This newsletter issue contains feature articles and short reports on how and why family structures are undergoing substantial change in many parts of the world. These articles include: (1) "The Changing Family Structure," a review of how families are changing and why; (2) "Peru: Families in the Andes"; (3) "Thailand:…

Designed to serve as a framework from which high school debate students, coaches, and judges can evaluate the issues, arguments, and evidence present in sustaining and reforming the United States welfare system, this booklet provides guidelines for research on the 1984-85 debate resolutions selected by the National Federation of State High School…

Poverty affects many rural two-parent families, even with one or both parents working. High suicide rates, increased violence, families separated in order to find work, homelessness, and hunger afflict the rural and small town poor. This document contains testimony from poor and homeless rural people; the director of the Center on Budget and…

Decades of government interventions, an improved infrastructure, and support for industrialization have not resolved problems of persistent poverty in central Appalachia. This paper investigates characteristics of poverty previously overlooked in development initiatives and poverty research. In particular, it demonstrates the role of gender in the…

The four papers in this volume discuss various facets of the poverty-demography interaction: the rationale for the desired family size of the poor, the problems of attaining such size, the effect of family size/structure on household economy, and the future well-being of the children of the poor. "Mass Poverty, Demography, and Development…

This report outlines findings and recommendations of a committee study of whether the State of Missouri is in need of welfare reform. The major finding is that Missouri's current welfare system is substantially deficient and requires correction of laws, policies, practices, and resource allocation. Three major themes are the following: (1) welfare…

At this hearing questions of unemployment compensation, job training, minimum wage, and statistics gathering of the Bureau of Labor Statistics were considered. Points made included the following: while minorities are overrepresented among the poor, most poor people are white; most poor people are also women, possibly because they have less access…

This document, the first of three reports to be produced as part of the National Assessment of Chapter 1 programs, summarizes a wide range of information about those whom the programs are intended to benefit. The report provides an analytic and demographic framework from which to view the actual operations of local Chapter 1 programs. The first…

Homelessness among families is quickly reaching crisis proportions across the country. Over 30 percent of America's three million homeless people are members of families, and families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. Perhaps more disturbing, homelessness represents only the most extreme manifestation of a more…

A structural approach which focuses on social and economic conditions under which poverty exists and which de-personalizes causes is used to study the extent and trends of poverty in general and Maine in particular. The 1980 Census reported that 13% of Maine's population was poor, but since income in Maine is generally low many people fall in and…

This second edition of "Poverty Profile", published by the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle as part of their Campaign for Human Development, updates the data examined in the earlier (1972) edition and examines some of the current social welfare programs designed to alleviate the affects of poverty. The extent to which poverty…

The two papers in this document were prepared in response to requests by the Department of Agriculture and the White House staff for briefs on welfare and poverty issues. The first paper, "The Administration's Welfare Reform Proposal: Impact on Rural Areas" by Robert Hoppe, discusses major provisions of (1) the proposed Welfare Reform…

This technical paper examines how different poverty standards can change the statistical description of the low income population. It supplements a chapter in a report submitted to the U.S. Congress in 1976 titled, "The Measure of Poverty". The poverty measure currently used in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the…

Some 97 families (having 500 children) who live in the Louise-Midnight area of Mississippi were interviewed for this study conducted in 1968. The 45-minute interviews were taped, and excerpts from the tapes serve as starting points for disussions in the document on areas such as employment, food habits, health and health care, political climate,…

Poverty, which is defined as a family income of less than $3,000 annually, is more serious than just being deprived of simple luxuries. To be poor is to suffer physically and to have high mortality rates. It also means ecological and social segregation from society. In 1960 Texas had a larger proportion of families with incomes under $3,000…