Social and economic problems facing U.S. children are reviewed, including poverty, hunger and homelessness, gaps in health and mental health services, infant mortality/morbidity, child abuse, drug use, and violence depicted in the mass media. Risk-taking behaviors that are children's responses and suggestions to remedy these problems are…

Policymakers must identify the numbers of homeless children and youth, and acknowledge the barriers that impede the education of such children. Recommendations are made for policy at the federal, state, and local levels. Interagency collaboration among health care providers, private advocacy groups, and human resources agencies is also…

Reports results of a survey administered to the general public in a large midwestern city on public perceptions of youth gang crime. The 306 residents (aged 14 years and over) of Indianapolis (Indiana) surveyed generally feel that youth gang crime is more serious in areas other than their own. (SLD)

Data explain causes of declining well-being among families with small children in terms of demography, economics, inadequate government programs, perverse government programs, family structure, neighborhood and community, and culture. Declining economic prospects for young male workers and accelerated movement toward single-parent families are the…

The new human capital orientation of the new political administration must result in better education and training for the residents of cities. Both the compulsory education systems and the employment training systems must be revamped. Apprenticeship models hold promise of the vocational education we sorely need. (SLD)

Compares attitudes toward the homeless in Japan and the United States through a survey of 268 Japanese and 254 U.S. adults and adolescents interviewed in public places. In Japan, homelessness is seldom discussed, and poverty, which may be as widespread as in the United States, is often not recognized. (SLD)

Presents rationale and procedure for a role playing simulation, used in a first-year political science course. Notes that the game's purpose is to make real the problems urban policymakers face. Sees active student participation as a sign of the game's success. Includes course syllabus. (CH)

Although the plight of cities seems nearly hopeless, three new-style big city mayors have emerged to try ideas deserving study by other cities. Edward Rendell of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), John Norquist of Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis (Indiana) are demonstrating that U.S. cities can be made to work. (SLD)

In their challenge to dominant modes of representation, their appropriation of consumer culture, and, in their impatience with cultural representations that distort realities of the present and possibilities for the future, young people have created cultural forms that speak to the loneliness, exclusion, and injustice of U.S. society. (SLD)

A 3-day conference brought together health and education experts to explore responses to adolescent health problems and to suggest ways to implement the recommendations put forward in "Fateful Choices: Healthy Youth for the 21st Century," by Fred M. Hechinger. Conference participants identified a number of adolescent health problems and the areas…

What is being done at a local level, in the neighborhood, to prevent and discourage small-time drug dealers is discussed. Partnerships of law enforcement and grassroots citizens' groups are working in many places to reduce the availability and impact of drugs in their communities. The book opens with a discussion of drug use and the urban…

Fifteen of the lowest-income neighborhoods in Cleveland (Ohio) are the focus of this report, which is concerned with the schooling of students in these 15 neighborhoods. These areas encompass most of the traditional, new, and emerging poverty areas identified in a previous report. Sixty public and 22 private and Catholic schools are examined in…

Almost one quarter of American children live in poverty, and the effects of poverty on these children are mediated by many family and social conditions. Poverty affects parenting practices and the home environment, with consequential effects on child adjustment and functioning. Changes in income cause changes in parenting and the quality of the…

The magnitude of crime, violence, victimization, and associated disruption in the urban schools of the United States severely impairs the educational process and the normal psychological development of many students. The problems of urban schools result from the problems of the larger community, but the community also holds the solutions to…

No ceremony or rite exists to usher the African American male youth into proper manhood. Such ceremonies, referred to as rites of passage, mark commonly agreed-upon standards, activities, tasks, and trials that each youth must master to achieve the community-sanctioned title "man." The clear articulation and subsequent implementation of…