Therrain Davis | Children, adolescents and youths are citizens with rights

Children, adolescents, and Youths (CAYs) are global citizens, who face multiple vulnerabilities that expose them to unequal citizenships. The definition of citizenship has morphed through various contexts and disciplines.

Historically, citizenship is defined based on the liberal, communitarian and civic republican perspectives. The liberal perspective of citizenship views it as a status that is accompanied by specific rights. The communitarian perspective takes a collectivistic approach to citizenship. This view focuses “on the whole” (responsibilities and obligations) instead of individual parts. The civic republican perspective highlights groups of individuals bound by political endeavours and interests, sharing an identity, and taking part in community life. Today, CAY’s citizenships are concerned with a rights-based approach that focuses on issues like inclusion, participation, accountability, and agency.

“Unequal citizenship” arises from the expression of economic, political, and sociocultural factors. CAY’s economic positions are related to characteristics such as whether they have a disability, their ethnic background, or whether they are female or male. Political inequality results from gaps that exist between differing groups of CAYs. Some CAYs have greater influence, some benefit more from political resources, and some have more agency and voice that are better understood by governments. Sociocultural inequalities arise from the different forces that structure societies and which dictate CAY’s participation. Therefore, an exploration of unequal citizenship should consider CAYs make up, including their identity, culture, gender, age, position in society, their values, attitudes, and beliefs and level of vulnerability.

“Vulnerability is an individual’s predisposition to develop varied forms of psychopathology or behavioural ineffectiveness” or “susceptibility to negative developmental outcomes that can occur under high-risk conditions”. Vulnerability is innate and universal. It incorporates deficits that we all have simply because we are human. These deficits include ageing, susceptibility to adverse weather, and dependence on government institutions. Vulnerability, therefore, is akin to being at risk. There are several groups of CAYs that are vulnerable. These include CAYs with disabilities, and those who experience low socio-economic status and may lack advocacy and agency to act on their own. The lived experience of some CAYs can only be improved through resilience building.

Resilience is a science, and it is the reason behind why some CAYs do well despite serious hardships. It facilitates excellent outcomes in the face of adversities. Resilience is also a psychological construct that seeks to describe what happens when a person shows adaptation in the face of severe traumatic experiences, even when those experiences happen in early childhood. In addition, resilience is more likely to occur when a child has at least one reliable and constructive social relationship with an adult. So then, caregivers: parents/guardians, and the State have the responsibility to build the capacity of resilience in all CAYs for them to deal with whatever obstacles that may come. This is an investment in building strong human capital and healthy, productive adult citizens. Notwithstanding, some CAYs face more adversity than others.

For such CAYs, resilience is needed for them to develop the ability or set of capacities or a set of positive adaptations which will allow them to maintain their balance. Following to this, these capacities, skills, and abilities will provide them with a sense of mastery and management of the difficulties that they experience. A point of note is resilience is built over time. It is not just in CAYs; it is an interaction between CAYs and their environment. Thus, responsive relationships, skilled caregivers, healthy environments free from violence and healthy foods are involved. Caregivers care about CAYs resilience because they care about promoting healthy development. Likewise, caregivers are interested in promoting healthy development in children so that despite the odds, more and more children can grow up to be productive citizens and enjoy rights.

Next, resilience is also the result of highly interactive process between individual characteristics in CAYs and the environment in which their development takes place. It is the counterbalancing of difficult things that may exist in the lives of CAYs with positive things that may occur in the family, community, and their country. To illustrate, a simple way of thinking about resilience is to liken it to a scale with a fulcrum in the middle. There are things on both sides of the scale, albeit experiences of bad things or good things (negative outcomes versus positive outcomes). CAY’s genes shape where the fulcrum is positioned at the start. However, there are certain genes that make CAYs more sensitive to the effects of maltreatment or prolong neglect or witnessing violence. The fulcrum may start out on more to either side. This will make the difference in how much of subsequent events affect CAYs more positively or negatively. Science tells us that experience moves the fulcrum (poverty, mental illness, violence, poor education, supportive relationships, safety, good health, and financial security, etc). So, even though CAYs are born with these genes, genes respond differently to certain environmental situations as opposed to others.

Whenever CAYs experiences are positive such as skilled caregivers, supportive and responsive relationships, these accumulate and they learn to cope and to manage stress, to solve problems, to regulate behaviours and to plan. Then, this will cause the fulcrum sliding, tilting the scale towards positive outcomes more easily. So, it is the responsibility of caregivers, inclusive of parents/guardians and the State to provide relationships to build resilience in difficult circumstances. Therefore, caregivers inclusive of other family members, teachers, nurses, coaches, childcare practitioners, and other individuals within their communities who have powerful effects on CAYs’ development should strive to fulfil this right. Because of responsive relationships, CAYs build skills of coping and adapting- how and when to stop crying, how to regulate their behaviours, and learn how to delay their gratifications. As CAYs get older, the sophistication of these skills increases, enabling them to monitor situations and to solve problems independently.

The state can contribute to fulfilling CAY’s rights through resilience nurturing. This can be done through fulfilling its responsibility to provide families, communities with the supports that they need. Programmes to support caregivers best achieve their outcomes when they are offered under one umbrella than in silos. Public services when invested well will deliver positive guidance and information needed to support families and caregivers who work with CAYs, thus aiding in their development. Certainly, for these public services to have the greatest impact, CAYs should be at the very centre of the intended services, systems, and policies. Public services that do not focus on these stakeholders in all these layers may be wasteful and can cause further harm to CAYs.

Therrain Davis is a lecturer and programme director for the bachelor of science and certificate Child and Adolescent Development Programme at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Email: Therrain.Davis@utech.edu.jm; columns@gleanerjm.com