This new work integrates emerging ideas on children's social networks and supports with developmental theory and research. Researchers and clinicians, armed with new methodological tools, synthesize theoretical and clinical work and suggest implications for supportive interventions for children. The periods from infancy to adolescence are covered, considering social networks inside and outside of the child's household, institutional connections, and even pets.
During the last 25 years, life expectancy at age 50 in the United States has been rising, but at a slower pace than in many other high-income countries, such as Japan and Australia. This difference is particularly notable given that the United States spends more on health care than any other nation. Concerned about this divergence, the National Institute on Aging asked the National Research Council to examine evidence on its possible causes. According to Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries, the nation's history of heavy smoking is a major reason why lifespans in the United States fall short of those in many other high-income nations. Evidence suggests that current obesity levels play a substantial part as well. The book reports that lack of universal access to health care in the U.S. also has increased mortality and reduced life expectancy, though this is a less significant factor for those over age 65 because of Medicare access. For the main causes of death at older ages-cancer and cardiovascular disease-available indicators do not suggest that the U.S. health care system is failing to prevent deaths that would be averted elsewhere. In fact, cancer detection and survival appear to be better in the U.S. than in most other high-income nations, and survival rates following a heart attack also are favorable. Explaining Divergent Levels of Longevity in High-Income Countries identifies many gaps in research. For instance, while lung cancer deaths are a reliable marker of the damage from smoking, no clear-cut marker exists for obesity, physical inactivity, social integration, or other risks considered in this book. Moreover, evaluation of these risk factors is based on observational studies, which-unlike randomized controlled trials-are subject to many biases.
This edited volume brings together top-notch scientists and practitioners to illustrate intersections between health communication, behavior change, and treatment adherence.
This book offers for the first time a clear conception of what social support networks are, why they are important, how they are identified and sustained, where they fit in an overall framework of human services, and their limits and potential in selected fields of practice. Individual chapters explore: child, adolescent, and family services; daycare and early childhood development; divorced and stepfamilies; schools; delinquency prevention and treatment; mental health; service to the elderly; development disabilities; healthcare and health promotion; and drug treatment. The use of social support networks--extended family, friends, neighbors, and other "informal" helpers--is an idea whose time has come in the human services field. At a time when spiraling costs and popular sentiment weigh against any major expansion of services, it is apparent that a service strategy based primarily on the notion of professional helping delivered on a case-by-case basis, usually in a one-to-one relationship, has serious limitations. Professional response to this major work has been uniformly positive: "[The editors] have assembled a book of considerable importanceà brilliant in both scholarship and constructionà will appeal to a broad readershipà "--Gerald Euster, University of South Carolina. "à offers a much needed balance to the focus on individual and internal dynamics which has characterized social work education for several decades."--Eleanor Reardon Tolson, University of Chicago. "Social Support Networks is a valuable contributionà a unique, original, and authoritative book...an exciting, timely, and definitely practice-oriented book with a strong theoretical and research base."--Anthony N. Maluccio, University of Connecticut. James K. Whittaker is professor of social work at the University of Washington. A former childcare worker, therapist, and administrator in residential childcare, he has been a consultant to governmental and voluntary children's agencies throughout the United States. James Garbarino is Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. He was president of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development, Chicago, Illinois, from 1985 to 1994. He is the co-author of Troubled Youth, Troubled Families, also available from AldineTransaction.
"No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor." Traditional Danish Proverb This bit of Danish folk wisdom expresses an idea underlying much of the current thinking about social support. While the clinical literature has for a long time recognized the deleterious effects of unwholesome social relationships, only more recently has the focus broadened to include the positive side of social interaction, those interpersonal ties that are desired, rewarding, and protective. This book contains theoretical and research contributions by a group of scholars who are charting this side of the social spectrum. Evidence is increasing that maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving occur disproportionately among people with few social supports. Rather than sapping self-reliance, strong ties with others particularly family members seem to encourage it. Reliance on others and self-reliance are not only compatible but complementary to one another. While the mechanism by which an intimate relationship is protective has yet to be worked out, the following factors seem to be involved: intimacy, social integration through shared concerns, reassurance of worth, the opportunity to be nurtured by others, a sense of reliable alliance, and guidance. The major advance that is taking place in the literature on social support is that reliance is being -placed less on anecdotal and clinical evidence and more on empirical inquiry. The chapters of this book reflect this important development and identify the frontiers that are currently being explored.
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
Social networks and online communities are reshaping the way people communicate, both in their personal and professional lives. What makes some succeed and others fail? What draws a user in? What makes them join? What keeps them coming back? Entrepreneurs and businesses are turning to user experience practitioners to figure this out. Though they are well-equipped to evaluate and create a variety of interfaces, social networks require a different set of design principles and ways of thinking about the user in order to be successful. Design to Thrive presents tried and tested design methodologies, based on the author’s decades of research, to ensure successful and sustainable online communities -- whether a wiki for employees to share procedures and best practices or for the next Facebook. The book describes four criteria, called "RIBS," which are necessary to the design of a successful and sustainable online community. These concepts provide designers with the tools they need to generate informed creative and productive design ideas, to think proactively about the communities they are building or maintaining, and to design communities that encourage users to actively contribute. Provides essential tools to create thriving social networks, helping designers to avoid common pitfalls, avoid costly mistakes, and to ensure that communities meet client needs Contains real world stories from popular, well known communities to illustrate how the concepts work Features a companion online network that employs the techniques outlined in the boo
