How much change is possible over a lifetime and across generations? What is realistic in what we can do to promote healthy human development in our world? A group of leading international scholars in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, economics, and sociology address these important questions. Contributions cover marriage, divorce, and "living together"; poverty or economic disadvantage; and psychological traits and health, and how these affect parents and their children. Each section also has a chapter on interventions to improve lives.

How much change is possible over a lifetime and across generations? What is realistic in what we can do to promote healthy human development in our world? A group of leading international scholars in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, economics, and sociology address these important questions. Contributions cover marriage, divorce, and "living together"; poverty or economic disadvantage; and psychological traits and health, and how these affect parents and their children. Each section also has a chapter on interventions to improve lives.

There is growing awareness of the common difficulties experienced by poor young people who grow up in cities--crime and juvenile delinquency, limited access to education, the spread of infectious diseases, homelessness, and high rates of unprotected sex. They must contend with weak families and social institutions, poor labor market prospects, and for the most unfortunate, the ravages of gang war and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Chapters in this volume present and assess comparative evidence on the well-being of urban youth and proven interventions for assuaging the deleterious effects of poverty.