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America's Children offers a valuable overview of the dramatic transformations in American childhood over the past fifty years, a period of historic shifts that reduced the human and material resources available to our children. Alarmingly, one fifth of all U.S. children now grow up in poverty, many are without health insurance, and about 30 percent never graduate from high school. Despite such conditions, economic, family, and educational programs for children have earned low national priority and have been dependent on inconsistent state and local management. Drawing upon census and survey data from 1940 to 1990, Donald J. Hernandez provides a vivid portrait of children in America and puts forth a forceful case for overhauling our national child welfare policies. Hernandez shows how important revolutions in household composition and income, parental education and employment, child care, and levels of poverty have affected children's well-being. As working wives and single mothers increasingly replace the traditional homemaker, children spend greater portions of time in educational and daycare facilities outside the home, and those with single mothers stand the greatest chance of being welfare dependent. Wider changes in society have created even greater stress for children in certain groups as they age: out-of-wedlock births are on the rise for white teenagers, half of all Hispanic youths never graduate high school, and violence accounts for nearly 90 percent of all black teenage deaths. America's Children explores the interaction of many trends in children's lives and the fundamental social, demographic, and economic processes that lie at their core. The book concludes with a thoughtful analysis of the ability of families and government to provide for a new age of children, with emphasis on reducing racial inequities and providing greater public support for families, comparable to the family policies of other developed countries. As the traditional "Ozzie and Harriet" family recedes into collective memory, the importance of creating strong national policies for children is amplified, particularly in the areas of financial assistance, health insurance, education, and daycare. America's Children provides a compelling guide for reassessing the forces that shape our children and the resources available to safeguard their future

Cover; REALIZING THE POTENTIAL OF IMMIGRANT YOUTH; Series Editors; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Contributors; Introduction; Organization of the Volume; Conclusions; REFERENCES; Part 1: WHO MIGRATES AND HOW DO THEY FARE?: Sociodemographic Perspectives; 1: Resources, Strengths, and Challenges for Children in Immigrant Families in Eight Affluent Countries; Introduction; The Eight Study Countries; The Origins of Children in Immigrant Families; The Importance of Children in Immigrant Families; The Integration and Inclusion of Immigrants; Two-Parent Families; Language.

The well-being and productivity of immigrant youth has become one of the most important global issues of our times as a result of mass migration and resettlement. In this unique volume, leading scholars from multiple nations and disciplines provide a state-of-the-art overview of contemporary research on immigrant youth and delineate the most promising future directions for research on their success, suggesting implications for policy and interventions that will benefit host societies as well as immigrant youth. The contributors to Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth include many of the leading international experts on migration, acculturation, intergroup issues and immigrant youth development, with contributions from the fields of child development, demography, economics, education, immigrant mental health, social psychology and sociology

From Generation to Generation explores what we know about the development of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian children and youth from numerous countries of origin. Describing the status of immigrant children and youth as "severely understudied," this work both draws on and supplements existing research to characterize the current status and outlook for immigrant children. The book discusses the many factors - acculturation, conditions in their receiving communities, parent employment and income, fluency in English, delivery of health and social services, and public policies - that shape the lives of these children and youth. The committee makes recommendations for improved research and data collection designed to advance knowledge about these children and, as a result, their visibility in current policy debates