Arctic childhoods: Overall abstract

There are needs for better and more comprehensive data regarding child welfare for the Indigenous children living in the circumpolar areas. Accurate data about Indigenous child living conditions and health is vital to enable... [ view full abstract ]

There are needs for better and more comprehensive data regarding child welfare for the Indigenous children living in the circumpolar areas. Accurate data about Indigenous child living conditions and health is vital to enable us to understand its current state in the Arctic, to acknowledge achievements, and to determine how to reduce inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

In this symposium we want to bring together researchers and people working in thecircumpolar zone, to explore and discuss the following topics:

 -       The lack of data on the Indigenous children living in the circumpolar areas.  

-       How can child protection agencies develop their administrative data to better understand the scope of report child maltreatment and to monitor progress.

-       How we can develop systems to collect and share comprehensive data

-       How we can we develop systems to support, improve, and ensure cultural sensitive services for Indigenous children.  

-       There is a need for more cohort studies with children from birth to adulthood in order for us to fully understand the causal relationship between childhood conditions and living conditions and health later in life.

-       Ethical guidelines for research on indigenous children in the arctic.

 These are some of the questions this symposium seeks to answer. In addition to that, this is the first step in starting an international circumpolar research network in the field of Indigenous child welfare.