Caring for and growing up in fragility: families, children and adolescents in vulnerable situations

REVIEW

As will be seen in these pages, there are currently boys and girls growing up in homes in situations of severe material deprivation, with difficulties in following the formative processes adequately and exposed to stressful vital and family dynamics (uncertainty about the future, loss of parental job, serious family conflicts or loss of home, etc.). In these adverse structural conditions, fathers and mothers must manage to exercise parenthood, making an extra effort.

It is important to be aware of these situations, and of the factors that increase the chances that children and adolescents immersed in these circumstances will suffer poverty, vulnerability or social exclusion in the future. And it is also important to learn to look from the children and adolescents themselves.

INDEX

• Presentation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… 13
• 2. Executive summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………….. fifteen
• 3. Approach and objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………. twenty-one
  • 3.1. Living conditions: structural factors…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 22
  • 3.2. Psychosocial factors and psychoemotional factors:
    Experience and experience of vulnerability………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24
  • 3.3. Operational scheme of the dimensions of analysis: considerations
    for analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………….. 25
  • 3.4. Goals………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… 27
• 4. Context: vulnerability and poverty of families with children,
  girls and adolescents. Intergenerational Transmission
  of poverty. The irruption of COVID-19………………………………………………………………………………………… 31
  • 4.1. Special affectation in Catalonia and Spain of poverty and social exclusion
    of households with children and adolescents…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 31
  • 4.2. Lower spending on social protection for children in Catalonia and Spain
    and less poverty reduction capacity……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 36
  • 4.3. The intergenerational transmission of poverty…………………………………………………………………………………………… 41
  • 4.4. Context: pandemic and parenthood……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………..43
• 5. Parenting in situations of vulnerability………………………………………………………………….. 47
• 5.1. Parenting, positive parenting and parenting approach in Cáritas………………. 47
• 5.2. Parenting observation model………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 50
• 5.3. The parenting of fathers and mothers in vulnerable situations……………………….. 52
• 5.4. Parenthood experienced by children and adolescents and comparison
  with the perception of their parents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …..56
• 5.5. Loneliness perceived by children and adolescents………………………………………………………………………………… 59
• 5.6. Synthesis and reflections………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………. 59
• 6. Socioeconomic profile of families with children and adolescents
  accompanied by Cáritas Diocesana de Barcelona……………………………………………………………….. 61
  • 6.1. Nationality and migratory experience…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 61
  • 6.2. Educational and employment situation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………….. 62
  • 6.3. Household income and poverty situations…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 65
  • 6.4. Residential Conditions………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………… 66
  • 6.5. Synthesis and reflections………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………. 69
• 7. Concept and experience of family and social network………………………………………………………………………….. 71
  • 7.1. The concept of family…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………. 71
  • 7.2. Family characteristics and coexistence of families…………………………………………………………….. 74
  • 7.3. Social networks and community…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………. 77
  • 7.4. The social network and parenting……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………..80
  • 7.5. Synthesis and reflections………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………….. 81
• 8. Emotional well-being, vulnerability and parenthood…………………………………………………………. 83
  • 8.1. Emotional well-being…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………. 83
  • 8.2. Methodology for the observation of emotional well-being………………………………………………………….. 86
  • 8.3. The emotional well-being of fathers and mothers in vulnerable situations
    and their sons and daughters……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………….. 88
  • 8.4. Family psycho-emotional well-being and structural determinants……………………. 94
  • 8.5. The effects of other psycho-emotional determinants on well-being
    family psychoemotional…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………. 95
  • 8.6. Family psycho-emotional well-being and parenting…………………………………………………………………………………….. 96
  • 8.7. Synthesis and reflections………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………….. 97
• 9. Resilience and parenting…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………. 99
  • 9.1. The concept of resilience…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………. 99
  • 9.2. The observation and measurement of resilience…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 102
  • 9.3. The resilience of fathers and mothers in vulnerable situations
    and their sons and daughters……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………. 105
  • 9.4. Effects of psycho-emotional determinants on resilience…………………………………………… 108
  • 9.5. Synthesis and reflections………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………. 109
• 10. Socioeconomic conditions and transmission
  Intergenerational Poverty…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …..111
  • 10.1. Presentation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………. 111
  • 10.2. Precariousness, severe exclusion and intergenerational transmission……………………………………….. 114
  • 10.3. The lived and projected childhood of fathers and mothers in situations of
    vulnerability………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………….. 117
  • 10.4 Parenting and childhood lived and projected…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 122
  • 10.5 Synthesis and reflections…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………….. 123
• 11. Socio-educational resources and opportunities………………………………………………………………………………… 125
  • 11.1. Presentation………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… 126
  • 11.2. Perception of educational opportunities, schooling and continuity
    of studies…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………… 128
  • 11.3. Socio-educational opportunities: educational and extracurricular free time………….. 131
  • 11.4. Educational and socio-educational opportunities and parenting experience….. 133
  • 11.5. Synthesis and reflections………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………… 136
• 12. Conclusions and challenges…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………… 139
  • 12.1. The context of structural deficit in the living conditions of families
    with boys, girls and adolescents in vulnerable situations is related
    with the violation of the basic rights of children, adds difficulties
    to the exercise of parenthood and is maintained from generation to generation. 139
  • 12.2. The predisposition to adequately exercise parenting does not
    It depends on the socioeconomic level of the parents. The participation
    in the community, shared leisure, healthy free time and
    accompaniment of children’s education are key elements that
    promote the exercise of positive parenting……………………………………………………………………………….. 141
  • 12.3. Families with children and adolescents accompanied by
    Diocesan Caritas of Barcelona experience higher levels of social stress,
    that generates higher levels of psycho-emotional suffering.
    It is an urgent need to strengthen with more resources and strategies to
    its accessibility and maintenance support for emotional well-being
    of families and children……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………… 142
  • 12.4. There is a positive relationship and a virtuous circle between increased well-being
    emotional, availability of sufficient and satisfactory social networks and
    increased resilience………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………….. 143
  • 12.5. The families accompanied by Cáritas Diocesana de Barcelona show
    high levels of resilience and above the average of the population.
    Linking to the community of reference increases resilience capacity………. 144
  • 12.6. A childhood rich in socio-educational opportunities reinforces quality
    relational and therefore parenting, so it must be recognized the
    contribution of leisure and healthy free time to relational quality
    of society, especially in the reinforcement of affective functions
    and protection of children and adolescents, betting on an education
    from the 360º integral view……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………..146
• 13. Methodology………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………….. 151
• 14. Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………….. 157
• 15. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………. 161