ABSTRACT
Access to support systems is crucial for providing immediate assistance and treatment to children to counteract the long-term detrimental effects of various forms of violence. This study examines how adversity such as victimization of violence and self-injury behaviors among young people with their individual resilience is related to their access to support systems. The data used in our analysis are from two national youth surveys carried out in Norway in 2007 and 2015. We ask: To what degree do young people with experiences of violence gain access to support systems such as child welfare services, mental health services for children and youth, and pedagogical psychology services? Our results show that although not all young people who need help have gained access to support systems, victimization of violence and self-injury behavior significantly increase the likelihood of accessing these support systems. Our results also reveal a persistent effect of young people's home socio-economic background on their unequal access to system support. More future research is needed on the subtle mechanisms and social-emotional implications of individual accessing system support from the macro-societal level and meso-system/family level.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to explore the construct validity and reliability of the Nijmegen Child-Rearing Situation Questionnaire (NCSQ) section one entitled 'Subjective parenting stress'. This is composed of subscales measuring relational and situational stress. The possibility of using subscales with both dimensions in the same study gives the opportunity to explore parenting stress from both a relational and situational perspective. The NCSQ was administered to parents of two groups of boys, 6-12 years old. The clinical group consisted of 64 parents of children reporting behaviour problems who were recruited from seven child and adolescent clinical psychiatric units. A group of 128 parents of children reporting no specific behavioural problems were recruited from 12 schools. Six boys in each class grades 1-7 were randomly selected from the class rosters. Both samples were recruited from Oslo and surrounding eastern counties. The suggested factor structure of the construct parenting stress was tested with data from both groups. First, a separate confirmatory analysis of the items in each factor was tested. Then testing was carried out with one- and two-factor analysis using the sum scores from each subscale, to further explore whether parenting stress was a one-dimensional general or a two-dimensional construct. Results showed an unacceptable model fit of the pleasure subscale in the clinical group. The instrument is not relevant for normal populations due to the skewed responses found in the acceptance and pleasure subscales, the low internal reliability found in the acceptance and relation subscales, and the unacceptable factor loading and model fit found for the managing subscale in the comparison group. Further studies are needed to test the construct validity and reliability of the scale. Although the instrument is intended for clinical populations, hopefully with further revisions and research, it might be used as a clinical tool to define dimensions of parenting stress in everyday life.
