This chapter describes a set of new directions in the understanding of how poverty and poverty-related individual and environmental risks influence children and families. It presents the definitions of poverty and of the environment, and discusses new and emerging multidiscipline research on the links between poverty and child and family outcomes with an emphasis on mechanisms. The chapter summarizes the current state of the evidence emerging from the basic sciences (e.g., neuroscience), psychology, sociology, and economics. It outlines the innovations in prevention and intervention efforts both to change poverty itself and to interrupt the links between poverty and poor child and family outcomes. Some of the most innovative poverty reduction or alleviation interventions are place- or setting-based, seeking to infuse entire communities or settings with resources meant to reduce the prevalence or impact of one or more poverty-related risks.

Research has shown that up to 83% of friends and family members of people diagnosed with schizophrenia experience financial, emotional, and practical burdens. In their pioneering study of family psychoeducation, Falloon and colleagues found that reductions in family burden associated with family psychoeducation were associated with improvements in patient clinical status and reductions in relapse over time. The design of Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) permits investigation of the impact of random assignment to the first-generation antipsychotic perphenazine and four second-generation drugs on family outcomes over an 18-month study period. In addition, family members frequently take an active role in helping patients manage their medication and in other aspects of preventing relapse and promoting recovery. The findings of the CATIE study underscore the importance of involving family caregivers in treatment planning for their relatives with schizophrenia.