Welfare Reform on the Web (April 2005): Child Welfare - Overseas

THE POLITICS OF CHILDHOOD: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES, CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS

J. Goddard and others

Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005

This book analyses the nature and experience of childhood around the world. Wide-ranging developments concerning children in the fields of social policy, sociology and politics have spurred significant growth in the social study of childhood. The book is centred around contemporary research and informed theoretical discussion. Despite ranging widely, in terms of both geography and subject matter, the book integrates its discussion by focusing on major themes in the lives of children, such as work, education and participation in decision-making. Contents include:

• children in theory and history;
• children, money and work;
• children at school;
• children, power and decision-making .

WELFARE REFORMS IN CANADA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WELL-BEING OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN POVERTY

D.L. Williamson and F. Salkie

Journal of Children and Poverty, vol.11, 2005, p.55-76

Article examines the development of poor pre-school children before and after the implementation of welfare-to work initiatives in Canada. Using data from the 1994/95 and 1998/99 cycles of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, authors explore the relationships between poor families' income source and family income status and preschool children's school readiness. Results show that both before and after the implementation of mandatory welfare-to-work initiatives, children in working poor families had higher school readiness scores than their peers in families reliant on social assistance. In sum, the study failed to find evidence that welfare-to-work initiatives were improving the well-being of children in poverty at the end of the 1990s.