IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/chinre/v15y2022i4d10.1007_s12187-022-09932-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Toward a Culture-Informed Conceptualization of Child Agency in a Context Characterized by Political and Military Violence. A Qualitative Exploration throughout Experts’ Voices

Author

Listed:
  • Guido Veronese

    (University of Milano-Bicocca
    Stellenbosch University)

  • Lorenzo Montali

    (University of Milano-Bicocca)

  • Federica Cavazzoni

    (University of Milano-Bicocca)

  • Daniela Mattiuzzi

    (University of Milano-Bicocca)

Abstract

Our present study sought to qualitative explore the perceptions of experts on the meaning of children agency in a context characterized by ongoing colonial violence and structural racism. Namely, we explored culture and context-specific features of agency, experts’ perceptions about a decolonized definition, and gaps with the mainstream definition of the construct in Western contexts. The study involved 14 participants (N = 8 women), aged between 32 and 70 years with a mean age of 45 years (SD = 9.72) who came from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and Jenin) and territories currently part of the State of Israel (Jerusalem and Jaffa). They are all mental health professionals in universities, research centres, hospitals and social welfare services. Secondly, the analysis resulted in a map of five themes representing a culturally oriented Palestinian children’s agency model. A threatening context, alleviating factors, healthy agency, aggravating factors, harmful agency. The Palestinian conceptualization of child agency lies in the multifaceted nature of the construct itself re-declined in a context characterized by multiple levels of complexity- cultural, political, social, economic. Our findings might contribute to creating indicators of Palestinian children’s agentic behaviours and a better operationalization of the construct itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Guido Veronese & Lorenzo Montali & Federica Cavazzoni & Daniela Mattiuzzi, 2022. "Toward a Culture-Informed Conceptualization of Child Agency in a Context Characterized by Political and Military Violence. A Qualitative Exploration throughout Experts’ Voices," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(4), pages 1379-1403, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:15:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s12187-022-09932-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s12187-022-09932-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-022-09932-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12187-022-09932-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Otto, Ilona M. & Wiedermann, Marc & Cremades, Roger & Donges, Jonathan F. & Auer, Cornelia & Lucht, Wolfgang, 2020. "Human agency in the Anthropocene," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Roy Gigengack, 2014. "Beyond Discourse and Competence: Science and Subjugated Knowledge in Street Children Studies," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(2), pages 264-282, April.
    3. Barber, Brian K. & Spellings, Carolyn & McNeely, Clea & Page, Paul D. & Giacaman, Rita & Arafat, Cairo & Daher, Mahmoud & El Sarraj, Eyad & Mallouh, Mohammed Abu, 2014. "Politics drives human functioning, dignity, and quality of life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 90-102.
    4. Fayez Azez Mahamid, 2020. "Collective Trauma, Quality of Life and Resilience in Narratives of Third Generation Palestinian Refugee Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(6), pages 2181-2204, December.
    5. Lisa Bhungalia, 2020. "Laughing at power: Humor, transgression, and the politics of refusal in Palestine," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(3), pages 387-404, May.
    6. Guido Veronese & Alessandro Pepe & Alaa Jaradah & Feda Murannak & Housam Hamdouna, 2015. "Quality of Life and Determinants of Parents’ School Satisfaction in War Contexts," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(4), pages 21582440156, October.
    7. Tatek Abebe, 2019. "Reconceptualising Children’s Agency as Continuum and Interdependence," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-16, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Federica Cavazzoni & Alec Fiorini & Guido Veronese, 2022. "How Do We Assess How Agentic We Are? A Literature Review of Existing Instruments to Evaluate and Measure Individuals' Agency," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 1125-1153, February.
