Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Many Kinds of Poverty: Three Dimensions of Economic Hardship, Their Combinations, and Children’s Behavior Problems

  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

Income poverty, material deprivation, and subjective financial stress are three distinct dimensions of economic hardship. The majority of the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of economic hardship on children has treated material deprivation and subjective financial stress as only mediators of the effects of income poverty, not considering the independent effects of each dimension or the effects of their combinations. Using nationally representative, longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study on more than 18,000 families in the United Kingdom, we propose seven distinct experiences of economic hardship, based on the possible combinations of income poverty, material deprivation, and subjective financial stress. We use mixed- and fixed-effects linear regression models to identify whether these different economic hardship combinations are differentially associated with children’s behavior problems between ages 3 and 7. We find that all economic hardship combinations, including those without income poverty, are associated with higher levels of children’s behavior problems. The combination of material deprivation and subjective financial stress and the combination of all three dimensions of economic hardship are associated with the highest levels of behavior problems. Based on these findings, we argue that income poverty is an important but insufficient measure of economic hardship for children and that theory and research on the effects of economic hardship on children should consider the multidimensional nature of economic stressors for families.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alkire, S., & Foster, J. (2011). Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. Journal of Public Economics, 95, 476–487.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allison, P. (2015). Don’t put lagged dependent variables in mixed models. Ardmore, PA: Statistical Horizons. Retrieved from https://statisticalhorizons.com/lagged-dependent-variables

  • Althoff, R. R., Verhulst, F. C., Rettew, D. C., Hudziak, J. J., & van der Ende, J. (2010). Adult outcomes of childhood dysregulation: A 14-year follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 1105–1116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altman, D. G., & Royston, P. (2006). The cost of dichotomising continuous variables. BMJ, 332, 1080. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7549.1080

    Google Scholar 

  • Babinski, L. M., Hartsough, C. S., & Lambert, N. M. (1999). Childhood conduct problems, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and inattention as predictors of adult criminal activity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 40, 347–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, A., & Jones, K. (2015). Explaining fixed effects: Random effects modeling of time-series cross-sectional and panel data. Political Science Research and Methods, 3, 133–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blake, K. S., Kellerson, R. L., & Simic, A. (2007). Measuring overcrowding in housing (Report). Fairfax, VA: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

  • Bona, K., London, W. B., Guo, D., Frank, D. A., & Wolfe, J. (2016). Trajectory of material hardship and income poverty in families of children undergoing chemotherapy: A prospective cohort study. Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 63, 105–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boushey, H., & Gundersen, B. (2001). When work just isn’t enough: Measuring hardships faced by families after moving from welfare to work (EPI Briefing Paper). Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_hardships/

  • Bradbury, B., Corak, M., Waldfogel, J., & Washbrook, E. (2015). Too many children char behind: The U.S. achievement gap in comparative perspective. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, J., & Finch, N. (2003). Overlaps in dimensions of poverty. Journal of Social Policy, 32, 513–525.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, M., Etheridge, B., & O’Dea, C. (2017). Why are households that report the lowest incomes so well-off? Economic Journal, 127, F24–F49. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12334

    Google Scholar 

  • Conger, R. D., & Conger, K. J. (2002). Resilience in Midwestern families: Selected findings from the first decade of a prospective, longitudinal study. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64, 361–373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conger, R. D., Conger, K. J., Elder, G. H., Jr., Lorenz, F. O., Simons, R. L., & Whitbeck, L. B. (1992). A family process model of economic hardship and adjustment of early adolescent boys. Child Development, 63, 526–541.

  • Conger, R. D., & Donnellan, M. B. (2007). An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 175–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costello, E. J., Compton, S. N., Keeler, G., & Angold, A. (2003). Relationships between poverty and psychopathology: A natural experiment. JAMA, 290, 2023–2029.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dearing, E., McCartney, K., & Taylor, B. A. (2006). Within-child associations between family income and externalizing and internalizing problems. Developmental Psychology, 42, 237–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dieleman, J. L., & Templin, T. (2014). Random-effects, fixed-effects and the within-between specification for clustered data in observational health studies: A simulation study. PLoS One, 9(10), e110257. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elder, G. H., Jr. (1998). Children of the Great Depression: Social change in life experience (25th anniversary ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Cassells, R. C. (2013). Childhood poverty, cumulative risk exposure, and mental health in emerging adults. Clinical Psychological Science, 2, 287–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2012). Childhood poverty and young adults’ allostatic load: The mediating role of childhood cumulative risk exposure. Psychological Science, 23, 979–983.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2013). Childhood poverty, chronic stress, self-regulation, and coping. Child Development Perspectives, 7, 43–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fusco, A., Guio, A.-C., & Marlier, E. (2011). Income poverty and material deprivation in European countries (LISER Working Paper Series No. 2011– 04). Belval: Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research. Retrieved from http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/irscepswp/2011-04.htm

  • Gaunt, R., & Benjamin, O. (2007). Job insecurity, stress and gender: The moderating role of gender ideology. Community, Work & Family, 10, 341–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gauthier, A. H., & Furstenberg, F. F., Jr. (2010). The experience of financial strain among families with children in the United States (Working Paper No. 10–17). Bowling Green, OH: National Center for family and Marriage, Bowling Green State University.

