Category: Social Issues: Children

 

Title:How are the children of visible minority immigrants doing in the Canadian labour market?
Author(s):Grady, Patrick
Subject:Immigration – employment, foreign qualifications
Publisher:Global Economics Ltd.
Place of Publication:Ottawa
Date of Publication:2011
Abstract:

This paper examines the performance of the children of immigrants (2nd generation immigrants) to Canada using data from the 2006 Census. As the composition of immigration inflows has shifted after 1980 from the traditional European source countries to the Third World, the analysis focuses on the labour market performance of 2nd generation visible minority immigrants of whom there were 398 thousand aged15 and over who reported employment income in the Census.

Language:English
Series:Global Economics Working Paper 2011-1
Material Type:Report

F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2011 children_visible_minority.pdf

Title:Childhood immigration and acculturation in Canada
Author(s):Georgiades, Katholiki|split|Boyle, Michael H.|split|Kimber, Melissa S.|split|Rana, Ayesha
Subject:Children – health|split|Health issues – mental health|split|Immigration – health issues
Publisher:Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development
Place of Publication:Hamilton
Date of Publication:2011
Language:English
Material Type:Report

F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2011 acculturation.pdf

Title:Infants of depressed mothers living in poverty: opportunities to identify and serve.
Corporate Author: The Urban Institute
Subject:Children – general|split|Poverty – child poverty|split|Women – poverty|split|Health issues – mental health
Publisher:The Urban Institute
Place of Publication:Washington, DC
Date of Publication:2010
Abstract:

Depression in parents poses serious risks to millions of children in the United States each day, yet very often goes undetected and untreated. The risk can be very great for babies and toddlers, who are completely dependent on their parents for nurturing, stimulation, and care—and for poor families that do not have the resources to cope with depression. But depression is treatable and opportunities to reach these families and connect them to help already exist within multiple systems. In this brief, we take a first-time national look at the characteristics, access to services, and parenting approaches for infants living in poverty whose mothers are depressed (we focus on mothers as they are often the primary caregivers). We also identify current service systems that could intervene and help depressed mothers find support.

Language:English
 Material Type:Report

F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2010 infants_of_depressed_mothers.pdf

Title:The foundation years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults.
Variant Title:The report of the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances
Author(s):Field, Frank
Subject:Poverty – child poverty|split|Poverty – child poverty and schools|split|Poverty – planning, policy
Publisher:Cabinet Office
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:2010
Abstract:

There are huge class differences in the range of children’s abilities measurable on their first day at school. For many poor children life’s race is by then already effectively over. The report has two overarching recommendations. To prevent poor children from becoming poor adults the Review proposes establishing a set of Life Chances Indicators that will measure how successful we are as a country in making life’s outcomes more equal for all children. To drive this policy of raising life chances the Review proposes establishing the first pillar of a new tripartite education system: the Foundation Years, covering the period conception to five. The Foundation Years will then lead into the school years, leading to further, higher and continuing education. The single objective of the Foundation Years will be to improve the life chances of poor children. Foundation Years’ services will be paid according to their success in narrowing class differences as children start school. Parents are the key drivers in determining their children’s life chances. It is not so much who parents are – what their jobs are – but what parents do – how they nurture their children – which, the evidence shows, determines a child’s life’s race. The whole of the Foundation Years’ activities will focus on enabling all parents to move into the ‘what parents do’ category and so underpin the success of their children. The report proposes, in response to young people’s demands, that schools should teach parenting and life skills throughout the whole of their school life. Pupils will begin to learn how they can advance the lives of their children when they start a family. Ante natal and post natal courses should continue providing this information, as should Sure Start, in its new form. The contracts for Sure Start Mark II should be put out to tender so that GPs, voluntary bodies, housing associations, schools and the staff themselves are able to bid for contracts, where the payments will be linked to reaching the hardest to reach and most vulnerable parents, working with them consistently, and ensuring that their children are ready for school on their first day. The report further proposes that in future governments should not automatically each year increase benefits for children. Instead, they should consider if money to be spent in automatically increasing benefit rates, could not, in that year, be used more effectively to widen life chances – and thereby defeat child poverty – by building up the Foundation Years. The construction of the Life Chances Indicators will measure at the national level children’s cognitive, physical and emotional development at the ages of three and five. These factors all determine outcomes later in life. The Life Chances Indicators should be published each year by the Government so that taxpayers can see what progress is being made in preventing poor children from becoming poor adults. These Indicators should similarly be calculated at a local level, so that individual parents can know how their children are progressing. The local indices would also show taxpayers whether their local authority is running the Foundation Years effectively to expand the life chances of poorer children. The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults sets out for the Government a new strategy for abolishing child poverty. It is simultaneously a policy for social mobility, in that it should result in today’s poor children gaining the skills to acquire highly paid jobs. The strategy over time will therefore change the shape of the distribution of income in this country by eliminating the larger numbers of people who currently leave school to face at best a life time of low pay or at worse unemployment.

Language:English
 Material Type:Report

F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2010 foundation_years.pdf

 

Title:Closing the gap between vision and reality: strengthening accountability, adaptability and continuous improvement in Alberta’s child intervention system.
Corporate Author: Alberta Child Intervention Review Panel
Subject:Children – child welfare system
Publisher:Alberta Child Intervention Review Panel
Date of Publication:2010
Abstract:

This report makes recommendations for improving the way that child intervention works in Alberta. There is great promise for what can be accomplished by families, communities and government working together. Our recommendations align with the current vision for Alberta, build on areas that have been successful, but also offer a different course for achieving the vision. We are filled with a sense of optimism that Alberta’s Minister of Children and Youth Services will embrace this report as a call to action, and a framework for bridging the gap between vision and reality.

Language:English
Material Type:Report

F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2010 closing_the_gap.pdf

Title:The children left behind: a league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries.
Author(s):Adamson, Peter
Corporate Author: UNICEF
Subject:Poverty – child poverty|split|Children – general
Publisher:UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
Place of Publication:Florence
Date of Publication:2010
Abstract:

The UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind, examines the material, educational and health well-being of children in 24 of the world’s richest countries. It is the first attempt to compare the gap between children struggling at the bottom of their societies and the average child in “normal” childhood conditions. The disadvantaged children fall – unnecessarily – further behind in some countries than in others. Overall, Canada is in the middle of the group of wealthy nations in terms of equality in child well-being, similar to less affluent countries like Poland and Portugal. The fact that some countries are able to limit inequality shows that it is possible, without sacrificing individual and economic performance. Report Card 9 raises a debate about the policy measures that work to stem the similar market forces that drive inequality in all industrialized countries. Countries that perform well are limiting income inequality by promoting stable employment in the changing job market and through sufficient and fairly distributed family benefits and taxation. They also ensure that health, education, child care and other services reduce rather than widen disadvantage. In Canada, the most effective mix of policies must deal with the fact that full-time employment no longer guarantees an income above the “poverty line.” Most Canadian children in low-income families have at least one parent who is employed, and a third have a parent working full time, year-round who still can’t earn enough to provide adequate conditions for childhood.

Language:English
Series:Innocenti Report Card 9
Material Type:Report

F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.07 CHILDREN/2010 children_left_behind.pdf