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A Comparative Study on Children’s Rights Awareness in 16 Countries

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Abstract

Children’s ability to influence their own lives begins with awareness and knowledge of their rights. This ability is then strengthened with the perception that their rights are respected. Identifying the factors that affect these components of rights acquisition is crucial to promote children’s agency and growth into active citizenship. This article details a study on 8-year-old children’s understanding of their rights and their opinions about respect for their rights in 16 countries using the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB). Multivariate linear regression models were constructed to study the correlates of children’s rights outcomes. Within the study sample (N = 17.369), a minority of the children were aware of children’s rights and knew about the rights they had. However, the majority of the children felt that their rights were respected. Children’s responses showed great variation by country in every dimension of the investigated rights. Depending on the country, children’s rights outcomes were most powerfully explained by three indicators: family deprivation and home and school climates. The lower the deprivation score was and the stronger the perceptions of being heard at home and school were, the more aware children were, the more knowledge they had, and the more respect for children’s rights from adults they perceived.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child and Youth Research Institute, University of Turku, Lemminkäisenkatu 3, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Piia-Kaisa af Ursin

  2. Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Assistentinkatu 7, 2001, Turku, Finland

    Leena Haanpää

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  1. Piia-Kaisa af Ursin
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Correspondence to Piia-Kaisa af Ursin.

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af Ursin, PK., Haanpää, L. A Comparative Study on Children’s Rights Awareness in 16 Countries. Child Ind Res 11, 1425–1443 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9508-1

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