Limited work has focused on understanding mechanisms through which violence negatively impacts youth outcomes. The present study investigates how three different facets of violence exposure (witnessing violence, victimization and armed conflict) relate to Colombian youth externalizing behaviors via the indirect influence of aggressive cognitions…

Community contexts are important ecological settings related to problem behavior and positive youth development (PYD). While substantial work has focused on neighborhood disadvantage, the current study explores the role of community assets, specifically linkages to important institutional resources and people in those settings. These concepts are…

Described is Ohio's use of community volunteers in the education of behaviorally disordered children and suggested are guidelines for the organization and development of similar programs. Advantages of such an approach are seen to include adaptability and lack of expense. Elements (including volunteer recruitment and child selection) of the Ohio…

As the incomes of affluent and poor families have diverged over the past three decades, so too has the educational performance of their children. But how exactly do the forces of rising inequality affect the educational attainment and life chances of low-income children? In "Whither Opportunity?" a distinguished team of economists,…

Nineteen families participated in a telephone survey concerning how schools can better serve students with behavioral needs, including students with behavior disorders, attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, mental disabilities, and pervasive developmental disorders. This report summarizes parent comments, with excerpts…

Studies of delinquency have recently shifted their emphasis from social structures that motivate delinquent acts to those that define an act as delinquent. This shift suggests that preventing behavior from being labeled delinquent could prevent the occurrence of additional or more serious delinquency. A study of Chicago communities demonstrated…

This study applied a model for the evaluation of a children's residential treatment center. The conclusions are based on data collected for 22 children at four key points: a community baseline relating to families and prior agency contacts, a residential baseline dealing with the child's reported behavior during the first six weeks at the center,…

Educational quality is being harmed by the deterioration of order in public schools, but public concern and appropriate leadership can improve the situation. Because learning depends on good discipline, all contributors to and beneficiaries of education--students, teachers, and taxpayers--suffer when discipline is lacking: students and teachers as…

This study examined the psychiatric diagnoses and clinical characteristics of the 981 Asian American children enrolled in the first phase of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. Asian Americans were less likely than non-Asian Americans to receive diagnoses of depression and ADHD and more…

In 1997, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families launched the Frontiers of Research on Children, Youth, and Families Initiative to highlight recent policy-relevant research on children, youth, and families conducted by young and mid-career researchers. The initiative sought to encourage more sustained interactions between these researchers and…

Although our society has made substantial investments in research and programs based on the idea that communities affect families and children, significant questions have emerged about the validity of the link between communities, children, and families. This book, presented in four sections, focuses on how communities undergird or undermine human…