Advances in Child and Family Policy and Practice – serie

The brief provides an overview of Dr. Penelope K. Trickett’s work and explores her innovations in the areas of theory, measurement, and methodology in the study of child maltreatment. It offers a summary of Dr. Trickett’s seminal longitudinal studies on child maltreatment, including their influence on understanding the impact of sexual abuse and child maltreatment on female and adolescent development. Chapters examine the impact of her work on policy and practice and offer present four new empirical studies that have been directly influenced by Dr. Trickett’s contributions. The brief concludes with further research recommendations to bridge the current policy and practice gaps.Topics featured in this brief include:Childhood sexual abuse and its effect on eating disorder development in females.The traumatic nature of reporting maltreatment in adolescents.Associations between adolescents’ community violence exposure (CVE) and the development of aggressive behavior problems. Child sexual abuse experiences in Korea.Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.

This brief examines the U.S. foster care system and seeks to explain why the foster care system functions as it does and how it can be improved to serve the best interest of children. It defines and evaluates key challenges that undermine child safety and well-being in the current foster care system. Chapters highlight the competing values and priorities of the system as well as the pros and cons for the use of foster care. In addition, chapters assess whether the performance objectives in which states are evaluated by the federal government are sufficient to achieve positive health and well-being outcomes for children who experience foster care. Finally, it offers recommendations for improving the system and maximizing positive outcomes.Topics featured in this brief include: Legal aspects of removal and placement of children in foster care.The effectiveness of prior efforts to reform foster care.The regulation and quality of fosterhomes.Support for youth aging out of the foster care system.Racial and ethnic disparities in the foster care system.Foster Care and the Best Interests of the Child is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.

This Brief focuses on children with incarcerated mothers, a growing and vulnerable population. It presents five empirical studies, along with an introduction and summary chapter. The five empirical chapters examine new qualitative and quantitative data on:Typical occurrences when pregnant women give birth during incarceration in contrast with the benefits of a prison doula program for mothers and newborns.A mother’s criminal justice involvement for substance abuse crimes and its effects on children’s protective services involvement and foster care placement. How children cope with separation from their mothers because of their incarceration and how that separation continues to affect children's lives following family reunification.Differences in recidivism trajectories between mothers and nonmothers during the 10 years following release from incarceration.Alternatives to incarceration for women in residential drug treatment and how community supervision mandates can affect, contribute to, or extend mother-child separation.The final chapter integrates the information from the empirical studies and summarizes implications for policy and practice. Children with Incarcerated Mothers is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.

This book synthesizes research about the effects of food insecurity on children, families, and households, emphasizing multiple pathways and variations across developmental contexts. It focuses on emerging new methods that allow for a more refined approach to practice and policy. The volume provides a brief overview of the topic, and additional empirical chapters pose and address unanswered research questions. It concludes with a short commentary, providing recommendations for future research and policy and yielding a significant and timely contribution to advance developmental scientific knowledge and promote its use to improve the lives of children and families.Featured areas of coverage include:The effects of early food insecurity on children’s academic and socio-emotional outcomes.The effects of household food insecurity on children with disabilities.Early childhood access to Women, Infants, and. Children (WIC) and school readiness.Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and adolescent mental health.Food Insecurity in Families with Children is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals as well as graduate students and researchers in developmental, clinical, and school psychology, child, youth and family policy, public health, and social work.

This open access book focuses on the public health crisis of youth suicide and provides a review of current research and prevention practices. It addresses important topics, including suicide epidemiology, suicide risk detection in school and medical settings, critical cultural considerations, and approaches to lethal means safety. This book offers cutting-edge research on emerging discoveries in the neurobiology of suicide, psychopharmacology, and machine learning. It focuses on upstream suicide prevention research methods and details how cost-effective approaches can mitigate youth suicide risk when implemented at a universal level. Chapters discuss critical areas for future research, including how to evaluate the effectiveness of suicide prevention and intervention efforts, increase access to mental health care, and overcome systemic barriers that undermine generalizability of prevention strategies. Finally, this book highlights what is currently working well in youth suicide prevention and, just as important, which areas require more attention and support.Key topics include:The neurobiology of suicide in at-risk children and adolescents.The role of machine learning in youth suicide prevention.Suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention in schools.Suicide risk screening and assessment in medical settings.Culturally informed risk assessment and suicide prevention efforts with minority youth.School mental health partnerships and telehealth models of care in rural communities.Suicide and self-harm prevention and interventions for LGBTQ+ youth.Risk factors associated with suicidal behavior in Black youth.Preventing suicide in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID).Youth Suicide Prevention and Intervention is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals,graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, sociology, and all related disciplines.

