Enriching cross-sectoral collaboration to foster inclusive cultures in schools: a Model to address the needs of diverse Chilean Students.

Inclusive education involves the interaction of diverse actors from different societal sectors, such as education, health, and policy. Inclusion laws and regulations in Chile are relatively new and have been taken as a regional model. However, the efforts to implement them have revealed some structural difficulties that must be discussed. This conceptual analysis article aims to provide insights to enrich cross-sectoral collaboration to foster inclusive cultures in Chilean schools. Considering the OECD Analytical Framework, which describes a systemic approach, we provide definitions for the critical components of the model and discuss the advances and challenges of current Chilean public policies in this field -including the Chile Crece Contigo and the School Integration Programs (SIP)-, the Chilean education system functioning, the social contexts, and students' needs and supports based on the available evidence. Building from inclusive education literature and previous experiences, we delve into the model to address the needs of students with disabilities, social and cultural disadvantages, students belonging to the indigenous population, and students with a low socioeconomic level to propose action guidelines with a particular focus on integrating inclusive practices at the school level.

Mental Health in Indigenous Children and Adolescents: The Contribution of Cultural Backgroud.

The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the prevalence of mental health problems in Aymara and non-Aymara children and adolescent. The study sample comprised 1839 students from 8 to 19 years, from educational institutions of Northern Chile. Forty-nine percent of students identified with the Aymara ethnic group. The Child and Adolescent Evaluation System was used to evaluate internal and external problems. In Elementary school, Aymara students showed significantly lower scores in externalized problems and in high school, there were significantly lower scores in interiorized, exteriorized and other problems than Non-Aymara students. It seems that the legacy of the Aymara culture has favored the development of protective factors in relation to the mental health of these students. In a context of growing recognition and appreciation of this culture, greater involvement with Aymara culture could promote better mental health of school children.

The Covid-19 Pandemic and Maternal Mental Health: A Longitudinal Study of Chilean and Foreign-Born Mothers.

Objectives: We explore the effects of the pandemic on stress, depressive symptoms and parenting practices of mothers with children aged between 24- and 30-months, residents in Santiago, Chile, and the differences between foreign-born and native-born mothers. Methods: Using data from the longitudinal project Mil Primeros Días and lagged-dependent models, we analyzed parental stress, depressive symptoms and parenting practices for native-born and foreign-born mothers. Lagged-dependent model allows us to take advantage of the longitudinal data by controlling for the previous score and baseline individual characteristics. Results: After 8 months of the pandemic, mothers of young children have more depressive symptoms, are more stressed, and show more hostility towards their children. Foreign-born mothers had 0.29 and 0.22 standard deviations (SD) more than native-born mothers in the parental distress and difficult child scales from the Parental Stress Index (PSI), respectively, and 0.17 SD more in the hostile-reactive parental behavior dimension. Conclusion: Findings suggest the need to implement policies and programs that prevent mental health deterioration for mothers, especially migrant mothers, to improve women's psychological condition and child wellness.

Understanding the Relationship between Preschool Teachers' Well-Being, Interaction Quality and Students' Well-Being.

A substantial body of research shows that teacher-student interactions have a significant impact on student outcomes. However, to our knowledge, less is known about the association between teachers' and students' well-being and the implications for teacher-child interactions, particularly in the preschool context. Research Findings. Using ordinary least squares regression, we investigated the association between affective balance and burnout among 28 preschool teachers and the emotional and behavioral problems of 593 students between three and four years old. We found that teacher affective balance-not teacher burnout-was associated with fewer emotional and behavioral problems in children. Furthermore, the different domains of interaction quality affected children's well-being in different ways. Practice or Policy. In initial teacher training and continuing professional development, teachers should be provided with support and strategies to help them manage their mental health and children well-being. Some interventions which have shown encouraging results are discussed.

Family Risk and Externalizing Problems in Chilean Children: Mediation by Harsh Parenting and Emotional Support.

Latent class analysis and multigroup mediation were used with 8,860 families in Chile to identify risk groups varying in socioeconomic status, family structure, and maternal depression, to determine whether profiles differed in children's development of externalizing problems (EP) from 35 to 61 months, and maternal parenting that predicted EP. Four groups were identified: one no-risk profile and three risk profiles, impoverished and undereducated, depressed and impoverished, and father-absent and impoverished. All classes differed in EP. Maternal emotional support and harsh parenting were differentially associated with the development of EP across the three risk groups, relative to the low-risk group. Thus, specific constellations of adversities differentially predicted children's EP and socialization processes mediating links between risk and EP. Implications are discussed.

Mental Health in Immigrant Children and Adolescents in Northern Chile Mental Health in Immigrant Children and Adolescents.

