In a recent paper, Reardon found that the relationship between family income and children's academic achievement grew substantially stronger in the 1980s and 1990s in the United States. We provide an international context for these results by examining the income-achievement association in 19 other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and…

Social scientists do not agree on the size and nature of the causal impacts of parental income on children's achievement. We revisit this issue using a set of welfare and antipoverty experiments conducted in the 1990s. We utilize an instrumental variables strategy to leverage the variation in income and achievement that arises from random…

Given the prevalence of child poverty in Canada, its effects inevitably get played out in schools and classrooms. Poverty negatively shapes learning opportunities for students. The Canadian Teachers' Federation's (CTF's) research has found that many low-income children experience reduced motivation to learn, delayed cognitive development, lower…

This 30-year longitudinal study examined pathways from problematic childhood behavior patterns to future disadvantaged conditions for family environment and child rearing in adulthood. Participants were mothers (n = 328) and fathers (n = 222) with lower income backgrounds participating in the ongoing Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project. Structural…

This article explores issues of persistent poverty and income inequality. The major focus is that of the alleviation of poverty. Is there a framework that delineates the roles for government, market forces and self-reliance that can effect a reduction in the level of poverty? The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act…

Individuals can be money poor, time poor or both. While income is the most used indicator of poverty, broader indexes including non-monetary aspects of deprivation have been proposed and measured. As one such measure, our study focuses on the element of deprivation arising from the time deficit of many working people. The usual poverty threshold…

Canada faces steep, yet surmountable challenges in its efforts to significantly reduce child and family poverty. Most recent data indicate that more than one million Canadian children and their families live in low-income households. Although the House of Commons unanimously resolved to "seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among…

Children comprise the largest group of poor Canadians. While childhood poverty is closely related to a number of factors pertaining to the structure and functioning of families, such as parental marital status and wage-earning patterns, the poverty of children is a consequence of the poverty of families. As such, childhood poverty can be reduced…

These three issues of 2000-2001 "Focus" present a collection of papers focusing on issues related to poverty. The first issue discusses child support enforcement policy and low-income families, highlighting such issues as fragile families and child wellbeing; low-income families and the child support enforcement system; child support…

Examines the income and time deficits facing Canadian families. Describes current government policy responses to these problems, and puts forward several proposals to help reduce these deficits and move toward increased investment in the welfare of Canadian children. (MDM)

This report contains tabular presentations of trends in national and provincial statistics on Canadian families. Included are: (1) changes in demographic characteristics from the 1970s to the 1990s; (2) population by age group; (3) ethnic heritage; (4) mother tongue; (5) religion; (6) rural/urban living arrangements; (7) living alone or living in…

This document suggests ways in which Canadian organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors can approach the development of policies that are supportive of families. The document is organized into 4 chapters. The first chapter describes changes that have occurred in Canadian Families in the last 50 years. Twelve charts depict data…