This Brief reviews the past, present, and future use of school corporal punishment in the United States, a practice that remains legal in 19 states as it is constitutionally permitted according to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result of school corporal punishment, nearly 200,000 children are paddled in schools each year. Most Americans are unaware of this fact or the physical injuries sustained by countless school children who are hit with objects by school personnel in the name of discipline. Therefore,  Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools begins by summarizing the legal basis for school corporal punishment and trends in Americans’ attitudes about it. It then presents trends in the use of school corporal punishment in the United States over time to establish its past and current prevalence. It then discusses what is known about the effects of school corporal punishment on children, though with so little research on this topic, much of the relevant literature is focused on parents’ use of corporal punishment with their children. It also provides results from a policy analysis that examines the effect of state-level school corporal punishment bans on trends in juvenile crime. It concludes by discussing potential legal, policy, and advocacy avenues for abolition of school corporal punishment at the state and federal levels as well as summarizing how school corporal punishment is being used and what its potential implications are for thousands of individual students and for the society at large. As school corporal punishment becomes more and more regulated at the state level, Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools serves an essential guide for policymakers and advocates across the country as well as for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students.

​This Brief explores the potential effects of parent-child contact during incarceration on child and adult relationships, well-being, and parenting as well as corrections-related issues, such as institutional behavior and recidivism. It presents a literature review on what is currently known about parent-child contact during parental incarceration in addition to several empirical studies, followed by a summary, commentary, and briefing report. The empirical studies focus on contact in both jail and prison settings. Because jails in the United States handle more admissions per year than prisons – and studies of jailed parents and their children are not common in the literature – two of the three studies presented focus on jails. Following the empirical studies, a summary that includes recommendations for policy and intervention is presented, along with a commentary that explores what researchers need to do to make effective policy recommendations. This Brief is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.​

This brief highlights several of the most pressing challenges in addressing the needs of families who are experiencing homelessness and presents a set of strong policy recommendations for assessment, intervention, research, and service delivery related to homeless children and their parents.  Chapters increase awareness of the mental health, educational, and developmental challenges faced by these children and their parents. In addition, chapters provide practice implications of current research with a focus on the importance of careful assessment of service and housing needs; individual differences in strengths and adjustment of parents and children experiencing homelessness; and innovative treatment and service delivery approaches to address the unique needs of this population. Featured topics include: Promoting positive parenting among homeless families.Innovative intervention, assessment, and service delivery models.Homeless children and early childhood care and education systems. Early Risers intervention & Community Action Targeting Children who are Homeless Project (Project CATCH).Child and Family Well-Being and Homelessness is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals and for graduate students and researchers in developmental, clinical, and school psychology; child, youth and family policy; public health; and social work.

The first volume of this SpringerBrief presents a series of papers compiled from a conference about how after-school programs may be implemented to promote positive youth development (PYD) hosted by Youth-Nex, the University of Virginia Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. This volume reviews the importance of after-school programs for PYD and discusses key components of effective after-school programs. It also discusses issues related to the evaluation and measurement of quality in after-school programs. In addition, the brief presents suggestions for how researchers, policy makers, and practitioners can move the field forward and maximize the potential of after-school time and programs for promoting positive youth development for children and adolescents. Topics featured in this brief include: The history of the relationship between after-school programs and positive youth development. Specific features of programs that are important for advancing positive youth development. Issues in and approaches to measuring quality in after-school programs.The Quality, Engagement, Skills, Transfer (QuEST) model and its use for measuring effective after-school programs. A case study evaluation of the Girls on the Run program. After-School Programs to Promote Positive Youth Development, Volume 1, is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.