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Social work case files hold rich detail about the lives and needs of vulnerable groups. Traditional case-reading studies to gain generalisable knowledge are resource-intensive, however, and sample sizes thereby limited. The advent of 'big data' technology, and vast repositories of centrally stored electronic records offer social work researchers novel alternatives, including data linkage and predictive risk modelling using administrative data. Free-text documents, however – including assessments, reports, and case chronologies – remain a largely untapped resource. This paper describes how 5000 social work court statements held by the Child and Family Court Advisory Support Service in England (Cafcass) were analysed using natural language processing (NLP) based on simple rules and mathematical principles. Thirteen factors relating to harm and risk to children involved in care proceedings in England were identified by automated computer techniques, and almost 90% agreement with professional readers achieved when the factors were clear-cut. The study represents an innovative approach for social work research on complex social problems. In conclusion, the paper discusses learning points; practical implications; future research avenues; and the technical and ethical challenges of NLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that children and childhood constitute a ‘white space’ in organization studies, which should now be explored, mapped and analysed. Rather than being separate, children and organization are deeply implicated in one another, which provides a rich basis for theoretical inquiry. The paper draws on Spivak’s concept of the subaltern and on actor-network theory to articulate how and where organization studies might critically engage with, and find a place for, children and childhood. It frames such an inquiry around six potential research trajectories: epistemological, methodological, ontological, temporal, political and reflexive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the last several decades, there has been a chronic shortage of foster and adoptive families in the United States. Recruiting families to begin the licensure process to become foster and adoptive parents is already a difficult undertaking. But research shows that a very large proportion of families drop out of the licensure process early on due to frustration or a lack of support. This paper studies two faith-based partnerships that have arisen to create new capacity in the child welfare system. These programs recruit prospective families from churches and then provide training and ongoing support to those families throughout the licensure process. Using survey data collected from program participants, respondent perceptions of the licensure process are compared to a nationally representative sample of foster parents from the National Foster Care Adoptions Attitude Survey. Statistical results demonstrate that participants with the faith-based programs reported much higher levels of satisfaction with the process than the national sample. These findings provide evidence that these faith-based partnerships may provide an important additional source of capacity for an overburdened child welfare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Ireland was the first country in the eurozone to adopt a neoliberal infused ‘austerity budget’, and the ill-judged state bailing out of a number of reckless banks and associated financial institutions is costing billions of euros. In late 2010, as the crisis deepened, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank provided a ‘bailout’ package that resulted in further punitive public spending cuts and the eradication of national sovereignty. This paper maintains that the present crisis is more than a mere economic crisis, but can be viewed as a series of interlinked ‘conjunctures’. Tracing the connection between the historical and the contemporary, the first part of the discussion will explore six thematic components relating to the structuring of the Irish state. These are identified as: a ‘class rule state’; an ‘authoritarian state’; a ‘confining state’; a ‘censoring state’; a ‘discriminatory state’; and a ‘state within the state’. These six dimensions provide a contextual underpinning for the second part of the paper, which focuses on the crisis in child welfare and child protection services and dwells on the shambolic performance of the Health Service Executive (HSE), deficits in the ‘care’ system and the HSE failure to furnish reliable data on the deaths of children in contact with social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The co-occurrence of child abuse and domestic violence has gained increasing attention over the last several years. As a result, there have been a number of efforts around the country to cross-train domestic violence and child welfare workers. Many of these initiatives are based on recommendations derived from prior research which emphasizes the importance of cross training child welfare workers, domestic violence advocates, and others in order to enhance inter-agency collaborations and ultimately improve the handling of co-occurrence cases. Using a survey design and two samples of child protective service (CPS) workers were drawn, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of a statewide initiative to improve inter-agency collaboration through a series of cross-disciplinary trainings. Special attention is also given to the identification of barriers and their potential role in shaping collaboration. While this study did not find significant changes in CPS workers' knowledge, attitudes, or self-reported levels of collaboration overall as a result of the training, collaboration was found to be related to increased knowledge and positive attitudes toward collaboration post training. The findings further demonstrate that efforts to cross-train staff can change the way CPS workers view the presence of some barriers to collaboration. Implications for future research and strategies for enhancing inter-agency collaboration