Escape from Poverty

The poverty rate for children in the United States exceeds that of all other Western, industrialized nations except Australia. Moreover, poverty among children has increased substantially since 1970, affecting more than one-fifth of U.S. children. These persistent high rates require new ideas in both research and public policy. This volume presents such ideas. Four arenas of possible change are addressed: mothers' employment, child care, fathers' involvement, and access to health care. These four types of change have each been brought under the umbrella of the Family Support Act of 1988, after several years of debate over welfare reform. The goal of this landmark legislation is to enable poor families to escape poverty by requiring education, employment training opportunities for mothers, and improving child support by noncustodial fathers. Escape from Poverty is designed to examine 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. This book will appeal to both researchers and policy makers.

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.