https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/18558 Sat, 26 Sep 2026 22:55:05 GMT 2026-09-26T22:55:05Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149016 Title: Before they can name ecological grief : a brief research report of young children’s climate emotions in a small island state Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: Climate emotions research is expanding rapidly, yet children under eight remain less visible than adolescents and adults within the field despite evidence that climate concern may emerge early in life. Such an omission is especially consequential in small island states that are more vulnerable to climate change. This Brief Research Report presents a secondary qualitative analysis of empirical studies conducted in Malta with young children, parents and early childhood educators. Re-examining these datasets through the lens of climate emotions, the analysis shows that young children express early forms of climate worry and ecological loss through concrete, place-based concerns about heat, pollution, animals, the sea and damaged environments, even without adult terminology. Parents and educators recognise climate risks but often struggle to communicate them in emotionally safe ways. The findings conceptualise climate emotions in early childhood as an emergent, relational and co-constructed experience shaped by place attachment, intergenerational communication and opportunities for care-based action. The report further suggests that children’s climate emotions are socially mediated through family, educational and peer contexts. Finally, it argues that conservation social science must integrate young children’s emotional responses to ecological loss, particularly in small island contexts where the impacts of climate change are more pronounced and encountered intimately and daily. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149016 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149014 Title: Access to healthcare services for migrant and left-behind children : a scoping review Authors: Spiteri, Jane; Ramos, Anne Carolina; Catarina, Pinheiro Mota; Egemen, İpek; Viorela, Ducu; Bárbara, Bäckström Abstract: Migrant and left-behind children experience health vulnerability that are shaped by climate change, including by climate change, including illness, displacement, and family separation, but also by the organisation of healthcare systems. This scoping review maps the evidence on healthcare services for migrant and left-behind children, with attention to health needs, service provision, barriers and facilitators to access, and gaps in care. Following PRISMA-ScR reporting guidance, searches were conducted in Web of Science/MEDLINE and Scopus for peer-reviewed English-language publications from the database inception to May 2026. After duplicate removal and two-stage screening, 35 publications were included. The evidence shows that migrant and left-behind children require a continuum of preventive, primary, specialist, developmental, nutritional, dental, mental health, and emergency care. However, access is frequently constrained by legal exclusion, documentation requirements, cost, language barriers, limited health system navigation, discrimination, mobility, disrupted continuity of care, and under-resourced services. Left-behind children remain especially under-represented, with limited evidence on preventive, mental health, and chronic care access. Facilitators include inclusive entitlements, community outreach, school provision, interpreters, bilingual professionals, culturally responsive care, health literacy support, and cross-sector coordination. The review argues that healthcare inequity for children affected by migration is produced not only by service absence, but by systems that fail to adapt to children’s legal, linguistic, relational, and transnational realities. Rights-based child health policy should therefore move from episodic and discretionary provision towards universal entitlements, continuous care pathways, and integrated support that is culturally responsive, developmentally appropriate, and accountable to the lived experiences of migrant and left-behind children. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149014 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149013 Title: Peer cultures and climate emotions in early childhood : a culture-evolutionary framework Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: Climate change increasingly shapes children’s emotional landscapes, yet research continues to conceptualise young children’s emotional responses primarily as individual psychological reactions rather than as socially produced and culturally transmitted phenomena. This article proposes a new cultural–evolutionary framework, the Peer Emotional Evolution Model (PEEM), to address this theoretical gap. Drawing together scholarship on cultural evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and childhood sociology, the PEEM conceptualises children’s peer groups as emotional microecologies in which emotional variants, such as fear, curiosity, excitement, or hope, arise, spread, stabilise, or fade through processes of variation, selection, transmission, and retention. This framework illustrates how play, storytelling, moral judgements, humour, and shared narratives become mechanisms through which climate emotions circulate and acquire social durability. The article articulates specific propositions for empirical testing, identifies boundary conditions and limitations, and outlines a concrete research agenda for examining PEEM in diverse early childhood contexts. The article is conceptual in nature and offers a theoretically generative framework for future research and practice in early childhood environmental education. It concludes by identifying implications for theory, early childhood education, and climate emotion scholarship, emphasising the need to recognise young children as active participants in the cultural evolution of climate emotions rather than passive recipients of adult discourse. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149013 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149012 Title: Early childhood education for sustainability in Malta Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: In this chapter, I outline the status of early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) in Malta, a small island state. The political climate is often an important factor in how people view such programmes in the early years and Malta is no different in that regard. One needs to look at the history of the Maltese education system and educational reforms introduced over the years to fully understand the picture. Therefore, this chapter charts Malta’s attempts to define and achieve sustainability through education programmes, policies and practices that have evolved over time. Here, I explore aspects of economic and political developments and their influence on the trajectories of environmental education and ECEfS in Malta. Next, I consider how curricular and educational decisions have influenced the inclusion, or otherwise, of ECEfS. Building on these, there appear to be limited opportunities for the implementation of ECEfS in Malta, thus highlighting the need for further awareness. In addition, I share recent Maltese research studies and how these have furthered our understandings and broadened ECEfS programming for young children. Finally, I offer some recommendations for locating ECEfS centrally in the Maltese education system and some suggestions for future research, policy and practice. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149012 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z