Synthesizing insights from psychology and philosophy with his own wide-ranging experiences around the world, Dr. James Garbarino takes readers on a personalized journey into the dark side of human experience as it is lived by children. In these highly readable pages, he intertwines a discussion of children’s material and spiritual needs with a detailed examination of the clinical knowledge and experiential wisdom required to understand and meet complex developmental needs. Fusing anecdotal observations, empirical evidence, and an ecological perspective, this book is for anyone who takes an interest in the well-being and future of the world’s children.

They are laborers, soldiers, refugees, and orphans. In areas of the world torn by poverty, disease, and war, millions of children are invisible victims, deprived of home, family, and basic human rights. Their chances for a stable adult life are extremely slim. The powerful interdisciplinary volume Vulnerable Children brings a global child-rights perspective to the lives of indigenous, refugee, and minority children in and from crisis-prone regions. Focusing on self-determination, education, security, health, and related issues, an international panel of scholars examines the structural and political sources of children's vulnerabilities and their effects on development. The book analyzes intervention programs currently in place and identifies challenges that must be met at both the community and larger policy levels. These chapters also go a long way to explain the often-blurred line between vulnerability and resilience. Included in the coverage: Dilemmas of rights-based approaches to child well-being in an African cultural context. Poverty and minority children’s education in the U.S.: case study of a Sudanese refugee family. The heterogeneity of young children’s experiences in Kenya and Brazil. A world tour of interventions for children of a parent with a psychiatric illness. An exploration of fosterage of Owambo orphans in Namibia. UNICEF in Colombia: defending and nurturing childhood in media, public, and policy discourses. Vulnerable Children is a must-have volume for researchers, graduate students, and clinicians/professionals/practitioners across a range of fields, including child and school psychology, social work, maternal and child health, developmental psychology, anthropology, sociology, social policy, and public health.

Equity and Justice in Development Science: Implications for Diverse Young People, Families, and Communities, a two volume set, focuses on the implications of equity and justice (and other relevant concepts) for a myriad of developmental contexts/domains relevant to the lives of young people and families (e.g. education, juvenile justice), also including recommendations for ensuring those contexts serve the needs of all young people and families. Both volumes bring together a growing body of developmental scholarship that addresses how issues relevant to equity and justice (or their opposites) affect development and developmental outcomes, as well as scholarship focused on mitigating the developmental consequences of inequity, inequality, and injustice for young people, families, and communities. - Contains a wide array of topics on equity and justice which are discussed in detail - Focuses on mitigating the developmental consequences of inequity, inequality, and injustice for young people, families, and communities - Includes chapters that highlight some of the most recent research in the area - Serves as an invaluable resource for developmental or educational psychology researchers, scholars, and students

Child Maltreatment, Third Edition, by Cindy Miller-Perrin and Robin Perrin, is a thoroughly updated new edition of the first textbook for undergraduate students and beginning graduate students in this field. The text is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to child maltreatment by disseminating current knowledge about the various types of violence against children. By helping students understand more fully the etiology, prevalence, treatment, policy issues, and prevention of child maltreatment, the authors hope to further our understanding of how to treat child maltreatment victims and how to prevent future child maltreatment.

It’s a startling reality that more American children are victims—and perpetrators—of violence than those of any other developed country. Yet unlike the other nations, the United States has yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Compelling, readable, and interdisciplinary, A Child’s Right to a Healthy Environment provides an abundance of skilled observation, important findings, and keen insights to place children’s well-being in the vanguard of human rights concerns, both in the United States and globally. Within this volume, authors examine the impediments to the crucial goals of justice, safety, dignity, well-being, and meaning in children’s lives, factors as varied as socioeconomic stressors, alienated, disengaged parents, and corrosive moral lessons from the media. The complex role of religious institutions in promoting and, in many cases, curtailing children’s rights is analyzed, as are international efforts by advocates and policymakers to address major threats to children’s development, including: War and natural disasters. Environmental toxins (e.g., malaria and lead poisoning). The child obesity epidemic. Gun violence. Child slavery and trafficking. Toxic elements in contemporary culture. A Child’s Right to a Healthy Environment is a powerful call to action for researchers and professionals in developmental, clinical child, school, and educational psychology as well as psychiatry, pediatrics, social work, general and special education, sociology, and other fields tasked with improving children’s lives.

Violence sabotages development, both children’s development and the development of the communities and neighbourhoods they rely on. There is abundant evidence of the deep and lasting harm that can be done. Violence breaks bodies and minds and exerts an insidious influence at every level. The effects are immediate but can also linger, damaging health, trust and capability, traveling through generations. This book argues that it is impossible to understand the violence in young children’s lives or to respond to it adequately without considering how embedded it is within their physical surroundings. The relations of power that are the context for violence within households, within communities and beyond are often expressed through control over space and the material conditions of life. This book links the abstract concept of structural violence to the stark reality of personal harm, drawing on evidence from a range of disciplines and from countries throughout the global South. It explores the dynamics of cramped, insecure housing, poor water and sanitation, neglected neighbourhoods, forced evictions, cities that segregate the rich and the poor, landscapes of conflict and disaster, and discusses their implications for young children. An alternative approach to child protection is proposed, anchored in the actions of organized communities negotiating to challenge inequities, mend their environments and achieve security. There is a fundamental synergy between building community and protecting children. These are not separate agendas. A place that works for children works better for everyone else as well. This book will be essential reading for all those interested in young children in a global context, whether as child protection professionals, or those with a more general interest in children’s rights issues or in cross cultural approaches to child development. It will also be of great interest to students and researchers of development studies, conflict studies, family studies, child development, public health and urban planning.