in co-occurrence cases are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the introduction of the National Childcare Strategy. It argues, in the context of workfarism and through a new evaluation of the 'women as reserve army' thesis, that the National Childcare Strategy can be understood as one of a number of administrative mechanisms in New Labour's welfare reform agenda that aims to release lone mothers from social reproduction, in order to increase their effectiveness at competing for paid employment. This approach to the provision of childcare means that the state is heavily involved in subsiding childcare markets, benefiting capital through socialised reproduction, and through the rewards of what can be lucrative childcare markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses cross-national data on child homicide to develop a societal-level model of child abuse. Analysis of hypotheses emerging from four perspectives on abuse suggests that a focus on economic stress is most useful in explaining cross-national variation in child homicide in developed countries. High levels of female labor-force participation, coupled with low levels of female status and welfare spending, result in high child-homicide rates. No perspective provides hypotheses able to explain cross-national variation in child homicide in less-developed countries. The limitations of the present study are noted and avenues for future empirical and theoretical work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Canada, a Four-Part Model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Prevention has been developed that describes a continuum of multi-sectoral efforts, including broad awareness campaigns, safe and respectful conversations around pregnancy and alcohol use, and holistic and wraparound support services for pregnant and postpartum women with alcohol, and other health and social concerns. Supportive alcohol policy is at the centre of the four mutually reinforcing levels of prevention. The purpose of this narrative review is to describe alcohol policies related to specific levels of FASD prevention, and to consider the implications of alcohol policies on FASD prevention and women's and fetal health. The majority of the evidence focused on alcohol in pregnancy guidelines, alcohol warning labels, and knowledge and uptake of national or regional alcohol and pregnancy guidelines. Several US studies described shifts in alcohol and pregnancy policy over the 7-year period, including moves to punitive approaches that criminalize women's substance use or prompt child apprehension. This review indicates that more attention could be paid to the role of alcohol policy in FASD prevention and in promoting women's and fetal health, and that policy actions and advocacy could be important catalysts for both FASD prevention and women's health promotion. Moving forward, it is essential that alcohol policies are rooted in evidence; attend to and promote women's health including health during pregnancy; and are collaborative in order to prompt a higher standard of care, and more holistically respond to the factors that contribute to women's alcohol use during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among juvenile justice populations are elevated. However, the characteristics of justice-involved youth who consider and attempt suicide are not well understood. This study examined suicidal ideation and attempt with first-time, preadjudicated diverted youth, and the relationship with commonly associated risk factors. The sample included 135 youth (50% male, M age = 14.48) that provided complete responses to self-reported lifetime suicidal ideation and attempt items. Analyses examined relationships between suicidal ideation/attempt and mental health, child welfare involvement, delinquency, self-cutting, and substance use. First time, preadjudicated diverted youth reported high rates of lifetime suicidal ideation (27%) and attempt (17%). Suicidal ideation and attempt were associated with sexually minoritized status and self-cutting, while child welfare involvement was only associated with suicidal ideation. This high-risk population would benefit from refined suicide screening and prevention services not always available to justice-involved youth living in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from NIS-4, NCANDS, and the State of California were used to analyze the front end of the child welfare services system - the referral and substantiation components - in terms of the system's ability to diagnose or detect instances of child maltreatment. The analyses show that Blacks are disproportionately represented in rates of referral into the system. Moreover, the analyses demonstrate that the system is less accurate for Blacks than for other racial or ethnic groups. There is a higher rate of false positives (or ?false alarms?) for Blacks than for other groups - that is, referrals leading to unsubstantiated findings. There is also a higher rate of false negatives (or ?misses?) for Blacks than for other groups - that is, children for whom no referral was made but who are in fact neglected or abused. The rate of true positives (or ?hits?) -- children for whom a referral has been made and for whom that allegation has been substantiated - is generally higher for Blacks than for other groups, but this is attributable largely to the higher rate of referral for Blacks. In sum, the system demonstrates lower levels of accuracy for Blacks than for other groups. A model is proposed demonstrating that random error, as opposed to systematic bias, could produce a pattern of results much like that observed in the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the multiple and sometimes contradictory demands within the current discourse on child welfare, this paper explores institutional approaches within Finnish child welfare to conceptualizing individuals with problematic substance use. The data consist of observations of everyday life and institutional client-meetings in three so-called professional foster homes in the Helsinki area. Three different interpretative