    2. Jeanette A. Lawrence & Agnes E. Dodds & Ida Kaplan & Maria M. Tucci, 2023. "Recognizing Relational Interactions with Social Institutions in Refugee Children’s Experiences of Intertwining Vulnerability and Agency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(19), pages 1-12, September.
    3. Khraisha, Qusai & Sawalha, Lama & Hadfield, Kristin & Al-Soleiti, Majd & Dajani, Rana & Panter-Brick, Catherine, 2024. "Coparenting, mental health, and the pursuit of dignity: A systems-level analysis of refugee father-mother narratives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    4. Veronese, Guido & Pepe, Alessandro & Dagdukee, Jamal & Yaghi, Shaher, 2018. "Teaching in conflict settings: Dimensions of subjective wellbeing in Arab teachers living in Israel and Palestine," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 16-26.
    5. Diosey Ramon Lugo-Morin, 2021. "Global Future: Low-Carbon Economy or High-Carbon Economy?," World, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Dagim Dawit Gonsamo & Herman Hay Ming Lo & Ko Ling Chan, 2021. "The Role of Stomach Infrastructures on Children’s Work and Child Labour in Africa: Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-26, August.
    7. Winkelmann, Ricarda & Donges, Jonathan F. & Smith, E. Keith & Milkoreit, Manjana & Eder, Christina & Heitzig, Jobst & Katsanidou, Alexia & Wiedermann, Marc & Wunderling, Nico & Lenton, Timothy M., 2022. "Social tipping processes towards climate action: A conceptual framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    8. Makhtoom Ahmed & Imran Sabir & Muhammad Zaman, 2022. "Children’s Perceptions of their Safety and Agency in Pakistan," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 959-987, June.
    9. Alameddine, M. & Fouad, Fouad M. & Diaconu, K. & Jamal, Z. & Lough, G. & Witter, S. & Ager, A., 2019. "Resilience capacities of health systems: Accommodating the needs of Palestinian refugees from Syria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 22-30.
    10. Abdullah, Alhassan & Cudjoe, Ebenezer & Bastian, Carmela & Jordan, Lucy P., 2024. "Passing the torch or breaking a cycle of intergenerational transmission of child labour: Reflections from the lived experiences of children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. Eder, Christina & Stadelmann-Steffen, Isabelle, 2023. "Bringing the political system (back) into social tipping relevant to sustainability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    12. Daniel Shuttleworth, Paul, 2023. "What matters for child participation - The role of valuation-based dialogical participation for children living in kinship care in England," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    13. Diosey Ramon Lugo-Morin, 2021. "Global Mapping of Indigenous Resilience Facing the Challenge of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, May.
    14. Jennifer Fane & Colin MacDougall & Jessie Jovanovic & Gerry Redmond & Lisa Gibbs, 2020. "Preschool Aged Children’s Accounts of their Own Wellbeing: are Current Wellbeing Indicators Applicable to Young Children?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(6), pages 1893-1920, December.
    15. Odenweller, Adrian, 2022. "Climate mitigation under S-shaped energy technology diffusion: Leveraging synergies of optimisation and simulation models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    16. Haberl, Helmut & Schmid, Martin & Haas, Willi & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Rau, Henrike & Winiwarter, Verena, 2021. "Stocks, flows, services and practices: Nexus approaches to sustainable social metabolism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    17. Qutaiba Agbaria & Fayez Mahamid & Guido Veronese, 2021. "The Association Between Attachment Patterns and Parenting Styles With Emotion Regulation Among Palestinian Preschoolers," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440219, February.
    18. Fatou N’dure Baboudóttir & Zeca Jandi & Bucar Indjai & Jónína Einarsdóttir & Geir Gunnlaugsson, 2023. "“Just Standing Still”: A Qualitative Study on Adolescents’ Experiences of School Closures Due to Emerging COVID-19 in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-11, March.
    19. Schuster, Antonia & Lindner, Michael & Otto, Ilona M., 2023. "Whose house is on fire? Identifying socio-demographic and housing characteristics driving differences in the UK household CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    20. Ting Ke, 2023. "The development of children’s autonomy and reasonable paternalistic intervention," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:15:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s12187-022-09932-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.