Doctoral Dissertation Research: Children’s Experiences and Perceptions of Water Insecurity

博士论文研究：儿童对水不安全的经历和看法

• 批准号: 2215227
• 负责人: Barbara Piperata
• 金额: $ 3.09万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2215227&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Children; Experiences

As a biological necessity and resource essential to the most basic cultural activities that promote child development, water’s absence or poor quality fundamentally shapes child routines and has profound consequences on their health and well-being. In response, households adopt water related activities and coping strategies aimed at maintaining the health of children and others in home. While children are often integral to these activities and strategies, current research focuses on an adult’s ability to maintain their own well-being. This leaves us with an incomplete and adult biased understanding of water insecurity. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to examine how children experience and perceive their daily routines and well-being to be impacted by household water insecurity. In addition to training a graduate student in anthropological science, the project has implications for public health (local and global), as policy and intervention are poorly informed by a lack of child centered research on water insecurity. Ecocultural Theory argues that children’s participation in daily structured routines is the single most important influence on their development. This project advances Ecocultural Theory by considering how severe resource limitations, such as water insecurity, shape child routines and impact child well being. Working with a group of 30 children, ages 6-11, and their parents, the research uses conversational semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and drawings to understand children’s roles and responsibilities related to the use, consumption, and management of water; what activities children engage in to address situations of insufficient or unsafe water; and how children perceive their well-being to be impacted by their water related roles, responsibilities, and coping strategies. By capturing both caregiver and child perspectives, this study further examines how children realize the expectations and responsibilities placed on them to support the water insecure home.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

作为促进儿童发展的最基本文化活动必不可少的生物必需品和资源，水的缺乏或水质差从根本上影响了儿童的日常生活，并对他们的健康和福祉产生深远影响。为此，各家庭采取了与水有关的活动和应对战略，旨在维护儿童和家中其他人的健康。虽然儿童往往是这些活动和策略的组成部分，但目前的研究主要集中在成年人维持自己幸福的能力上。这使我们对水不安全的理解是不完整和有偏见的。本博士论文的目的是研究儿童如何体验和感知他们的日常生活和福祉受到家庭用水不安全的影响。除了对一名人类学研究生进行培训外，该项目还对公共卫生（地方和全球）产生影响，因为缺乏以儿童为中心的水不安全研究，因此对政策和干预措施知之甚少。生态文化理论认为，儿童参与有组织的日常活动是影响他们发展的唯一最重要的因素。该项目通过考虑严重的资源限制（如水不安全）如何影响儿童的日常生活和影响儿童的福祉，推进了生态文化理论。该研究以30名6-11岁的儿童及其父母为研究对象，采用对话式半结构化访谈、直接观察和绘图的方式来了解儿童在水的使用、消耗和管理方面的角色和责任；儿童从事哪些活动来解决水不足或不安全的情况；以及儿童如何看待他们的福祉受到他们与水有关的角色、责任和应对策略的影响。通过从照顾者和儿童的角度出发，本研究进一步探讨了儿童如何实现对他们的期望和责任，以支持水不安全的家庭。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。