Displaying 1 - 10 of 10
Abstract
Objective
Violence against children is a global public health concern. Researchers are increasingly using self-report measures of physical, psychological, and sexual violence and neglect for population-based surveys. The current gold-standard measure, the 45-item ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool has been used across the world. This study assesses its adequacy for measuring abuse across countries.
Methods
Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the configural, metric and scalar invariance of the measure across nine Balkan countries. Data were…
Summary/Abstract: In Bulgaria, in recent years, the economy has accelerated its growth to nearly 4% per year, and welfare and living standards across the country are measured, measured by GDP per capita, wages and household incomes. However, the role of the state in social policy, as a regulator of social relations, still requires adequate measures aimed at the needy and families. The aim of the study is to highlight the basic social services provided to children and their families as well as the main reasons for abandonment of children and to propose measures to improve…
Abstract
The present study addressed institutionalised children and staff members' perspectives about bullying in Residential Care settings (RCs) in five European countries (Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy and Romania.). Interviews and focus groups were conducted respectively with 123 institutionalised children and adolescents (age range: 6–18) and staff members (N = 95; age range: 23-63). Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data. Overall, findings indicated that participants were not fully aware of the specific features of bullying. Children and…
Summary/Abstract: As for 2017 Bulgaria is the poorest country in European Union and there are many children separated from their parents. The main reason for that is poverty, followed by disease or injury of the children. The purpose of this article is to make an accent of current well-being of the population and to put the emphasis on negative trends among which the abandonment of children. The social policy in the country should focused on more comprehensive family-oriented measures and against poverty and child abandonment. Some of the conclusions in solving these…
Abstract
In the 1990’s Bulgaria had one of the highest numbers of abandoned children with living parents among European member states. Our question of departure was how the European Union membership has changed the post-communist heritage of institutional care and we focus on the transformation of orphanages through the deinstitutionalization reform. Furthermore, this doctoral research compares the development of the Bulgarian deinstitutionalization reform to the British one, and offers an insight into the role of the European Union in the transformation of social policies of child…
Abstract
This article reports the findings of a multi-country study of medical professionals' perceptions and evaluations of children. The primary aim of the study was to establish the perceptions medical professionals working in three Eastern European countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova) hold toward children identified as “typical”, “at-risk” and “with disability”. A second aim was to explore the existence of country-level differences in medical professionals' perceptions of children. The third aim was to examine the pattern of associations between attitudes toward children and a change…
Abstract
Development of social services in Bulgaria is predetermined by the policies of last decades of the last century and is characterized by a number of features arising from the difficult transition to a market economy and modern challenges of dynamic social and economic environment. Social services are activities targeted at supporting assisted persons to conduct a complete way of life and full inclusion in society. Social services are aimed mainly at social integration of people, giving them the opportunity to lead an independent life and not to be…
Abstract
In recent years in Bulgaria the type of institutional care for children at risk is changing giving priority to family and close to family environment. The will to implement this process of all involved responsible agencies, institutions and non-governmental organizations has found expression in a number of regulations, strategic and program documents, as well as innovative and successful practices. Economic, political and social changes that accompany the transition has led to new problems and exacerbated existing problems. Current study makes analyses of the national strategy for…
This article discusses how at the end of the Soviet Union the world was alerted to the situation of thousands of children living in large residential institutions across countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) region.
The study discusses a variance in results in eliminating use of large-scale residential institutions for children across the CEE/CIS region. In particular, there was noticeable variance between Bulgaria and Ukraine. The researcher investigated this variance using a comparative case study approach. The researcher…
Gatekeeping has been widely promoted as a key strategy to combat the unnecessary institutionalisation of children. This paper by Andy Bilson and Cath Larkins provides details of research into the gatekeeping system in Bulgaria for children under three and examples from recent Bulgarian and international practice, with a particular focus on the experience in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS). The authors note that although gatekeeping remains a central approach to reduce institutionalisation, and…