ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the child-rearing and family life patterns of the very poor. Theory, clinical experience, and a limited amount of research supports the principle that the social and psychological well-being of children is strongly related to the social and psychological well-being of the entire family to which they belong. Social workers, home economists, parent educators, and mental health workers report that education and treatment programs designed somewhat along the lines of a social club are effective. While there are public and voluntary local, state, and Federal programs which emphasize services and programs for adultsv—and, to some extent, total families— the major push is in child- or youth-centered services. Studies of typical child-rearing and family life patterns of lower-lower-class parents indicate that these life-styles tend to be in direct contradiction to the patterns that a large number of studies show to be associated with positive child development.
