Desirable but not feasible: Measures and interventions to promote early childhood health and development in marginalized Roma communities in Slovakia

Abstract

Roma are the largest and most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Europe often facing generational poverty, and limited access to education, employment, housing, and various types of services. Despite many international and national initiatives, children from marginalized Roma communities face multiple risks and are being disadvantaged as early as from conception onward. We, therefore, aimed to identify measures and/or interventions targeting equity in early childhood health and development in marginalized Roma communities which implementation is considered to be urgent but not feasible. We used a group concept mapping approach—a participatory mixed research method—and involved 40 experts and professionals from research, policy and practice. From 90 measures and interventions proposed to achieve early childhood equity for children from marginalized Roma communities, 23 measures were identified as urgent but not feasible. These concerned particularly measures and interventions targeting living conditions (including access to income, access to housing, and basic infrastructure for families) and public resources for instrumental support (covering mainly topics related to financial and institutional frameworks). Our results reflect the most pressing issues in the area of equality, inclusion and participation of Roma and expose barriers to implementation which are likely to arise from public and political discourses perpetrating a negative image of Roma, constructing them as less deserving. Measures to overcome persistent prejudices against Roma need to be implemented along with the measures targeting equity in early childhood health and development.

Perceived Stress of Mothers, Harsh Discipline, and Early Childhood Mental Health: Insights from a Cross-Sectional Study in Marginalized Roma Communities

“…Poverty and social exclusion are likely contributing significantly to experiencing stress in mothers and having adverse effects on parenting practices [39,40]; thus, supporting families in providing a nurturing environment for their children and providing opportunities to strengthen parenting skills might help to better the mental health of young children and influence their health outcomes later in life. Previous research has shown that addressing poverty in MRCs to support early childhood development is necessary but not easily implemented due to unfavourable public discourse and lack of political will [2]. These arguments can also be used in advocating for enhancement of living conditions in MRCs, focusing on sources of stress that stem from poverty.…”

“…Although the Roma population in Slovakia is highly heterogeneous, approximately half of Roma live in more or less segregated localities referred to as marginalized Roma communities (MRCs) characterised by spatial and social distance from the majority population. People from MRCs often experience generational poverty, as well as limited access to education, employment, housing and various types of services, including healthcare [2], which causes material and financial hardship and leads to low quality of life [3,4]. Centuries of oppression and continuous discriminatory practices make social mobility and benefiting from social capital for people living in generational poverty in MRCs hardly reachable [5].…”

Residence in segregated settlements (colonies) rather than Roma identity increases the risk of unfavourable mental health in Hungarian adults

“…Many of them suffer from economic and social deprivation compounded by anti-Gypsyism, prejudice and discrimination in spite of continued efforts to improve their situation. One of the features of deprivation has been that many Roma live in segregated colonies ( 2 , 3 ). Compared with the non-Roma population in Europe, Roma tend to be in less favorable health, reflected by lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, and lower vaccination rates ( 4 ).…”