repertoires dealing with problems related to substance use among children and their families were identified in the analysis. In the first approach a strictly regulated policy regarding the use of substances was combined with support. In the second approach, substance use was approached with stronger demands for self-regulation and with less support. The guiding principle seems to have been trust. In the final approach, severe and prolonged behavioral problems were dealt with. Punitive responses were also seen to be present. The main finding was that those with severe problems were met with less support and more demands for self-regulation. As a last resort, repressive approaches were suggested. It therefore seemed like the autonomy offered for those with very little resources created obligations and demands that were hard to meet for the child atone. A possible conclusion is that a more humane perception, which also takes into account possible unfavorable structural factors leading to behavioral problems, could benefit the single child. A more coherent, overarching substance use policy could further help professionals in charge of difficult and threatening situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about various societies and institutions of the United States. The first section of the current items includes announcements of annual business meetings. The annual business meeting of "Alpha Kappa Delta" was held at the Hotel Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, on December 29, 1939. The American Catholic Sociological Society held its second annual meeting at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago from December 27 to 29, 1939. The Central Statistical Board has worked out a classification of occupations of 327 titles. These have been combined into 95 intermediate groups useful for studying populations in which the whole occupational gamut may not be represented. New York's World Fair, 1940 will arrange an exhibition on art and modern architecture, child welfare, youth activities, the functions of government, and the application of science to industry in American scene. Psychosomatic Medicine, a quarterly, put out its first issue in January, 1939, under the managing editorship of Flanders Dunbar and the sponsorship of the National Research Council and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

This study uses the 1968–91 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine the relationship between mothers' receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) welfare benefits and their daughters' premarital childbearing and welfare receipt. The results for black females suggest that black daughters from welfare-recipient households were more likely to become adult welfare recipients than were black daughters from non-welfare-recipient households, but that there was only a weak relationship between mothers' welfare receipt and daughters' premarital childbearing. These results suggest that premarital childbearing was not an important variable mediating intergenerational transmission of welfare use in black families. Other results call into question previous findings using PSID data that suggest the existence of intergenerational welfare transmission among non-blacks. Specifically, it appears that the sample of non-black daughters in the PSID is insufficient to provide a satisfactory answer to the question of welfare transmission for that group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There is a significant evidence gap on the long-term educational benefits of longer breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries. We estimated the association between duration of (any) breastfeeding and educational outcomes of Indian children.Methods: We used regression analysis to examine the association between the length of breastfeeding (in months) and future education outcomes on the basis of 2 data sets: (1) data from a follow-up survey known as the Andhra Pradesh Children and Parents Study (APCAPS, 2003-2005) of 1165 children aged 13 to 18 years from a controlled nutrition trial originally conducted in South India during the period of 1987 to 1990; and (2) nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS-2, 2011-2012) of 6121 children aged 6 to 12 years.Results: In APCAPS, children with >36 months of breastfeeding scored 0.28 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.00-0.56; P < .05) higher on tests than those with up to 12 months of breastfeeding. In the nationally representative IHDS-2 data, above-median breastfeeding duration was associated with 0.1 year (95% CI: 0.04-0.16; P < .01) higher educational attainment. In IHDS-2, >12 to 24 months and >24 months of breastfeeding were associated with 0.12 (95% CI: 0.01-0.23; P < .05) and 0.19 years of (95% CI: 0.05-0.34; P < .05) higher educational attainment, respectively, than for those with up to 6 months of breastfeeding. In additional analyses by sex, we found that the benefits of breastfeeding accrued primarily to boys.Conclusion: Breastfeeding duration was associated with small gains in educational outcomes for boys but not for girls in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how decisions made by the criminal justice system in child maltreatment cases affect defendants' future probability of committing a child maltreatment offense, another offense, or having a child involved in child protective services (CPS). A sample of parents who were arrested on a child maltreatment charge during 2005 to 2010 (N = 6,940) was drawn from North Carolina administrative records from the criminal court, birth certificates, and CPS. Instrumental variables included the prosecutor's prosecution rate and the judge's conviction rate. Rearrest rates for child maltreatment offenses were low (3%), but high for other offenses (43%), as were assessments by CPS (43%). Being prosecuted and convicted reduced probabilities of rearrest in some model specifications. However, prosecution only decreased the probability of rearrest for child maltreatment. Neither prosecution nor conviction prevented future CPS involvement, suggesting