention demonstration projects. The themes of delegating responsibility to children and issues of dominance and submission emerged as areas for awareness and sensitivity on the part of child protective services.     

The Politics of “Giving Student Victims a Voice”: A Feminist Analysis of State Trafficking Policy Implementation

Little research explores factors shaping those policies and actors involved in state-level sex and labor trafficking prevention. This study examined the organizational, political, and normative dynamics that influenced implementation of Texas House Bill 1272 (HB 1272, 2013), which included educators in trafficking prevention. Part of a larger study that used feminist critical policy analysis and multifocal theory as overarching guideposts, findings highlight important factors bound up with policy actor enactment and normative roadblocks to successful long-term curriculum and training implementation. This study fills a gap in the educational research literature both in its unpacking of the normative politics involved in eliminating youth commercial and sexual violence experienced and thick qualitative research findings, neither of which would be possible through one theoretical or methodological device. Implications of and recommendations for educational research and practice are offered.     

Outcomes of a scientific nonformal educational initiative for youth in Rio de Janeiro

The aim of this research is to understand how former students view their professional and academic paths after taking part in a specific scientific nonformal educational initiative during high school. This program is called Vocational Scientific Program (Provoc) and is carried out in the Oswald Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This institution has for over 100 years played a pioneer role in public health research in the country. This institution has many graduate programs and a high school dedicated to training students in health issues. Provoc was originated in this school and has been part of it for the last 25 years. Since its beginning, this program has been characterized by a significant predominance of women which relates to the female predominance of professionals in this institution working in the traditional areas of Fiocruz, which are Biology, Medicine, Public Health, Humanities and Social Sciences. This study was qualitative in nature and involved observations and 34 individual interviews, which followed a semi structured questionnaire, designed for this research. The results indicate that the majority of participants see their program participation experiences as an asset in their academic and professional careers. Many describe feeling empowered by presenting their work in seminars and a few by writing a research article. Many former students also testified to the establishment of social long lasting relationships in the research work environment. And finally, the interviews reveal a few moments and the factors involved in the selection of a profession by youth.     

Preventing alcohol-exposed pregnancy among American-Indian youth

Research has determined that the prevention of alcohol-exposed pregnancies (AEP) must occur preconceptually, either by reducing alcohol intake in women planning pregnancy or at risk for becoming pregnant, or by preventing pregnancy in women drinking at risky levels. One such AEP prevention programme with non-pregnant American-Indian (AI) women is the Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) Changing High-risk alcohOl use and Increasing Contraception Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) Programme, which shows promise in reducing AEP risk in AI women aged 18 or older. A community needs assessment was conducted with key informant interviews and focus groups with an emphasis on how to expand OST CHOICES. To identify relevant inter-related themes, a content analysis was conducted on qualitative feedback from the focus groups and interviews. Altogether, key informant interviews were completed with 25 health and social service professionals. Eight focus groups were held with 58 AI participants, including adult women of child-bearing age, elder women, and adult men. Several sub-themes regarding the prevention of AEP with youth were identified, expanding the OST CHOICES curriculum into the schools, and the role of family and culture within AEP prevention.     

New rules of the game: youth training in Brazil and Finland as examples of the new global network governance

Young people labelled ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk of social exclusion’ are increasingly directed into publicly funded or NGO-based, partly privately financed projects in order to secure their desired integration into society through work or further education. In this article, we carry out a comparative analysis of youth training programmes in Brazil and Finland based on empirical fieldwork undertaken in two separate research projects. The research data consist of qualitative interviews of the projects’ participants and management. The focus of the analysis is on youth employment projects as discursive practices, that is, on the ways that knowledge on employment and employment-related responsibilities is produced in the discourses and practices of the projects. Despite the different contexts, the analysis shows that the youth training projects share a number of commonalities with regards to the shaping of the self as entrepreneurial and self-regulated. This is linked to the global dominance of a new form of governance, which relies on and actively promotes the individualisation of responsibility and obscures the structural and societal forces that lie behind youth unemployment and exclusion. We suggest that engaging young people in critical discourses about the sources of inequality would be the key to more equitable forms of development.     

