This literature review aims to understand who is and is not being served by Head Start among families experiencing adversity; the range of recruitment, selection, enrollment, and retention (RSER) strategies that programs use with families experiencing adversity; the factors that shape the use of RSER strategies; and the effectiveness of specific…

The World Health Organization estimates that 1 billion people in the world live with a disability, of whom UNICEF estimates 240 million are children. The majority of the world's children with disabilities live in low- and middle-income countries, where humanitarian crises are most likely to occur. Humanitarian crises increase the prevalence of…

This review of international literature assesses the impacts that the relationship breakdown of parents has on children and factors that can provide support should this occur. The parental separation process causes significant albeit short-term distress for most children, with a minority reporting longer-term outcomes such as socio-economic…

Inner-city crime is a motivating factor for middle-class flight. Therefore, crime is a cause of suburbanization. Movement of the middle and upper classes to the suburbs, in turn, isolates the poor in central-city ghettos and barrios. Sociologists and criminologists have argued that the concentration of poverty creates an environment within which…

Critically examines several perspectives from which the underclass is viewed and identifies policy prescriptions related to them. Conflicting perspectives correspond to assumptions about human nature characterized by Thomas Sowell as "constrained" and "unconstrained." Argues for an expanded federal role in helping the poor through employment…

Reviews the descriptive empirical literature on homeless women, using a theoretical perspective on stress. Finds that homelessness is highly stressful, and examines the sources and mediators of homelessness. Suggests that more is known about the risk factors than about the mediating factors that may decrease the stressful circumstances' impact.…

Two studies appear to reach unsatisfactory conclusions regarding causes of low math achievement among American Indians. Leap (1988) studied math problem-solving strategies among low-math-achieving fourth- and fifth-grade Ute reservation students. He concluded that faulty or cumbersome problem-solving strategies were directly linked to Ute language…

The fact that 15 million American children, a quarter of the population under 18, are growing up without fathers is the most significant social problem facing the country. It is linked with epidemics of crime and drugs, the decline of educational attainment, and the persistence of widespread poverty. (AF)

Presents an overview of the situation of street children and youth in urban Latin America. Findings from numerous studies throughout the region are synthesized. Suggests that economic factors underlie the marginalization of vast numbers of Latin American children. The result is the exclusion of many of the region's children from meaningful…

Reviews research documenting complex process in which macroeconomic and family demographic factors are associated with economic distress among individuals and families. Shows four components of economic distress--employment instability, employment uncertainty, economic deprivation, and economic strain--to be negatively related to individual…

Increasingly, poverty has become concentrated among the urban underclass in the United States. The dramatic economic changes underlying this situation have taken place within the context of larger changes in global, national, and regional political economies, including such factors as industrial restructuring and migration flows. In addition, the…

Social statistics may exaggerate the degree of hardship caused by labor market problems. Yet, in many ways social statistics underestimate the degree of hardship caused by extended unemployment, underemployment, and low wages. Therefore, new measures are needed to reassess long-term and cyclical labor market developments, the changing status of…

Homeless children confront abject poverty and experience a constellation of risks that are having a devastating impact on their well-being. This paper reviews research linking homelessness among children to hunger and poor nutrition, health problems and lack of health and mental health care, developmental delays, psychological problems, and…

This paper summarizes reports and research on the homeless in the United States, presents findings of a survey of Red Cross chapters on services to the homeless, and describes programs for the homeless of selected Red Cross chapters. Section 1 discusses definitions of homelessness and methodologies used to count homeless people. The homeless are…

This brief essay outlines the progression over the last 20 years of ecological theories of interpersonal violence. The period between the present and the early 1980s began with a revival of cultural explanations of violence that paralleled the introduction of the neo-conservative social science and then witnessed a rediscovery of deficits-based…