In this book, the authors argue that a public health framework rooted in ecological theory and based on principles of risk, protection, and resilience is a useful conceptual model for the design of social policy across the substantive areas of child welfare, education, mental health, health, developmental disabilities, substance use, and juvenile justice. Recommendations for ways to advance a public health framework in policy design, implementation, and evaluation are offered.
This book shows how the labeling of children as "at-risk" actually perpetuates the inequities, racism, and discrimination facing many families in America.
This account of six families whose children were wrongly seized by child protection services vividly illustrates the constitutional balancing act where medicine, family interests, and child safety can clash. They Took the Kids Last Night shows a rarely exposed side of America's contemporary struggle to address child abuse, telling the stories of loving families who were almost destroyed by false allegations—readily accepted by caseworkers, doctors, the media, and, too often, the courts. Each of the six wrongly accused families profiled in this book faced an epic and life-changing battle when child protection caseworkers came to their homes to take their kids. In each case, a child had an injury whose cause was unknown; it could have been due to an accident, a medical condition, or abuse. Each family ultimately exonerated itself and restored its family life, but still bears scars from the experience that will never disappear. The book tells why and how the child protection system failed these families. It also examines the larger flaws in our country's child protection safety net that is supposed to sort out the innocent from the guilty in order to protect children.
Dobson and Bauer outline the struggle between value systems in America, the outcome of which will affect the moral welfare of this generation of children. They provide ideas for those who want to counter these negative influences.
The clearest, most comprehensive text available on the neurological and psycho-social development of children from birth to 8, this cutting-edge book will be the cornerstone of every early interventionist's education. Essential for preservice professionals across multiple disciplines--and for inservice practitioners in search of a reference they can trust-- this textbook helps readers fully understand child development, address the complex needs of children with disabilities and their families, and skillfully connect the latest clinical knowledge with everyday practice. Illustrated with dozens of engaging and instructive photos, this text helps future professionals in education, medicine, and related clinical fields meet state requirements for training in early childhood special education with complete coverage of the birth-8 period understand the full range of issues-medical, psychosocial, cultural, developmental, and educational-affecting child development ensure strong partnerships with professionals and families by learning about other disciplines and understanding the challenges parents face address social-emotional factors at every stage of a child's early development discover how clinical issues affect children in educational settings after the critical transition to school develop sensitivity to diverse family needs through eye-opening vignettes and child-family studies With this accessible core textbook and professional reference, early interventionists will be ready to work effectively with children who have or are at risk for developmental delays--and pool their knowledge and resources with professionals across disciplines to ensure the best outcomes for children and families.
This volume adopts a context-informed framework exploring risk, maltreatment, well-being and protection of children in diverse groups in Israel. It incorporates the findings of seven case studies conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's NEVET Greenhouse of Context-Informed Research and Training for Children in Need. Each case study applies a context-informed approach to the study of perspectives of risk and protection among parents, children and professionals from different communities in Israel, utilizing varied qualitative methodologies. The volume analyses the importance of studying children and parents's perspectives in diverse societies and stresses the need for a context-informed perspective in designing prevention and intervention programs for children at risk and their families living in diverse societies. It further explores potential contribution to theory, research, practice, policy and training in the area of child maltreatment.
Evidence-based interventions are increasingly being required by third-party payers and an evidence-based orientation has come to define ethical practice. This compendium of short, how-to chapters focuses on the programs and interventions to prevent child maltreatment that have the best scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness. Interventions and programs discussed include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, Multisystemic Therapy, Coping Cat, and many more. Busy practitioners will appreciate this book's implementation of evidence-based practices by providing the practical and "what now" rather than using the typical academic approach.
During the past decade, a dramatic increase in research and clinical interest has risen in child abuse and neglect. This recent growth in awareness isdue at leastpartly to thealarmingstatisticsdocumentingthe incidence of child maltreatment. Almost one million children are re ported to be abused and neglected each year, and many experts believe that this figure underestimates the true incidence. Indeed, recentsurveys suggest that almost 1. 5 million children are the targets of domestic vio lence every year. A significantproportion of these children die as a func tion of this maltreatment, whereas theremaindersuffera variety ofshort and long-term deleterious medicaland psychosocial consequences. Child maltreatment is a universal problem that has precipitated a mobilization of effort from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, medicine, psychiatry, social work, sociology, and criminology. Particular attention has been directed toward the prevention and treatment of childabuse and neglect. Such endeavors require the screen ing of large groups in order to identify families that are at high-risk for engaging in such behavior. Delineating those characteristics that differ entiate high- from low-risk families and children is one of the obvious priorities for researchers and clinicians in the future. This book, there fore, carefully considers the status of research on risk factors of abuse and neglect in children. Adduced data undoubtedly will have practical value for subsequent intervention efforts.
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.
Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves-they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect, which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains-including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems-and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.
