This book documents the experiences of rural Iowa families, who lived through the "farm crisis" years of the 1980s, in a fashion that might help families of the future cope more successfully with economic reversals. The documentation could be used to fashion more effective social policies.

The turbulent decade of the 1980s began with financial calamity in several sectors of the United States economy, from automaking to agriculture. The rural Midwest experienced its worst economic decline since the Depression years. Thousands of farmers lost their operations, and the small rural communities that serve agriculture often changed from prosperous business centers to struggling villages with many empty buildings and boarded-up storefronts along their main streets. Families in Troubled Times examines the plight of several hundred rural families who have lived through these difficult years. The participants in the Iowa Youth and Families Project, the subjects of the present study, include farmers, people from small towns, and those who lost farms and other businesses as a result of the "farm crisis." The book traces the influence of economic hardship on the emotions, behavior, and relationships of parents, children, siblings, husbands, and wives. The results of the study show that although economic stress has a powerful adverse effect on individuals and families, countervailing social influence can help to blunt these negative processes and to assist in the repair of the personal and interpersonal damage they produce.

Food is fundamental to health and social participation, yet food poverty has increased in the global North. Adopting a realist ontology and taking a comparative case approach, Families and Food in Hard Times addresses the global problem of economic retrenchment and how those most affected are those with the least resources. Based on research carried out with low-income families with children aged 11-15, this timely book examines food poverty in the UK, Portugal and Norway in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis. It examines the resources to which families have access in relation to public policies, local institutions and kinship and friendship networks, and how they intersect. Through ‘thick description’ of families’ everyday lives, it explores the ways in which low income impacts upon practices of household food provisioning, the types of formal and informal support on which families draw to get by, the provision and role of school meals in children’s lives, and the constraints upon families’ social participation involving food. Providing extensive and intensive knowledge concerning the conditions and experiences of low-income parents as they endeavour to feed their families, as well as children’s perspectives of food and eating in the context of low income, the book also draws on the European social science literature on food and families to shed light on the causes and consequences of food poverty in austerity Europe.

The purpose of the edited collection Families in Economically Hard Times: Experiences and Coping Strategies in Europe is to provide readers with unique sociological knowledge on European families' experiences and behavioural strategies a decade after economic crisis of the 21st century.

A North Carolina minister's point-of-view on how parents should raise their children.

Raise hopeful, grounded and action-oriented children in a time that feels full of uncertainty. Kids and parents alike are feeling the weight of these troubling times. Anxiety disorders are on the rise in teens and children. “Climate anxiety” is a phrase entering our cultural lexicon. Ancient practices of Christianity, both internal and external, can be a guidepost for parents navigating this uncharted territory. They give us a way to be grounded as well as provide a way of living with purpose in a time of urgency. The Hopeful Family is the guidebook for parents who are building a life of meaning and hope even in a time of unease. Readers will be reminded of the hope that is part of the Christian story and find both inspiration and evidence to step more fully into a framework of abundance and optimism.

Provides hope for real-world solutions to life-threatening problems such as global poverty, environmental destruction, and terrorism.