This paper presents a cultural and historical analysis of the continuously increasing number of children and childhoods at risk, using a population perspective framework. Two major claims are presented. First the conditions of children and childhoods in the West, compared to the patterns of child-care in India, Japan and many other non-Western societies demonstrate the relative separateness of children from the adult world of the family and community. Second, recent global transformation edging towards greater modernization in the developing countries and toward post-industrial transformations in the developed countries are introducing new risk conditions to children's well being. For example, the recent changes in the family and society in the West may have pushed the conditions of children to extreme forms of psychological risks, while in the majority of the non-Western world, the high risks children encounter are to their physical survival. In conclusion, the paper suggests that human development must be seen as determined by multiple contextual and endogenous factors and the notion of developmental risks must be seen through not only a psychological perspective, but also through cultural beliefs and practices which tend to be socially, economically, and historically mediated. Contains 32 references. (AA)