High Levels Of Disadvantage Research Articles

Leading under pressure: leadership for social inclusion

In this study we undertook to look at leadership issues specifically in relation to social inclusion, through a series of six case studies in three districts showing high levels of disadvantage. Findings indicated that schools' views on social inclusion could be typified as leaning towards three main orientations: (1) improving achievement and qualifications for all; (2) overcoming barriers to learning existing within particular groups; (3) enhancing other capacities and skills of children from disadvantaged groups. These views are strongly shaped by the vision and biography of school heads, interacting with different pressures and contexts.

An ecological approach to health promotion in remote Australian Aboriginal communities

Poor environmental conditions and poor child health in remote Australian Aboriginal communities are a symptom of a disjuncture in the cultures of a disadvantaged (and only relatively recently enfranchised) minority population and a proportionally large, wealthy dominant immigrant population, problematic social policies and the legacy of colonialism. Developing effective health promotion interventions in this environment is a challenge. Taking an ecological approach, the objective of this study was to identify the key social, economic, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to poor hygiene in remote Aboriginal communities, and to determine approaches that will improve hygiene and reduce the burden of infection among children. The methods included a mix of quantitative and qualitative community-based studies and literature reviews. Study findings showed that a combination of crowding, non-functioning health hardware and poor standards of personal and domestic hygiene underlie the high burden of infection experienced by children. Also, models of health promotion drawn from developed and developing countries can be adapted for use in remote Australian Aboriginal community contexts. High levels of disadvantage in relation to social determinants of health underlie the problem of poor environmental conditions and poor child health in remote Australian Aboriginal communities. Measures need to be taken to address the immediate problems that impact on children's health-for example, by ensuring the availability of functional and adequate water and sanitation facilities-but these interventions are unlikely to have a major effect unless the underlying issues are also addressed.

Explaining Suicide Among Blacks and Whites: How Socioeconomic Factors and Gun Availability Affect Race‐Specific Suicide Rates*

Objectives. What are the correlates of suicide among blacks and whites? One body of literature suggests that structural factors such as poverty, inequality, joblessness, and family disruption are the key contributors, while another literature considers the availability of firearms to be the central factor. No studies have thoroughly explored both possibilities together and thus we know little about the relative contributions of motivation to commit suicide due to structural conditions and opportunity to commit suicide due to firearm availability. The current study addresses this issue.Methods. Using suicide data from Mortality Multiple Cause of Death Records and 2000 Census data, we examine the roles of motivation and opportunity in shaping suicide rates among young white and young black males in U.S. cities.Results. We find racial differences in the predictors of suicide; although concentrated disadvantage directly affects suicide among young white males, it only raises levels for young black males by increasing access to firearms. This finding is confirmed in additional analyses, which examine the effects of concentrated disadvantage on black and white gun and nongun suicides separately.Conclusion. The findings suggest complex relationships among the structural characteristics of cities, gun availability, and suicide. They also begin to address unresolved issues in the literature including why blacks have demonstrated comparatively lower rates of suicide despite higher levels of disadvantage as well as what may have fueled the increase in young black male suicide over the last 30 years. Finally, the findings have important implications for the study of race and suicide prevention.

Community connection and change: a different conceptualization of school leadership

Many of our schools are situated in communities characterized by high levels of disadvantage, presenting a range of challenges. One possible response is to acknowledge this disadvantage and to try to address some of the problems it raises for students. Another is for the school to be proactive, recognizing the challenges faced by the community and taking a lead in bringing about change. Part of a larger research project, this article explores the extraordinary leadership role of Prospect Road State School (a pseudonym) in bringing change to a multiply disadvantaged community though collaborative action with other agencies and creative approaches to bringing people together. This school's experiences and achievement illustrate what may be possible when school leadership proactively sets out to improve a community described by the principal as being `in crisis'. The experiences explored indicate ways of rethinking the relationship between school and disadvantaged community — of working synergistically with others to make a significant difference.

Reassessing the alcohol-violence linkage: Results from a multiethnic city

This article examines the relationship between alcohol availability and nonlethal violence at the census-tract level in Miami, a multiethnic city with high levels of disadvantage and immigration. The effects of alcohol (total outlet rate) are considered from the perspectives of social disorganization and routine activities theories. Nonlethal violence is the average annual rates of robbery, aggravated assault, and total violence (combined aggravated assault and robbery). The analyses include corrections for spatial autocorrelation. The results show that alcohol availability has strong positive effects on rates of nonlethal violence and that the percentage of recent immigrants is also a significant positive predictor.

STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY AND HOMICIDE: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE BLACK‐WHITE GAP IN KILLINGS*

This paper examines the relationship between race and violent crime by directly modeling the racial gap in homicide offending for large central cities for 1990. We evaluate the role of black‐white differences in aspects of both disadvantage and resources in explaining which places have wider racial disparities in lethal violence. The results show that where residential segregation is higher, and where whites' levels of homeownership, median income, college graduation, and professional workers exceed those for blacks to a greater degree, African Americans have much higher levels of homicide offending than whites. Based on these results, we conclude that the racial homicide gap is better explained by the greater resources that exist among whites than by the higher levels of disadvantage among blacks.