ABSTRACTS

by session

Caribbean Child Research Conference

Jamaica Pegasus Hotel

Kingston, Jamaica

October 21-22, 2008

  • Child Care & Protection Act (CCPA) Baseline Survey

Ruel Cooke

A Baseline survey on the knowledge of teenaged children of the provisions of the Jamaican Child Care & Protection Act (CCPA) was carried out on behalf of the Child Development Agency (CDA) and UNICEF between January and March 2008. This served as a pre-test for a Handbook to simplify the CCPA to this age group prepared by the two collaborating organisations. The same questionnaire was repeated to different groups of children drawn from the same schools between May and June, three months after the pre-test and the subsequent distribution of the Handbook to the schools. This served as a post-test to measure the impact of the Handbook on children’s knowledge of the Act.

Some of the main findings of the Pre-Test include:

i)The majority of the respondents had never heard of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, the CCPA nor of the implementing organisations.

ii)Respondents generally thought the Act was aimed at protecting them from child abuse, substance abuse and crime & violence.

iii)They were generally aware of the ages of adulthood and of consent.

iv)Children were generally aware of their participation rights, but were ambivalent on exercising these rights vis a vis their parents’ responsibilities.

Some recommendations include:

  • Increased collaboration with The Ministry of Education’s Guidance & Counselling Unit to have Guidance Counsellors include Children’s Rights in their contact hours with students, and
  • Constitute a national Inter-Agency Committee to collaborate on the formulation of a national Child Rights Plan, to coordinate the provision of services and to act as the clearing-house for funding of organisations to execute the Plan.
  • Legislation and Standards in Early Childhood Care in St. Lucia and the Cayman Islands

Heather Gallimore, Winston McCalla

As part of the regional effort to find applicable cost effect solutions to early childhood education, care and development (ECECD), applicable legislation, regulations and standards in St. Lucia and the Cayman Islands were reviewed. Visits were made to both countries and meetings held with Ministers of Government, representatives from Education Ministries, workers in various early childhood agencies, health department and Fire Departments. In both St. Lucia and the Cayman Islands there were unresolved issues concerning the definition and scope of ECECD. There were also differences in terminology. In St. Lucia, the Education Act provides for early childhood education between 3-5 years. There are no statutory provisions for early childhood education for 0 years to 8 years. Further the provisions of the Education Act are not mandatory, but merely permissive (i.e. relies on parental consent). In the Cayman Islands, the Early Childhood Policy (which has not received Government appraisal) applies to children under 8 years of age. The standards in Trinidad and Tobago are based on the draft St. Lucia standards. Following this consultation, the Cayman Islands began the process of developing Early Childhood standards through examining standards documents from the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and elsewhere. There is a broad similarity between the standards documents of Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago, whilst the structure of the Jamaican standards document differs form those of Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago.

  • Children at Risk: The Need for Adequate Legislation

Natalie Walthrust Jones

This paper proposes to look at the inadequacy of legislation available to protect the rights of at risk children in Barbados and Guyana. Comparative analysis will be used where applicable. The research is based on secondary data, thus, it builds from several bodies of literature. This paper aims to show that the agencies charged with the responsibility of caring for these vulnerable children lacks the ‘power’ to do this in terms of the limited legislation in place. This is further reinforced by the recent call of UNICEF to the Government of Barbados to increase the power of the Child Care Board. It further attempts to offer a broad and summarised picture of child groups that are threatened, but we are reminded that the actual realities may differ from country to country.

The main profiles are:

  • Child without parents
  • Child who is a victim of violence
  • Child who is neglected and/or abandoned
  • Child who has been physically and/or sexually abused
  • Child who is roaming the streets
  • Child who is infected or affected by HIV and AIDS
  • Child who has dropped out of school
  • Child who engages in sexual acts for money, material goods or attention
  • Towards Restoration and Reintegration: A best practice model for Jamaica’s child justice (juvenile justice) system.

Thalia Maragh

The aim of this research is to arrive at best practice measures for the treatment of child offenders; examining alternative measures to incarceration that embrace the spirit of restoration and reintegration following the directives of the Committee of the Convention on the rights of the Child (CRC) for reform of Jamaica’s juvenile justice system.

