Poster #36 - Profiles of children’s views on decision-making in everyday life: A comparative analysis of 29 countries

• In Event: Poster Session 11

Abstract

It is everyday settings, such as family, schools, and community that give life to the right to participation. Yet, there is little empirical evidence that connects various domains with assessment of children’s participation. Further, studies involving cross-cultural comparisons of how children in different parts of the world view and engage in participatory opportunities are even more scarce. This is an important gap considering that participation is a fundamental principle of children’s rights and that all children, regardless of where they live, should be able to enjoy the right to participate.
Using self-report data from 12- year-olds (N = 30,807) in 29 countries in four continents who participated in the 3rd wave of the International Survey of Children’s Well-being (ISCIWeb), this presentation explores cross-cultural differences and similarities in participation across four domains - home, school, local community, and the country. Through a series of latent variable mixture modeling techniques, we analyze children’s responses to questions about participatory opportunities in each of the four domains, to address the following questions:
1) What patterns of participation can be identified among 12-year-old students?
2) Do patterns adequately represent children’s views across all examined countries?
3) Are there differences in participation patterns in relation to students’ characteristics?
4) Do participation patterns vary by country and by region?
Preliminary results indicate that in their perceptions of participatory opportunities, children belong to one of five groups: Highly Engaged, Family Supported, Academically and Locally Involved, and Alienated. The presentation proceeds with a description of the nature and prevalence of each pattern in each country and discusses the findings in the context of additional societal indicators pulled from an innovative project titled Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), thus enhancing contextualization of findings. Additional questions guide these situational exploratory questions: How does the society in which a young person lives influence their participation? Do stronger institutions that facilitate adult participation influence young people’s participation? Or is children’s participation only influenced by child-level institutions? The presentation concludes with a discussion of how and why it is important to consider diversity in children's everyday experiences to understand participation more fully.
By sharing insights and implications for research and practice, this presentation shows that person-oriented approaches can be more useful than traditional indicators in measuring children’s participation and ultimately fostering more of it. A related goal is to help professionals working with youth recognize diverse forms of participation that different children might adhere to and to align their strategies with each such form, which could foster more participation for all children. This presentation is a product of collaboration of a group of researchers form three different universities who are committed to cultivating new collaborations across disciplinary focus, across methodological lenses, and levels of analysis.

Group Authors

Deborah Kunkel, Clemson University ,
Brian Gran, Case Western Reserve University ,
Barber, Carolyn E., University of Missouri ,
Darja Beinenson, Clemson University

Authors

• Natallia Sianko, Clemson University
  Presenting Author

• Deborah Kunkel, Clemson University

• Brian Gran, Case Western Reserve University

• Carolyn Barber, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Darja Beinenson, Clemson University