Children Families And Communities

Children, Families and Communities 3e examines the factors that influence children's development. This new edition has been revised and updated to include the very latest research and topical issues, such as child obesity and the impact of community violence, international conflict andterrorism.

The child development field is changing all the time, and with each edition Children Families and Communities has endeavoured to reflect contemporary thinking, current theory and research, as well as the most topical issues. The editors also flag the issues that they see as important to moving the field forward, such as the importance of child voice and participation in decision making relating to research, policy and practice. This fifth edition is focused on child development within the Australian context and the factors that influence childrens development. These include the effects of ability, ethnicity, family, school, neighbourhood (including rural, urban and remote communities) and state interventions and policies. The structure continues to reflect the contextual layers described in Bronfenbrenners bioecological model. All of the individual chapters have been reconceptualised and rewritten to reflect current research evidence and theory development. The book benefits from the contributions of experts with child development backgrounds alongside those who think about childhood within the disciplinary frames of sociology, history, social work, education, health, and law. The authors bring exceptional academic, policy, and practical experience.

Despite the numerous benefits derived from major technological and medical innovations of the past century, we continue to live in a world rife with significant social problems and challenges. Children continue to be born into lives of poverty; others must confront daily their parent’s mental illness or substance abuse; still others live amid chronic family discord or child abuse. For some of these children, life’s difficulties become overwhelming. Their enduring trauma can lead to a downward spiral, until their behavioral and emotional problems become lifelong barriers to success and wellbeing. Almost no one today would deny that the world is sometimes an inhospitable, even dangerous, place for our youth. Yet most children—even those living in high-risk environments—appear to persevere. Some even flourish. And this begs the question: why, in the face of such great odds, do these children become survivors rather than casualties of their environments? For many decades, scholars have pursued answers to the mysteries of resilience. Now, having culled several decades of research findings, the editors of this volume offer an in-depth, leading-edge description and analysis of Resilience in Children, Families and Communities: Linking Context to Practice and Policy. The book is divided into three readily accessible sections that both define the scope and limits of resilience as well as provide hands-on programs that families, neighborhoods, and communities can implement. In addition, several chapters provide real-life intervention strategies and social policies that can be readily put into practice. The goal: to enable children to develop more effective problem-solving skills, to help each child to improve his or her self-image, and to define ways in which role models can affect positive outcomes throughout each child’s lifetime. For researchers, clinicians, and students, Resilience in Children, Families and Communities: Linking Context to Practice and Policy is an essential addition to their library. It provides practical information to inform greater success in the effort to encourage resilience in all children and to achieve positive youth development.

Children, Families and Communities investigates how children, families and communities influence each other. It focuses on how a child's development is influenced by personal characteristics including disability, ethnicity, and gender as well as contexts such as family, neighbourhood, school, and state policies. [Back cover].

The evidence-based strategies in this volume close the achievement gap among students from all sociological backgrounds. Designed according to local needs assessments, they provide the services, programs, initiatives, and relationships that are crucial for children's success in school and life. These practices and programs include afterschool and summer sessions, early-childhood education, school-linked health and mental health services, family engagement, and youth leadership opportunities. This book addresses the policy and funding requirements that help these partnerships thrive and offers effective counterarguments against those who would question their value. The text describes strategies that work in both rural and urban contexts and includes a chapter evaluating school-community partnerships across the world. Because it involves collaborations across professions and organizations, the book's interdisciplinary approach will appeal to those in social work, education, psychology, public health, counseling, nursing, and public policy.

Children, Families and Communities:Contexts and consequences is about how children, families, and communities influence one another in Australia. It focuses particularly on how children's development is affected by different contexts.

In the past decade the relationship between communities, children and families has inspired a wealth of research and policy initiatives because of a growing belief that the breakdown of families and communities is a significant factor in social problems, including child abuse and juvenile crime. The latest policy initiatives to tackle social problems have therefore targeted communities as well as high risk families. This title amalgamates the latest research on the relationship between children, families and communities and explores policy and practice implications. Material for practitioners and community development workers is also be included. The book is divided in to three parts: 1) theory 2) the effect of community on children, parents and families 3) interventions and policy implications.

This title draws on the work of Sheffield Children's Centre, a well-known community cooperative, where cutting edge practice and recognised models of good practice have emerged from community participation.