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.

Reorganized for more effective classroom use, the second edition of Critical Issues in Child Welfare begins with an updated, thorough overview of the challenges currently facing at-risk children and families. A description of the child welfare system highlights issues that are discussed in more detail throughout the book. The text explores protective services, family preservation, foster care and residential care, adoption, services for adolescents, and training and retention of staff. New material highlights the recent discoveries of the impact of early trauma and stress on children's development, and the modifications currently taking place in the child welfare system in response to this new information. The book also examines the critical challenges of poverty and substance abuse, the importance of the community in shaping child welfare services, racial disproportionality in the system, the changing response of the system to LGBT issues, and services to ameliorate the difficulties of youth leaving the system.

Presents a comprehensive report of GAO's activities since 1980 on children's issues. The categories of work include child day care, child welfare and social services, education, health, housing, income security, nutrition, youth employment and training, and other family issues.

This book provides a solid foundation for understanding violence within the African-American community from the perspective of African Americans. It challenges existing stereotypes of African Americans and offers concrete advice on approaches that are, or might be, effective with African-American populations. The content is driven by real-world, evidence-based practices based on sound scientific foundations.

The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

From the skyrocketing AIDS rate in Haiti to the oppressive pollution in industrial China, from the violent street culture of Nigeria to the crippling poverty in Nicaragua, from child trafficking in Thailand to child marriages in India, this jam-packed six-volume set explores all these issues and more in an unprecedented look at the world's children at the dawn of the 21st century. In recent years, while many countries have enjoyed a higher standard of living and improved working conditions, others have been torn apart by war and incapacitated by famine, and are struggling to improve life for their children and their future. Recent concern over the world's children has resulted in a global attempt to define what constitutes an acceptable childhood. New attention has been paid, not only to healthcare and secondary education, but also to the right to play and increased access to technology. The UN's codification of children's rights has done much to expand our understanding of what is needed for healthy growth and development of children and youth. Organized by region, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children's Issues Worldwide is the first globally focused set of this magnitude, offering extensive, up-to-date coverage of these critical issues. Original chapters accessibly synthesize current data on key topics, including education, play and recreation, child labor, family, health, laws and legal status, religious life, abuse and neglect, and growing up in the 21st century.