Children & Families

Birth attendants can positively affect outcomes for mothers and infants. But access to them is often out of reach for low-income and minority women, who have the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality.

The largest child welfare system in the nation has undergone major reforms in recent years. But some of these changes have come at the expense of crucial attachments that link children to caring adults.

How one young child learned to cope with some early traumatic experiences and tell his story in a new way, through child-parent therapy.

Many of Buffalo’s children spend years battling the consequences of violence and PTSD. School is often the best hope to support them, but the Buffalo district has been slow to act.

A young boy and his mother fled vicious gang violence in Central America, but the nightmares have followed him to Los Angeles. The lingering effects of trauma now pose a whole new threat to his health.

A development biologist finds that the common zebrafish holds clues for how repeated exposure to stress can harm children's developing bodies and trigger a host of chronic health problems.

Homelessness is a health crisis, and the clock is ticking. With homeless life expectancy between 42 and 52, and half of the nation's homeless at least 50, it's not surprising that Orange and several other California counties have seen a dramatic rise in homeless deaths in recent years.

The effort to limit children's daily sugar intake is gaining traction, fueled by emerging science, new beverage taxes, and new pediatric recommendations.

Reporters Kameel Stanley and Ed Williams discuss ethics in journalism, with a focus on communities in crisis. They emphasize how taking the time to understand a community can lead to more compelling reporting.

In some of Kern County’s poorest, majority-white communities, people are dying four to 17 years before those in other parts of Bakersfield, Calif. Life expectancies are on par with less-developed countries like Iraq and Kazakhstan.