The impact can be indirect (and often difficult to measure) through the influence of family supports on family and employment behaviours, but poverty rates also depend on the redistribution through taxes and transfers which generally help reduce child- and family poverty. Given this overall structure, the analysis follows a two-step approach. The first step attempts to unravel the interconnected factors which determine the trends in child poverty and focuses on the main demographic and economic factors that may explain child poverty rates after taxes and transfers.