Browsing by Author "Dawes, A"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    A thematic content analysis of psychologists' reports in child custody evaluations
    (2004) Brandt, R; Dawes, A; Africa, A; Swartz, L
    The key objective of this study was to examine empirically the substantive issues that inform psychologists' decision-making in custody evaluations. The study draws on a relatively small convenience sample of 39 reports from eight different psychologists who represented key informants in the field in Cape Town. Jameson, Ehrenberg and Hunter's (1997) Best Interests of the Child Assessment model was revised and used as a template for a thematic content analysis. The results of the study indicate that psychologists tend to adopt a child-centred approach, with the child's basic and developmentally related needs ranked as the most commonly employed criterion (reflected in 95% of reports). The child's rights and wishes were reflected in 54% of the reports, and socio-economic resources were the lowest-ranked criterion, reflected in only 18% of the reports. The results of the study are discussed in terms of the need to formulate the implications of a child rights orientation, to negotiate referral questions and to adapt report writing styles to the legal-judicial context. Further, the implications of the findings for future research and professional practice are discussed and recommendations made.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Restricted
    Monitoring Child Well-Being: A South African rights-based approach
    (HRSC press, 2007) Dawes, A; Bray, R; van der Merwe, A; Dawes, A; Bray, R; van der Merwe
    Practical and user-friendly, this volume provides an evidence and rights-based approach to monitoring the well-being of children and adolescents in South Africa. Drawing on international precedents, and extensive peer review processes, experts in various fields have developed this holistic set of indicators to enhance the monitoring of the status of children.Taking ideological cues from the child-rights focus of the South African Constitution, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children, the authors evaluate the state of children, which is important to measure, within the contexts within which they grow and develop. The indicators therefore measure both the service environment and the children's developmental contexts. The book has two main parts. Part I provides the conceptual underpinnings that inform the development of the rights-based approach to monitoring child well-being over a range of domains including: Child poverty and the quality of children's neighbourhoods and home environments Child health, HIV and AIDS, mental health and disability, Early child development and education Child protection, children in statutory care, children in the justice system, children on the streets and children affected by the worst forms of labour. Part II contains comprehensive tables of indicators for the domains covered in Part I, with recommended measurement and data sources. Where appropriate, the indicators are rights-based and aligned to current policy.