The Safe Start demonstration projects, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under the first phase of the Safe Start initiative, are primarily designed to influence change at the systems or macrolevels to reduce the incidence of and impact of exposure to violence for children aged birth to 6 years; direct…

Exposure to marital psychological and physical abuse has been established as a risk factor for children's socio-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems. Understanding the processes by which children develop symptoms of psychopathology and deficits in cognitive functioning in the context of marital aggression is imperative for developing…

"The State of the World's Children 2014 In Numbers: Every Child Counts" highlights the critical role data and monitoring play in realizing children's rights. Credible data, disseminated effectively and used correctly, make it possible to target interventions that help right the wrong of exclusion. Data do not, of themselves, change the…

The prevalence of traumatic stress in the lives of families who are homeless is extraordinarily high. Often these families are headed by single mothers who have experienced ongoing trauma in the form of childhood abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and community violence, as well as the trauma associated with poverty and the loss of home,…

When child-raising involves violence, a conflict of values arises between the parents' autonomy and the children's right to equal participation in a democratic society. In this article I discuss, from the perspective of discourse analysis, how a dichotomous understanding of the public versus private sphere can constitute a threat to children's…

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, this edition of "The State of the World's Children" calls for brave and fresh thinking to address age-old problems that still affect the world's most disadvantaged children. The report is inspired by the work of innovators around the world--who are pushing…

Early childhood educators are likely to encounter youngsters who experience problems at home impeding their abilities to learn and benefit from the program. One such group is children who live or have lived with adult domestic violence. Children yet to begin elementary school are over-represented among groups of young people known to live with…

Across the United States, policy makers and early childhood experts are focusing on implementing and evaluating a range of interventions designed to improve school readiness for young children living in poverty. This article provides an overview of the various factors that threaten optimal development of young children living in poverty and that…

Research Findings: Family conflict is known to be associated with poor development for young children, but many children appear resilient. This study examined the extent to which high-quality center care during early childhood protects children from these negative consequences. Children participating in center-based sites of the Early Head Start…

Domestic violence can be described as a pattern of intentional behaviors that includes a variety of tactics, such as physical and sexual violence, stalking, threats/intimidation, isolation, psychological attacks, and spiritual and economic abuse. Domestic violence can happen to anyone. It does not discriminate on the basis of economic status,…

The focus of this paper is on the author's multi-modal therapeutic practice with a 7-year-old boy referred to the Family Trauma Centre, following paramilitary assaults on his father. The work also addresses the boy's experience of domestic violence. The work is contextualised in terms of the "Peace Process" in Northern Ireland, including…

This study examined the relations among family conflict, community violence, and young children's socioemotional functioning and explored how children's social cognition and mothers' psychological functioning may mediate the outcomes associated with this exposure. Mothers of 431 Head Start preschoolers completed questionnaires about their family…

Prior to attending seminars on child abuse and domestic violence, 86 kindergarten and 64 special education (early childhood) teachers completed a questionnaire seeking views relating to the accuracy of statements relating to all forms of child abuse. This was designed to identify the accuracy of teachers' knowledge of child abuse and neglect…

Objective: Treatment outcome for preschool-age children exposed to marital violence was assessed, comparing the efficacy of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) with case management plus treatment as usual in the community. Method: Seventy-five multiethnic preschool mother dyads from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds were randomly assigned to (1) CPP…

Children who suffer abuse or neglect, or have parents who suffer from mental health problems (especially maternal depression), substance abuse, or family violence, have as high a probability of experiencing developmental delays as do children with medical conditions that are automatically eligible for Part C services under the Individuals with…