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.

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 persistently high rates require new ideas in both research and public policy. Escape from Poverty presents such ideas. Contributors address four modes of possible change: mothers' employment, child care, father involvement, and access to health care. It examines the implications of these new policy-driven changes for children.

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.