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Mixed-method and experimental data on working poor families and children with troubles participating in the New Hope anti-poverty experimental initiative in Milwaukee are described. Sixty percent of these families had at least one child who had significant problems (learning, school achievement and/or behavior, home behavior, retardation, other disabilities). Control group families with children who had troubles had more difficulties in sustaining their family routine than did New Hope experimental families. In the context of the many other challenges these parents face, adaptation to children with troubles does not stand out as sharply compared to middle-class European American families. There is less family adaptation specifically due to, or in response to, the troubled child, and more adaptation to the struggles of making ends meet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]