Dilemmas of Custody. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1992.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports: Marital Status
and Living Arrangements, March 1998. Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1998.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforce-
ment. Child Support Enforcement FY 1999 Preliminary Data Re-
port. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 2000.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center
for Health Statistics. First Marriage Dissolution, Divorce, and Re-
marriage: United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 2001.
Veum, J. R. ‘‘The Relationship between Child Support and Visita-
tion: Evidence from Longitudinal Data.’’ Social Science Re-
search 22 (1993):229–244.
Cornelia Brentano
CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL HEALTH
CARE NEEDSChildren with special health care needs include those
with chronic illnesses (i.e., asthma, sickle cell anemia,
diabetes), physical disabilities (i.e., cerebral palsy,
spina bifida), and developmental/emotional disabili-
ties (i.e., autism, Down syndrome). As advances in
health care have allowed medically fragile and/or dis-
abled children to live longer, attention has focused on
understanding their unique ‘‘developmental’’ needs.
The impact of an illness or disability on a child’s cog-
nitive, social, and emotional development varies over
time as the child’s developmental level changes. In
addition, the implications of the illness/disability are
different depending upon the child’s developmental
level at its onset and the limitations of the disorder at
each level of development. Professionals who work
with children with special health needs must keep the
above in mind, and must also understand the effects
(both negative and positive) of the illness/disability on
the family system, and how these in turn can affect the
child’s development.
See also: DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES; DOWN
SYNDROME
Bibliography
McPherson, Merle, Polly Arango, Harriette Fox, et al. ‘‘A New Def-
inition of Children with Special Health Care Needs’’ (com-
mentary). Pediatrics 102 (1998):137–140.
Thompson, Robert, Jr., and Kathryn Gustafson. Adaptation to
Chronic Childhood Illness. Washington, DC: American Psycho-
logical Association, 1996.
Janeen C. Manuel
Elizabeth C. Allen
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child (UNCRC) is the clearest and most comprehen-
sive expression of what the world community wants
for its children. It arose in the 1970s as a reaction to
the weakening global humanitarian response to chil-
dren. The United Nations unanimously endorsed the
convention on November 20, 1989 and it became in-
ternational law in 1990.
The UNCRC is an international human rights
treaty, which focuses on the rights of the child from
a developmental-ecological perspective. It assumes
that the child’s overall development is a function of
a number of factors (psychological, social, education-
al, and cultural) and contexts (home, school, commu-
nity, and country). The convention’s developmental
framework represents the latest thinking in interna-
tional child-related policies.
The UNCRC is comprised of fifty-four articles
that seek to safeguard and uphold children’s minimal
health, civil, humanitarian, and family rights. It can
be divided into three main parts: key principles, spe-
cific rights, and ways in which the convention should
be monitored. Protection of children against discrim-
ination, abuse and neglect, and armed conflict are is-
sues outlined in Articles 2, 19, and 38, respectively.
Parent-child relationships are defined in several arti-
cles, including Articles 5, 9, and 10. The treaty also
calls on states and countries to ensure survival of chil-
dren to the maximum extent (health care, food, and
clean water in Article 24; education in Articles, 28 and
29).
The UNCRC uses the principle of ‘‘a child’s best
interest’’ as a standard measuring tool for policy,
thereby defining children not as objects, but as indi-
viduals with human rights. Consequently, the
UNCRC is an important advocacy tool for children
worldwide.See also: DOMESTIC VIOLENCEBibliography
Detrick, S. A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child. The Hague: Kluwer Law International,
1999.
Muscroft, S., ed. Children’s Rights: Reality or Rhetoric? London: In-
ternational Save the Children Alliance, 1999.
Rebello, Pia, L. Cummings, and M. Gardinier. ‘‘The United Na-
tions Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Call to Child
Development Professionals around the World.’’ Paper pres-
ented at the Biennial meeting of the Society for Research in
Child Development, Indianapolis, IN, April 1995.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child [web site]. Available
from http://www.unicef.org/crc; INTERNET.
Pia Rebello Britto84 CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL HEALTH CARE NEEDS