Children in Poverty Child Development and Public Policy

Highly original and revealing study of children in poverty, focusing on the child rather than on parents' income or self sufficiency.

The number of children living in poverty in the United States increased dramatically during the 1980s and remains high. Why are so many children growing up in poor families? What are the effects of poverty on children's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development? What role can public policy and policy research play in preventing or alleviating the damaging effects of poverty on children? Children in Poverty examines these questions, focusing on the child rather than on parents' income or self-sufficiency.

Preface; 1. Children in poverty: developmental and policy issues; 2. The economic environment of childhood; 3. The role of mother-only families in reproducing poverty; 4. The association between adolescent parenting and childhood poverty; 5. The strain of living poor: parenting, social support, and child mental health; 6. The health of poor children: problems and programs; 7. With a little help: children in poverty and child care; 8. Poverty, early childhood education, and academic competence: the Abecedarian experiment; 9. Educational acceleration for at-risk students; 10. Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses of interventions for children in poverty; 11. Effective progras for children growing up in concentrated poverty; 12. Antecedents, consequences, and possible solutions for poverty among children; Author index; Subject index.

By 1985 twenty percent of all children in the USA were living in families subsisting below the poverty line, a high reached after dramatic increases throughout the 1980s. This impressive new book questions why this should be and the effect it is having on this new generation.