I. Biosocial Influences on Early Childhood Health -- The Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease -- How Can We Overcome the Biological Inertia of Past Deprivation? -- Anthropological Perspectives on the Developmental Origins of Adult Health -- D evelopmental Origins of Disease and Health Disparities: Limitations and Future Directions -- The Effects of Early Severe Psychosocial Deprivation on Children's Cognitive and Social Development: Lessons from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project -- II. Role of Family Dynamics in children’s Health -- Family Discord and Child Health: An Emotional Security Formulation -- F amily Influences on Children’s Mental and Physical Health: Some Contributions of and Challenges to the Emotional Security Theory -- Emotional Insecurity and Child Health: Implications and Future Directions -- C ould Emotional Security Theory help advance family focused preventive interventions?- III. Link to the Social Environment through Families -- Lifecourse Exposures and Socioeconomic Disparities in Child Health -- Lifecourse Exposures and Socioeconomic Disparities in Child Health:  Opportunities for Intervention -- S ocial Class and Child Health: Our Complexity Complex -- IV. Impact of Social Polices & Programs on Children’s Health -- The Pro Family Workplace: Social and Economic Policies and Practices and their Impacts on Child and Family Health -- Work-Family Strain and Health Care for Children -- Harder Than Rocket Science? The Science of Designing and Implementing Strong Family Friendly Policies -- Emerging Evidence from Research that Can Improve Social Policies and Programs to Impact Child Health -- V. Conclusions: Integrating Perspectives on Child Health.

An adult's health is determined not only by stress levels, food choices, and recreational habits. Science is paying increased attention to the roles of prenatal, perinatal, and early childhood conditions in shaping health and well-being across the lifespan. Families and Child Health brings clarity to this complex and multifaceted topic. This comprehensive volume presents analyses of the interactions between the "nature" and "nurture" components of the equation, providing current findings on in utero nutrition and development and examining the roles of social determinants and family discord in the creation of health disparities. Contributors emphasize opportunities for prevention and intervention and make the case for interdisciplinary collaboration. Among the topics covered in depth are: Early developmental origins of chronic disease. Lifecourse exposures and social disparities in child health. The science of designing, implementing, and evaluating programs and policies for child health. Effects of early psychosocial deprivation on children's cognitive and social development. The family-friendly workplace and its impact on child and family health. Integrating perspectives on children's health. Families and Child Health is bedrock reading for researchers, professors, and graduate students in disparate fields such as policy analysis, human development, family studies, sociology, social welfare, family demography, public health, health science, clinical psychology, social psychology, behavioral medicine, and public policy. Policymakers will also find it of considerable importance.