What Children Need

by Jane Waldfogel

Overview

What do children need to grow and develop? And how can their needs be met when parents work? Emphasizing the importance of parental choice, quality of care, and work opportunities, economist Jane Waldfogel guides readers through the maze of social science research evidence to offer comprehensive answers and a vision for change. Drawing on the evidence, Waldfogel proposes a bold new plan to better meet the needs of children in working families, from birth through adolescence, while respecting the core values of choice, quality, and work: ,Allow parents more flexibility to take time off work for family responsibilities; ,Break the link between employment and essential family benefits; ,Give mothers and fathers more options to stay home in the first year of life; ,Improve quality of care from infancy through the preschool years; ,Increase access to high-quality out-of-school programs for school-aged children and teenagers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674046405
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2010
Series:	The Family and Public Policy , #6
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jane Waldfogel is Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Children and Parents 11

2 Infants and Toddlers 36

3 Preschool-Age Children 83

4 School-Age Children 126

5 Adolescents 157

6 Where Do We Go from Here? 176

Notes 197

References 223

Acknowledgments 257

Index 261

What People are Saying About This

What Children Need argues that there are three principles that policy makers should use to ensure that children's needs are met: respecting parental choice, promoting quality, and supporting parental employment. Waldfogel believes that there are tensions among these values and it is by identifying and grappling with the tensions that we will find real possibilities for creative solutions.

Frank Furstenberg

Waldfogel's book is undoubtedly the best informed, wisest, and most convincing description of the benefits and risks of childcare arrangements in the United States. It is tightly organized, lucidly written, and utterly engaging.
— Frank Furstenberg, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

Ellen Galinsky

What Children Need argues that there are three principles that policy makers should use to ensure that children's needs are met: respecting parental choice, promoting quality, and supporting parental employment. Waldfogel believes that there are tensions among these values and it is by identifying and grappling with the tensions that we will find real possibilities for creative solutions.
— Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder, Families and Work Institute

Editorial Reviews

What Children Need is an impressive, thought-provoking synthesis of information and ideas for designing social policy to support the healthy development of children living in an industrialized world.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review - Lisa Gennetian

What would a children's services system based on evidence and respect for choice look like? This lucid, well-organized and carefully researched book cuts to the heart of such debates. It should be read widely and, if taken seriously, will encourage far-reaching and positive changes in practice and research in the field.

British Journal of Social Work - Nick Axford

[Waldfogel] gives readers a solid sense of the gaps between what children need and what they are getting, as well as a blueprint for what public policy can and should do to provide for those needs.

Greater Good - Christine Carter McLaughlin

In What Children Need, Jane Waldfogel guides us through more closely defined approaches to questions about the effects of parental care and attention and takes a pragmatic view of the way children adapt to variations in their environment.

Times Literary Supplement - Terri Apter

What Children Need argues that there are three principles that policy makers should use to ensure that children's needs are met: respecting parental choice, promoting quality, and supporting parental employment. Waldfogel believes that there are tensions among these values and it is by identifying and grappling with the tensions that we will find real possibilities for creative solutions.

Ellen Galinsky

Waldfogel's book is undoubtedly the best informed, wisest, and most convincing description of the benefits and risks of childcare arrangements in the United States. It is tightly organized, lucidly written, and utterly engaging.

Frank Furstenberg

[Waldfogel's] analysis is written from an American perspective, and most of her statistics refer to the United States, but the issues and her discussion of them transcend national boundaries.

Times Educational Supplement - Gerald Haigh

[Waldfogel] gives readers a solid sense of the gaps between what children need and what they are getting, as well as a blueprint for what public policy can and should do to provide for those needs.
— Christine Carter McLaughlin

Greater Good

What Children Need is an impressive, thought-provoking synthesis of information and ideas for designing social policy to support the healthy development of children living in an industrialized world.
— Lisa Gennetian

Industrial and Labor Relations Review

What would a children's services system based on evidence and respect for choice look like? This lucid, well-organized and carefully researched book cuts to the heart of such debates. It should be read widely and, if taken seriously, will encourage far-reaching and positive changes in practice and research in the field.
— Nick Axford

British Journal of Social Work

[Waldfogel's] analysis is written from an American perspective, and most of her statistics refer to the United States, but the issues and her discussion of them transcend national boundaries.
— Gerald Haigh

Times Educational Supplement

In What Children Need, Jane Waldfogel guides us through more closely defined approaches to questions about the effects of parental care and attention and takes a pragmatic view of the way children adapt to variations in their environment.
— Terri Apter

Times Literary Supplement