Chapter 13

Policy: Improving Children’s Lives

Chapter Outline

POLICY: IMPROVING CHILDREN'S LIVES

WHAT DETERMINES PUBLIC POLICY FOR CHILDREN?

TYPES OF PUBLIC POLICY

CHILDREN IN POVERTY: A SOCIAL POLICY CHALLENGE

Economic Hardship and Social Disadvantage

Effects of Poverty on Children

Programs to Reverse Effects of Poverty

Learning from Living Leaders: Jack P. Shonkoff

Head Start

Learning from Living Leaders: Deborah A. Phillips

Welfare Reform Policies

Learning from Living Leaders: Lindsay Chase-Lansdale

Input and Outcome: Getting What You Pay For

Real-World Application: Early Intervention with Children in Poverty

CHILD CARE: A PROBLEM LACKING UNIFIED POLICY

Choosing Child Care: What’s a Parent to Do?

Types of Child Care

Effects of Child Care on Children

Quality of Child Care Matters

What Is Quality Care?

Time in Child Care

Learning from Living Leaders: Kathleen McCartney

How Can Policy Help?

Research up Close: The Florida ChildCare Quality Improvement Study

TEENAGE PREGNANCY: CHILDREN HAVING CHILDREN

Bet You Thought That ... More Teens Are Having Sex Than Ever Before

Factors Leading to Teen Pregnancy

Outcomes of Teen Pregnancies

Problems for the Teenage Mothers

Problems for Children of Teenage Mothers

Problems for Other Family Members

Problems for Teenage Fathers

Happy Endings

Into Adulthood: When Teen Mothers Grow Up

Reducing Teen Pregnancy

Support from the Media

Sex Education in Schools

Learning from Living Leaders: Kristin Anderson Moore

Support for Teenage Mothers

CHILD ABUSE WITHIN THE FAMILY

Child Abuse: A Family Affair

The Ecology of Child Abuse

Consequences of Abuse

Cultural Context: Child Abuse and Children’s Rights

Policies to Prevent Abuse

Programs that Prevent Abuse

Insights from Extremes: Suggestive Interrogations and Legal Policy

Federal and State Policies

Chapter Summary

Key Terms

At the Movies

Learning Objectives

  1. Describe the trade-offs and compromises involved in policy decisions.
  2. Define and distinguish between primary and secondary prevention policies.
  3. Discuss the different types of policies including economic improvement, service oriented, parent-directed intervention, intervention with parents and children, and those that target children directly.
  4. Describe the social disadvantage of those living in poverty.
  5. Summarize the effects of poverty on children.
  6. Describe programs, such as Head Start, that have set out to reverse the effects of poverty for children.
  7. Describe welfare reform (i.e., PRWORA and TANF).
  8. Discuss the effects of TANF.
  9. Discuss the importance of investing in policies to improve their effectiveness.
  10. Explain what parents in the United States, with no uniform policy, face in making decisions about child care (e.g., cost, convenience quality).
  11. Distinguish between different types of available child care.
  12. Summarize the findings regarding the effects of quality child care on children. Explain what quality child care entails.
  13. Summarize the effects of the amount of time spent in child care.
  14. Discuss how a unified government policy on child care might improve the availability of care, increase parent knowledge about quality care, providing money to pay for care, to supplement caregivers’ wages, to regulate quality, and to limit the number of hours children spend in child care.
  15. Discuss the problem of teenage pregnancy in the United States.
  16. Describe the factors that lead to teenage pregnancy.
  17. Explain the problems that teenage mothers, the children of teenage mothers, other family members, and teenage fathers face.
  18. Describe the different policies that could help to reduce teenage pregnancy (support from the media, sex education in the schools).
  19. Describe how policy may help support teenage mothers.
  20. Discuss the prevalence of child abuse in the United States.
  21. Distinguish between physical and sexual abuse and child neglect.
  22. Describe the factors that make abuse more likely to occur.
  23. Summarize the findings regarding the consequences of abuse.
  24. Describe policies and programs to prevent abuse and protect children from abuse.

Student Handout 13-1

Chapter Summary

Definitions, Aims, and Types of Social Policy

  • Social policy refers to a set of planned actions whose goal is solving a social problem or attaininga social goal; government-based social policy is referred to as public policy.
  • Social policies are designed to provide information, funding for programs and services, servicesto prevent or solve problems, and an infrastructure to support efforts on behalf of children.
  • Policy decisions represent compromises based on societal needs, budgetary limitations, andpolitical agendas. Policy makers increasingly use scientific information as one basis for policies.
  • Programs may be focused on prevention or intervention. Primary prevention policies altersocial and environmental conditions to reduce the likelihood that social problems will develop.Secondary prevention policies provide services for at-risk groups. Policy-based interventionsinvolve treating children and families who have already been identified as having problems.

