Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:27:45.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ACEs, Cultural Considerations and ‘Common Sense’ in Aotearoa New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2019

Eileen Joy  and
Liz Beddoe
Eileen Joy*
Affiliation:
School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, University of Auckland E-mail: [email protected]
Liz Beddoe
Affiliation:
School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, University of Auckland E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ACEs checklist is not yet widely used as a diagnostic tool within Aotearoa New Zealand child welfare services but its relatively low visibility at this point does not mean that some of the science behind this tool, and comparable tools and evidence, are not being used. This article will consider the ramifications of using this sort of tool within the cultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand, a country with a specific history of colonisation of Māori, and more recently a shifting demographic that has been influenced by successive waves of immigration of large numbers of Pacific Island and Asian families. This article will ask if the use of deceptively ‘common sense’ tools, like the ACEs checklist, can take into consideration structural factors such as racism, colonisation and poverty.

Keywords

Child welfarechild protectionACEs checklist
Type
Themed Section: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) – Implications and Challenges
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 491 - 497
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, D. and Abresch, C. (2018) ‘Confronting adversity: MCH responds to ACEs’, Maternal and Child Health Journal, 22, 3, 283–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beddoe, L. (2014) ‘Feral families, troubled families: the rise of the underclass in New Zealand 2011-2013’, New Zealand Sociology, 29, 3, 51–68.Google Scholar
Bell, M. F., Bayliss, D. M., Glauert, R. and Ohan, J. L. (2018) ‘Using linked data to investigate developmental vulnerabilities in children of convicted parents’, Developmental Psychology, 54, 7, 1219–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bush, M. (2015) ‘Lisa Owen interviews police commissioner Mike Bush’, Interview with Lisa Owen for The Nation, 28 November, http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1511/S00456/lisa-owen-interviews-police-commissioner-mike-bush.htm [accessed 30.10.2018].Google Scholar
Choate, P. and Lindstrom, G. (2017) ‘Parenting capacity assessment as a colonial strategy’, Canadian Family Law Quarterly, 37, 1, 41–60.Google Scholar
Cooper, E. and Wharewera-Mika, J. (2011) ‘Healing: towards an understanding of Māori child mistreatment’, in McIntosh, T., and Mulholland, M. (eds.), Māori and Social Issues, 1, 169–86, Wellington: Huia.Google Scholar
Eubanks, V. (2017) Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, New York, United States: St Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Featherstone, B., Gupta, A., Morris, K. and White, S. (2018) Protecting Children: A Social Model, Bristol, UK: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V. and Marks, J. S. (1998) ‘Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study’, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14, 4, 245–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finkelhor, D. (2017) ‘Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): cautions and suggestions’, Child Abuse and Neglect, 85, 174–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finkelhor, D., Shattuck, A., Turner, H. and Hamby, S. (2013) ‘Improving the adverse childhood experiences study scale’, JAMA Pediatrics, 167, 1, 70–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hackell, M. (2016) ‘Managing anxiety: neoliberal modes of citizen subjectivity, fantasy and child abuse in New Zealand’, Citizenship Studies, 20, 6–7, 867–82. doi: 10.1080/13621025.2016.1204270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S. and O’Shea, A. (2013) ‘Common-sense neoliberalism’, Soundings, 55, 1, 8–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. and Norenzayan, A. (2010) ‘The weirdest people in the world?’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 2–3, 61–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, K., Bellis, M. A., Hardcastle, K. A., Sethi, D., Butchart, A., Mikton, C., Jones, L. and Dunne, M. P. (2017) ‘The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis’, The Lancet Public Health, 2, 8, 356–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyslop, I. and Keddell, E. (2018) ‘Outing the elephants: exploring a new paradigm for child protection social work’, Social Sciences, 7, 7, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keddell, E. (2015) ‘The ethics of predictive risk modelling in the Aotearoa/New Zealand child welfare context: child abuse prevention or neo-liberal tool?’, Critical Social Policy, 35, 1, 69–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonne, B., Parton, N., Thomson, J. and Harries, M. (2009) Reforming Child Protection, Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.Google Scholar
Martin, T. (2018) Official information act response to Elspeth McLean [letter].Google Scholar
Ministerial Advisory Committee (1984) Pūao te Ata Tū, Daybreak: The Report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on a Māori Perspective for the Department of Social Welfare, Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Social Welfare.Google Scholar
Ministry of Social Development (2015) Expert Panel Final Report: Investing in New Zealand’s Children and their Families, Wellington, NZ, Ministry of Social Development.Google Scholar
Mitchell, O. (2005) ‘A meta-analysis of race and sentencing research: explaining the inconsistencies’. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 21, 4, 439–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, B. (2009) Identifying and Responding to Bias in the Criminal Justice System: A Review of International and New Zealand Research, Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Justice, https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/Identifying-and-responding-to-bias-in-the-criminal-justice-system.pdf [accessed 30.10.2018].Google Scholar
Pihama, L., Reynolds, P., Smith, C., Reid, J., Smith, L. T. and Nana, R. T. (2014) ‘Positioning historical trauma theory within Aotearoa New Zealand’, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 10, 3, 248–62, doi:10.1177/117718011401000304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rea, D. and Erasmus, R. (2017) Report of the Enhancing Intake Decision-Making Project, Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Government, https://www.orangatamariki.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/OIA-responses/reports-documents/Report-of-the-Enhancing-Intake-Decision-Making-Project.pdf.Google Scholar
Stanley, E. (2016) The Road to Hell: State Violence Against Children in Postwar New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, T. and Guru, S. (2015) ‘Childhood radicalisation risk: an emerging practice issue’, Practice, 27, 5, 353–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoltenborgh, M., Bakermans‐Kranenburg, M. J., Alink, L. R. and van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2015) ‘The prevalence of child maltreatment across the globe: review of a series of meta‐analyses’, Child Abuse Review, 24, 1, 37–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taonui, R. (2010) ‘Mana tamariki: cultural alienation: Māori child homicide and abuse’, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 6, 3, 187–202, doi:10.1177/117718011000600301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triggs, S. (1999) Sentencing in New Zealand: A Statistical Analysis, Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
Wade, R. Jr, Cronholm, P. F., Fein, J. A., Forke, C. M., Davis, M. B., Harkins-Schwarz, M., Pachter, L. M., Bair-Merritt, M. H. (2016) ‘Household and community-level adverse childhood experiences and adult health outcomes in a diverse urban population’, Child Abuse and Neglect, 52, 135–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ware, F., Breheny, M. and Forster, M. (2017) ‘The politics of government ‘support’ in Aotearoa/New Zealand: reinforcing and reproducing the poor citizenship of young Māori parents’, Critical Social Policy, 37, 4, 499–519, doi:10.1177/0261018316672111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, J. (2014) ‘‘Heads Must Roll’? Emotional politics, the press and the death of Baby P’, British Journal of Social Work, 44, 6, 1637–53, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bct039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar