Main description:

Over 15 million children live in families subsisting below the federal poverty level, and there are nearly 4 million more children living in poverty today than in the turn of the 21st century. When compared to their more affluent counterparts, children living in fragile circumstances-including homeless children, children in foster care, and children living in families affected by chronic physical or mental health problems-are more likely to have low academic
achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health and behavioral problems.

The Oxford Handbook of Poverty and Child Development provides a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms through which socioeconomic, cultural, familial, and community-level factors impact the early and long-term cognitive, neurobiological, socio-emotional, and physical development of children living in poverty. Leading contributors from various disciplines review basic and applied multidisciplinary research and propose questions and answers regarding the short and long-term impact of
poverty, contexts and policies on child developmental trajectories. In addition, the book features analyses involving diverse children of all ages, particularly those from understudied groups (e.g. Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, immigrants) and those from understudied geographic areas (e.g., the rural
U.S; international humanitarian settings). Each of the 7 sections begins with an overview of basic biological and behavioral research on child development and poverty, followed by applied analyses of contemporary issues that are currently at the heart of public debates on child health and well-being, and concluded with suggestions for policy reform.

Through collaborative, interdisciplinary research, this book identifies the most pressing scientific issues involving poverty and child development, and offers new ideas and research questions that could lead us to develop a new science of research that is multidisciplinary, longitudinal, and that embraces an ecological approach to the study of child development.

Contents:

Contents ; Introduction: Why Study Poverty? ; Valerie Maholmes ; Part I: Why Worry About Poverty?: The Long-term Effects on Children and Families ; 1. How Poverty Gets Under the Skin: A Life Course Perspective ; Gary W. Evans, Edith Chen, Gregory Miller, & Teresa Seeman ; 2. Economic Hardship and its Consequences across Generations ; Katherine Jewsbury Conger, Monica J. Martin, Ben T. Reeb, ; Wendy M. Little, Jessica L. Craine, Barbara Shebloski, and Rand D. Conger ; 3. Poverty Status and the Effects of Family Structure on Child Well-being ; Susan L. Brown ; 4. Long-term Consequences of Child Neglect in Low-Income Families ; Cathy Spatz Widom and Valentina Nikulina ; 5. Children and Families in Poverty: Federal Perspectives on Applied Research and Evaluation ; Mary Bruce Webb ; Part II: Inside the Family: Impact on Child and Family Functioning ; 6. The Early Development of Vagal Tone: Effects of Poverty and Elevated Contextual Risk ; Cathi Propper ; 7. Maternal mental health and child health and nutrition ; Karen McCurdy, Kathleen S. Gormanb, Tiffani S. Kislera, and Elizabeth Metallinos-Katsarasc ; 8. Fatherhood and Fathering Among Low-Income and Minority Men ; Deborah Gorman-Smith, Elizabeth Grisa Hunt, and Dylan Robertson ; 9. Adolescent Parenting: Risk and Protective Factors in the Context of Poverty ; Josefina M. Grau, Kathryn S. Wilson, Erin N. Weller, Patricia Castellanos, & Petra A. Duran ; 10. Cognitive Development and Family Resources among Children of Immigrant Families ; Jennifer E. Glick and Rebecca Clark ; 11. The Dynamic of Poverty and Affluence in Child Adoption ; Harold D. Grotevant, Holly A. Grant-Marsney, Quade Y. S. French, Danila S. Musante, and Jen H. Dolan ; Part III: The Working Poor ; 12. Poverty, Stress and Autonomic Reactivity ; Abbey Alkon, Brian Wolff, W. Thomas Boyce ; 13. Employment in Low Income Families ; Nina M. Philipsen Hetzner and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn ; 14. Non-Standard Work Schedules and Child Development ; Rachel E. Dunifon, Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, and Ariel Kalil ; 15. How Welfare and Employment Policies Influence Children's Development ; Aletha C. Huston ; 16. Work-Family Policies and Child Well-Being in Low-Income Families ; Jane Waldfogel ; Part IV: Educational Environments and Child Outcomes ; 17. SES, Childhood Experience, and the Neural Bases of Cognition ; Martha J. Farah and Daniel A. Hackman ; 18. Family Factors, Childcare Quality, and Cognitive Outcomes ; Elizabeth Puhn Pungello and Nicole Gardner-Neblett ; 19. Child Health and Early Education ; Robert Crosnoe, Nina Wu, and Claude Bonazzo ; 20. Child Care and Early Education for Low-Income Families: Choices and Consequences ; Anna D. Johnson, Ph.D. and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Ph.D. ; 21. Evidence-Based School Interventions to Reduce Achievement Inequality ; Adam Gamoran, Ruth N. Lopez Turley, and Jeremy Fiel ; Part V: Neighborhoods, Communities, and Contextual Factors ; 22. Poverty and HPA Functioning in Young Children ; W. Roger Mills-Koonce & Nissa Towe-Goodman ; 23. Extra-familial Contexts and Children's Conduct Problems ; Erin M. Ingoldsby, Elizabeth Shelleby, Tonya Lane, & Daniel S. Shaw ; 24. Neighborhood Effects on Children's Achievement: A Review of Recent Research ; Narayan Sastry ; 25. Children Living in Rural Poverty: The Role of Chaos in Early Development ; Lynne Vernon-Feagans, Patricia Garrett-Peters, Allison DeMarco, and Mary Bratsch ; 26. Homelessness and Child Outcomes ; Jung Min Park, Ph.D. ; 27. Poverty and Possibility in the Lives of American Indian and Alaska Native Children ; Paul Spicer and Michelle Sarche ; Part VI: Helping Families Help Themselves: Evidence-Based Interventions ; 28. Poverty, the Development of Effortful Control, and Children's Academic, Social and Emotional Adjustment ; Liliana J. Lengua ; 29. Preventive Interventions: Parenting and the Home Environment ; Harris S. Huberman and Alan L. Mendelsohn ; 30. Interventions for Low Income Families: Sesame Workshop's Educational Outreach and the Healthy Habits for Life Initiative ; David Cohen, Rosemarie Truglio, Jennifer A. Kotler, and Jeanette Betancourt ; 31. Translating Longitudinal, Developmental Research with Rural African American Families into Prevention Programs for Rural African American Youth ; Gene H. Brody, Steven M. Kogan, Christina M. Grange ; 32. Conditional Cash Transfer programs: Effects on growth, health and development in young children ; Lia C. H. Fernald, Paul J. Gertler, and Melissa Hidrobo ; Part VII: International Perspectives on the Mental Health and Psychosocial Consequences of Poverty ; 33. Children in Global Adversity: Physical Health, Mental Health, Behavioral Health, and Symbolic Health ; Catherine Panter-Brick, Daniel Lende, and Brandon Kohrt ; 34. Addressing the Consequences of Concentrated Adversity on Child and Adolescent Mental Health ; Theresa S. Betancourt and William R. Beardslee ; 35. Everyday Distress: Psychosocial and Economic Impact of Forced Migration on Children and Families ; Michael G. Wessells and Kathleen Kostelny ; 36. Cross-Cultural and Cross-National Parenting Perspectives ; Jennifer E. Lansford ; 37. Humanitarian Crises in Low Resource Settings: Evidence-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Interventions for Children ; Dan Singer and Vesna Kutlesic ; 38. Future Directions in Research on Children and Poverty ; Valerie Maholmes and Rosalind King