Families' social, demographic, and economic circumstances can have direct and indirect effects on children's development. Structural inequities in access to resources such as education, income, or food can promote disparities in children's health and school readiness. Similarly, children can face more or fewer barriers in their development…

Helping young people prepare to engage in work and life as productive adults is a central challenge for any society. Yet, many young people in the United States find that the path from education to employment and economic security in adulthood is poorly marked or inaccessible. As a result, those from low-income and less educated families have…

In 2010, the declining birth rate among teenagers in the United States reached an historic low, and since 1991, the rate has declined 44 percent. Though this trend is promising, 372,252 teens nevertheless became mothers in 2010. That same year, 41 percent of all births were to unmarried women. Moreover, in 2010, 15 percent of the U.S. population…

The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States is among the highest in the western industrialized world. Nearly 19 million new STDs are diagnosed each year, and more than 65 million Americans live with an incurable STD, such as herpes and human papillomavirus (HPV). Young people, in particular, are at a heightened risk…

This brief examines the factors related to depressive symptoms among mothers and explores the implications for acting out behavior in their third grade children. The authors found that children's acting out (externalizing) behavior in the third grade can be affected by a variety of difficulties in the lives of their mothers. Some of these…