Poverty

  • In the United States, 18 percent of children live in poverty.
  • Poor parents generally have limited power, feel helpless and insecure, have little choice ofoccupation or housing, and are vulnerable to job loss and unemployment.
  • Poverty makes child rearing difficult and leads to adverse outcomes for children.
  • Poverty affects children through poor-quality home environments, high rates of parentalphysical and emotional problems and conflicts, neighborhoods characterized by social disorganizationand limited resources, and increased family disruptions.
  • Among the best-known programs for poor children is Head Start, which has reported modestgains in children’s academic and social performance.
  • Welfare reform involving supplemental income is linked to improved school engagementand social behavior; younger children benefit more than older children.

Child Care

  • More than two thirds of children in the United States are cared for by someone other thantheir parents partly because of maternal employment and geographic mobility.
  • In choosing child care, parents balance cost, convenience, and quality. However, most dolittle comparison shopping.
  • Major care forms are care in the child’s own home, care in a family child care home, andcare in a center. Centers are most likely to emphasize educational opportunities, peer contacts,and materials and equipment, and to be licensed and regulated.
  • Children in high-quality care are more sociable, considerate, compliant, controlled, and
  • prosocial; they are better adjusted, less angry and defiant, have higher self-esteem and betterrelationships with their child care caregivers than children in poor-quality care.
  • Child care in the United States lacks unified government policy. Parents pay for child care costs themselves unless they are poor and receive a welfare supplement or are eligible for agovernment-subsidized program.
  • Possible policies to improve child care include increasing parental knowledge about itseffects, providing parents with more money to pay for it, supplementing wages of child careworkers as a way to reduce turnover, and regulating quality standards.

Teenage Pregnancy

  • Nearly 18 percent of teenage girls in the United States become pregnant—the highest rateof teen pregnancy in industrialized nations.
  • Teens who become pregnant are more likely than those who do not to have low selfconfidenceand limited educational aspirations, to belong to an ethnic minority, to haveunsupervised time, to live without their father, to view sexually oriented TV, to engage insexual activity, and to come from a family in which parents are poor, uneducated, nonreligious,and unresponsive to the teen.
  • More than half of pregnant teens decide to keep their babies and become single mothers.Teen mothers are likely to quit school, go on public assistance, and live in poverty.
  • Children of teen mothers are likely to have behavior problems and low self-control. Lackof economic resources, less competent parenting, and higher rates of abuse and neglectcontribute to these poor child outcomes.
  • Adolescent males are more likely to become fathers if they are poor and prone to behaviorproblems. Lack of responsibility, poor earning power, and family interference all contributeto a decline in father-child contact over time.
  • Policies to reduce rates of teen pregnancy involve comprehensive sex education; abstinence-only programs are not effective.
  • Education and employment assistance and marriage support for teenage mothers couldreduce the negative outcomes for them and their children.

Child Abuse

  • In 2006, nearly 1 million cases of child abuse or neglect were substantiated in the UnitedStates. Young children are particularly likely to be victims.
  • Mothers are frequently the ones who physically abuse their children partly because theyspend more time with them than other family members do.
  • Sexual abuse occurs at ages from infancy through adolescence. Girls are four times morelikely to be victims than boys.
  • Ecological factors such as poverty, parental unemployment, divorce, mobility, and culturalvalues that tolerate aggression and physical punishment all contribute to child abuse.
  • Children’s characteristics such as birth defects, physical and intellectual disabilities, irritableand negative temperaments, and exasperating behavior problems also increase the likelihoodof abuse.
  • Abuse occurs in all social classes, religions, racial, and ethnic groups, and there is little evidencethat severe mental illness characterizes abusive parents. However, abuse is most likelyto occur in the presence of multiple risk factors.
  • Abusive parents themselves may have been abused, are socially isolated, and have unrealisticbeliefs about young children’s abilities.
  • Child abuse is preceded by escalating verbal and physical aggression that is often unpredictableand not contingent on the child’s actual behaviors
  • Consequences of child abuse include insecure attachment in infants, problems with emotionalregulation and aggressive behavior in toddlers, poor relations with peers and adultsand low self-esteem as children get older, and delinquency in adolescence.
  • Programs to educate parents and enhance their parenting skills are effective in reducingchild abuse.
  • Policies in the United States have focused on protecting children from abusive parents byrequiring that people report suspected child abuse to authorities and that authorities removechildren from abusive situations and place them in foster care.

