Introduces analytic framework that classifies types of health problems that emerge among shelter residents and serves as guide to social work intervention with health problems of shelter residents. Framework covers three categories of health problems: illnesses coincident with homelessness, those exacerbated by limited health care access, and…

Presents theory to explain why fathers remove themselves from children's lives after divorce. Bases theory on potential for change in salience of man's identity as father postdivorce. Propositions and hypotheses are derived from symbolic interaction and identity theories. Defines and interrelates concepts of identity, saliency, commitment, and…

Considers the mother's depression as a special problem in therapy of single-parent families, resulting from unresolved mourning maintained by the family system. Offers reasons why the single-parent family's structure seems inherently vulnerable to unresolved mourning. Suggests techniques of Structural Family Therapy to facilitate mourning in such…

The dramatic increase in poverty during the first half of the 1980s hit women and children the hardest. Regarding this fact, the following are discussed: (1) economic changes since 1960; (2) the extent of the problem; (3) reasons for the economic vulnerability of women and children; (4) curtailment of social services; and (5) probable future…

Describes the "feminization of poverty" in industrialized nations and public policy created to solve it. Reports on a cross-national study of public income transfer policies in eight advanced industrialized countries. Contends that policy strategies can be devised to raise the incomes of mother-only families in the United States. (KH)

New York State's attempt to reduce welfare expenditures by collecting the child support payments of defaulting parents reinforces federal incentives containing penalties for localities operating ineffective collection programs. The state's program may serve as a model for the more effective implementation of legislation in other jurisdictions.…

Over 35 million Americans were officially poor in 1983, 15.2 percent of the total population-the highest figures since the mid-1960s. Some attribute continued poverty to government social welfare policies. But poverty among the nonelderly is linked much more to economic trends. The number in poverty dropped from 39.5 million (22.4 percent of the…

Conditions for most black families are getting worse both absolutely as well as relative to whites. The following aspects of this situation are discussed: (1) economic determinants, especially unemployment; and (2) changes in family structure as a means of strengthening black families. (PS)

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)

Found high rate of suicide attempts and ideation among 229 seventh- through ninth-grade American Indian students on reserves in Alberta. Prevalence of suicidality was very similar to rates reported for Navajo youth. Controlling for age, risk factors for suicide attempts were heavy alcohol use, no father in home, sleeping problems, and low…

Science Monographs, published by the National Institute of Mental Health, are book-length, integrative state-of-the-art reviews, critical evaluations of findings, or program assessments of current research on topics related to the NIMH mandate. This set of articles concentrate on mental illness in the family. "Depression and Low-Income,…

Single-parent families have increased dramatically over the past decade, and it is estimated that by 1990, half of all children will have spent at least some time in a single-parent family. This paper briefly reviews the literature dealing with some of the unique problems that single-parent, female-headed families face, including role overload,…

This report presents child-based data from the March 1983, Current Population Survey. The data have been reorganized from their usual form which is as information on households, families, or individual adults, to data with children as the unit of analysis. The primary focus of the report is on children's living arrangements: what kinds of families…

The frequency of divorce in America has resulted in an estimated 11,000,000 minor children living in single-parent homes, usually with mothers as heads of households. Psychological disruption observed in children of recently divorced parents may be, in part, related to the quality of the custodial mother's adjustment to her changed life…

This monograph looks at the increasing number of poor women and discusses anti poverty programs in regard to this group. Figures are presented which indicate an increase in the number of poor women in the 1970s, and show that Blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately represented among the poor. The paper suggests that the child-bearing role of…