Chapter 13: Policy

Question 1

What does government policy seek to improve?

Answer 1

the lives of families

Question 2

What is social policy?

Answer 2

A set of planned actions to solve a social problem or attain a social goal

Question 3

What is public policy?

Answer 3

Government-based social policy is often referred to as public policy

Question 4

What are the purposes of social policies?

Answer 4

• Provide information
• Provide funding to achieve goals (i.e., child protection services)
• Provide services to prevent or reduce problems

Question 5

What historical changes have taken place in child policy priorities?

Answer 5

• Late 1800s - Working conditions for children

- Current concerns: Poverty, health, education, child care, teenage parenthood, and child abuse, among others

Question 6

to what extent are social policies effective?

Answer 6

Social policies are effective only to the extent funds are available to support them

Question 7

What are primary prevention policies?

Answer 7

A set of planned actions designed to alter environmental conditions and prevent problems before they develop

Question 8

What are secondary prevention policies?

Answer 8

A set of planned actions targeted at children who are already at risk of developing serious problems

Question 9

Types of public policy: What is parent directed intervention?

Answer 9

Supports parents psychologically and improves their child-rearing skills

Question 10

Types of public policy: What is intervention with parents and children?

Answer 10

• Children are helped through preschool education, child care, and healthcare
• Parents are assisted through education, job training, and parenting-skills training

Question 11

Types of public policy: How can programs target children directly

Answer 11

Improve the quality of schools in impoverished areas or funding after-school programs

Question 12

Types of public policy: What do Policies that focus on ameliorating or “fixing” problems after they have developed focus on

Answer 12

• Programs to reduce gang violence

- programs to encourage pregnant teens to stay in school

Question 13

What are the disadvantages and consequences of poverty? (A social policy challenge)

Answer 13

Disadvantages:
-Powerlessnes
-Lack of information and education
-Lack of resources and restricted options
-Cycle of disadvantage
Consequences:
-Psychological distress, feel helpless, insecure, and controlled by external forces; inability to support and nurture their children

Question 14

What are poor children more likely to experience compared to affluent children?

Answer 14

(especially when poverty is experienced in early childhood)

• Have low birth weight
• Spend time in the hospital
• Die during childhood
• Suffer from emotional or behavioral problems
• Suffer from child abuse or neglect
• Encounter violent crime
• Drop out of school

Question 15

Through which routes does poverty affect children?

Answer 15

• Quality of the home environment
• Parents’ physical and emotional problems
• Neighborhoods with high crime and unemployment, little supervision of children, and limited resources
• Family disruptions

Question 16

What are the qualities that characterize effective programs for poor families?

Answer 16

• Begin early in life and continued over a long period of time
• Involve parents as well as children
• Focus on improving both parent-child relationships and families’ natural support systems
• Involve community resources

Question 17

What are the reasons we need childcare?

Answer 17

• Rise of maternal employment (maternal employment is often a necessity due to single parenthood, divorce, or difficult economic times)
• Geographic mobility: Families live farther from extended family who might have cared for children
• Changing views about what children need for social and cognitive development

Childcare is a program that lacks a unified policy

Question 18

In choosing child care, what 3 things do parents balance?

Answer 18

Cost, convenience and quality

Question 19

What determines childcare quality?

Answer 19

• Expert opinion: Small size group of children, a low child-adult ratio, and a high level of caregiver training
• Parent priorities: Safe and secure with a warm caregiver and opportunities for the child to learn

Question 20

What are the 3 types of child care?

Answer 20

• Nanny
• Family child care home
• center care

Question 21

Describe Nanny child care

Answer 21

comes to the family’s home offers personalized care. expensive; no licensing requirements

Question 22

Describe family child care home

Answer 22

A child care arrangement in which an individual cares for three or four children in his or her home. It is convenient and relatively inexpensive; licensed by the state; typically do not offer organized educational activities

Question 23

Describe Center care

Answer 23

A licensed and regulated type of child care facility operated by trained professional caregivers and providing educational opportunities, peer contacts, and a variety of materials and equipment but relatively expensive

Question 24

In comparison with children in poorer quality care, children in higher quality care are:

Answer 24

• more sociable,
• considerate, compliant, controlled, and prosocial
• better adjusted, less angry and defiant
• have higher self-esteem
• have more positive relationships with the caregivers in their child care arrangement

Question 25

What are the components of good child care that a parent should look for?

Answer 25

Plenty of materials: A center with only a few exciting toys that every child wants to play with has more fighting. Ample staff: There should be at one caregiver for every three or four infants. Some programs claim to have that ratio, but it turns out that the afternoon groups are combined and there are more children per adult. Balance between structure and free time: Preschoolers in highly structured programs experience higher stress levels. Great caregivers: Having a degree in child development or early childhood education is associated with better care but equally important is whether the caregivers are caring and responsive. Low staff turnover: Replacing a third of the staff every year causes the atmosphere to be more chaotic and children to feel less secure and connected. High turnover may also be symptomatic of other poor conditions such as low staff salaries.

Question 26

how could child care policy be modified to be more helpful?

Answer 26

- By increasing the availability of care - By increasing parents’ knowledge about care - By providing more money to pay for care - By supplementing caregivers’ wages - By regulating quality - By limiting the number of hours children spend in care

Question 27

Teens who become pregnant are/have...

