The number of children living in poverty in the United States increased dramatically during the 1980s and remains high. By 1985, twenty percent of all children lived in families subsisting below the poverty line; percentages for black and Hispanic children were notably higher. The articles in this book attempt to address three main issues: Why so many children grow up in poor families, what the effects of poverty on a child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development are, and what role can public policy and policy research play in preventing or alleviating the damaging effects of...

During middle childhood, the period between ages 5 and 12, children gain the basic tools, skills, and motivations to become productive members of their society. Failure to acquire these basic tools can lead to long-term consequences for children s future education, work, and family life. In this book the editors assemble contributions from fifteen longitudinal studies representing diverse groups in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to learn what developmental patterns and experiences in middle childhood contexts forecast the directions children take when they...

Big World, Small Screen assesses the influence of television on the lives of the most vulnerable and powerless in American society: children, ethnic and sexual minorities, and women. Many in these groups are addicted to television, although they are not the principal audiences sought by commercial TV distributors because they are not the most lucrative markets for advertisers.

This important book illustrates the power of television in stereotyping the elderly, ethnic groups, gays and lesbians, and the institutionalized and, thus, in contributing to the self-image of many viewers....