Recent research consistently reports that persistent poverty has more detrimental effects on IQ, school achievement, and socioemotional functioning than transitory poverty, with children experiencing both types of poverty generally doing less well than never-poor children. Higher rates of perinatal complications, reduced access to resources that buffer the negative effects of perinatal complications, increased exposure to lead, and less home-based cognitive stimulation partly account for diminished cognitive functioning in poor children. These factors, along with lower teacher expectancies and poorer academic-readiness skills, also appear to contribute to lower levels of school achievement among poor children. The link between socioeconomic disadvantage and children's socioemotional functioning appears to be mediated partly by harsh, inconsistent parenting and elevated exposure to acute and chronic stressors. The implications of research findings for practice and policy are considered.

Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development

Family processes affecting the socioemotional functioning of children living in poor families and families experiencing economic decline are reviewed. Black children are of primary interest in the article because they experience disproportionate shares of the burden of poverty and economic loss and are at substantially higher risk than white children of experiencing attendant socioemotional problems. It is argued that (a) poverty and economic loss diminish the capacity for supportive, consistent, and involved parenting and render parents more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of negative life events, (b) a major mediator of the link between economic hardship and parenting behavior is psychological distress deriving from an excess of negative life events, undesirable chronic conditions, and the absence and disruption of marital bonds, (c) economic hardship adversely affects children's socioemotional functioning in part through its impact on the parent's behavior toward the child, and (d) father-child relations under conditions of economic hardship depend on the quality of relations between the mother and father. The extent to which psychological distress is a source of race differences in parenting behavior is considered. Finally, attention is given to the mechanisms by which parents' social networks reduce emotional strain, lessen the tendency toward punitive, coercive, and inconsistent parenting behavior, and, in turn, foster positive socioemotional development in economically deprived children.

The Impact of Economic Hardship on Black Families and Children: Psychological Distress, Parenting, and Socioemotional Development

(1979). Symbolic ethnicity: The future of ethnic groups and cultures in America. Ethnic and Racial Studies: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-20.

Symbolic ethnicity: The future of ethnic groups and cultures in America*

In current theoretical and policy debates concerning social cohesion, the neighbourhood has re-emerged as an important setting for many of the processes which supposedly shape social identity and life-chances. It is in this context of a renewal of interest in local social relations and particularly the deployment of notions of social capital that this paper offers a critical review of a wide-ranging literature. The paper explores initially and briefly the idea that societies face a new crisis of social cohesion and outlines the key dimensions of societal cohesion. The core of the paper is then devoted to an examination of where the contemporary residential neighbourhood fits into these wider debates, particularly in relation to the interaction between social cohesion and social capital. In this context, some of the key debates around the concept of social capital are outlined. In moving beyond abstraction, the paper also shows how social capital can be broken down into relevant domains for policy action a...

Social Cohesion, Social Capital and the Neighbourhood

Resiliency and Vulnerability to Adverse Developmental Outcomes Associated with Poverty.

This new ninth edition of SOCIOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD will help you visualize sociology all around you! Let this experienced author help you explore the reality of social change and its impact on individuals, groups, and societies throughout the world. SOCIOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD uses the theme of social change to tie together the many elements of sociology while helping you develop an understanding of the science. Soon, you will begin to see real sociology at work in the world every day. You will examine the social epidemiology of AIDS and the growing obesity epidemic, collective behavior, including fads, fashions, rumor, gossip, panic, and mass hysteria, aging in a global perspective, and gay and lesbian relationships and families. Revised against a background of war and severe economic depression, this new ninth edition tackles domestic and global trends that are sure to resonate with the modern student.

Sociology in a Changing World

This ethnographic study looks at teenagers trapped in poverty-how some succeed in the struggle to get out and others finally give up trying. It is an outgrowth of interviews with some 900 teens in New York City, Cleveland, Louisville, and Meridian, Mississippi. The neighborhoods where they live are socially and racially diverse. Among them are white areas slding into poverty as traditional blue-collar jobs in smokestack industries fade away, and black and Hispanic neighborhoods where chronic unemployment has long been the prevailing tradition and fact of life. Based on the teenagers' own accounts, the book describes their experiences with working and seeking work, achievements in school and athletics, family life, and the positive influences of their peers and adult mentors. It also details the negative choices that tend to make poverty a life sentence: prostitution and street hustles, pregnancy and early parenthood, gang membership and criminal outlets, drugs and withdrawal into despair. Still, hope is an unquenchable attribute of youth, and it bubbles up in this book as the authors show how much these teenagers seek to do for themselves in exercising their limited options.

Growing up Poor

Blue Collar Community

Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs

Gaining trust Jelly's place exploring the cocaine culture building relationships a field experience in retrospect getting in relations of the road maintaining objectivity doing research in Cornerville "So what do you want from us here?" prostitution, drug use and AIDS on studying South Chicago the observer's role researching peasants and drug producers the sociologist as voyeur the fieldworker and the surgeon epilogue finding your spot.

William Kornblum

Papers

Sociology in a Changing World

Growing up Poor

Blue Collar Community

Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs

In the field : readings on the field research experience