Student Handout 13-2

Key Terms

GLOSSARY TERMS

center care / A licensed and regulated type of child care facility operated by trained professional caregivers and providing educational opportunities, peer contacts, and materials and equipment.
child neglect / Failure of a responsible adult to provide for a child’s physical, medical, educational, or emotional needs.
family child care home / A child care arrangement in which an individual cares for three or four children in his or her home.
Head Start / A federally funded program that provides preschool experience, social services, and medical and nutritional care to disadvantaged preschool children.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) / Federal legislation designed to reduce single-parent families’ long-term reliance on welfare or cash assistance.
physical abuse / Physical injury or maltreatment by a responsible person that harms or threatens a child's health or welfare.
sexual abuse / Inappropriate sexual activity between an adult and a child for the perpetrator’s pleasure or benefit.
primary preventionpolicies / A set of planned actions designed to alter environmental conditions and prevent problems before they develop.
public policy / Government-based social policy.
secondary prevention policies / A set of planned actions targeted at children who are already at risk of developing serious problems.
sexual abuse / Inappropriate sexual activity between an adult and a child for the perpetrator’s pleasure or benefit; may be direct (sexual contact of any type) or indirect (exposing a child to pornography or to the live exhibition of body parts or sexual acts).
social policy / A set of planned actions to solve a social problem or attain a social goal.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) / Federal legislation that provides block grants to states, introduces time limits on cash assistance to individuals, and imposes work requirements.

OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS IN THIS CHAPTER

abstinence education
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
block grant
Carolina Abecedarian Project
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)
child empowerment programs
child-directed intervention
children's rights
comprehensive sex education
Early Head Start
ecology of abuse
intergenerational cycle of abuse
matching grant
nanny care
Nurse-Family Partnership
parent-directed intervention
post-traumatic stress disorder
promise ring
quality of child care
service-oriented policy
suggestive interrogation
time in child care
virginity pledge
welfare reform

Practice Exam Questions

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

  1. Public policy is best described as: (a) *government-based social policy (b) policy initiated by the public (c) policy initiated by community action groups (d) policy initiated by concerned citizens who wish to help children
  2. You are pleased to be residing in the U.S. because of the following social policies and social conditions: (a) the low rate of poverty in the U.S. compared with other modern societies (b) the high level of support provided for children compared with military spending (c) the government’s being largely responsible for the health and well-being of children (d) *none of the above
  3. An example of a secondary prevention effort would be: (a) making sure schools are safe (b) monitoring sulphur levels in the soil in children’s playgrounds (c) *providing Head Start programs for disadvantaged children (d) providing parent education for first-time new mothers
  4. Parents of children in the National Head Start Impact Study compared with parents of children who were not in Head Start: (a) *were more likely to read to their children (b) were just as likely to spank their children (c) provided better meals for their children (d) loved their children more
  5. The following features increase the effectiveness of programs for poor children and families: (a) programs begin early in the child’s life (b) programs involve parents as well as children (c) programs continue over a long period of time (d) *all of the above
  6. The following features are included in how researchers define high quality child care: (a) convenient location (b) good price (c) friendliness of staff (d) *low child-adult ratio
  7. The effects of high quality child care on children’s social and cognitive development is best characterized as: (a) short term but dramatic (b) short term but modest (c) long term but dramatic (d) *long term but modest
  8. Which of the following would be helpful ways of improving access to quality child care? (a) extending the public educational system downward to include 4-year-olds (b) increasing parental knowledge about child care (c) providing more money for parents to pay for child care (d) *all of the above
  9. In the U.S., what percentage of teens are sexually active? (a) 10% (b) 80% (c) 30% (d) *60%
  10. The effects of being a child of a teen mother include the following: (a) *being more likely to die in infancy (b) becoming more flexible and resilient as a result of early hardships (c) avoiding teen pregnancy as a result of learning from your own mother’s mistake (d) good self-control and low levels of aggression
  11. Child abuse is most likely to occur (a) *in the first year of life (b) in the teen years (c) during toddlerhood (d) equally at all ages

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Physical abuse is a major problem that affects too many children. What are some ways to help prevent abuse?

2. Discuss the effectiveness of various types of programs aimed at delaying the onset of sexual activity and reducing the levels of teen pregnancy.

3. Discuss the effects of poverty on children’s social development.