**Children, Youth &
Families
Timing of Poverty in
Childhood Critical to Later Outcomes
Poverty at any point in
a child's early life negatively affects a child's educational and social competencies.
New data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, however, has shown that
less serious long-term affects are seen with young children whose families
move out of poverty later on. On the other hand, poverty later in childhood,
from ages 4 to 9, was linked to increased school and social problems.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/sfri-tkw070605.php
To Know What Your Teenager
is Doing, Get to Know Your Teen
Researchers from Pennsylvania and Washington state universities report in the July/August journal Child
Development that it takes more than simply asking questions for parents to
know what's going on in their teenagers' lives. The research, funded by the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, found that the best
way to acquire knowledge about your teenagers' experiences is to be in a relationship
in which your teen openly shares with you, and in which you know your child
well enough to notice subtle cues.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/sfri-tkw070605.php
Parental Involvement,
Social Understanding, Protect Teens from Violence
Researchers from Georgia State and Yale universities find that parental involvement and social
understanding (thinking about social interactions in a non-hostile way) can
create resilient teenagers who avoid violent behavior despite living in a
dangerous neighborhood. This survey of 1,599 adolescents in a large northeastern
urban public school system serving mostly low-income and minority families
showed that girls and boys differ in what influences them to avoid violent
behavior. These findings show the necessity of gender-based violence prevention
efforts in communities.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/sfri-pis070605.php
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Environment More than
Genes Determines Child's Social Aggressiveness
Researchers from the University of Quebec have found that social aggression, inflicting emotional rather
than physical pain on others, seems to be only 20 percent genetically influenced
while genetics account for over half of physical aggression's appearance.
A new study of 234 six-year old twins' physical and social aggression suggests
that socially aggressive tactics gradually replace physical aggression in
a developmental shift. This shift implies that early intervention may prevent
the development of social aggression in physically aggressive kids.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/sfri-emt070605.php
State Tax Credits for
Child Care
According to The
Urban Institute child care costs can represent a significant barrier for
low-income working families. As of 2004, along with a federal credit for child
care expenses, 27 states offered tax credits or deductions to offset child
care expenses. Thirteen states offered a refundable child care credit - or
a credit that was refundable for at least low-income families; twelve states
offered child care credits that were non-refundable, and three states offered
a deduction of child care expenses.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9319
A Needed Transition:
Lessons from Illinois about Teen Parent TANF Rules
According to the Center
for Law and Social Policy TANF legislation includes two rules specific
to minor parents (parents under age 18). One rule requires that minor parents
live in an approved arrangement, usually with their parents. The other rule
requires that minor parents typically participate in education leading to
a high school diploma or GED. This issue brief reviews how Illinois approached
eligibility under the two minor parent rules, and it explores why and how
Illinois moved forward with a transitional
compliance administrative rule. It also examines the effect the rule has
had--notably that the process led to a better understanding of minor parents'
individual circumstances and thus led to fewer inappropriate denials.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/needed_transition.pdf
**Civic Engagement and Philanthropy
Helping in a Selfish
World
Billions of people tuned
into recent Live 8 concerts. What makes some of us look out for each other,
while others look out for themselves? Traditionally, scientists have explained
co-operation using kin selection. Help to relatives makes sense if it means
your relative will have more children who will carry your genes into the next
generation. However, McMaster University researchers show that in certain situations
the reverse is true: unrelated individuals help more.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/mu-hia071205.php
Foundation Expenses and
Compensation: Interim Report 2005
An interim report from The
Urban Institute provides a summary of the findings to date from the Foundation
Expenses and Compensation Study, a partnership of the Urban Institute, the
Foundation Center, and GuideStar. The study considers
the expense and compensation patterns of the nation's 10,000 largest independent,
corporate, and community foundations circa 2001. This report documents how
major differences in operating styles affect the expense levels of philanthropic
foundations.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9318
**Community Development
Innovative Home Ownership
Program to Build Stronger East Side Community
For families without a tradition
of home ownership, the barriers to owning a home can be more than just money.