Developing a tobacco survey for deaf youth

Formidable barriers hinder use of standard data collection methods among deaf youth. Culturally and linguistically sensitive data collection strategies are needed to identify the unmet health and programming needs of this population. Unfortunately, researchers often fail to describe the issues involved in developing such targeted methods. The authors describe development of a culturally appropriate data collection instrument for a study of tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices among deaf youth. The instrument uses interactive multimedia technology to administer a questionnaire translated into the primary languages used by the Deaf. The procedures taken to accommodate this technology to these languages and to Deaf culture are described. This process yielded useful insights with respect to data collection not only among the Deaf, but among other frequently overlooked and underserved populations as well.     

Globalization,public policy,and ‘knowledge gap’: Ethiopian youth and the HIV/AIDS pandemic

Set against trans‐ or supra‐national policy initiatives which have framed the HIV/AIDS pandemic as in part a pedagogical issue, this paper critically explores local understandings of sexual practices (generally) as well as of HIV/AIDS (more specifically) among young people in the sub‐Saharan African country of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has the third largest number of HIV/AIDS infections in the world, behind only South Africa and India. Like many countries dealing with this pandemic, the Ethiopian government has articulated its response to a broader set of global presses, including those around information and education. Such responses, we will argue, are helpful but have important limitations. As this study shows, knowledge about safer sex practices and the dangers of HIV/AIDS are by now well known among many Ethiopian youth. Yet, this knowledge does not always effect behavioral change. Taking condom use as a key exemplar, we will look at how Ethiopian youth narrate their own sexual experiences, conduct, and practices. Deeply informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we look to open new ‘thinking tools’ for a range of actors addressing this global pandemic in situated contexts. In particular, we challenge the ‘pedagogical subject’ – a subject lacking key information – interpolated into many of these policies. We highlight, instead, new disjunctures between emergent discourses around sex and sexuality as well as long‐standing, conservative attitudes toward gender.     

Posttraumatic symptoms among maltreated youth using classification and regression tree analysis

Individual psychological factors have been shown to exacerbate risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in youth following maltreatment, but the novel contribution of the present study includes a focus on interactive relationships between these factors on specific PTSD symptom clusters. This study identified maltreated youth at highest risk for re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptom clusters via cognitive, affective, and demographic variables. Participants (n = 400) included ethnically diverse maltreated youth. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis, a form of binary recursive partitioning (BRP), identified subgroups of maltreated youth at highest risk for three core PTSD symptom clusters. Posttraumatic cognitions, anhedonia, negative mood, processing speed, and ethnicity best predicted re-experiencing symptoms. Depersonalization/derealization, verbal comprehension, sexual maltreatment, and age best predicted avoidance symptoms. Negative cognitions about self, IQ, dissociation, working memory, and posttraumatic cognitions best predicted hyperarousal symptoms. Core PTSD symptom clusters may thus be associated with unique collections of risk factors for maltreated youth. Clinical protocols for this population could be recalibrated to be more sensitive to specific profiles that more accurately identify highest risk maltreated youth and better inform evidence-based treatment practices.     

Children at risk of neglect: challenges faced by child protection practitioners in Guatemala City

OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to (1) delineate the definition, common forms, and perceived risk factors contributing to child neglect in Guatemala from the perspective of different stakeholders and (2) identify the challenges faced by child protection practitioners in identifying children at risk of neglect within the context of Guatemala. METHODS: A range of qualitative methods were used: semi-structured interviews (SSI) with key stakeholders involved in child neglect (n=9); semi-structured interviews with professionals working in the child protection services (n=14); focus group discussions (FGDs) with professionals, voluntary workers and children (n=60), and the group consensus method with key informants (KI, n=10). Data analysis was conducted using the framework approach. RESULTS: Participants described child neglect as a complex social phenomenon combining parental omission of care and an indifferent or negative attitude towards the child compounded by governmental neglect. The main factors which were perceived as contributing to neglect were poverty, societal and cultural norms, and importantly, gender roles and relations. These contextual factors complicate the identification of neglect and raise a number of difficult dilemmas for child protection workers that are exacerbated by limited Guatemalan legislation on neglect and restricted alternative care options. CONCLUSION: Stakeholder perspectives were found to be useful for providing contextual information and highlighting associated challenges related to assessing child neglect in Guatemala.     

