Author Description

In this important little book, Suniya S. Luthar synthesizes, with impressive clarity, three decades of research about children in poverty, their families, and their communities. She has created a compelling primer for the policy-makers, advocates, and students that, while not minimizing the challenges, suggests research-based opportunities and directions for real-world interventions. --Jane Knitzer, Columbia University, New York "Poverty has left a residue of rampant, destructive problems in America today, not the least of which are its draining, restrictive effects on the young. This important volume coalesces current knowledge, from multiple domains, about factors that protect poor children and youth against the ravages of poverty, or act to exacerbate its effects. Highlighting the thesis that the negative effects of poverty need not be inevitable, the volume offers scholarly, up-to-date reviews of the state of knowledge about the complex child, family milieu, and environmental variables that operate protectively in the face of poverty. The volume productively weds careful scholarship with caring consideration of the pressing, practical, poverty-spawned problems that confront society today. More than just cataloging problems, however, it delineates steps needed in any systematic campaign to reduce poverty′s disastrous effects." --Emory Cowen, Ph.D., University of Rochester "Up-to-date, concise, and well-written, this book offers a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the impact of poverty on the social and emotional functioning of children. Looking at both risk factors and protective influences (the "mediators and moderators of adverse life circumstances"), the author critically and effectively integrates and synthesizes past and recent research in a form useful to both researchers and clinicians. Findings are viewed through a lens of culture and context, broadening and expanding our understanding. Attention is paid to the adaptive capacities of children who, with