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Contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I: Trends and International Comparisons -- Chapter 1. Historical and Life Course Trajectories of Nonmarital Childbearing / Lawrence L. Wu, Larry L. Bumpass, and Kelly Musick -- Chapter 2. Differences in Nonmarital Childbearing Across States / Kelleen Kaye -- Chapter 3. European Perspectives on Nonmarital Childbearing / Kathleen Kiernan -- Chapter 4. Cohabitiation and Childbearing Outside Marriage in Britain / John Ermisch -- Part II: Welfare, Child Support, and Public Policy

After empirically detailing correlations between health differentials & poverty in the US, an overview of health care services access is provided in terms of insurance. The failure of the health care market is driven by its failure to efficiently allocate resources, the uncertainty faced by those who need care, spillover costs & benefits, supply-side dynamics, & inherent risks of medical research. A discussion of public insurance coverage focuses on Medicaid & Medicare, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, & various federal & state programs. Private, employer-based plans are also touched on before turning to an assessment of problems that low-income groups have in obtaining health care. Lack of coverage is more prevalent among (nonelderly) low-income groups; related health care utilization issues are described, highlighting costs & health problems. Difficulties confronting Medicaid recipients are delineated, noting that the medical welfare system as a whole acts as merely a substitute for private health insurance. It is also noted that health insurance alone may not be enough if one is poor; adequate care can still be wanting. In addition, low-income workers by virtue of low marginal tax rates can find themselves inadequately covered by employer-based plans. Four sets of policies proposed for health care services restructuring are cited, & the challenges to any reform addressed. Incremental reforms are suggested as a way to ameliorate the problem. 4 Tables, 6 Figures. J. Zendejas

If America's future depends on how well we take care of our children, then current trends point toward a bleak horizon. Teenage suicide and pregnancy rates climbed over the past two decades, while the average SAT score, despite recent improvement, remains at an abysmally low level. Succeeding Generations ascribes the precarious state of America's youth to the increasingly unstable environment in which we as a society and as parents have chosen to raise our children. Authors Robert Haveman and Barbara Wolfe present a meticulous and candid investigation that directly links fractured families, a troubled economy, rising poverty rates, and neighborhood erosion to the impaired ability of many children to lead successful and productive adult lives. Drawn from an extensive two-decade longitudinal survey of American families, Succeeding Generations traces a representative group of America's children from their early years through young adulthood. The book then evaluates the many background factors - family, social, and economic - which are most influential in determining how much education children will obtain, whether they will become teen parents, and how economically active they will be when they reach their twenties. Haveman and Wolfe pinpoint some significant causes of children's later success, emphasizing the importance of parents' education and, despite the apparent loss of time spent with children, the generally positive influence of maternal employment. Haveman and Wolfe also confirm the detrimental effects on children of the very phenomena which have increased over the past two decades: divorce, single parent families, geographic relocation, and neighborhood deterioration. Most alarming is the epidemic of the single greatest deterrent to children's future success - poverty. Today twenty percent of all American children - forty percent among minorities - grow up in poor families, more than in other Western developed countries. Succeeding Generations demonstrates how the future of America's children has been placed at risk by social and economic conditions which, if perpetuated, are almost certain to foster an intergenerational chain of failure. Arguing the need for intervention, Haveman and Wolfe supplement their research with a comprehensive review of the many debates among economists, sociologists, developmental psychologists, and other experts on how best to improve the lot of America's children. Succeeding Generations is an important assessment of the ...

If America's future depends on how well we take care of our children, then current trends point toward a bleak horizon. Teenage suicide and pregnancy rates climbed over the past two decades, while the average SAT score, despite recent improvement, remains at an abysmally low level. Succeeding Generations ascribes the precarious state of America's youth to the increasingly unstable environment in which we as a society and as parents have chosen to raise our children. Authors Robert Haveman and Barbara Wolfe present a meticulous and candid investigation that directly links fractured families, a troubled economy, rising poverty rates, and neighborhood erosion to the impaired ability of many children to lead successful and productive adult lives. Drawn from an extensive two-decade longitudinal survey of American families, Succeeding Generations traces a representative group of America's children from their early years through young adulthood. The book then evaluates the many background factors - family, social, and economic - which are most influential in determining how much education children will obtain, whether they will become teen parents, and how economically active they will be when they reach their twenties. Haveman and Wolfe pinpoint some significant causes of children's later success, emphasizing the importance of parents' education and, despite the apparent loss of time spent with children, the generally positive influence of maternal employment. Haveman and Wolfe also confirm the detrimental effects on children of the very phenomena which have increased over the past two decades: divorce, single parent families, geographic relocation, and neighborhood deterioration. Most alarming is the epidemic of the single greatest deterrent to children's future success - poverty. Today twenty percent of all American children - forty percent among minorities - grow up in poor families, more than in other Western developed countries. Succeeding Generations demonstrates how the future of America's children has been placed at risk by social and economic conditions which, if perpetuated, are almost certain to foster an intergenerational chain of failure. Arguing the need for intervention, Haveman and Wolfe supplement their research with a comprehensive review of the many debates among economists, sociologists, developmental psychologists, and other experts on how best to improve the lot of America's children. Succeeding Generations is an important assessment of the disadvantages facing today's youth, and a cornerstone upon which to strengthen the investments we make in our children.

AbstractA variety of new research approaches are providing new ways to better understand the developmental mechanisms through which poverty affects children's development. However, studies of child poverty often characterize samples using different markers of poverty, making it difficult to contrast and reconcile findings across studies. Ideally, scientists can maximize the benefits of multiple disciplinary approaches if data from different kinds of studies can be directly compared and linked. Here, we suggest that individual studies can increase their potential usefulness by including a small set of common key variables to assess socioeconomic status and family income. These common variables can be used to (a) make direct comparisons between studies and (b) better enable diversity of subjects and aggregation of data regarding many facets of poverty that would be difficult within any single study. If kept brief, these items can be easily balanced with the need for investigators to creatively address the research questions in their specific study designs. To advance this goal, we identify a small set of brief, low‐burden consensus measures that researchers could include in their studies to increase cross‐study data compatibility. These US based measures can be adopted for global contexts.