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Our moral thinking sometimes focuses on the possibilities given before birth. However, depending on circumstances, some children might never be brought into the world. The problem is how to consider the viewpoint of such children. In regard to this problem, while Parfit lays stress on the estimation of the state of the world, Steinbock emphasizes the importance of the parental responsibility. However, it seems that the viewpoint of the child itself is still important and not fully covered by these two approaches. Therefore, the best thing we can do now is to go back and forth between these two approaches.

Four examples of physical-knowledge activities are described and analyzed on the basis of Piaget’s theory. These are playful activities like Pick-Up Sticks in which children act on objects mentally and physically to produce a desired effect.

The objective of physical-knowledge activities is to develop children’s logico-mathematical knowledge. Therefore, it is not the activities themselves that are important. What is important is the thinking children do while they play because it is by thinking that children construct logico-mathematical knowledge, and logico-mathematical knowledge serves as the framework for children to construct all knowledge.

Data are presented about the achievement in mathematics of two groups of low-SES first graders who came to school without any number concepts. One group was given physical-knowledge activities during the math hour for half a year instead of math lessons. The other group received traditional math instruction throughout the year. The first group did better in mental arithmetic at the end of the school year, demonstrating the importance of a solid logico-mathematical foundation.

Concern with demographic prediction and projection has ensured a wide variety of studies of family building. These studies range from large‐scale surveys of fertility patterns to a number of in‐depth investigations of pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood. The former include cross‐sectional cohort surveys of fertility expectations, attitudes to family planning and contraceptive behaviours, where detailed reproductive histories have been obtained from a wide range of respondents and analysed by cohorts, based on the year of birth or age of marriage of the informant. However, a major defect in these surveys lies in the collection of accurate retrospective data, for example a middle aged married women having to give an account of her behaviour and/or attitudes when she first married twenty years earlier. The remedy suggested by Ryder and Westhoff is ‘to use comparable classification procedure in a longitudinal study, collecting data periodically from the same families as they progress through their family life cycles. Several such longitudinal surveys have been undertaken and they provide a more detailed picture of the process of family building. This concern with the dynamic aspects of having children is reflected in the more qualitative micro‐studies of pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.

Purpose – Exploring children's perspectives on participation in social research provides sociologists with new insight into how to include children's voices and perspectives effectively in sociological studies of childhood.

Design/methodology/approach – Child-centered interviews were conducted with 20 children between the ages of 5 and 12 as part of a larger research project.

Findings – Findings from interviews, artwork, and researcher field notes suggest that the children interviewed enjoyed the experience of participating in child-centered social research, maintained serious attitudes toward their inclusion in social research and wish to be active participants in future research involving kids.

Practical implications – Suggestions are offered for future research studies of this population and recommendations are made to encourage American sociologists to consider the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in research endeavors.

The questions at the origin of this chapter are: Are children aged 5 years able to become involved in a critical thinking process, which implies a certain degree of abstraction and decentering? To what extent can an approach centered on philosophical dialogue among peers contribute to this development? The chapter describes a study of the exchanges in two groups of children aged 5 years. One group had experience with the philosophical dialogue tool, the Philosophy for Children approach, while the other group had no such experience. The analysis grid was the operationalized model of the developmental process of dialogical critical thinking, as revisited by Daniel and Gagnon, which includes four thinking modes (logical, creative, responsible, and metacognitive) and six epistemological perspectives (egocentricity, post-egocentricity, pre-relativism, relativism, post-relativism, intersubjectivity). Results of the analysis showed that 65% of the experimental group's interventions were situated in relativistic perspectives and 35% in egocentric perspectives, whereas 60% of the control group's interventions were situated in egocentric perspectives and 40% in relativistic perspectives.

This paper aims to argue that contextual safeguarding complements existing theoretical models and approaches. Its successful integration with dominant thinking and practice in safeguarding potentially offers new insights to improve system-wide practice.

A theory synthesis design was used to purposively identify, summarise and compare selected safeguarding theoretical models and approaches to establish both convergence and divergence.

The arguments provided in this paper suggest that synthesising theory offers a confluence of perspectives that promise to develop a more eclectic and holistic approach to safeguarding practice. The paper demonstrates how contextual safeguarding can be integrated with existing theoretical models and approaches.

This is a conceptual paper and therefore is not based on empirical data.

This paper's conceptual insights include that integrating contextual safeguarding with existing theoretical models and approaches can broaden the knowledge base to whole system-wide safeguarding practice in the UK. The paper also confirms that the methodology used is feasible, although more work is required to test its efficacy on a larger scale. The conceptual paper argues for synthesis of contextual safeguarding and commonly used child safeguarding theoretical models and approaches to deal with both intra and extra familial forms of risk of harm to children effectively.

The neglect and abuse of children is a topical issue; hence, this paper has social implications regarding understanding of how the issue child abuse and neglect in the UK and globally should be dealt with.

There is a dearth of studies that have gone beyond binary comparisons of contextual safeguarding and other theoretical models and approaches, which leaves a significant knowledge gap that has prompted the purpose of this paper.

What do children think about their participation in competitive activities? This paper argues that children have a different view of what participation in competitive activities means in their lives, and how they should interpret and deal with competitive situations, than their parents. Using data from interviews with 37 elementary school-age children, and 16 months of fieldwork, I highlight 3 main themes that emerged from interactions with children: trophies, tears, and triumphs. Trophies, and other rewards like ribbons and medals, are a great motivation for many children; these rewards are also physical embodiments that winning is prioritized in participation in these activities. Tears, along with nerves, and other feelings associated with being judged are described, in addition to a coping mechanism these children have devised to deal with these more negative feelings – friendships. Through friendships, boys and girls create bonds and have peers with whom to share their triumphs. However, these friendships are usually same-sex, and children's quite strong and divisive ideas about gender are also discussed.

This narrative describes the author’s experience as an artist, author, and a humanitarian. She uses pictures, art, and collage to make connections between her past, present, and future.