About this Research Topic

Background

Injuries and illness affecting children and young adults while in agricultural work environments has been recognized as a problem for many decades, and remains a concern to this day. With this widespread awareness, there has been an increased focus on safety and health interventions to safeguard those that are effected. The Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) is a leading framework that takes into consideration the role that various environmental systems and agents of influence have on human behavior. In the case of children and adolescents, multi-faceted efforts must be directed at the adults, organizations and entities that influence the protection of our next generation. The Topic Editors are seeking perspectives and exploring strategies from multiple countries that have used the SEM or other relevant frameworks to safeguard youth in agricultural settings from agriculture-related injury and illness.

As part of our journal’s mission to address key aspects of childhood agricultural injury and illness prevention, and to promote important discussions, Frontiers in Public Health has organized a Research Topic focused on Safeguarding Youth from Agricultural Injury and Illness: International Experiences. We will include issues relevant to children and young adults living in, working on and/or visiting agricultural settings. Papers may focus on all childhood ages, from “in vitro” to young adulthood.

Led by a team of specialists, the Research Topic will accept manuscripts with the aim of giving the reader an overview of the latest discoveries and new findings, analysis of previously published data, new opinions and perspectives, and research methods and protocols. For that reason, all article types accepted by Frontiers are encouraged.
Sub-themes for this Youth and Agriculture Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:

• Evidence-based strategies for reducing agricultural injuries/fatalities/illness
• Interventions involving agents of influence, e.g. agribusiness, childcare providers
• Public policy approaches that protect youth from occupational hazards
• Success stories in reaching underserved, unique populations
• Interventions targeting very hazardous youth work, e.g. tractors, utility vehicles
• Emerging issues and future strategies for safeguarding working and non-working youth
• Impact of animal rights activism and rural crime on youth
• Mental well-being of youth living and working in agricultural settings
• COVID-19 experiences and recommendations for future pandemic responses
• Injury and illness surveillance methods and trends
• Benefits of living and working in agricultural settings

For this special issue of Frontiers in Public Health, the editorial team has requested authors eliminate the term “accident” from their manuscripts. The scientific discipline of injury prevention describes fatal and nonfatal injuries as predictable and preventable. In the English language, the term “accident” implies a random, unavoidable event or “act of God” and, thus, should be replaced with terms such as event, incident, or detail such as crash, fall, or suffocation.

Keywords: Children, agriculture, injury, occupational hazard, safeguarding, socio-economic model, SEM

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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