The research is divided into five parts:

  1. Examines Jamaica’s international and treaty obligations;
  2. Analyzes the rationale for restorative/ reintegration and diversionary measures;
  3. Analyzes Jamaica’s legislative framework and the extent to which Jamaica’s laws are compliant with its international obligations;
  4. Examines statistical data compiled during the last 2 years on the disposal of cases before the courts including cases of children in need of care and protection;
  5. Examines Australia’s and New Zealand’s system of restorative justice and extracts aspects that could be adapted to a Jamaican model.
  • Gap Analysis of the Legal and Policy Framework and the Reality of Provisions for Children

Samora Bain and Jody-Ann Reece

In 2005, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released its seventh General Comment titled “General Comment 7: Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood”. This decision was heralded as being timely, considering the recent upsurge in research interest on the importance of early childhood to successful later childhood and adult development. As part of an assessment of the distribution and dissemination of General Comment 7 (GC7) in Jamaica, this study identifies the gaps in the legal, policy and programmatic processes that support the attainment of rights for young children as well as the gaps between these processes and the reality of provisions for children. Firstly, a summary of each of the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its interpretation for early childhood, as documented in GC7, was done. Then, any existing laws, policies and programmes that corresponded to each Article were identified and any gaps noted. Results showed that in most cases, there were at least one law, policy and/or programme that was currently being implemented to address each Article of the Convention. Additionally, indicators to assess the effectiveness of these laws, policies and programmes were recommended for use to determine the reality of provisions for children.

  • Protection Rights - Protective Environments in Homes, Schools and Communities Socio-environmental Vulnerabilities and Mainstreaming of Sexual Behaviour among Young Women

Rosalie Barclay

The ‘passa passa’ and ‘parry shot’ phenomena are just two examples of sexual behaviours and attitudes demonstrated by some young women in Trinidad and Tobago. This preliminary study employs a focus group and case study approach among a group of young women who participate in the ‘Dutty Friday’ event held in one of the under-served communities in East Port of Spain. The study seeks to assess those socio-environmental vulnerabilities or “the contributing themes from culture on the whole that provide a framework through which we all operate...” and their impact/influence on risk-taking behaviour.


  • Sexual Reproductive Health Lifestyle of Male Adolescents in Jamaica

Tazhmoye Crawford , Donovan McGrowder

Adolescence marks the onset of sexuality and the adoption of behavioural patterns that may have lifelong implications for reproductive health. There is the early onset of sexual activity among adolescents in Jamaica. Understanding the reproductive attitudes and behaviour of male adolescents 9 – 17 years old may aid in the development of educational programs designed to combat teenage unhealthy sexual reproductive health lifestyle. A 2005 – 2006 survey of this study, comprising 119 Jamaican male students was used to explore reproductive behaviours and attitudes of Jamaican youths attending rural and urban high schools. All the male respondents reported that they had experienced sexual intercourse. Of the 119 male adolescents in the study, 50.4% in the age group 12 - 14 and 47.1% in the age group 15 – 17. The majority of male respondents are heterosexuals, who practiced vaginal intercourse (55.5%) followed by oral (42.0%). Approximately 40% of male respondents consistently use a contraceptive method, mainly the condom. Majority of the male respondents (54.6%) have one sex partner, while one-fourth (25.2%) have two partners. Most of the male respondents’ partners are older than 17 years old (60.0%) followed by those whose partners are within the age range of 15-17 (29.7%). There existed myths and misconceptions about sexual activities, with 19.4% of male respondents of the view that the prediction of STIs or HIV/AIDS is in the appearance of the partner. Peer pressure (38.7%) was the most influential factor that drives sexual activity. In order to reduce negative sexual behaviours and attitudes among young male adolescents, there should be the introduction of interventions that should include gender-specific reproductive health education in schools and effective culture-specific peer counselling. This study will also take into consideration the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

  • Sexual activity among adolescent 10-15 years attending school in Jamaica

Kristin Fox , Georgiana Gordon-Strachan

A nationally representative sample of Jamaican children 10-15 years currently in school were asked whether they had ever been involved in non-coital sexual activities and sexual intercourse. Approximately one-fifth of the girls had kissed/petted a boy but nearly half of boys had kissed/petted a girl. A small proportion of adolescents had been involved in same sex non-coital activities. Overall, 12.8% of the adolescents had sexual intercourse - more boys than girls (p<0.01). Sexual activity increased with age (p<0.01).

The median age of first sex was 15.43 for boys and over 15 years for girls. At age 15 years, the cumulative proportion of girls who have not had sexual intercourse was 0.64 but for boys this figure was 0.26.

Most of the sexually active adolescents had consented on the first occasion but significantly more boys than girls stated that this was so. One quarter of all girls stated that they had been forced.

A little over half of the respondents had used a condom the last time they had sexual intercourse. Significantly more girls than boys had used a condom.

