Escape from Poverty
What Makes a Difference for Children?

Escape from Poverty addresses the recent increase of child poverty within the USA and suggests specific modes of change.

P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale (Edited by), Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Edited by)

9780521629850, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 October 1997

342 pages, 3 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

'A great deal of attention is given to evaluation of available relevant research and showing the implications as well as the limitations of such research and explicitly pointing out issues in need of further scientific investigation.' Paul Mussen, University of California, Los Angeles

The poverty rate for children in the United States exceeds that of all other Western, industrialised nations except Australia. Moreover, poverty among children has increased substantially since 1970, affecting more than one-fifth of US children. These persistent high rates require new ideas in both research and public policy. Escape from Poverty presents such ideas. Four modes of possible change are addressed: mothers' employment, child care, father involvement, and access to health care. It examines the implications of these new policy-driven changes for children. The editors have developed an interdisciplinary perspective, involving demographers, developmental psychologists, economists, health experts, historians, and sociologists - a framework essential for addressing the complexities inherent in the links between the lives of poor adults and children in our society.

1. Whose responsibility? An historical analysis of the changing role of mothers, fathers, and society P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Maris A. Vinovskis
2. The life circumstances and development of children in welfare families Nicholas Zill, Kristin Moore, Ellen Wolpow Smith, Thomas Stief, and Mary Jo Coiro
3. Welfare to work through the eyes of children Julie Boatright Wilson, David Ellwood and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
4. Strategies for altering the outcomes of poor children and their families Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
5. Policy issues of child care Andrew J. Cherlin
6. Child care and children of color Margaret Beale Spencer, Janet Blumenthal and Elizabeth Richards
7. Health policy in the Family Support Act of 1988 Katherine S. Lobach
8. Economic issues of health care Barbara L. Wolfe
9. Dealing with Dads: the changing roles of fathers Frank J. Furstenberg Jr
10. The effects of child support reform on child well-being Irwin Garfinkel and Sara McLanahan
11. Losing ground or moving ahead: welfare reform and children Ron Haskins
12. National surveys as data resources for public policy research on poor children Nicholas Zill
13. An interdisciplinary model for studying poor children Timothy M. Smeeding
14. Two generation programs: a new intervention strategy and directions for future Sheila Smith.

Subject Areas: Poverty & unemployment [JFFA]