The 12 chapters of this volume offer a comprehensive portrait of today's children and their challenging urban environments. The opportunities and obstacles that confront children are examined in detail, and key social problems are discussed in the following contributions: (1) "Growing Up in the Urban Environment: Opportunities and Obstacles for Children" (Norma Kolko Phillips); (2) "Children Living in Poverty" (Gladys Gonzalez- Ramos); (3) "Immigrant Children in the United States" (Graciela M. Castex); (4) "Impact of Community and School Violence on Children" (Joel H. Straussner and Shulamith L. A. Straussner); (5) "Urban Youth Gangs" (Albert Riester and James Deegear); (6) "Urban Teen Parents" (Martha Roditti); (7) "Parent to Child Violence" (Neil Guterman); (8) "Children in Out-of-Home Placements" (Richard Holody); (9) "Children in Substance-Abusing Families" (Meryl Nadel and Shulamith L. A. Straussner); (10) "Children Affected by AIDS" (Barbara Dane); (11) "Children in Homeless Families" (Rivka Ausubel Danzig); and (12) "Urban Runaway Children: Sex, Drugs, and HIV" (Adele Weiner and Daniel Pollack). Each chapter contains references. (Contains two figures and two tables.) (SLD)