Cultural and language differences or the lack of trusted real estate and financial
advisors can be just as daunting. An innovative program that will evolve
over the next five years on St. Paul's East Side will help inexperienced purchasers and new homeowners overcome
these kinds of barriers. The goal is to help area residents get and keep
a foothold in the real estate market.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050712.144227&time=10%2000%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
For African-Americans,
Struggle and Some Gains
Eighty years after the Great
Migration from the South Chicago's African-American community is moving in many directions,
separated by class and political division. Most of Chicago's African-Americans live in all-black
communities, many hard-hit by decades of poverty. Yet with a metro-area population
of more than 1.5 million and fast-growing suburban populations, the black
community is more diverse than ever.
http://www.newstips.org/interior.php?section=Newstips&main_id=505&topic
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Get more information on
these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
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**Economic Security
Organizing the “Unorganizable”
In the "new economy,"
contingent labor is emerging as a mainstay of the workforce, with clerical,
warehouse and factory workers commonly employed as temporaries and even professors,
doctors, and managers filling temporary assignments. In recent years the temporary
help industry has grown as much as ten times the rate of the workforce as
a whole. Here and around the country, a new form of community-based labor
organization, the "workers' center," has sprung up to organize low-wage
immigrant workers and day laborers. Extremely vulnerable to a variety of abuses,
these workers seek support from community leaders and public agencies and
ultimately rely on direct action, not collective bargaining agreements, to
get results.
http://www.newstips.org/interior.php?section=Newstips&main_id=505&topic=
Benefit Cuts Won't Solve
Social Security's Financing Problem
According to the Economic
Policy Institute’s Snapshot, President Bush proposes to solve the long-term
financial problems of Social Security by lowering the share of income that
Social Security provides for workers. This means cutting the income of families
when a worker is no longer able to earn enough to maintain a family's lifestyle
and a large number of American families do not have private counterparts to
Social Security benefits.
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20050713
The Employment Retention
and Advancement Project
According to MDRC,
early results are mixed for Employment and Retention Advancement project programs
in four sites, but programs in two sites appear to help some welfare recipients
work more steadily and advance to higher-paying jobs.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/413/overview.html
Job Growth, Full-Time
Employment Lags Other Recoveries
The latest Jobs Picture
from the Economic Policy Institute finds
that, although the number of jobs reported in June is solid, labor force participation
lags previous recoveries. EPI JobWach.org examines more data from the most
recent Bureau of Labor Statistics reports and finds that, if full-time employment
had grown at the rate following the 1990 recession, the labor market would
have 2.1 million more people with full-time employment today.
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_econindicators_jobspict_20050708
**Education
The Challenge of Scaling
Up Educational Reform
According to MDRC
First Things First, a comprehensive school reform initiative, increased student
achievement in Kansas City, Kansas, the first school district to adopt the
reform model. It is not yet clear if First Things First is working in four
other school districts in which it has been replicated.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/412/overview.html
New Initiative Will Address
Lack of Community Involvement, Consensus on Improving Public Schools
Public Agenda, one of the
nation's most respected public opinion and citizen engagement organizations,
announced a new initiative that will help those on the front lines of education
reform - teachers, parents, and school leaders - work together more effectively
to achieve key education goals. The move comes amid intensifying calls to
refashion American high schools and just as the impact of No Child Left Behind
is becoming more visible at the community level. Through this new initiative,
Education Insights, Public Agenda will partner with foundations, reform groups,
education associations, and communities nationwide to address the problems
of poor communication and lack of consensus that could slow progress on improving
schools.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050711.074046&time=08%2053%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
After-School Programs
May Foster Academic Achievement
Children who are highly
engaged in after-school programs can improve their reading, academic motivation,
and expectations for their own success when compared to children whose after-school
care includes that of babysitters, relatives, and time alone. This study by
Yale and New York University researchers focused on ethnically
diverse, economically disadvantaged children enrolled in three Northeast public
schools. These results are relevant in light of growing numbers of children
enrolled in after-school programs, and policy issue of how to fund these programs.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/sfri-apm070605.php
Secretary of Education released a statement regarding the 2004 National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Long-Term Trends in Academic Progress,
also known as the Nation's Report Card. This particular NAEP long-term trend
assessment has been administered using the same exact test in reading and
mathematics for over 30 years. “The results from the newest Report Card are
in and the news is outstanding. Three years ago, our country made a commitment
that no child would be left behind. Today's Report Card is proof that No
Child Left Behind is working-it is helping to raise the achievement
of young students of every race and from every type of family background.
And the achievement gap that has persisted for decades in the younger years
between minorities and whites has shrunk to its smallest size in history…”
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/07/07142005.html
**Health
US Still Spends More
on Healthcare than Any Other Country
Researchers from the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the United States continues to spend significantly more
on health care than any country in the world. They also found that supply
constraints and malpractice litigation could not explain the difference in
health care costs.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=283969
Parents' English Proficiency
Tied to Children's Health
Speaking a language other
than English at home and having limited English proficiency (LEP) are both
associated with health care disparities. New research from the Commonwealth
Fund shows, however, that LEP is the more useful of the two factors for measuring
the impact of language barriers on children's health and health care.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=284872
New Survey Examines the
State of Women's Health Care
A new national survey from
The Kaiser Family Foundation finds that
more than one-quarter of non-elderly women have delayed or gone without health
care they believed they needed in the past year because of the cost. The survey
covers a broad range of issues facing women, including health status, health
care costs, insurance, access to care, prevention, and their role in family
health care.
http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/whp070705pkg.cfm
Maximizing HIV Prevention
in the U.S.
