The Global Health of Orphaned and Disadvantaged Children

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Background

One of the most traumatic events a child can experience is losing a parent. Loss can happen through death, abandonment, or violence. This experience stays with the child, playing a life-sized role in their growth and development, and adulthood, ultimately reverberating through society. Many major economic and social problems are linked to adverse childhood experiences. There are over 150 million orphan children in the world. These numbers of orphans are predicted to grow, as a consequence of the pandemic, climate effects, and global conflicts. Evidence indicates that early interventions among these children can improve cognitive and socioemotional abilities, as well as health, and have high rates of return. Building on this evidence and motivating greater momentum to implement workable interventions is fundamental to the health of the global community.

We propose to bring together researchers and experienced implementers of health, social work, education, and economics, along with youth leaders, to co-author scientific articles that identify current challenges and explore new frontiers to address issues of children who are orphaned and disadvantaged by their circumstances. The topics will cover children’s health and psychosocial well-being, their education and livelihood needs, legal and economic implications of orphan care and adoption, and interventions that have long-standing impacts and high returns. The result will be a brief compendium of peer-reviewed scientific papers that would form a special issue on orphans and vulnerable children in the world.

The aim of this special issue is to raise awareness about orphanhood and childhood disadvantage and produce scientific papers that can guide informed decisions to address this increasingly recognized social issue with global implications.

A list of topics to be included in this Research Topic are given below. Topics need not be limited to this list:

1. Demography of orphanhood
2. The making of orphans related to epidemics, pandemics, conflict, and other disasters
3. Current state of orphans and disadvantaged children in the world – health and education outcomes
4. Systems of care for orphans – institutional systems, family-based and community-based care, including comparative analysis
5. Being an orphan of the world – a child rights and human rights issue
6. Economics of adoption of orphans
7. Building resilience and success for re-integrating disadvantaged children into society: what works and in what contexts
8. Investing in orphaned and disadvantaged children and impact on society

We invite article types that are appropriate for Frontiers: Original research (includes descriptive or comparative data analysis, primary or secondary data analysis, interventional research, exploratory and qualitative research); case studies or case series; systematic review and metaanalysis; commentary or perspective articles.

Keywords: orphan, vulnerable children, public health, policymakers, orphanages

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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