A new book brings together the latest findings from Young Lives on how poverty affects children's development and how children and their families respond to poverty in their daily decisions and daily lives.

Growing Up in Poverty: Findings from Young Lives, edited by Michael Bourdillon and Jo Boyden, is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

The book shows how, amid general economic growth, many poor children are being left behind despite the promises of the Millennium Development Goals. While the universalisaton of education now means that most children attend school, at least for a while, children from disadvantaged backgrounds often experience poor-quality education and learn least in school, creating inequality of opportunity.

Changing values, and the growing belief in education as a route of out poverty, raise questions about how children's early circumstances and experiences, and the choices open to them, affect their later outcomes and well-being in adolescence and early adulthood.

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