Promoting Well-Being Among At-Risk Children: Restoring a Sense of Community and Support for Development

Author(s):  
James P. Comer
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Zangger

Neighborhoods and neighbors are important sources for people's life chances and well-being. Their importance is highlighted in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic: Neighbors helped vulnerable and at-risk groups by providing small services and a sense of community. Using panel data from Switzerland, this study investigated how and for whom relations with neighbors changed to the better or worse during the pandemic. In a second step, changes in subjective well-being and trust in other people, both of which dropped considerably during the pandemic and social confinement, were linked to changes in neighborly relations. The results show that the negative impact of the pandemic on people's subjective well-being and trust was much less pronounced for those who improved their relations with neighbors during the pandemic. At the same time, those with more resources prior to the pandemic were more likely to improve neighborly relations. Consequently, this study finds evidence for a social gradient in subjective well-being and trust during the crisis that partly works through changes in neighborhood networks. Robustness analyses further show that the documented effects are indeed attributable to changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding social confinement measures.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 2067-2073
Author(s):  
Iliyan Rizov

The report presents a model for mobile social work with families, which develops in Roma communities (Varna Municipality and Aksakovo Municipality) for 10 years. This model seeks to resolve the problem about inefficiency of institutions in their work to reduce the number of abandoned children and to increase child well-being in vulnerable communities. There are presented specific activities and results, what show a way of support of the process for deinstitutionalization of childcare.


Author(s):  
Mary Kay Gugerty ◽  
Dean Karlan

This case explores two common challenges facing organizations around the world: how to collect the right amount of data, and how to credibly use outcome data collected during program monitoring. Health promoters at Un Kilo de Ayuda (UKA) in Mexico use regularly collected health data on more than 50,000 children to structure their work, track their progress, and identify at-risk children in time to treat health problems. In this case, readers will assess the tradeoffs between actionability and responsibility that UKA faces in determining how much data to collect. They will also examine the challenges of monitoring data on a program’s outcomes instead of outputs, particularly when it comes to asserting a program’s impact on those outcomes. Finally, readers will propose ways to generate credible data on one of the organization’s programs when plans for an impact evaluation fall through.


2021 ◽  
pp. 027243162110203
Author(s):  
Glenn D. Walters

The goal of this study was to test nonverbal intelligence and neighborhood social capital as protective factors against future delinquency in early adolescent youth placed at risk by virtue of their involvement in childhood conduct problems. Analyzing longitudinal data from 3,028 youth (1,565 boys, 1,463 girls) in one cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) and 3,682 youth (1,896 boys, 1,786 girls) in a second cohort of the LSAC, nonverbal intelligence, as measured by the Matrix Reasoning subscale of the WISC-IV, displayed a consistent moderating effect on the conduct problems–future delinquency relationship. According to these results, conduct problems were slightly but significantly less likely to lead to delinquency when nonverbal intelligence was high than when it was low or moderate. By shielding at-risk children from future delinquency, protective factors like high nonverbal intelligence may provide a means by which delinquency can be prevented or reduced.


Author(s):  
Chiaki Ura ◽  
Tsuyoshi Okamura ◽  
Akinori Takase ◽  
Masaya Shimmei ◽  
Yukan Ogawa

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 772-773
Author(s):  
Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili ◽  
Connie Bales ◽  
Julie Locher

Abstract Food insecurity is an under-recognized geriatric syndrome that has extensive implications in the overall health and well-being of older adults. Understanding the impact of food insecurity in older adults is a first step in identifying at-risk populations and provides a framework for potential interventions in both hospital and community-based settings. This symposium will provide an overview of current prevalence rates of food insecurity using large population-based datasets. We will present a summary indicator that expands measurement to include the functional and social support limitations (e.g., community disability, social isolation, frailty, and being homebound), which disproportionately impact older adults, and in turn their rate and experience of food insecurity and inadequate food access. We will illustrate using an example of at-risk seniors the association between sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and function, with rates of food security in the United States. The translational aspect of the symposium will then focus on identification of psychosocial and environmental risk factors including food insecurity in older veterans preparing for surgery within the Veterans Affairs Perioperative Optimization of Senior Health clinic. Gaining insights into the importance of food insecurity will lay the foundation for an intervention for food insecurity in the deep south. Our discussant will provide an overview of the implications of these results from a public health standpoint. By highlighting the importance of food insecurity, such data can potentially become a framework to allow policy makers to expand nutritional programs as a line of defense against hunger in this high-risk population.


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