Answer 27

- Are more likely to live with a single parent - Have problem behaviors and low confidence in themselves and their educational futures - Intend to have children early - Have mothers that are more likely to have dropped out of school and been teen mothers themselves

Question 28

What are the disadvantages of being a teenage mother?

Answer 28

- They are less likely to return to school, stay in school, or catch up educationally once the baby is born - They are limited in the types of jobs they can secure, and their earning power is low - They may have difficulty affording child care

Question 29

What are the disadvantages of children of teenage mothers?

Answer 29

- They are less likely to survive their first year - They receive less positive and stimulating care from their parents, and are more likely to be abused - They are more likely to develop behavior problems and do poorly in school - They display higher levels of aggression and have less ability to control impulsive behavior - By adolescence, they have higher rates of school failure and delinquency - They also become sexually active at younger ages and are more likely to become pregnant before age 20

Question 30

Teenage fathers...

Answer 30

- Adolescent boys are more likely to become teenage fathers if they are poor and prone to behavioural problems - Poor earning power, and interference from teen mother’s family all contribute to a decline in father-child contact over time

Question 31

How can support from the media reduce teen pregnancy?

Answer 31

- Need to increase public service announcements regarding safe sex - Could include more realistic depictions of sex as well as negative consequences - It is not clear whether these measures would help to reduce teen pregnancy

Question 32

How effective is abstinence education for reducing teen pregnancy?

Answer 32

Research largely suggests that such programs are ineffective in reducing sexual activity or preventing pregnancy

Question 33

What types of sex education programs in schools are effective?

Answer 33

- Programs that give teens accurate and complete information about safe sex and the use of contraception - Many of these programs affected young people's sexual behavior in a positive way, both delaying initiation of sex and increasing the use of condoms and other contraceptives

Question 34

What are the results from research about child abuse within the family?

Answer 34

Death as a result of maltreatment at different ages. Children are far more likely to die as the result of abuse or neglect when they are very young

Question 35

What is physical abuse?

Answer 35

Physical injury or maltreatment by a responsible person that harms or threatens a child's health or welfare

Question 36

What is sexual abuse?

Answer 36

Inappropriate sexual activity between an adult and a child for the adult’s pleasure or benefit

Question 37

What is child neglect?

Answer 37

Failure of a responsible adult to provide for a child’s physical, medical, educational, or emotional needs

Question 38

What factors are most commonly associated with abusive behaviour by parents?

Answer 38

- Distressed, often sexually unsatisfying couple relationship - History of abuse in the family - However, only about 1/3 of parents who were abused when they were young abuse their own children

Question 39

Describe abusive mothers

Answer 39

- Give threatening commands, strong criticism, and physical punishment - Their behavior is often unpredictable - Have a distorted reaction to the child’s behavior

Question 40

What are the emotional risk factors of child abuse?

Answer 40

-Poverty -Parental unemployment -Neighborhoods lacking in resources and safety (even after controlling for poverty) -Cultural and historical factors: Media acceptance of violence, Cultural tolerance of physical punishment -*Not caused by a single factor and more likely as factors pile up*

Question 41

What are the consequences of child abuse?

Answer 41

- Insecure attachment in infants - Problems with emotional regulation and aggressive behavior in toddlers - Poor relations with peers and adults and low self-esteem as children get older - Delinquency in adolescence - Mental and physical health impacts

Question 42

What are the physical health impacts of abuse/violence?

Answer 42

-Increased risk for adverse physical health -Chronic pain -Obesity -Inflammatory bowel disease -Fibromyalgia etc.

Question 43

What did One physical abuse impact study find? (Springer et al, 2007)

Answer 43

found 34-167% higher rates of: - allergies - arthritis/rheumatism - asthma - bronchitis/emphysema - circulation problems, - high blood pressure - heart troubles - liver troubles - ulcers

Question 44

what are the programs to prevent abuse?

Answer 44

- Educate parents and increase their understanding of children’s behavior and development - Increase parents’ child-rearing skills - Send messages encouraging positive parenting and connect families with a support network during known times of conflict (e.g., periods during which report cards sent home) - Communicate with the public at large via public service announcements - Intervene directly with children (e.g., teach self-protection skills)

Question 45

What features are most effective for programs that prevent abuse?

Answer 45

- Begin when a child is born and last several years - Target multiple risk factors in the family - Provide services that are responsive to individual family needs and sensitive to the family’s culture - Give control to the local community - Employ staff who are well trained and competent

Question 46

What do public policies that prevent abuse focus on?

Answer 46

Focus on protecting children from abusive parents by: - Requiring that people report suspected child abuse - Removing children from abusive situation

Question 47

What policy action is taken when children are abused?

Answer 47

-Place children in foster care. The state has the power and authority to take action to protect children from significant harm.

Question 48

What does research suggest about foster care?

Answer 48

Research suggests that foster care placement leads to benefits for abused children compared with children who remain at home or are reunified with their parents

Question 49

What are the main policy issues?

Answer 49

poverty, child care, education, health, juvenile justice, adoption or custody teen pregnancy, and child abuse

Question 50

What are social policies designed for?

Answer 50

Social policies are designed to provide information, funding for programs and services to improve children’s lives through prevention or intervention

Question 51

What is emotional abuse?

Answer 51

Manipulating someone's emotions in a negative or harmful way, such that it causes emotional distress on teh child.