According to a RAND Corporation
study, focusing HIV-related interventions on the most cost-effective strategies
may prevent substantially more HIV infections in the United States each year than current approaches.
http://www.rand.org/news/press.05/07.12.html
Medicare Enrollees to
Ride Cost 'Rollercoaster' Under Drug Benefit
A new study from the Commonwealth
Fund finds that under Medicare Part D, beneficiaries will incur high average
out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and many will face dramatic changes
in spending from quarter to quarter.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=283968
Medicaid Commission Named
By Secretary Leavitt Lacks Balance
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, on Friday, July 8, HHS Secretary Mike
Leavitt named the members of his new Medicaid Commission, which is designed
both to make recommendations by September 2005 on how to cut $10 billion from
Medicaid funding and to make longer-term recommendations regarding Medicaid
by December 2006. The membership of the commission appears to substantially
unbalanced. It does not reflect an appropriate and diverse range of views
concerning health care policy and the needs of Medicaid beneficiaries.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-11-05health.htm
**Substance Abuse
Involved Parents Influence
how Teens Think about Substance Use and the People who Use Them
Researchers from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Iowa State University, and the University of
Georgia followed 714 African-American adolescents
and their parents for five years. Although it is understood that involved
parents have adolescents less likely to use substances such as alcohol, marijuana
and cigarettes, involved parenting actually affects a teenager's thought processes.
A teen's image of one who engages in these activities, and a teen's own willingness
to do so, are the areas most affected by involved parents. The results suggest
that parents ultimately may be able to reduce the chance of substance abuse
by influencing a teen's thinking.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/sfri-ipi070605.php
Recovery Schools Support
Sobriety for Young People
According to one study,
almost all adolescents returning to their old school after completing a treatment
program were offered drugs on their first day back. Findings such as this
sparked a recent innovation in American education: recovery schools, which
are high school or college programs designed to support young people in recovery
from addiction. Recovery schools have developed quickly over the past few
years, but often in isolation from each other. That's changing, however. Staff
members at recovery schools are making connections with each other, a body
of best practices is emerging to guide their work, and formal research to
evaluate recovery schools is on the horizon.
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/features/reader/0%2C1854%2C577648%2C00.html
Abuse of Prescription
Drugs Widespread
A report by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University finds that
abuse of prescription drugs is "epidemic," with teenagers the fastest-growing
group of new abusers, yet the problem has not drawn adequate attention from
health and law enforcement agencies, physicians, pharmacists and parents.
http://66.135.34.236/absolutenm/templates/PressReleases.asp?articleid=397&zoneid=56
SAMHSA Awards 12 Grants
to Combat Underage Drinking
The Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Administration (SAMHSA) has awarded 12 grants totaling $15.5 million
to various educational organizations and institutes of higher learning to
combat underage drinking. The grants are part of SAMHSA's "Targeted
Capacity Expansion Campus Screening and Brief Intervention" program to
expand on-campus medical services by screening for risk-behaviors through
student health programs, to identify and help high-risk drinkers, and encourage
brief interventions to curb alcohol abuse among college students.
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/funding/reader/0%2C1854%2C577652%2C00.html
NIAAA Underage Drinking
Grants
Three to five awards of
$400,000 will be awarded to rural and small urban healthcare systems under
the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's (NIAAA's) "Underage Drinking:
Building Health Care System Responses" grant program. Phase 1 of the
program looks for health systems to form cooperative agreements to conduct
research into underage drinking, collate data on the extent of the problem,
and develop a strategy to counteract its spread. Phase 2 will fund the actual
interventions.
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/funding/reader/0%2C1854%2C577650%2C00.html
Desire to Stop Drinking
Could be More Important than Therapy
The positive outcomes of
therapy for alcoholism may have less to do with the therapy itself and more
to do with participants' determination to quit. These are the findings of
a study published today in the Open Access journal, BMC Public Health, which
provides a new analysis of previous data from Project MATCH, a clinical trial
of three common forms of therapy used for the treatment of alcoholism.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/bc-dts071205.php
