Reviews the objectives from Healthy People 2000 that target children and youth in order to prevent cardiovascular disease in adults, identifying the status of those health objectives midway through the time frame allotted for their attainment and making recommendations for programming in light of whether the objectives will be attained. (SM)

Examines relationship between family support and health of children. Reviews the impact of the decline in structural support for child rearing, examines the health effects of support provided in home visitation programs, and considers the health and welfare effects of the provision of day care services for children. Emphasizes results of…

Presents 11 recommendations related to improving child health that are based on a synthesis of 58 research reports published 1988-92. Suggests that the development of policies that reduce inadequate health care for women and children, unintended pregnancy, deficient education, and poor nutrition will ultimately improve the life circumstances, and…

Provides information regarding childhood disorder of encopresis and presents multimodal therapy techniques for school counselors who cannot successfully refer clients. Presents a case study of a teenage boy suffering from encopresis who was referred for counseling. Suggests specific treatment strategies including behavior modification, nutrition…

This article describes the methodological challenges and processes involved in designing and conducting the School Health Policies and Programs Study. Information is provided on questionnaire development, sampling, data collection, and weighting and variance estimation. (SM)

Reports on a study of stressful life events (SLE's) among 1,114 urban Australian children ranging in age from 5-13. Finds that the children reported an average of six such events during their lifetimes. Also finds that children who experienced from 3-8 serious SLE's were rated as less well adjusted on a variety of behavioral measures. (CFR)

The paper advances a number of suggestions for an enhanced research agenda in school health education, examining approaches to health education that work, noting new or enhanced directions that are suggested by current successes, and discussing directions for which there are few available data. (SM)

Reviews evidence on the state of health of the nation's children and youth, identifying common health problems. Findings indicate the need for policies placing priority on the delivery of primary care services and status measures that reflect the interrelationships among health problems and the impairments associated with them. (SLD)

Provides an overview of the major federal and state health care programs serving children and pregnant women, including (1) Medicaid; (2) the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program; (3) the Community and Migrant Health Center Program; and (4) the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children. (SLD)

Discusses nonfinancial barriers to receiving medical care, including legal restrictions, geographic isolation and provider shortages, provider practices and policies, and personal circumstances. Suggests ways to reduce these barriers. These efforts should not wait for health care financing reforms, because nonfinancial barriers will continue even…

Analyzes implications of the birthrate for teenage mothers, and examines the limitations of key statistical indicators. Evidence suggests that the rate of childbearing among U.S. teens may be increasing after a decade of stability. To deal with this effectively, it may be necessary to enhance life options of teenagers. (SLD)

Examines whether U.S. public is underinvesting in its children. Several measures indicate a deterioration in the well-being of children in the past few decades, and some measures suggest a decline in crucial inputs from parents to children (i.e., parenting hours). Ways to increase society's investment in children are discussed. (SLD)

Black-white differences in infant mortality rate are examined for 38 large metropolitan statistical areas for 1982 through 1986. The most important difference predictor was a "segregation index" (residential dissimilarity) apparently independent of variation in median family income and poverty prevalence but possibly reflecting…

It is apparent that some children in the United States have not benefited from the improved oral health care available. These children tend to be poor and members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Policy recommendations are made to increase both self-care and access to dental care. (SLD)

Reviews past and present research on early communication and language intervention at the Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, presenting three premises that inform most of the Kennedy Center's research on the issue, summarizing seven lines of contemporary research by Kennedy Center investigators that influence the development of…