Children, Youth, and Families
The Action-Research Relationship

This book, first published in 1986, examines the connections between social science research and actions to improve the situations of children and families.

Robert Norman Rapoport (Edited by)

9780521143691, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 June 2010

332 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.49 kg

"...it is refreshing to find a book that enthusiastically advocates social science research in areas of major social signifigance..."
--Contemporary Psychology

This book, first published in 1986, examines the connections between basic research in the social sciences, and political and social action to improve the situations of children, youth, and families. In the 1950s and 1960s, following the many effective applications of their work during World War II, there was a vigorous interplay as well as division between social scientists and those engaged in programme development. Adducing the model of the physical sciences, Robert N. Rapoport and his collaborators argue that this divergence contributes to inhibition of action initiatives, on the one hand, and stagnation in the quest for knowledge, on the other. Dr Rapoport raises ten key questions about the appropriate relationship between research and action, and these issues are discussed in the fields of education, youth employment and unemployment, juvenile justice, child health, community mental health, social services, and family research by authors who have had extensive and authoritative involvement in these areas.

Acknowledgements
1. Research and action Robert N. Rapoport
2. Education: improving practice through increasing understanding Barbara Maughan and Michael Rutter
3. Youth employment: managing tensions in collaborative research Richard H. Price and Anna Celeste Burke
4. Juvenile justice: research and action Leslie T. Wilkins
5. Personal social service and income transfer experiments: the research and action connections Alfred J. Kahn and Sheila B. Kamerman
6. Family dynamics: strengthening families through action-research Hamilton I. McCubbin, David H. Olson, and Shirley L. Zimmerman
7. Family support systems: an ecological approach to child development Edward Zigler and Heather Weiss
8. Child health: research in action I. Barry Pless and Robert J. Haggerty
9. Community mental health: developments in the United States Gerald L. Klerman
10. Reconsidering action-research Robert N. Rapoport
Name index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Child welfare [JKSB1]