Increasingly, poverty is suburban

The suburbs are now home to one-third of the nation's poor, according to the Brookings Institution, which predicts that the percentage will increase in coming years. Brookings also finds that the social-service networks in the suburbs are stretched too thin to adequately clothe and feed their newly poor.

Associated Press article, via Yahoo!

Brookings website: "Strained Suburbs: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty"

Recession tied to abusive head trauma

The rate of abusive head trauma to infants and young children has nearly doubled since the economy began collapsing in 2007, a national study indicates.

Researchers looked at the number of abuse cases in four U.S. hospitals, in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. They found increases in every city.

"Abusive head trauma -- previously known as 'shaken baby syndrome' -- is the leading cause of death from child abuse, if you don't count neglect," study author Dr. Rachel P. Berger, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told the Health Day news service. "And so, what's concerning here is that we saw in four cities that there was a marked increase in the rate of abusive head trauma among children during the recession compared with beforehand."

"Now we know that poverty and stress are clearly related to child abuse," added Berger. "And during times of economic hardship one of the things that's hardest hit are the social services that are most needed to prevent child abuse. So, this is really worrisome."

USA Today also has an article.

For nonprofits, greater demand for services but fewer resources

Just as their existence is threatened, Connecticut nonprofits are seeing greater demand for their community services than ever, according to survey results from the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits. Fifty-four percent of the groups who participated in the survey reported seeing consumers they had never seen before. They also reported an 82 percent rise in demand for services in general. The Hartford Business Journal has more details.

The stress of unemployment reaches kids

HealthDay, in an article carried on BusinessWeek.com, reports on the growing evidence that children of the unemployed often struggle with depression, poor school performance, and behavioral problems as a result of the increased stress in their households.

"In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll of more than 700 unemployed adults, nearly half of those who reported being unemployed for six months or more said their children's lives had changed; nearly 40 percent said they had noticed changes in their children's behavior," HealthDay reports.

Dr. Audrey Walker, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Children's Hospital of Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, estimates that nationally, one in seven children has an unemployed parent. That's 10.5 million kids.