Dagmar Kutsar

Introduction Prevention science is interdisciplinary, drawing upon multiple fields of research and practice to develop integrated knowledge. A challenge facing the field is the proliferation of different terms with the same meaning, and of terms with different meanings. This can create confusion in communication, affect evaluation standards, and ultimately also affect the implementation of preventive interventions. Contributing to the development of evidence standards for preventive interventions, this article describes the process and results of interdisciplinary prevention terminology development in Estonia. Methods Following the Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, different co-design tools were used during a four-year process to help understand terminological needs, generate ideas, draw concept maps, and test examples of definitions in different target groups. Results Thirty-five terms were tested, refined, and published. Six of these represent the main concepts relevant to prevention and intervention evaluation: vulnerability, prevention, preventive intervention, well-being, process evaluation, and impact evaluation. Several candidate terms were omitted for being confusing, ambiguous, or misunderstood in terms of the type or mechanism of intervention, the quality of evidence, or the quality of practice. Discussion Collaborative and participatory methods can be used to bridge the divide in language and to help pursue consensus definitions. Shared understanding is needed both nationally and internationally between disciplines, sectors, implementation levels, and professions, as the involved parties include policymakers, researchers, innovators, and practitioners in the domains of healthcare and public health, education, safety, social work and welfare, justice, and culture. The development of an interdisciplinary prevention glossary described in this paper was novel in its approach and has the potential to support successful continuing interdisciplinary collaboration in the prevention field.

This paper presents a cross-national comparison of the influence of parental migration on children’s subjective well-being (SWB). While studies often focus on the economic implications of adult migration, research on its effects on children’s well-being is scarce, particularly in Europe. Data from surveys of over 13,500 school children in six European countries with a communist legacy were analysed. These were collected as part of Children’s Worlds - The International Study of Children’s Well-being (ISCWeB). The findings reveal that left-behind children generally have lower levels of SWB than non-left-behind children, with girls being more affected, and the gap in well-being increases with age. Left-behind status was also associated with lower family and school satisfaction. A hierarchical logistic regression model was used to explore the role of parental migration and family and school life satisfaction in predicting high SWB of children. While including family and school life satisfaction in the model weakened the association between parental migration and child SWB, the models’ explanatory power improved. This study emphasizes the need for further research in this area to better understand the complex dynamics between parental migration, children’s subjective well-being, and other factors. These insights are essential for developing targeted interventions and policies to support the well-being of left-behind children in migrant sending countries.

The authors wish to make the following changes to their paper (Nahkur and Kutsar 2022)

Family complexity is increasing in Europe, experienced by a significant proportion of children. More evidence is needed in Europe how children’s family type influences their well-being, especially their family-related subjective well-being, and to what extent parenting practices are playing a role in these relationships. The aim of the paper is to study perceptions of children who live with two biological parents, with a biological and a stepparent, or with a single parent about the parenting practices of their (step)parents and their satisfaction with the people they live with. The analysis is based on the third wave of the “Children’s Worlds” harmonized dataset of 12-year-old children in Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, and Romania. The findings reveal a ‘cascade of children’s appraisals’ by the family types—overall, living with two biological parents is the least and in a stepparent family the most complex family environment for children, reflected in their highest and lowest evaluations of parenting practices and family-related subjective well-being, respectively. The analyses showed that simple and complex family type differences in children’s family-related subjective well-being are entirely explained by parenting practices in Norway, Estonia, and Poland, but not or almost not at all in Finland, Hungary, and Romania. To conclude, in a caring, safe, and participation-enhancing family atmosphere, children can be inclusively flexible and adapt to new parent-figures.

Õpilaste parem toimetulek eri suhtlussituatsioonides on oluline tegur, mida õppeprotsessi kaudu koolis toetada, panustades seeläbi heaolu suurenemisse nii hetkeolukordades kui ka edaspidises elus. Süsteemsele arendustegevusele aitab kaasa parem arusaam nendest aspektidest, mis vajaksid konkreetses klassis tuge. Selleks on õpetajatele ning tugipersonalile kasutamiseks loodud eksamite infosüsteemis paiknevad arvutitestid. Suhtlus- ja enesemääratluspädevuse testi kasutusvõimaluste paremaks kirjeldamiseks on oluline uurida, kuidas on testi tulemused seotud teiste õpilaste toimetulekut kirjeldavate näitajatega. Siinse artikli eesmärk on kirjeldada 2. klassi valimil (n = 250), kuidas on omavahel seotud õpilaste suhtlus- ja enesemääratluspädevuse testi tulemused ning õpetajate (n = 16) ja lastevanemate (n = 109) hinnatud tugevused (prosotsiaalsus) ning raskused (internaliseeritud ja eksternaliseeritud probleemid), mis on kaardistatud tugevuste ja raskuste küsimustiku (SDQ) kaudu. Tulemustest selgus, et arvutitestis paremaid tulemusi saanud õpilased said õpetajatelt kõrgemad prosotsiaalsuse hinnangud ning madalamaid internaliseeritud ja eksternaliseeritud probleemide hinnangud; lastevanemate hinnangud ei olnud testitulemustega oluliselt seotud.  Summary

This articles reflects the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the everyday lives of children and their families in Estonia during lockdown in spring 2020 and 2021. The data corpus is based on diaries compiled by children during the first lockdown in 2020 for a collection at the Estonian Literary Museum, and on a series of semi-structured interviews with children documenting their experiences during lockdown in spring 2021. The study draws on literature from the “new sociology of childhood” and applies Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model to an analysis of young people’s experiences when their mobility outside the home was restricted, and they were forced to reorganise their time use. The findings show how the pandemic extended the social contexts in which children and their families are embedded and highlighted the role played by socio-cultural factors in shaping children’s coping capacities. In combination, analysis of the two datasets demonstrated the differential effects of lockdown on young children. The accounts from the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 suggested that positive family environments could smooth the negative effects of lockdown and help them cope with unexpected changes in their everyday lives. The interviews during the second outbreak of the pandemic revealed how the emerging weariness and boredom reported by some children strained family relationships. The amount of time that children spent online both modified and expanded their experiences of technology-supported interactive spaces. Their reports showed that the interactive contexts in which they were operating through social media extended beyond national borders to an interest in transnational and global events. Online communication did not, however, compensate for the loss of real-life contacts with friends, which became a major concern for young people in Estonia. In the concluding discussion, the authors consider policy responses that address the main issues identified in the research.