the need to better understand what supports can prevent adverse outcomes in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a report of the Liaison Officer of the National Association of Social Work. The National Association of Social Work was originally formed by a merger of seven separate organizations. It included a Social Work Research Group. This is where sociologists were most active. It became the new organization's Research Section. After this fall, it will be renamed the Council on Research of the National Association of Social Work. The Council will be expected to assume leadership for the application of research methods to social work practice. It is scheduled to continue such activities as the encouragement of nationwide studies, their publication and the circulation of their reports. During the last year, the National Association of Social Work Research Section sponsored an Institute in Child Welfare Research and a Conference on the Nature of Social Work Knowledge. The National Association of Social Work also received a Ford Foundation grant to take a new look at social problems. Papers have been assigned to specialists to survey the state of knowledge on such topics as poverty, delinquency, deterioration of the inner city, and out-of-wedlock births.

This second part of a special double issue of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood focusing on ''Childcare Policies and Politics'', continues to examine, critically analyse and debate key issues in policy and political landscapes across a range of national contexts. The eight articles in this issue originate from primarily anglophone countries dominated by market-oriented approaches to early childhood education and care (Cleveland & Krashinsky, 2002). Although political, historical, economic, social and cultural contexts differ between and within the four countries represented in this issue (Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the USA), several common themes emerge in the concerns identified and addressed by many of the authors. These themes include, but are not limited to, the need for careful interrogation of intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions and initiatives; the marginalisation of sectors, populations and groups that do not conform to neo-liberal agendas and ideals; and the governance of communities, parents, and educators supposedly in the interests of enhancing children''s well-being and outcomes.In the first article, Frances Press & Jen Skattebol propose that we explore spaces that emerge at the intersections of different disciplinary knowledge bases and theoretical perspectives. They contend that if we look for, and learn to utilise, points of convergence between modernist and postmodernist theories and discourses, then we may be able overcome the limiting effects of the ultimately unhelpful bifurcation that has in recent years increasingly come to characterise academic critiques of and contributions to policy analysis and development. As a primarily conceptual contribution, their article sets the scene for the analyses of specific policy and educational contexts that follow.Helen Penn, in the second article, reviews changes in early childhood education and care policies in the United Kingdom in the decade 1997-2007. She highlights the often uncritical acceptance of the magnitude and rapidity of these changes and their far-reaching implications. In juxtaposing the contradictory discourses taken up by two key reports, Starting Strong 11 (2006) and Babies and Bosses (2004), Penn portrays the disruptions, disarray, difficulties and dilemmas that can eventuate when market mechanisms gain ascendancy in policy decision making. She argues the need for new conceptual frameworks that support critical analysis and discussion of current structures and viable future alternatives.Zsuzsa Millei & Libby Lee critique the Smart Population Foundation Initiative (2006), an Australian policy that positions parents as lifelong learners. Drawing on constructs of governmentality, Millei & Lee argue that this initiative subjects parents'' conduct to surveillance and normalisation, silencing multiple perspectives of parenting, and in doing so, ''closes down'' opportunities for parents to explore diverse ways of being ''good parents''.Working at the intersection of discourses of globalisation and multiculturalism, Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw continues the theme of governance by examining Canadian discourses of multiculturalism and their enactment in childcare settings in British Columbia. She argues that despite their well-meaning intention of fostering sensitivity, tolerance and acceptance, these discourses, in effect, seek to homogenise rather than celebrate difference. By essentialising children from immigrant families and constructing their differences as deficits, they give rise to childcare policies and practices that endeavour to fashion children as ideal ''citizen-subjects''. Pacini-Ketchabaw advocates an ethics of resistance to these normalising discourses.In the following two articles, Christine Woodrow and Sandra Cheeseman draw our attention to the diminishing space for the early childhood pedagogical voice in contemporary policy developments in Australia. Woodrow traces the marginalisation of early childhood teacher educators in proposed policy initiatives designed to improve teacher professional standards, but which in fact place teacher education courses and teachers themselves under greater regulation. Her article considers the potential gains and losses to early childhood teachers and pedagogies arising from these developments and concludes with a call for strategic engagement with current debates. Similarly, but within a different political terrain, Cheeseman examines the rhetoric and funding directions of many Australian early childhood policies to uncover a silenced voice - that of the early childhood pedagogue. Further, Cheeseman argues that increased funding has not resulted in universal services for children, but the ''welfarisation'' of early childhood. Both articles highlight that the early