Children and Youth

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Both the positive and the negative circumstances that confront children and young people living in cities are examined in this volume, which identifies the best researched-based solutions for improving these circumstances.

The contributors explore topics such as: factors that have influenced inner-city life - migration patterns and middle-class flights from cities and ghettos; the role of coping, resources and skills in an urban family's successful management of stress; community-university partnerships that offer workable solutions to urban children and their families; and the features of homes, schools and communities that promote academic success and healthy psychological development in adverse circumstances. They also discuss: barriers to urban schooling - underfunding, dangerous environments and teacher overload - and promising avenues of reform for effective schools; strategies for preventing violence and substance abuse among city youth; the use of cultural competency training for health-care providers to overcome geographic, language and ethnic barriers; and the development and implementation of collaborative programmes across disciplines to serve city children and their families better.