A New Report from the Council on Contemporary Families:

The Recession Is Officially Over, But How Are American Families Faring this Holiday Season?

Retailers report that this year's post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend broke all previous records, raising predictions of "the best holiday shopping season ever." Yet the number of people living in poverty has also broken all previous records - 46.2 million people, the highest number ever recorded and still rising despite the fact  that the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the recession over in June 2009. Meanwhile, wealth and income inequality have reached highs not seen in almost a century.

How do we make sense of these seemingly contradictory trends? Some experts claim that government figures greatly overestimate poverty; others counter that they greatly underestimate it, especially for the elderly. Still others argue that poverty in America does not involve outright deprivation, since poor Americans own more amenities, such as television sets and refrigerators, than many middle-class people in other parts of the world.

In a new briefing paper prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families, sociologist Philip N. Cohen of the University of North Carolina explains recent changes in poverty and in income insecurity among the non-poor. Among the report's findings:

• New measurement techniques reveal that traditional poverty figures have underestimated the extent of severe poverty among the elderly butover-estimated the amount among children. Nevertheless,a report released last week by the Census Bureau showed an increase in poverty for school-age children since 2010: 653 counties saw a significant increase in poverty for children ages 5 to 17 in families, while only eight counties saw a significant decrease.

• It's true that most Americans have higher living standards than their counterparts in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. But the U.S. has a higher poverty rate than all but 1 of the Western European, Nordic, and Anglophone countries. In fact, the U.S. poverty rate for children is more thantwiceas high as that for 8 of those countries.

• An even larger number of people than formerly thought - 51 million - have incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line, making them vulnerable to frequent short-term spells below the poverty line when their work hours are cut back or they have unexpected expenses.

• And short-terms spells of poverty involve very real deprivation, including hunger and untreated illness. As Cohen argues, the issue is not whether a family HAS a refrigerator so much as how often the electricity is turned off for failure to pay the utility bill or the fridge sits empty because there isn't enough money to pay for food on top of heat.

The report is attached immediately below this release and available with citations at http://contemporaryfamilies.org/economic-issues/poverty-hardship-families.html

On April 27 and 28, 2012 CCF's annual conference, Crossing Boundaries: Public and Private Roles in Assuring Child Well-Being, will address the issue of how best to protect children in this difficult economic environment.  Co-sponsored with the Child and Family Policy Consortium, the conference will assess the extent to which poverty leads families to come to the attention of child protective services and how states are implementing new approaches to address these families' underlying needs, rather than simply opening investigations for neglect.  Additional topics include racial-ethnic disparities in reports of child abuse and neglect, strategies for addressing these disparities, and public perceptions of individual, familial and societal responsibilities for child well-being.

To receive future CCF briefing papers and fact sheets, or to request complimentary press passes to the conference, contact Stephanie Coontz, CCF's director of Research and Public Education: coontzs@msn.com;360 352-8117

For further information about CCF visit www.contemporaryfamilies.org.