In this important little book, 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 policy makers, advocates and students that, while not minimizing the challenges, also suggests research-based opportunities and directions for real world interventions. -- (Jane Knitzer, Ed.D., National Center for Children in Poverty)

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 cataloguing 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 out understanding. Attention is paid to the adaptive capacities of children who, with family, community, school, and neighborhood supports, are able to survive and thrive in spite of (or in response to) difficult early experiences. Drawing on a diverse and cross-disciplinary research base, this book should serve as a useful springboard to future research on child outcomes in the face of economic stressors. Highly recommended!
—( Steve Friedman, PhD & Donna Haig Friedman, PhD, Center for Social Policy, McCormack Institute for Public Affairs, University of Massachusetts, Boston.)