  • Parenting Practices, Family Structures and Social Exclusion among Adolescents in Jamaica

Elsie R-M. Le Franc, Ian Hambleton, Uki Atkinson

The paper examines the effect of parenting practices, family structures on specific psychosocial variables – the sense of exclusion, personal power and self-esteem. These effects are looked at among adolescents aged 15-7 years of age in Jamaica. The data are drawn from a larger study which looked at the impact of migration, family structures and a number of psychosocial variables on interpersonal violence and aggression. The larger study was supported by the Wellcome Trust. This specific examination of the influences on the psychosocial variables was supported by UNICEF. Quantitative data were collected through the administration of structured interviews. The sample frames used the latest census information [Jamaica 2001 Census]. A three-stage stratified sampling procedure was used to select the respondents. The sample was also stratified by age and by sex. The data report moderately high levels self-esteem, perceptions of self power which co-exist with fairly high levels of marginality or exclusion among this group of adolescents. Examination of the possible influences on these outcomes shows that the impacts of education and family structures were the least important. Ofthe remaining contextual variables parenting practices (positive and negative) emerge as the single most important set of influences. These results therefore draw attention to the importance of policy initiatives that focus less attention on the types of family structure and more on the parenting practices and internal family dynamics.

  • Child Participation: A model for Child Advocacy

Mary Clarke, Dwayne Cargill

The Convention on the Rights of a Child provides children with four fundamental rights: Survival, Protection, Developmental and Participation. In an effort to give teeth to these, the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA) was passed in parliament as the national legislative framework for Jamaica to guarantee these rights to children nationally. The issue of child participation however, is receiving considerable attention in recent times as citizens become more aware of Child Rights. This has taken conventional and well as unconventional forms with the latter galvanizing much publicity in the mass media. The right to participation provides children with a great opportunity to effectively advocate for critical issues that affect their lives. This paper will therefore seek to provide a model for child participation applying methodologies used by child rights practitioners such as the Office of the Children’s Advocate and the Child Development Agency. A dos and don’ts approach which takes into account the best interests of the child as identified by the CCPA will also be included to give readers a quick source for reference.

  • Respecting the Rights of the Child: Promoting Good Parenting in the 21st Century

Kandasi Levermore, Ann Marie E. Campbell, Tazhmoye Crawford, Jody Grizzle

Objectives

Participants will be able to describe and recommend a new model for developing, implementing, and sustaining a rights based good parenting interventions package. The presentation will describe how the development of the Good Parenting Interventions Package involved a set of workshops designed to elicit information, input, and buy-in from the target audience; how the resulting package caught the attention of the Ministry of Health and Environment’s Human Resources Division and was later integrated into the Employee Assistance Programme.

Background

Jamaica’s Solution to Youth Lifestyle and Empowerment (JA-STYLE) seeks to improve the health of Jamaican adolescents aged 10 to 19. To increase parents’ knowledge and confidence levels in communication with their children, JA-STYLE developed a Good Parenting Interventions Package for local NGOs and FBOs wanting to meet the needs of parent to build healthy families.

Methodology

The Good Parenting Interventions Package consists of six units of essential topics for learning exposures the first of which covers the rights of the child. Internal process evaluations conducted on program delivery with the learners within each of the four health regions show increased awareness and the need to embrace different parenting principles and methods including the rights based approach.

Conclusions next steps and lesson learned

The Good Parenting Interventions Package is relevant and timely, targets both the government and NGOs and lends itself to the shared experiences around the rights of the child. A quality product, the Good Parenting Interventions Package reached the unintended goal of meeting the needs of the Ministry of Health’s employees and should be integrated into other Ministries’ EAPs,

  • Barriers to Parental Involvement in Adolescent Education: Issues of Power and Participation in Jamaica

Carol WatsonWilliams

Using a framework of power and participation, the paper looks at the social construction of parenting and factors that affect how parents define their role and how this definition is affected by expectations and systems in the wider society, including schools. It further explores how this ‘parental identity’ influences parents’ involvement in the education of their adolescent child.

The data was collected as part of a wider project which examined issues of labeling and identity formation in children across Jamaica from November 2006-May 2007. In exploring factors which influenced the formation of a child’s identity and sense of citizenship, focus group discussions were held with parents in 3 communities ; Spanish Town, Grants Pen and Maxfield Avenue.

Parents who internalize external labels find their parenting practices are profoundly influenced by the effects of stigmatization and labeling. Where parents feel like academic failures themselves, they do not readily engage their children’s schools and become champions of their education. Additionally, parents who are thought to have little to contribute to the upbringing of their children are given less social space by schools to get involved in their child’s school and participate in their children’s education