Child Poverty and Intergenerational Mobility

TL;DRAbstract

The promise of the American Dream is that in our society, anyone can succeed with hard work and persistence. Even in the current economic downturn, the majority of Americans (72 percent) believe that it is possible to start out poor, work hard, and become wealthy. But does this promise hold true for America's children? How common is it for people who spend part of their childhood living in poverty to experience poverty as adults? How does this vary by how much time children spend living in poverty? And does it vary by race? Economic mobility, the ability to move up or down the economic ladder during one's lifetime and across generations, is central to the ideal of the American Dream. But recent research finds that there are limitations to mobility in the United States. For example, one study of families across generations finds that one's economic position is strongly influenced by that of one's parents: 42 percent of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of the economic distrib

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