childhood educator''s voice is being excluded and diminished, at a time when early years policies have been gaining a great deal of attention.Peggy Apple & Mary Benson McMullen explore competing influences on the professional development choices of early childhood educators and professional development support systems in the USA. They draw our attention to the interrelated consequences of the decisions of different constituent groups and invite us to consider who may be advantaged and disadvantaged by these decisions. The inherent moral complexities of decision making, they contend, highlight the need for frank and constructive dialogue between decision makers and those affected by their decisions.In the final article, Lyn Fasoli & Bonita Moss describe ways in which innovative and culturally responsive remote Indigenous childcare services in Australia''s Northern Territory have responded to their communities. As Fasoli & Moss argue, these services act as powerful provocation to rethink our assumptions about what childcare ''should be'' and to turn our attention to envisaging instead what it might become. In juxtaposing practices in these Indigenous services with mainstream practices and mainstream constructions of quality, these authors open up space for debate as a consciously political act.Indeed, by challenging policy status quo in their respective contexts, all the authors who have contributed to this issue engage in political action asking discomforting questions. Many of their questions focus attention on the shrinking spaces available to early childhood educators, advocates and other constituents, in many of the contexts described here, in their attempts to effect policy change. Our reading of these articles, however, is not imbued with pessimism but rather with hope, because in highlighting shrinking spaces these authors also invite us to think about how spaces might be constituted differently in ways that open up rather than foreclose opportunities and possibilities. Accordingly, we anticipate that this issue will foster much critical and generative reflection and discussion.The colloquium provides an insight into the realities and challenges of children''s education in Ethiopia. Although families are highly supportive of their children attending school, a lack of resources and infrastructure (e.g. school buildings, seats, books and teacher training facilities), and the reliance of many rural families on their children''s labour, severely curtail children''s participation in education, particularly over the longer term. Authors Szente, Hoot & Tadesse propose that educational technology, coupled with the systematic collaboration of families, communities, the Ministry of Education and aid agencies, may be a key to overcoming some of the barriers currently restricting the opportunities available to Ethiopian children.Finally, the three book reviews canvass a range of issues relevant to early childhood teaching. Anne Petriwskyj reviews Dockett & Perry''s (2007) Transitions to School: perceptions, expectations and experiences; Claire Spicer provides an overview of Blatchford''s (2003) examination of the impact of class sizes in the early years of primary school, The Class Size Debate: is small better?; and Mary Benson McMullen discusses Abbott & Langston''s (2005) Birth to Three Matters: supporting the framework of effective practice. Together, these books straddle early childhood educational contexts from birth through to the early years of school.Frances Press & Jennifer SumsionCharles Sturt University, Bathurst, AustraliaReferenceCleveland, G. & Krashinsky, M. (2002) Financing ECEC Services in OECD Countries. OECD Occasional Papers. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/55/59/28123665.pdf (retrieved 3 March 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a consequence of various causes, numerous children are confronted with parental separation. By following families in the course of military deployments, this study aimed at enhancing knowledge on temporary father—child separation. Data were part of a longitudinal study of military families and were collected among Dutch service members and their partners before, during, and after a deployment to Bosnia or Afghanistan. Results revealed that the great majority of the children adapted quite well to the separation and reunion. Furthermore, the general well-being of the children, the mothers, and the fathers in the mission area was positively related. Unlike separation characteristics, maternal well-being was predictive of children’s adjustment in the course of paternal deployment. Hence, the findings underline the importance of helping spouses cope with the absences of service members as it increases the chances that children will also be doing well in the course of parental absence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At present there are few examples of sustained reductions in disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. This article describes the use of three instruments that have been used to measure levels of racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities: The Disproportionality Diagnostic Tool, Ecomap and Racial Equity Scorecard. Using a combination of community and public agency data, these tools measure and track change over time on racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities. Study results indicated a reduction in racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities and demonstrated the utility of all three instruments for targeting efforts and assessing improvements in child welfare over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the proposed strategies to address the disproportionality in child welfare services in the U.S. He cites the importance for the juvenile court and child welfare systems to understand the scope of the strategies to ensure effectiveness in addressing the needs of the children on an individual basis. The author asserts that integration among the child welfare workers and agencies leads them to acknowledge the interconnectedness of children, families, and communities.

