The Challenge of Meeting Children's Needs in the Context of Difficult Family and Community Environments

Babies are born dependent on others to meet their physical, psychological/ emotional, and cognitive/intellectual needs. A committed caregiver and/ or an entire family typically devotes much time and energy to nurturing the baby and helping him or her grow and develop. Ideally, this caretaking process results in the formation of a two-way attachment relationship that serves as the template through which the growing infant experiences the world and learns to relate to others. In the best of all possible worlds, a family feels great happiness anticipating the birth of a child. When prepared emotionally, physically, and financially, most families can deal with the mixture of pleasure and stress associated with raising a child. However, unpredictable circumstances related to the home situation, the baby's health, the family's economic and psychological state, and the community and neighborhood in which the family lives can cause the birth experience and the child's early years to be shrouded with worry and concern. Unforeseen challenges may set in motion a chain of reactions when parents are not prepared to deal with the inevitable responsibilities associated with raising their new baby or when their personal situation changes, as following the death of a family member or a deployment into the military. When parents cannot care for their baby, relatives may do so, and when the extended family is unavailable, the child welfare system may step in. Society therefore maintains a vested interest in ensuring that families meet the needs of their children.

Social workers assist families and children, either through small-scale direct interventions or on a larger scale by helping communities establish and maintain essential services. This book presents different methods of helping children within their families, in schools, and in community settings. Whereas much of the focus here is on micro-level clinical practice with children and their families, the ecological perspective that guides such interventions always evaluates and considers the surrounding physical, economic, and political environments that may facilitate or hinder helping efforts.

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF CHILDREN'S LIVES

Children's basic needs include nurturance, responsiveness, predictability, support, and guidance from caretakers (Garbarino, Stott, & Associates, 1989; Garbarino, 1992). Fulfilling these needs requires at least one caring adult who will take the responsibility of being an active presence in the child's life. Over time an attachment relationship develops between the dependent baby and the nurturing caretaker, and this relationship has a crucial role in determining how the child will respond to others in the future. When the child's early relationships are neglectful, abusive, or traumatic, this can result in enduring emotional, behavioral, cognitive, social, and emotional problems later in the child's life (Perry, 2006; Osofsky, 1997).

Statistics from 2016 indicate that approximately 9.2 million poor children in the United States were living in single-parent families, with the majority in single-mother families (Children's Defense Fund, 2016). It is very challenging to balance the economic necessities of earning a living with finding the time to take care of home responsibilities and, in addition, to nurture and develop and maintain a loving relationship with a baby and young child. Although some mothers manage this very well, others do not, and the children may suffer neglect or abuse.

According to the Children's Defense Fund (2016), in 2014 nearly 1 in 11 children lived in extreme poverty (defined as an annual income of less than half the poverty level), and children in single-parent families were more likely to be poor. Black children have the highest poverty rate. Single mothers experience the combined effects of social isolation, economic pressure, and the burden of having sole responsibility for raising a child (Gustafsson, Larson, Nelson, & Gustafsson, 2009; American Psychological Association, 2007). These factors can seriously affect the mothers' ability to form a positive attachment with their babies.

What is the impact on children of living in impoverished environments, which may be characterized by unemployment, pervasive substance abuse, inadequate health care, poor quality child care, and high levels of child abuse and neglect? Numerous studies have found that these socioeconomic disadvantages can contribute to higher incidences of impairment in children's social, behavioral, and academic functioning (Achenbach, Howell, Quay, & Conners, 1991; Achenbach, McConaughy, & Howell, 1987; American Psychological Association, 2007; Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997; Institute of Medicine, 1989; Perry, 2006; Perry & Szalavitz, 2006; Schteingart, Molnar, Klein, Lowe, & Hartmann, 1995; Siegel, 2012). Poverty is a serious social and personal crisis, and interventions to help poor children and families require broad-based efforts to find political and economic remedies, in addition to helping children with their emotional–behavioral difficulties.

However, all children raised in poverty do not develop psychological problems. The ratio of risk and resilience cannot be calculated with certainty, although practitioners should certainly try to reduce risk factors and do whatever possible to stack the deck in favor of the child and family. Sometimes an...