Families living in urban poverty, enduring chronic and complex traumatic stress, and having difficulty meeting their children's basic needs have significant child maltreatment risk factors. There is a paucity of family focused, trauma-informed evidence-based interventions aimed to alleviate trauma symptomatology, strengthen family functioning, and…

Studies have found that certain racial groups, particularly the children of African American families, are placed in foster care at a higher rate than children of other races. These families are also sometimes found to be afforded fewer services that might prevent these removals, relative to families of other races. It is unclear why this is so.…

The complex issues associated with barriers to treatment entry for parents who are involved with child welfare has not been well explored. Accessing "timely" treatment is now critical for these parents since the introduction of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, limiting the time until a permanency decision is made. Using a longitudinal,…

Reviews "Nonprofits for Hire" (Steven R. Smith and Michael Lipsky), on the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing or accepting government purchase-of-service contracts; "Birthmothers" (Merry B. Jones); "Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect" (National Research Council); and "Young, Poor, and Pregnant"…

Reviews "Health Care Reform and Child Welfare" (DeWoody) on addressing the needs of abused and neglected children; and "Deadly Consequences" (Prothrow-Stith and Weissman) on the violence destroying the teenage population and ways to begin solving the problem. (HTH)

Minnesota has been recognized by several studies as a state with a significant amount of racial disparity in its child protection system. This study, using 2001 data from Minnesota's Social Services Information Service, was conducted to determine at which of the six decision points in Minnesota's child welfare system racial disparities are…

Argues that current economic problems may be an indication of deep, long term economic crisis. Points out implications of economic crises for families and human services, and suggests four options for responding as a society to economic hard times. (RH)

A framework for understanding child maltreatment in terms of complex and interacting factors from the individual to the societal level can aid in conceptualizing and implementing prevention efforts. Research can indicate the roles that each individual, agency, organization, community, and level of government can play in improving the welfare of…

Explains characteristics and behaviors of Native American parents who react to child protection services with extreme aggressiveness, passivity, or avoidance. Discusses appropriate behaviors for social workers to use with such parents. (BG)

Summarizes the academic and nonacademic literature on the provision of child welfare services to Canadian Native people, focusing on the impact of the contemporary political climate on such policy from the 1960s to the present. Recent literature on the subject stresses the need to examine the root socioeconomic causes for the problems facing…