Presenting cutting-edge work from leading scholars, this authoritative handbook reviews the breadth of current knowledge on aggression from infancy through adolescence. The volume explores the forms and functions of aggression and the multiple factors that contribute to its emergence, development, and consequences, including genetic and biological influences, temperament, family dynamics, peer relations, and social inequality. It provides up-to-date perspectives on problems such as disruptive and defiant behaviors, bullying (including cyberbullying), social aggression, and youth violence, and examines relations between aggression and normative social–emotional and social-cognitive development. It also discusses the opposite end of the spectrum, including kindness and prosocial behaviors. Identifying important implications for practice and policy, contributors describe effective approaches to screening, assessment, and intervention in family, school, community, and clinical settings.

Given the current climate of economic and environmental uncertainty, it is all too easy for individuals to feel hopeless about their lives and indifferent to the problems of others. But according to leading psychologist, James Garbarino, this is the peak time for people to enhance their optimism, empathy, and emotional responsiveness. In his important new book, The Positive Psychology of Personal Transformation, Dr. Garbarino reveals the social basis for moral development in adversity, and the mental and physical benefits of psychological and spiritual growth. Drawing widely on his years as a healing professional and own experience of personal crisis as well as on decades of resilience and happiness literature, the author traces the evolution of the moral sense that affects all human relationships, including the one with the Earth itself. In these compelling pages, Dr. Garbarino: Examines how humans’ deep bonds with dogs can model positive human relationships. Compares the risks and benefits of the “oblivious” versus the self-aware life. Analyzes the role of trauma in heightening our sense of the meaning of life and defines the experience of transformational grace in adversity. Explains current manifestations of narcissism and the need for “the positive death of the self.” Asserts that every person is capable of “living an ‘extraordinary’ life.” A book with vast significance across the healing disciplines, The Positive Psychology of Personal Transformation should be read, savored, and practiced by researchers, practitioners, and scientists in clinical child, school, and developmental psychology; social work; educational and community psychology; sociology; and public health.

There is a clear relation between the way children are raised and the way the world is heading. Famous philosophers and educationists such as Kant, Dewey, Montessori and Freire, exposed clearly the direct link between the social and political abuses of their time and the way in which children were brought up. From their analysis they each conceived the ambition of making the world a better place through educational reform. For various reasons it is not fashionable these days to make any kind of direct connection between child upbringing and ‘the state of the world’. The project of child-rearing gradually became focussed on individual development. In this book, Dutch child-psychologist Micha de Winter argues that there should be much more to child-raising, education and youth policy – for example, to learn to understand and practice democratic citizenship, humanity and freedom. What does it mean to live in a democratic society, how do you resist the seductions of ‘them-versus-us’ thinking which both offers the feelings of security and of belonging to a group and at the same time invites the risk of dehumanizing and excluding the other? Socialization from this perspective is a common responsibility that requires an educative civil society.

The 2nd edition of Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict provides timely and useful information about antagonism and reconciliation in all contexts of public and personal life. Building on the highly-regarded 1st edition (1999), and publishing at a time of seemingly inexorably increasing conflict and violent behaviour the world over, the Encyclopedia is an essential reference for students and scholars working in the field of peace and conflict resolution studies, and for those seeking to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for social justice and social change. Covering topics as diverse as Arms Control, Peace Movements, Child Abuse, Folklore, Terrorism and Political Assassinations, the Encyclopedia comprehensively addresses an extensive information area in 225 multi-disciplinary, cross-referenced and authoritatively authored articles. In his Preface to the 1st edition, Editor-in-Chief Lester Kurtz wrote: "The problem of violence poses such a monumental challenge at the end of the 20th century that it is surprising we have addressed it so inadequately. We have not made much progress in learning how to cooperate with one another more effectively or how to conduct our conflicts more peacefully. Instead, we have increased the lethality of our combat through revolutions in weapons technology and military training. The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict is designed to help us to take stock of our knowledge concerning these crucial phenomena." Ten years on, the need for an authoritative and cross-disciplinary approach to the great issues of violence and peace seems greater than ever. More than 200 authoritative multidisciplinary articles in a 3-volume set Many brand-new articles alongside revised and updated content from the First Edition Article outline and glossary of key terms at the beginning of each article Entries arranged alphabetically for easy access Articles written by more than 200 eminent contributors from around the world