This paper discusses the significant political advances for disadvantaged children that have been dependent upon trends and upheavals in the economy and major social or political movements. Evidence is provided which indicates that large scale U.S. government programs are rarely based on a public concern for children, but rather on a more…

This paper discusses the implications of changes in the family environment on child development. Changes identified concern increases in the number and percentage of children who live in poverty, maternal employment in two-parent families, single-parent families, and the number of children in nonparental child care. Characteristics of poverty for…

In September 1988, 13.1 million people in the United States wanted jobs, a jobless rate more than twice the official unemployment rate. The official rate does not count the people who have stopped looking for work because they believe that none is available. However, joblessness is only part of the problem. Also important is the phenomenon of the…

This document contains a summary of a policy seminar, "Family Centered Social Policy: The Emerging Agenda," a background briefing report on the seminar, and a 50-item reference list. The first section summarizes presentations by K. M. Harris on a Baltimore study of teen mothers' welfare experience; Robert Lerman on young fathers; and…

In the fall of 1989, the National Head Start Association convened a panel of distinguished advisors in an effort to develop recommendations for the future of Head Start. The panel met for 6 months to hear expert opinion and discuss task force reports and relevant policy documents. Over 70 witnesses testified at three hearings held in Washington,…

This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of family functioning in families who have become homeless and poor families who have never been homeless. Relying on the McMaster Model of Family Functioning, it focused on family functioning in terms of transactional patterns or the family's mode of interaction as a unit. Subjects consisted…

This report presents data from the complete 1985 panel file of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) on changes between 1985 and 1986 in the income and poverty status of persons. SIPP data make it possible to gauge movement along the whole income distribution and into and out of poverty for the same persons in two consecutive…

The proceedings of a House hearing on poverty, hunger, and the welfare system are provided in this document. The hearings focus the Federal agenda for addressing these problems: the increasing number of people, particularly children, living in poverty and consequently threatened by hunger; increasing numbers of families headed by women alone…

Using findings of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this report discusses how people become poor and why they stay that way. The PSID reveals that the requirements for getting out of poverty in the United States are so minimal that it takes a mutually reinforcing cluster of behaviors to remain in poverty, even for blacks and females. The…

Pervasive and persistent poverty has eroded but not destroyed the strong, deep, value framework that for so long sustained black people. These values--among them, family, education, and hard work--are so deeply held that they remain and can be explicitly tapped today. The black value system, together with the variety of historic and existing…

In 1980 the poverty rates for women were about one and a half times greater than those for men. Between 1950 and 1980 the degree of inequality between the sexes increased by about 30 percent. This paper describes those trends, focusing on the sex of the individual rather than sex of the household head. It also examines differences in the risk of…

This statistical fact book was developed to help New York State communities and child advocates learn how their county compares with others in the following areas: (1) number of children living in poverty; (2) number of children living in poor households; (3) number of families needing, and number receiving, child care subsidies; (4) number of…

In the absence of Federal job initiatives, over 14 million people cannot find full or part-time work. According to a report issued by the Full Employment Action Council and the National Committee for Full Employment, they are casualties of shifts in the economy and of deficit spending that favors the affluent and the military over the poor and the…

To study the social and economic conditions where black farmers live, 342 southern counties, each having at least 25 black farmers, were identified. The counties were divided into five categories, four of which reflected the most common commodity type of black-operated farm and one which did not exhibit any common black-operated farm type. Most…

This study attempts to determine the degree of economic self-sufficiency achieved by Southeast Asian refugees who have arrived in the United States since October 1978. Three groups of refugees (Vietnamese, Chinese from Vietnam, and lowland Lao) were interviewed in five sites across the country. The two particular aspects of economic…