ABSTRACT
The intergenerational effects of low literacy and poverty constitute a growing segment of research on children, parents, and families. Policy efforts at the federal level reflect this concern for the deleterious effects of chronic poverty and the relationship between poverty and literacy. The consequences of poverty and low literacy are often described in research on families and literacy, particularly the effect of parents’ literacy and parent-child literacy interactions on children’s school performance. Research on the consequences of low literacy for children and families has increased dramatically over the past decade. Low literacy in several other reports has been linked to low productivity, high unemployment, low earnings, and high rates of welfare dependency. Poverty has been linked to low literacy by suggestion, innuendo, and statistics. Poverty as a short-term experience is riddled with stress. Poverty research has focused heavily on changing family formation patterns in the United States over the past twenty years.
