Methamphetamine not only destroys the lives of those who become addicted to it, but affects all corners of society, including innocent children. This important book follows the case of rural Illinois, where in the mid-1990s methamphetamine production and misuse became a significant problem and, as a result, child welfare professionals saw an influx onto their caseloads of children whose parents were involved with the drug. The authors' account of the problems the children face, and of the efforts to help them, sheds useful light on possibilities for many other situations.
Applying a case-based, mixed-methods approach that capitalizes on rich qualitative data, the book examines parental methamphetamine misuse from a sociocultural perspective. Using extensive child welfare investigation data, participant observation, and in-depth interviews, the authors describe the perilous home lives of rural children whose parents misuse methamphetamine, where they are exposed to maltreatment, criminal behavior, and environmental danger. Many children end up with significant emotional and behavioral problems, especially posttraumatic symptoms, that will stay with them for years. Based on this descriptive information and the existing clinical literature, the authors designed a relationship- and narrative-based mental health program, "Life Story Intervention," that draws on rural communities' strengths, such as their storytelling traditions. Pilot data from the program, shared here, suggests some positive results of the intervention on children's psychological functioning.
Eradication of the problems caused by methamphetamine abuse will require years more of concerted effort and collaboration such as that described in this book. Social work and child welfare professors and students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers will find inspiration in this account of the success that can result, with this issue and others, when practitioners and researchers join forces to understand complex social phenomena and design, implement, and assess effective interventions.

Guided by developmental cultural psychology, this volume focuses on understandings and responses to disability and stigmatization from the perspectives of educators practicing in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. Synthesizing research that spanned over a decade, this volume seeks to understand disabilities in different developmental and cultural contexts. The research presented in this book found that educators from all four cultural groups expressed strikingly similar concerns about the impact of stigmatization on the emerging cultural self, both with children with disabilities and their typically developing peers, while also describing culturally nuanced socialization goals and practices pertaining to inclusive education. In providing a multicultural view of common challenges in classrooms from around the world, this book provides important lessons for the improvement of children's lives, as well as the development of theory, policy, and programs that are culturally sensitive and sustainable.

Edith Hudley is an African-American grandmother who was born poor in rural Texas in 1920. In this beguiling book she tells how, through many vicissitudes, she achieved a better life for herself, her children, and grandchildren. But she is no stereotype. Without sentimentality and with considerable humor, she tells of both the privations and pleasures of her long life so vividly that she draws the reader into her world. In this book she tells her stories to two white academics who know her well. At the end of each chapter, they provide an "interlude" suggesting what her narrative can teach about the process of human development. As each stage of her life unfolds, they make it clear how her character and convictions were formed. Edith Hudley's convictions are strong, particularly about child-raising which has been her abiding interest as mother, grandmother, and "other" mother. She has more than her own family's welfare at heart. She has definite views on education and parenting, and her attitude to physical discipline will spark controversy. Not that that will worry her. She has never been afraid to speak her mind ("You always were mouthie," one of her brothers tells her.) What she has to say is well worth hearing.

This book examines Japanese cultural beliefs about disability and related socialization practices as they impact the experiences of elementary school-aged children. Physical and mental conditions which impair children's functioning are universal issues impacting child welfare and educational systems around the world. While the American approach is well understood and represented in the literature, cultures differ in which physical and mental conditions are considered 'disabling'. Currently, the Japanese educational system is in transition as public schools implement formal special education services for children with developmental disabilities. 'Developmental disabilities' is a new term used by Japanese educators to categorize a variety of relatively minor social and cognitive conditions caused by neurologically based deficits: learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADHD, and Asperger's Syndrome. Children who were once considered 'difficult' or 'slow learners' are now considered to be 'disabled' and in need of special services. This transition created an excellent opportunity to explore Japanese beliefs about disability that might otherwise have remained unexamined by participants, and how these evolving beliefs and new socialization and educational practices impact children's experiences.