Children in low-income families face a myriad of risks which compromise optional development. Despite this, many children from disadvantaged backgrounds grow up to lead productive and healthy lives. A key contributor to this variability is the family context. This article reviews research on how families exacerbate or buffer children's experience of economic risk, and then discusses preventive and intervention efforts designed to alleviate the hardships faced by families in poverty and improve children's long-term outcomes. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)