America's Children: Resources from Family, Government, and the Economy.

The authors use census and survey data for the period 1940-1990 to analyze changes affecting childhood in the United States over the past 50 years. They show how important revolutions in household composition and income parental education and employment child care and levels of poverty have affected childrens well-being....The study explores the interaction of many trends in childrens lives and the fundamental social demographic and economic processes that lie at their core. The book concludes with a thoughtful analysis of the ability of families and government to provide for a new age of children with emphasis on reducing racial inequities and providing greater public support for families comparable to the family policies of other developed countries. (EXCERPT)