0000000000297910
AUTHOR
Annamaria Sbordone
Impact of Distressing Media Imagery on Children
Children are particularly fragile and vulnerable to the impact of traumatic events or their mediated representation because they lack the skills and experience in the management of difficult information. Children have different concepts of health and disaster than adults and institutions, depending mainly on their cognitive, emotional, social, psychological, and physical development. If left alone with threatening messages, children are less able to fully understand the information to which they had been exposed. Therefore, they may fail to integrate the external data into their psychological schema of coping strategies. Children usually count on caregivers to deal with stressors, and they …
The Role of Pediatricians in Caring for the Well-Being of Children Living in New Types of Families.
Pediatricians are on the front line of child care and advocacy, and it is their role to promote children's well-being and to help parents raise healthy children, independent of the configuration of their families. This report aims to draw attention to the evolving social scenarios and to emphasize that pediatricians must be trained to coordinate new challenges that may arise from differently configured families, particularly single-parent and same-sex–parent families.
The "Invisible Children": Uncertain Future of Unaccompanied Minor Migrants in Europe.
Because of their particular helpless condition, the unaccompanied minor migrants are at serious risk to be further deprived of their rights, and to become de facto “invisible” to the authorities, to the public health services, and in general to the public opinion. Furthermore, when they arrive at a destination, or during their journey through Europe, many children often vanish. The full dimension of such phenomenon that further hits the unaccompanied minors along their European migration routes currently is unknown. However, the intense migration that has affected the south Mediterranean borders of the EU over the last 10 years has allowed the collection of sufficient data to raise the high…
Internet Addiction: Starting the Debate on Health and Well-Being of Children Overexposed to Digital Media.
Previous articles published in the European Paediatric Association (EPA) pages have discussed the importance of children's well-being and its role in different areas of children's health, such as well-child care and child-friendly health care. The goal of this commentary is to raise pediatricians' awareness on the risks of children's overexposure to digital media. It is important to protect the psychological and emotional health of children from uncontrolled external influences to preserve their well-being. We also emphasize the importance of alerting parents and tutors to the risks related to the unrefrained use of the Internet.
An Appeal for Implementing Social Assistance and Welfare Programs for European Children Challenged by Parental Loss
The authors of this commentary, many of whom are part of a working group on social pediatrics supported by some of the European national pediatric societies member of EPA-UNEPSA, conclude that more studies are needed to cross the boundaries between disciplines, for example, looking at the inter-relationship of family life and child health and how parental loss is affecting the micro and macro level of child healthcare service systems. Therefore, this article aims to alert pediatricians to the impact of parental loss on child health and wellbeing. It emphasizes the importance of implementing preventive and social support programs for achieving health promotion and health-protective effects.
Femicide and murdered women’s children: which future for these children orphans of a living parent?
Background: To assess the prevalence of femicides in Italy over the last three years and the potential long lasting effects of these traumatic events for the children of a woman who dies a violent death. Methods: The data used in this study come from an internet search for the number of femicides occurring in Italy between 1st January, 2012 and 31st October, 2014. Results: The total number of femicides was 319; the average age of murdered women was 47.50∈±∈19.26. Cold arms in the form of sharp object -mostly knives- have caused the death of 102/319 women; firearms were used in 87/319 cases; asphyxiation was the chosen method in 52/319 cases. About the place where the femicides occurred, 209…
Foster Care: A Fragile Reality Needing Social Attention, and Economic Investments.
The combination of psychosocial, medical, and educational care usually leads to immediate and long-term extra cost, which may pay out only decades later. This social and economic investment may be regarded by economists as being hardly affordable, especially during recession periods. However, we strongly believe that there are alternatives allowing adequate care even in times of economic turmoil. The aim of this report is to raise the awareness of the pediatric community and the public opinion toward the importance of investing in health programs offering adequate protection, prevention, and provision of care for orphan, abandoned, maltreated, and neglected children.