Approximately 1.251.225 foreign-born migrants reside in Chile, including 183.315 children. This study compares mental health indicators in immigrant and non-immigrant children to understand the mental health effects of migration. A cross-sectional study of 634 students from Chilean schools was conducted. Fifty percent of the students were immigrants. The System for the Evaluation of Children and Adolescents was used to evaluate mental health. No significant differences were observed in mental health indicators between immigrant and non-immigrant children. At both elementary and secondary levels, immigrant students had higher rates of contextual problems (family problems and problems with peers) and lower scores in integration and social consequence. Immigrant students in elementary schools scored lower in self-esteem. The higher rates of contextual problems in immigrant children should be addressed through structural changes in migration policies, such as providing support for employment of parents, welfare assistance, and access to health systems.

Problemas de regulación emocional y salud mental en adolescentes del norte de Chile / Emotional regulation problems and mental health in adolescents in northern Chile

Resumen El propósito de este estudio fue evaluar la asociación entre los problemas de regulación emocional e indicadores de salud mental en adolescentes de la ciudad Arica al Norte de Chile, además de describir y comparar los niveles de problemas interiorizados y exteriorizados entre hombres y mujeres. Participaron 2331 estudiantes de 11 a 20 años provenientes de establecimientos educacionales. Para medir los problemas de regulación emocional y los indicadores de salud mental, se utilizó el Sistema de Evaluación de Niños y Adolescentes (SENA). Los resultados muestran que los problemas de regulación emocional poseen efectos grandes y significativos sobre los problemas interiorizados y exteriorizados. Asimismo, se observó que las mujeres presentan mayor sintomatología depresiva, ansiosa, de ansiedad social y problemas de regulación emocional que los hombres. Pareciera ser que los adolescentes que manifiestan problemas para regular sus emociones son más vulnerables a experimentar estados de ánimos disfóricos, preocupaciones recurrentes o comportamientos disruptivos.

Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between emotional regulation problems and mental health outcomes in adolescents from the city of Arica in northern Chile, in addition to describing and comparing the levels of internalized and externalized problems between men and women. A total of 2331 students from 11 to 20 years old from educational establishments participated in the study. To measure emotional regulation problems and mental health indicators, the System of Evaluation of Children and Adolescents (SENA) was used. The results show that emotional regulation problems have large and significant effects on both internalized and externalized problems. Likewise, it was observed that women show more depressive, anxious, social anxiety and emotional regulation problems than men. It seems that adolescents who manifest problems in regulating their emotions are more vulnerable to experience dysphoric moods, recurrent worries or disruptive behavior.

Centre-based care is a significant predictor of lower body mass index in early childhood: Longitudinal evidence from Chile.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of childhood overweight has increased by approximately 50% in the past three decades, becoming a major public health concern worldwide. In Chile, an upper middle-income country, about 38% of children between two and four years of age are overweight, almost double the average in Latin America and the Caribbean. Various environmental and individual factors, and their interactions, affect childhood weight. Emerging evidence suggests childcare may also matter. Because the public provision of centre-based care is growing, childcare may be a useful policy tool to help prevent childhood overweight. METHODS: Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of ~ 15 000 children in Chile (2010 and 2012), we estimated whether the type of child care (centre-based or maternal) a child attended at age 24 to 36 months was a significant predictor of the child's sex-and-age-specific body-mass-index (BMI) at age 36-48 months. We restricted our sample to children in full-time maternal care at baseline (12-24 months of age; n = 1273), but tested the robustness of results with the full sample. We compared children in centre-based care and in maternal care using difference-in-difference estimators and propensity score matching, and adjusted our estimates using child, family, and neighborhood characteristics. RESULTS: Children attending centre-based care had 0.27 SD lower BMI than children in maternal care at follow-up (P < 0.05). We found suggestive evidence this association may be modulated by the child's socioeconomic status and by how frequently the child watched television: we found smaller BMI changes for children at the bottom 80% of socioeconomic status (P < 0.05) and also for children who frequently watched television (P < 0.10). Our results were robust to various model specifications. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest centre-based care programs, with adequate regulation and enforcement, may be a useful support to help curb the early childhood overweight epidemic, in addition to known effects in labor supply and child development.

Research on Child and Adolescent Development and Public Policy in Latin America.

This commentary discusses the implication of child and adolescent development research for public policy in Latin America. As illustrated by the articles in this special issue, even though the research of child and adolescent development in Latin America is making significant progress, still more research is needed. Developmental research in the region faces the challenge of uncovering the mechanisms that affect child development in a context of high levels of poverty and inequality. In addition, researchers in the region should be particularly careful in using appropriate and rigorous methods, improving the design and adaptation of instruments that measure child and adolescent development, developing longitudinal datasets, and looking for causal evidence. Children and adolescents in Latin America will benefit from a further expansion of developmental research. Research in child and adolescent development using data from Latin America can advise policy makers and help improve the design and evaluation of interventions and public policies that promote child and adolescent well-being in the region.