The changing face of childhood and parenthood: Connecting with what really matters in a complex and competitive world. The changing face of childhood and parenthood: Connecting with what really matters in a complex and competitive world. Psychology Seminar, Department of Adult and Community Education Feb 13 th 2016 Dr Catriona O’Toole Lecturer in Psychology of Education, Maynooth University Department of Education

Changing childhoods…  The example of play  A shift from free, unstructured and loosely supervised play

Image courtesy of The Irish Times

Changing childhoods…  The example of play  A shift from free, unstructured and loosely supervised play  Other ways that childhood has changed:  Commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood  Technology and social media  Educational accountability

Changing childhoods…  The example of play  A shift from free, unstructured and loosely supervised play  Other ways that childhood has changed:  Commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood  Technology and social media  Educational accountability  What it means to be a child differs depending on historical time and geographical place

 This is not about romanticising the past...  Children are not passive in the face of social changes…  But, relative to adults, children have considerably less power to affect change in their lives  Certain groups of children are more negatively effected by socio-cultural changes than others….

Child & youth mental health – is there a problem?  Children today have greater access to education, healthcare, and far more opportunities than in the past (esp. in western world; Layard & Dunn, 2010) BUT,  The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 20% of children and adolescents worldwide experience a disabling mental health problem  Barnardos estimate 18.7% of Irish children suffer from some form of mental health issue or psychological disorder, severe enough to cause impairment

 It seems that childhood mental health difficulties are on the increase  But, how are we thinking & theorising about children’s distress?

Pathologising children’s distress?  Children’s difficulties tend to be individualised and pathologised  The example of school refusal:  Possible causes: “Anxiety disorder”, “poor coping skills”, “inadequate parenting” => school refusal is maladaptive; a sign of pathology, deficit, disorder  But, school refusal can be an adaptive and reasonable response to children’s individual circumstances...  We tend to re-cast social problems as individual problems  We promote the idea that the solutions to children’s difficulties lies in altering children’s thoughts and feelings, rather than in altering social circumstances or tackling injustices.

Understanding the social context of children’s development  Microsystem – activities and interactions in the child’s immediate environment (family, school, peers)  Mesosystem – interactions between different microsystems (eg home- school relationships)  Exosystem – systems that influence children indirectly (eg parent’s work, community resources)  Macrosystem – ideology, norms, laws, policies of the culture  Chronosystem –changes which occur during a child’s life Bio-ecological theory of development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)

Key features:  Regular, progressively more complex, and reciprocal interactions with significant others are key to development  How children perceives the setting and his/her role in it (their own subjective experience of it, not just how an objective observer would see it) Understanding the social context of children’s development Bio-ecological theory of development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)

Supporting wellbeing and positive mental health in schools  SPHE, guidance counsellors, NEPS  General Approach: whole-school preventative approach followed by targeted support (NEPS/DES, 2015)  Other initiatives:  Amber flag: Raise awareness, reduce stigma (Suicide Aware)  Jigsaw Mental Health projects (Headstrong)  Mindfulness activities  Resilience training: FRIENDS programme

Fostering resilience – a matter of balancing the scales? According to the NSCDC (2015) child development is like a scales with two sides. Experiences such as repeated or chronic exposure to violence, poverty, or maltreatment, pile on the negative side of the scale. Positive influences tip the scale the other way.

Fostering resilience – a matter of balancing the scales? The fulcrum represents individual predispositions, which vary from one child to another. These variations mean that individual children start with their fulcrums in different places along the scale. The placement affects how they respond to the weight of experiences they have. Importantly, the “fulcrum” is not fixed or static

Resilience & the broader context of children’s lives  Children’s social/cultural context is often neglected within resilience research  Aspects of Irish Context:  Child poverty doubled since 2008 (Ombudsman for Children)  43% increase in calls to CARI helpline since 2012  Does the focus on resilience put the onus for change on individual children?

Key messages:  Foreground the macro context  By making the socio-cultural context our starting point in working with children, including issues of powerlessness and inequalities, we invite a range of considerations that go beyond individual deficits.  Seek to understand children’s lives, preferences, experiences  There is good reason for why children/young people behave as they do. Openness to understanding their worlds brings opportunities for genuine connection & conversation  Ethic of care & compassion  Relationships are fundamental – One Good Adult –  Requires active listening, a sense of humour, fun, satire, warmth & unconditional positive regard