The goal of this study was to assess whether child welfare services were available and proximal in identified, predominantly Black and Hispanic ZIP code areas of three southern cities. GIS mapping of services contained in a state 2-1-1 community services data base revealed that there were no treatment services and/or no public transportation and/or lengthy public (bus) transportation times in 50% of the identified areas of one city and in almost 25% of the three cities combined. The authors suggest service availability and proximity should increase the likelihood of parent enrollment, attendance and completion which should increase parent dependency court compliance rates. Further, they suggest that court compliance rates should increase the rate of return of Black children to their parents and thereby reduce child welfare caseloads. Given, the logic of their argument, the authors go on to recommend that child welfare administrators annually perform GIS analyses of State 2-1-1 community services data bases to keep abreast of child welfare service availability and proximity. Additionally, they offer a number of recommendations for how to increase service availability and proximity in predominantly Black and Hispanic urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the article "Measuring Change in Disproportionality and Disparities: Three Diagnostic Tools," by Brad Richardson and Dennette Derezotes, which appeared in the 2010 issue of "Journal of Health and Human Services Administration."

School counselors have a duty to formulate strategies that aid in the detection and prevention of child sexual abuse (American School Counselor Association, 2003). School counselors are charged with helping sexually abused children by recognizing sexual abuse indicators based on a child's symptomatology and/or behavior, and understanding how this trauma may affect children in the school setting. Mandated reporting issues, talking with children and adolescents about sexual abuse suspicions, and understanding trauma symptoms and their contribution to the difficulties that sexually abused children have in school are highlighted. In addition, how school counselors can collaborate with clinicians treating sexually abused children through role-appropriate advocacy, intervention, and aftercare strategies is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of world hunger have focused on economic growth and international food aid, assuming that food supply is the critical issue. The authors show that food access rooted in social stratification and military power is the central problem. Synthesizing the entitlement and military famine approaches to hunger, the authors examine the effects of food supply, economic growth, social stratification, and military power on child hunger in less developed countries (1990-2000) using a cross-national analysis. Child hunger is largely due to gender stratification, militarization, and armed conflict. Halting wars, expanding political rights, and improving gender equity reduce child hunger. Economic growth and programmatic international food aid reduce child hunger, but there are no benefits from increased total food supply or international emergency relief. Child hunger is an access problem best addressed by expanding social and political rights, reducing armed conflict and militarization, and improving women's status. Early warning and relief efforts should focus on these concerns instead of the "supply" concerns traditionally emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on child neglect is reviewed as it relates to common assumptions in the field, the broader context of research on child maltreatment and trends within the larger society. Overall, while child neglect is the type of maltreatment most frequently reported to and acted on by official agencies, its proportion of all maltreatment in the general population is comparatively smaller. The issue of "neglect of neglect" is placed within the larger framework of the low priority of research on child maltreatment in general. While research shows that all forms of child maltreatment are associated with devastating consequences for children, child physical neglect has the most profound effects on cognitive functioning and academic achievement, while child physical abuse has the most serious effects on aggression and subsequent violent behavior. Child emotional neglect, sexual and physical abuse have similarly grave effects on psychopathology, in contrast to child physical neglect which is associated with the least adverse consequences. These findings are discussed within the framework of research on the neurodevelopmental effects of child abuse and neglect. Research on the causes of child neglect, in particular as they relate to the perpetrators, points to a distressing "cycle of neglect." Finally, suggestions for breaking this cycle and keeping our children safe are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether childhood health acts as a mechanism through which socioeconomic status is transferred across generations. The study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to track siblings and to estimate fixed-effects models that account for unobserved heterogeneity at the family level. The results demonstrate that disadvantaged social background is associated with poor childhood health. Subsequently, poor health in childhood has significant, direct, and large adverse effects on educational attainment and wealth accumulation. In addition, childhood health appears to have indirect effects on occupational standing, earnings, and wealth via educational attainment and adult