Editor’s Note

Dear Readers!

I am delighted to welcome you to the first issue of the journal «Social Sciences and Childhood». The journal is interdisciplinary and its mission, first of all, is to stimulate interdisciplinary research in the field of childhood and to accumulate the most significant results on the development of modern children, accumulated in the social sciences.

The objectives of the journal include:

• consolidation of the intellectual forces of the scientific and professional community in our country and abroad around the task of studying the phenomena of childhood;
• providing domestic and foreign psychologists and teachers with comprehensive professional information of a theoretical, methodological and methodical nature on the welfare of children, adolescents and young people;
• providing social specialists with relevant and useful information about the possibilities of applying the evidence-based approach in the social, including educational, sphere, with technologies for scientific verification of their own practices. This direction is especially relevant in connection with the creation in the Russian Federation the Register of best social practices based on common evaluation criteria (p. 129 of the Action Plan for the Decade of Childhood);
• facilitating cross-sectoral and international cooperation and intellectual exchange in the multidisciplinary field of childhood and the protection of children’s rights.

Dynamism, unpredictability, information saturation, the emergence of new technologies that open up a wide range of both opportunities for development and self-realization, and create new risks — all this is rapidly changing the specifics of the social situation of the development of modern childhood. The journal will publish both population-based, longitudinal scientific research in the field of childhood, as well as research papers that help to reveal the modern portrait of a child — psychological, physiological, social, and even «digital». All these are original scientific articles, scientific surveys, scientific reviews, reception. Also the journal plans to publish information on social practices, programs, projects, methods, technologies used in working with children of different categories.

In accordance with the objectives, the structure of the journal includes the following basic sections:

• Studies of the phenomena of modern childhood in various social sciences (research in the field of psychology, pedagogy, physiology, sociology, management, etc.) are included in the sections in accordance with the directions of science: «Developmental Psychology», «Age-related Psychology», «Educational Psychology», «Interdisciplinary Research” and others.
• The section «Children’s well-being» is devoted to the study of various aspects of the well-being of children, including subjective well-being, in different conditions of development and being of a child, considering it as socio-psychological phenomena.The section “Evidence-Based Approach in the Field of Childhood” includes a description of scientifically verified practices.
• The “Voice of the Child” section is devoted to research and practice of taking children’s opinions into account when making decisions that affect their interests and the participation of children themselves in assessing the assistance and support provided to them. This is one of the four basic rights of the child, enshrined in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which in today’s world sounds like the voice of a child, as “nothing for us without us”. The journal invites teachers, psychologists, sociologists, lawyers and other specialists, both theoreticians and practitioners, to discuss the participation of children in solving issues affecting their interests.
• The section «Professional Competencies of Specialists in the Field of Childhood» is devoted to modern approaches to training and advanced training of specialists, where training is based on cases that include practices with proven effectiveness.
• The section «Analytical Reviews» contains analyzes of statistical data, monitoring results in the field of childhood, federal and regional road maps, reviews of dissertation research, round tables, conferences on childhood problems. In this section, it is planned to publish various state concepts regarding systemic changes in the system of protecting children’s rights. All these issues will be analyzed from the perspective of developmental needs and interests of children.

The target audience of the journal includes researchers engaged in research in the field of childhood, practitioners working with children of different categories and statuses and their families, teachers of the system of general, secondary and higher education, decision-making leaders of different levels, non-profit socially oriented organizations and foundations, as well as students and the parenting community.

We are convinced that specialists in the social sphere working with various problems of children will appreciate the new discussion platform, where it will become possible to professionally and to discuss specifically the features of modern childhood, to support the promotion of a culture of evidence-based approach that particularly relevant with the effectiveness of social practices of working with childhood, which is especially in demand now in conditions of new risks and social changes.

Chief Editor, Doctor of Psychology, Professor Galina V. Semya