What Canadian youth tell us about disclosing abuse

ObjectiveTo report findings from a study of anonymous disclosures of abuse experiences among a national sample of youth in Canada who participated in violence prevention programming.MethodsA qualitative analysis was done of a purposeful sample of 1,099 evaluation forms completed following Red Cross RespectED violence prevention programming delivered between 2000 and 2003. Forms were selected based on program facilitators identifying voluntary, anonymous disclosures by youth participants of neglect and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Additional data for this analysis includes 27 interviews and focus groups that were used to understand the context of these disclosures and to engage the help of youth and program facilitators in the interpretation of findings.ResultsWhile this study is exploratory and non-representative in its design, findings suggest high rates of hidden abuse, with less than a quarter of youth with abuse experiences reporting a disclosure. Disclosure patterns vary with boys, youth aged 14–15, victims of physical abuse, and those abused by a family member being most likely to disclose to professionals or the police. Interviews help to explain the large number of youth who express reticence to disclose to professionals. Specifically, the data show a perception among youth of negative consequences following disclosure.ConclusionsThis data raises questions regarding why youth are reluctant to report abuse to professionals, preferring to cope independently or by confiding in peers. Youth in this study report feeling anxious about disclosing to authorities, fearful of the potential loss of control over decisions which affect them.Practice implicationsFindings suggest that professionals who provide support to young people's own networks of family and friends may help to facilitate youths’ disclosures of abuse. Furthermore, prevention programming that promotes a positive attitude towards disclosure of abuse experiences and provides an anonymous forum (such as an evaluation form) in which to do so is likely to encourage more young people to disclose.     

“I am in a constant struggle:” The challenges of providing instruction to incarcerated youth in southern California

This paper examines the challenges of mandatory educational instruction in the California correction system. Current scholarship on youth education in incarceration focuses on the challenges faced by youth and teachers. Our study adds to this scholarship by demonstrating that the context of teaching in centers of incarceration, specifically center of incarceration that have adopted a wraparound service strategy, prevents teachers from disentangling their teaching practices from practices of managing and disciplining youth who are in incarceration. Using semi-structured interviews, we interviewed 15 teachers who work in four juvenile detention facilities in Southern California. We found three primary challenges: one, low level of education; two, the emotional labor required of teachers; three, negotiating the interactions with administrators, correctional officers, and other on-site personnel. Thus, our findings demonstrate that the three challenges highlighted macro-institutional barriers which individual teacher and students are able to navigate but are unable to fundamentally change.     

Stories from Lake Volta: The lived experiences of trafficked children in Ghana

Child trafficking is one of the worst forms of child maltreatment and is often difficult to recognize when it happens intra-country. This paper presents the narratives of children on their experiences as victims of trafficking in fishing communities along the Volta Lake in the Volta region of Ghana. The narratives were co-constructed with the children through child-friendly participatory approaches which involved drawings, writing, and in-depth interviews. The stories reflect the magnitude of maltreatment trafficked children suffer, which ranges from physical to psychological and emotional. The authors recommend commitment by the government to the implementation of the Human Trafficking Act to deter child traffickers. Further studies on the living conditions of rescued children and the need to implement strategies to prevent re-trafficking are suggested.     

Still I Rise: Youth Caught Between the Worlds of Schools and Prisons

The US has one of the most inequitably funded school systems and the largest prison population in the industrialized world. These two factors help to construct what is known as the school to prison pipeline. The past 30 years has included punitive policies within schools and the criminal justice system that have resulted in a disproportionate number of Latino and African–American youth being suspended from school, dropping out, and/or incarcerated. In this article, the lived experiences of incarcerated youth framed by institutional policies within prisons and schools are discussed. In total, fifteen interviews with incarcerated youth who spontaneously discussed drug trafficking were analyzed using criminological theory. A key theme for many youth was how a lack of educational opportunity and success shifted their focus to attaining economic opportunities through drug trafficking. Policy implications are discussed relating to school and corrections funding along with the costs to society.