health status. The results further show that socioeconomic health gradients are best understood as being embedded within larger processes of social stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Moderate malnutrition continues to affect 46% of children under five years of age and 47% of rural women in India. Women's lack of empowerment is believed to be an important factor in the persistent prevalence of malnutrition. In India, women's empowerment often varies by community, with tribes sometimes being the most progressive.Objective: To explore the relationship between women's empowerment, maternal nutritional status, and the nutritional status of their children aged 6 to 24 months in rural and tribal communities.Methods: This study in rural Karnataka, India, included tribal and rural subjects and used both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Structured interviews with mothers were performed and anthropometric measurements were obtained for 820 mother-child pairs. The data were analyzed by multivariate and logistic regression.Results: Some degree of malnutrition was seen in 83.5% of children and 72.4% of mothers in the sample. Biological variables explained most of the variance in nutritional status, followed by health-care seeking and women's empowerment variables; socioeconomic variables explained the least amount of variance. Women's empowerment variables were significantly associated with child nutrition and explained 5.6% of the variance in the sample. Maternal experience of psychological abuse and sexual coercion increased the risk of malnutrition in mothers and children. Domestic violence was experienced by 34% of mothers in the sample.Conclusions: In addition to the known investments needed to reduce malnutrition, improving women's nutrition, promoting gender equality, empowering women, and ending violence against women could further reduce the prevalence of malnutrition in this segment of the Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The nutritional status of children is a good indicator of the overall well-being of a society and reflects food security as well as existing health-care and environmental conditions. In Pakistan, it is estimated that nearly 40% to 50% of children under the age of five are stunted. Due to greater economic opportunities available to the urban population as compared to the rural, it was believed that economic resources existed in poor urban Pakistani households but that the households lacked the skills and knowledge to translate their resources into good care and feeding practices.Objective: This study aimed 1) to assess the prevalent care and feeding practices among children aged 6 to 18 months residing in the squatter settlements of Karachi and 2) to identify care and feeding practices, as well as any other underlying factors, associated with stunting.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in eight settlements between October and December 2000. A total of 433 mothers of eligible children were interviewed with the use of structured questionnaires. Final analysis using multiple logistic regression was conducted on 399 mother-child pairs.Results: Female children were nearly three times more likely to be stunted than male children. Households that were food insecure with hunger were also three times more likely than other households to have a stunted child. Lack of maternal formal schooling (adjusted prevalence odds ratio, 2.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.4 to 3.8) and large household size (adjusted prevalence odds ratio, 1.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.0 to 3.8) were also associated with stunting. Even though certain care and feeding practices were significant at the univariate level, they were not significant in the final multivariate analysis and so were excluded from the final model.Conclusions: In households where food insecurity exists, knowledge of care practices may not be sufficient, and interventions such as food subsidies must precede or accompany educational efforts. Further follow-up is required to explore the effect of gender differences on child care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We compared data on race as reported by the mother on North Carolina birth certificates with data on race in officially reported statistics. We also determined to what extent differences in the classification of race affect measures of racial disparity in maternal and child health indicators. Methods. We examined how data on race are collected, coded, and tabulated in North Carolina via live birth certificates, death certificates, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone survey, and the Central Cancer Registry case records. We showed how the data on race collected through North Carolina birth and death certificates are translated into 10 fixed racial categories designated by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for use in official vital statistics. We compared race as reported by the mother on birth certificates to racial tabulations used in the official published birth statistics. We also examined to what extent differences in the determination of race affect measures of racial disparity in maternal and child health indicators. Results. Out of nearly 118,000 live births in North Carolina in 2002, mothers reported more than 600 different versions of race on birth certificates. These entries were collapsed into the 10 standard racial categories outlined in federal coding rules. Approximately two-thirds of mothers of Hispanic ethnicity report their race with a label that can be categorized as "Other" race, but nearly all of these births are re-coded to "white" for the official birth statistics. Measures of racial disparity vary depending on whether self-reported or officially coded race is used. Conclusions. This study shows that, given the opportunity to report their own race, North Carolinians describe their race using a wide variety of terms and concepts. In contrast, health statistics are usually reported using a few standardized racial categories defined by federal policy. The NCHS rules for coding race should be reexamined. As the ethnic and racial diversity of the United States continues to increase, these rules will become increasingly antiquated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initially found in population studies designed to discover a link between child abuse and population categories, risk has been institutionalized in British Columbia through the use of a risk assessment tool presumed to measure danger to particular children. Recruitment of the risk speech genre reflects a need for government child protection workers to clearly articulate which children are in need of protection from "risks as they really are" while avoiding the accusation of "intervening too much." Moreover, risk assessment tools are both audit systems and auditable systems connected through an audit chain. Auditors who represent potential blaming procedures track errors in risk valuation to specific decisions. This entrenches a separation between what we want to know about risk from what we want to do about risk. The apparently objective use of numeric values within risk assessments obscures the continuing role of subjective moral values in the practice of child protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the impact of the political skill of leaders on team performance. More specifically, this study examined the role of leader political skill in the performance of casework teams in a large state child welfare system. Team performance was operationalized as "permanency rate," or the successful placement of children into legally final living arrangements (i.e., adoption, successor guardianship, or return to natural parents). After controlling for several contextually important factors (i.e., average caseload, average age of children served, average number of team placements, team member experience, leader experience, and team empowerment), leader political skill was found to explain a significant proportion of variance in team performance scores. Implications of these results, as well as directions for future research, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concludes that the best way to trigger the reciprocal relationship between hope and emancipation is to innovate with institutions that jointly build hope and emancipation. Handouts to the poor without nurturing optimism to empower themselves to solve their own problems are not the solution. Neither is a psychologism that builds hope without concrete support and the flow of resources needed for structural change. Cognitive change in how people imagine a better world, micro-institutional change (illustrated here with the "Emancipation Conference"), and macro-structural change must be strategically integrated for emancipatory politics to be credible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the collaboration of child welfare, criminal juvenile justice and behavioral health with schools in the United States. Consideration on the core social institution as a form of public protection; Dilemma in the concept of core social institutions and schools; Account on the value-adding activity of behavioral health.

Asserts the importance of violence prevention efforts during childhood. Aims of violence prevention strategies; Different roles which children may experience violence; Endorsed principles that promote positive development of children who live in communities that are plagued by violence; Recommended interventions on four points of service delivery; home, school, treatment setting, and community; More.

The article highlights the Royal Society of Medicine, Section of Clinical Forensic Medicine's meeting on child abuse in Great Britain. Lawyer Allan Levy discussed the five main areas of the problem of child abuse. Social worker Sheena Cameron discussed the issues relating to child protection. Dr. Astrid Heger presented statistics concerning the prevalence of child sexual abuse.

The article presents information on the effects of different curricula in early childhood intervention. The potential of quality early childhood intervention is becoming widely recognized by corporate executives, legislative staff, educational officers, and even the popular press. The traditional government regulations controlling programming, such as square feet of space per child, health screening, certification of teachers, and so forth are excellent procedures for meeting the general welfare needs of children. The focus is on the social and emotional growth of the child, and teachers are guided by their own intuition and general knowledge of child development in formulating the curriculum. Quality early-childhood intervention programs are one effective means of altering the lives of children. Whether only disadvantaged youngsters can be so aided on a permanent basis has yet to be established, but it can be accomplished for a significant group of very important youngsters. When a quality program is delivered to a disadvantaged child, it is an effective investment for the taxpayer because of reduced costs of education, reduced crime and delinquency, and improved ability to participate in the general society.