This paper provides a review of the literature on the needs of young children in the United States who are at risk for failure and offers suggestions for early intervention and societal change. The problem is documented in sections concerning: a definition of "at risk," the importance of the first years of life, prevention, successful programs of…

Home-Start is an international organization in which volunteers offer regular support, friendship, and practical help to young families under stress in their own homes in order to prevent family crisis and breakdown. It is available to any family with at least one child under 5 years of age. This book presents a snapshot of the day-to-day…

Violence is a part of daily life in the United States, the world's leader in the number of homicides, rapes, and assaults. This working paper examines the issue of violence in the United States from a gender equity perspective. Gendered violence is reinforced by cultural beliefs that allow individuals and groups to use violence to establish and…

This report summarizes the findings and recommendations from the Children's Policy Project, which examined the child welfare system in Illinois. The report: (1) outlines the project's findings about the difficulties faced by existing child welfare services; (2) proposes ways to improve existing arrangements; (3) examines the fundamental problems…

Roughly 600,000 families are homeless today in America, while over 2.7 million children are in foster care or out-of-home placements. Few policymakers have examined these issues together, or understood that they are interrelated and must be addressed jointly to break the cycle of family disintegration, violence, and poverty. A recent survey by the…

This report describes a qualitative study of the experiences and perceptions of parents of children with severe acquired brain injury (ABI) and summarizes the experiences of several parents during the first year following their child's traumatic brain injury. Twenty-five parents participated in a day-long focus group, in lengthy structured…

The Malta World NGO Forum, which launched the International Year of the Family (IYF) 1994 presented many views supporting the theme of promoting families for the well-being of individuals and societies. This theme reflected the opinion that IYF should be an opportunity to integrate the achievements for family members of previous United Nations…

The theme of this volume of the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation is the state of contemporary family life and the likelihood of reconciling individual family members' interests with those of the family as a whole. The volume attempts to reflect the dramatic differences that took place within families currently and a generation ago, including…

A program was designed and implemented to improve student vocabulary and comprehension. The target population consisted of 59 students in grades 1, 2, and 3 in a low-income area of a large city in central Illinois. The problems of lack of prior knowledge, poor vocabulary, and insufficient comprehension were documented through data collected from…

This study examined barriers facing rural schools in serving students at-risk and the perceptions of teachers, parents, and administrators related to the difficulty in changing these barriers. Seventeen rural school districts representing 5 counties in southern Ohio participated in the study. The survey collected 846 completed responses from…

This publication is the text of the House of Representatives bill, H.R. 5600 introduced to the U.S. Congress and titled "Children's Initiative." This legislation is designed to promote family preservation and the prevention of foster care with emphasis on families where abuse of alcohol or drugs is present, to improve the quality and…

This bibliography is a comprehensive treatment of poverty in the United States. It summarizes the major economic, literary, sociological, historical, and other social-science literature written over the past century on this topic. In addition to general descriptions of the measurement, causes, and consequences of poverty, individual chapters…

This special issue focuses on problems and challenges confronting the California family and on research and extension efforts to provide at least partial answers. Research briefs by staff include "Challenges Confront the California Family" (state trends in poverty, divorce, single-parent families, child abuse, delinquency, teen births,…

This study used data from 992 cases in 16 longitudinal studies of the Early Intervention Research Institute to evaluate five measures of family functioning: (1) Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-III; (2) Family Support Scale; (3) Family Resources Scale; (4) Parenting Stress Index; and (5) Family Inventory of Life Events.…

This speech covers a broad range of issues surrounding the Hispanic American family and the changes it has undergone in the last 10 years. Some of the challenges that past and current society presents to minority groups are cited, and a discussion of family reviews its importance and the meaning of the concept "family" for successful identity. The…