The current status of street children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is characterized by marginalization from society through street vending, begging, theft, and prostitution. Evaluation of a drop-in center serving children without family linkages indicates need for needs assessments, follow-up activities, measurement of individual child progress,…

Service learning adds instructional value to any curriculum area, and it is especially appropriate for education courses. Its benefits include development of critical thinking, deeper processing of course content, and practical related experience. Using action research, this article examines the impact of service learning on preservice teachers'…

Adolescence is a developmental period during which many youth experiment with risk practices. This paper examined the association of parental monitoring with a range of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use behaviors among high-risk youth, while controlling for other demographic and environmental variables previously found to be associated with AOD…

Most often, homeless students are members of minority groups who have attended several schools during their school career, are from single-parent households, and have histories of irregular school attendance. These students also frequently suffer from physical and mental challenges that are rooted in poverty, lack access to medical care, and have…

Of all the varieties of educational disadvantage, issues involving students who are homeless, or who move frequently because of poverty, are perhaps some of the most difficult for public school educators in the US to address. Using a pragmatic mixed methods design, this study evaluates the efficacy of participatory action research (PAR): (1) as a…

This article discusses a teaching and research initiative in which 12 third-year undergraduate students and a lecturer worked as volunteers at a local drop-in centre for homeless men and women, and subsequently conducted 49 life history interviews there. Students were asked to keep a diary, recording field observations and reflections on stories…

Objectives: This study documents the extent and impact of perceived patterns of behavior in a sample of youths of the streets of Ibadan, Nigeria, with the purpose of implementing a Life Skills Educational (LSE) intervention. Method: The study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Qualitatively, two Focus Group…

The goal of this study was to describe HIV risk behaviors, perceptions, testing, and prevention exposure among urban American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Interviewers administered a questionnaire to participants recruited through anonymous peer-referral sampling. Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression were used to compare HIV…

The 12 chapters of this volume offer a comprehensive portrait of today's children and their challenging urban environments. The opportunities and obstacles that confront children are examined in detail, and key social problems are discussed in the following contributions: (1) "Growing Up in the Urban Environment: Opportunities and Obstacles for…

This qualitative study examined the ways in which homeless children cope with their environment. Preliminary data were gathered by observing homeless children at a homeless shelter day care center in a medium-sized midwestern city. As many as 12 children, aged 2 to 6 years, were observed in the day care setting on three different weekday mornings.…

Testing of skills in reading, mathematics, and English as a second language (ESL) was conducted at 12 programs for homeless people in California in 1992; 2,111 homeless persons were evaluated. Analysis of the data revealed that approximately 63 percent of the participants were male and 37 percent were female; 35 percent were between 20-29, 39…

This report describes the activities of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation for the 1993 fiscal year. Organized in 1950, the foundation's grant activities focus on five areas: children, disadvantaged youth, homeless families, justice, and tropical disease research. The report provides: (1) a brief history of the foundation and its activities; (2)…

This book explores in six chapters the issues behind family homelessness in America and presents some solutions to this increasing problem. Chapter 1 analyzes some of the causes for homelessness with a look at the 1980s, cuts in social programs, the insufficient help provided by federal authorities, and efforts of local initiatives. In chapter 2 a…

When a child has lost his or her permanent housing and experiences the stress of a family crisis, the additional loss of a familiar school and its context may well be devastating. A basic educational need of children is continuity and stability in schooling. Yet most children (142 Chicago, Illinois families in shelters) interviewed in this…

This document presents witness testimonies and prepared statements from a Senate hearing held in Atlanta, Georgia to examine the problem of crime among youth and to discuss the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. In his opening statement, Senator Fowler notes that the reauthorization puts greater…