Childhood

Behavioural development in a random sample of 200 juveniles with serious behavioural difficulties admitted for residential treatment was monitored for a period of 2 years after their admission. By that time, 42 percent of the juveniles had left the treatment centre according to plan, 7 percent were still at the treatment centre and 51 percent had left prematurely. The juveniles who finished their treatment as planned had developed quite well. The psychosocial conditions of these youngsters were nearly identical to those of the general Dutch adolescent population of a comparable age and sociodemographic background. However, the youngsters who left prematurely had further developmental difficulties. Two years after their admission the number of juveniles reporting aggression and antisocial behaviour at a clinical level was as high as at the start of their residential treatment. An exploration of the residential treatment factors predicting successful development suggested that the provision of a basic therapeutic climate of firm, but not harsh, control coupled with consistent, but non-obtrusive, emotional support, cognitive-behavioural training, intensive monitoring of the treatment and home-orientedness were major factors promoting healthy development among the youngsters with behavioural difficulties.

Using ethnographic data of US white and African-American children 7-10 years of age, this study examines the role of social class in shaping the contours of childhood, pace and rhythm of life, and the amount of interweaving between parents' and children's lives. Focusing on middle-class and working-class boys, the results show that middle-class children spend time in activities organized by adults stressing public performance and skill development. Working-class children's lives tend to revolve around informal play, visiting kin and `hanging out'. Middle-class children's activities, while formally leisure, were similar to school activities. There are also parallels between middle-class children's activities and the nature of their parents' work.

Drawing on qualitative data from a study carried out with over 1300 children aged between 5 and 13, in England and Wales, the article analyses children's discourse about television programmes. The article addresses the persistent tendency of this discourse to express socially responsible and public service values in evaluating programmes. This finding is explained both in terms of children's ability to adapt to the requirements of the public consultation task they were taking part in, and in terms of their obvious ability to access different kinds of adult discourse available in the culture at large - in particular various representations of childhood expressed in policy and regulatory documents, and in literature.

Action against bullying in schools has been quite extensive over the last decade. The article reports a survey of 2308 pupils aged 10-14 years, from 19 schools across England. Frequencies of being bullied and of bullying others suggest some decline from earlier findings, which may reflect positive results achieved by schools concerned about the issue. Victims report a variety of coping strategies, varying with age. Bullies report often feeling that the victim deserved it, a response especially marked in older boys. A `culture of silence' still persists in that 30 percent of victims had told no one of the bullying. However, for those who had told, the outcome was usually seen as positive, although there was a small risk of things getting worse especially when teachers were told. Findings are discussed in terms of the opportunities and challenges facing schools as they work to develop effective anti-bullying policies and strategies.

The article analyses children's and mothers' accounts of the economic consequences of divorce for children in Botswana. Most of the mothers and children in the study reported experiences of economic hardship following divorce, although a few reported improvement or no change in their economic circumstances. The article traces the implications of economic hardship for the social and psychological well-being of children.

The globalization of the world economy since the 1970s has placed existing definitions of fatherhood under extreme pressure throughout the western world. At the high as well as at the low end of the social scale, men have found it difficult to fulfill the traditional breadwinner role. In all developed countries, there has been a growing incidence of what some have called `fatherless families' due to this and other causes. Many see this as a major crisis, requiring intervention and coercive measures. But, before we endorse these, it would be well to place this latest round of worries about `fatherlessness' in historical context and realize that the relationship between fathers and children has always been problematic.