Families in an Era of Increasing Inequality

Paul Amato, Ph.D., is the Arnold and Bette Hoffman Professor of Family Sociology and Demography at The Pennsylvania State University. He has received the Distinguished Career Award from the Family Section of the American Sociological Association, the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award from the American Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Ernest Burgess Distinguished Career Award from the National Council on Family Relations, and the Distinction in the Social Sciences Award from Pennsylvania State University.Alan Booth, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development & Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He has been a senior scientist in Penn State's Population Research Institute since 1991. Dr. Booth has co-organized the university's National Symposium of Family Issues since its inception in 1993. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly articles, four books, and editor of 16 volumes. He was editor of Journal of Marriage and The Family from 1985-1991.Susan McHale, Ph.D., is Director of the Social Science Research Institute and The Children, Youth, and Family Consortium and Professor of Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on children's and adolescents' family roles, relationships, and daily experiences and how these family dynamics are linked to youth development and adjustment. Jennifer Van Hook, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director of the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University. Her work spans a variety of family-related topics, including extended family living arrangements, family poverty, cohabitation, inter-racial marriage, and fertility patterns, and has appeared in major journals such as the Journal of Marriage and the Family, International Migration Review, Social Forces, and Demography.

• ​I. Diverging Destinies for American Children.- Diverging Destinies Revisited.- Divergent responses to family inequality.- Diverging Destinies in Rural America.- Diverging Destinies Revisited: The Threat to Child Development and Social Mobility.- II .Social Inequality, Parenting, and Child Development.-Inequality Begins at Home: The Role of Parenting in the Diverging Destinies of Rich and Poor Children.- Subjective Rationality, Parenting Styles, and Investments in Children.- Inequality Begins Outside the Home: Putting Parental Educational Investments into Context.- Stressful Life Experiences and Contexts: The Effects on Parents and Parenting.- III. Social Inequality and the Transition to Adulthood.- Diverse Pathways: Rethinking the Transition to Adulthood.- The Transition to Adulthood Matters.- The Family Foundation: What do Class and Family Structure have to do with the Transition to Adulthood?.- Different Social Class Dimensions Play Different Roles in the Transition to Adulthood.- IV. Program and Policy Responses to Growing Family Inequality.- No Way Out: Dealing with the Consequences of Changes in Family Composition.- Struggling to Stay Afloat: Dynamic Models of Poverty-related Adversity and Child Outcomes.- The Diverging Destinies of Children and What it Means for Children’s Lives.-V. Reflecting on Diverging Destinies of American Families.- Reflecting on The Diverging Destinies of American Families: Policy Approaches as we Move Forward.

"The most appealing feature of the book is the inclusion of chapters from a wide range of disciplines including Economics, Psychology and Sociology. This diversity is stimulating and makes the book a thought-provoking and interesting volume. ... In short, the edited volume is an inspiring collection of chapters from a diverse set of scholars. Its main contribution is to bring together different approaches on given topics, mostly without presenting new research." (Diederik Boertien, European Journal of Population, February, 2016)