Showing papers in "Journal of Children and Poverty in 2012"

‘You have to choose your childcare to fit your work’: Childcare decision-making among low-income working families

Abstract: Regardless of their economic background, most working parents face the task of arranging childcare at some point. The decision-making process they experience is often complex, and this complexity is intensified for particular groups of families with limited financial and social resources. In this paper, we present findings from a three-year qualitative study of the childcare choices of low-income working families, many of whom were immigrants, had limited English proficiency, were parents of children with special needs, or represented some combination of these factors. The study explored families' current care arrangements, their reasons for selecting a particular form of childcare, and the characteristics of their ideal arrangements. Data were coded to identify themes in parental preferences, decision factors, and the barriers families faced in accessing their preferred care arrangements. Most significantly, the parents studied described their preferences for an environment where their children could lea...

Orphanage caregivers' perceptions: The impact of organizational factors on the provision of services to orphans in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

Abstract: Adding to the growing body of literature on outcomes for children living in orphanages and children's homes, this qualitative study explored the perceptions of institutional personnel – caregivers, staff members, supervisors, and administrators – about organizational factors affecting their ability to care for orphaned and vulnerable children living in institutions in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The participants in this study consisted of 59 caregivers, 7 supervisors, 10 administrators, 4 cooks, 4 teachers, 1 social worker, 1 security guard/driver, and 6 women classified as house helpers. Individual interviews were conducted using an English-written and stated semistructured interview guide the researchers had created. The data from the 92 interviews were transcribed and coded using inductive methodologies. The results revealed concerns from the personnel about their institutions' lack of adequate funding for essential items, including food and medicine for the children. The personnel were also concerned...

Child poverty and family policies across eighteen wealthy Western democracies

Abstract: While a good deal has been written about the potential value of family policies in reducing child poverty in Western countries, few cross-national quantitative studies have been carried out on this topic. This article uses ordinary least squares regression analysis on panel data from 18 Western democracies from 1987 to 2007 to test the significance of family policies and other welfare policies on child poverty rates. It extends existing research on the relationship between family policies and child poverty by utilizing a broader data-set in terms of time, countries, and child poverty measures. The main finding is that all three of the main family policies studied – child cash and tax benefits, paid parenting leaves, and public support for childcare – correlate significantly with lower child poverty rates. Somewhat surprisingly, disability and sickness insurance also correlates significantly with lower child poverty in nearly every model and test. These findings provide valuable insight for future research...

Disrupted childhoods: Children of women in prison

Abstract: Disrupted childhoods: Children of women in prison, by Jane A. Siegel, New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Press, 2011, 233 pp., US$25.95 (paperback), ISBN-978-0-8135-5011-4 Jane Siegel had been ...

Early childhood education and care use: Differences by race/ethnicity and age

Abstract: This article describes factors that predict the use of early childhood education and care among Latino families, as compared to non-Latino black and non-Latino white families in the United States in two age groups (0–2 and 3–5 years old). Using National Household Education Survey data, this study presents a framework and examines the association of numerous child and family characteristics with the number of hours children spend in care, the number of care arrangements, and the type of care used. Multinomial logit results show that once preexisting differences between Latino and black families and between Latino and white families are equalized, differences in the type of care are often eliminated. Findings suggest that the observed enrollment patterns of Latino children are due in part to their over-representation in families that are poorer, have lower levels of maternal education, and have lower levels of maternal employment.

So rich, so poor: Why it's so hard to end poverty in America

Abstract: So rich, so poor: Why it's so hard to end poverty in America, by Peter Edelman, New York, NY, New Press, 2012, 184 pp., $24.95 (hardback), ISBN-13 978-1-59558-785-5 The United States is the wealthi...

Wealth and welfare states: Is America a laggard or a leader?

Abstract: Wealth and welfare states: Is America a laggard or a leader? By Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy Smeeding, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2010, 254 pp., US$35.00 (paperback), ISB...

Children's well-being, adult poverty, and jobs-of-last-resort

Abstract: This article addresses the failure of the 1996 welfare reform act (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act [PRWORA]) as an anti-poverty program demonstrated by the fact that approximately half of all ‘welfare leavers’ have fallen back into poverty within a year or two of their exit. The proximate cause is that, because of “barriers to work” or insufficient demand, leavers end up working too few hours over the course of a year. To address this failure, we propose a program of jobs-of-last-resort, called Promise of a Job (POJ), based on an examination of the design, costs, and results for a large number of transitional-job and welfare-to-work programs. In this article, we estimate POJ's costs per participant and overall costs of implementation, as well as the impact such a program would have on reducing adult and, particularly, child poverty. We find, in examining past data, that had POJ been applied to just those Americans who were on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)...

Social insurance and children: The relationship between Social Security, economic well-being, and family context among child recipients

Abstract: The relationship between social insurance, which provides families protection against certain risks, and child economic security is understudied. Using the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to Social Security Administration benefit records, this article investigates the economic welfare effects of the child component of the US Social Security program. We examine how the poverty rate of child beneficiaries would change, absent Social Security income, and how heavily the family incomes of these children rely on it, by family characteristics. Our findings reveal that Social Security plays an important role in mitigating economic insecurity among children deprived of a wage-earning parent through disability, death, or retirement. Family structure, earnings, and employment status are identified as key factors moderating the effect of Social Security on child recipients’ financial circumstance.

The new gilded age: The critical inequality debates of our time

Abstract: The new gilded age: The critical inequality debates of our time, edited by David B. Grusky and Tamar Kricheli-Katz, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2012, 297 pp., $24.95 (paperback), ISBN ...

Poverty in common: The politics of community action during the American century

Abstract: addition to any introduction to inequality. Despite this critique, this volume will be a great addition to any undergraduate course covering inequality. Not only does it introduce many of the current debates about inequality, but it also provides examples of the different ways to approach inequality research. Importantly, the chapters utilize a variety of research methods including logical arguments, experiments, and statistical analyses which are used throughout social research. These methods are presented in a manner that should be understandable by those with limited methodological training. Moreover, the format of the book, with one author presenting an argument and the second responding, offers a good example of how social research does not occur in a vacuum. Instead, when a hypothesis is presented, it is critiqued and revised by other scholars.

Boys in poverty: A framework for understanding dropout

Abstract: Boys in poverty: A framework for understanding dropout, by Ruby K. Payne and Paul D. Slocumb, Bloomington, Indiana, Solution Tree Press, 2011, 136 pp., US$24.95 (paperback), ISBN-978-1-935542-22-3 ...