  • Gershoff, E. T., Aber, J. L., Raver, C. C., & Lennon, M. C. (2007). Income is not enough: Incorporating material hardship into models of income associations with parenting and child development. Child Development, 78, 70–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, A., Lamping, D. L., & Ploubidis, G. B. (2010). When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British parents, teachers and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1179–1191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581–586.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, R., Ford, T., Simmons, H., Gatward, R., & Meltzer, H. (2000). Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a community sample. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 534–539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, P., Waldfogel, J., & Washbrook, E. (2006). Family expenditures post-welfare reform in the UK: Are low-income families starting to catch up? Labour Economics, 13, 721–746.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, G. (1998). The timing of the influences of cumulative poverty on children’s cognitive ability and achievement. Social Forces, 77, 257–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, K. (2014). Millennium Cohort Study: A guide to the datasets (8th ed.). London, UK: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heflin, C. M., & Iceland, J. (2009). Poverty, material hardship, and depression. Social Science Quarterly, 90, 1051–1071.

    Google Scholar 

  • HM Revenue and Customs. (2010). Child Benefit statistics: Geographical analysis (Report). London, UK: Office for National Statistics.

  • Iceland, J., & Bauman, K. J. (2007). Income poverty and material hardship: How strong is the association? Journal of Socio-Economics, 36, 376–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, T., Li, J., Pollmann-Schult, M., & Song, A. Y. (2017). Poverty and child behavioral problems: The mediating role of parenting and parental well-being. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14, 981. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14090981

    Google Scholar 

  • Lansford, J. E., Malone, P. S., Tapanya, S., Tirado, L. M. U., Zelli, A., Alampay, L. P., . . . Steinberg, L. (2019). Household income predicts trajectories of child internalizing and externalizing behavior in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 43, 74–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J.-S., & Lee, K. (2016). Material hardships and social support among Australian families with children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 1539–1549.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leininger, J. L., & Kalil, A. (2014). Economic strain and children’s behavior in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76, 998–1010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markman, M., & Luce, R. (2010). Impact of the cost of cancer treatment: An Internet-based survey. Journal of Oncology Practice, 6, 69–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, G. N. (2007). Income poverty, subjective poverty and financial stress (Australian Government Social Policy Research Paper No. 29). Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKernan, S.-M., Ratcliffe, C., & Vinopal, K. (2009). Do assets help families cope with adverse events? Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLeod, J. D., & Shanahan, M. J. (1993). Poverty, parenting, and children’s mental health. American Sociological Review, 58, 351–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLoyd, V. C. (1990). The impact of economic hardship on black families and children: Psychological distress, parenting and socioemotional development. Child Development, 61, 311–346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mistry, R. S., Lowe, E. D., Benner, A. D., & Chien, N. (2008). Expanding the family economic stress model: Insights from a mixed-methods approach. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70, 196–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mostafa, T. (2015). Sample design and attrition in MCS. London, UK: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neckerman, K. M., Garfinkel, I., Teitler, J. O., Waldfogel, J., & Wimer, C. (2016). Beyond income poverty: Measuring disadvantage in terms of material hardship and health. Academic Pediatrics, 16(3, Suppl.), S52–S59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newland, R. P., Crnic, K. A., Cox, M. J., Mills-Koonce, W. R., & Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2013). The family model stress and maternal psychological symptoms: Mediated pathways from economic hardship to parenting. Journal of Family Psychology, 27, 96–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panico, L., Stuart, B., Bartley, M., & Kelly, Y. (2014). Asthma trajectories in early childhood: Identifying modifiable factors. PLoS One, 9(11), e111922. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111922

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plewis, I., Calderwood, L., Hawkes, D., Hughes, G., & Joshi, H. (2007). Millennium Cohort Study: Technical report on sampling. London, UK: Centre for Longitudinal Study, Institute of Education. Retrieved from http://www.esds.ac.uk/doc/5350/mrdoc/pdf/mcs_technical_report_on_sampling_4th_edition.pdf

  • Ponnet, K. (2014). Financial stress, parent functioning and adolescent problem behavior: An actor–partner interdependence approach to family stress processes in low-, middle-, and high-income families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 1752–1769.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prochaska, J. J., Sung, H.-Y., Max, W., Shi, Y., & Ong, M. (2012). Validity study of the K6 scale as a measure of moderate mental distress based on mental health treatment need and utilization. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 21, 88–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayal, K., Washbrook, E., & Propper, C. (2015). Childhood behavior problems and academic outcomes in adolescence: Longitudinal population-based study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54, 360–368.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.02.007

    Google Scholar 

  • Schenck-Fontaine, A., Lansford, J. E., Skinner, A. T., Deater-Deckard, K., Di Giunta, L., Dodge, K. A., . . . Chang, L. (2018). Associations between perceived material deprivation, parents’ discipline practices, and children’s behavior problems: An international perspective. Child Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13151

  • Sharp, L., Carsin, A.-E., & Timmons, A. (2013). Associations between cancer-related financial stress and strain and psychological well-being among individuals living with cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 22, 745–755.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, R. J., Benzeval, M., & Popham, F. (2014). To what extent do financial strain and labour force status explain social class inequalities in self-rated health? Analysis of 20 countries in the European Social Survey. PLoS One, 9(10), e110362. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tay, L., Batz, C., Parrigon, S., & Kuykendall, L. (2016). Debt and subjective well-being: The other side of the income-happiness coin. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18, 903–937.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagmiller, R. L., Jr. (2015). The temporal dynamics of childhood economic deprivation and children’s achievement. Child Development Perspectives, 9, 158–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldfogel, J., & Washbrook, E. (2011). Early years policy. Child Development Research, 2011, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/343016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Washbrook, E., Waldfogel, J., Bradbury, B., Corak, M., & Ghanghro, A. A. (2012). The development of young children of immigrants in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Child Development, 83, 1591–1607.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yabroff, K. R., Dowling, E. C., Guy, G. P. Jr., Banegas, M. P., Davidoff, A., Han, X., . . . Ekwueme, D. U. (2016). Financial hardship associated with cancer in the United States: Findings from a population-based sample of adult cancer survivors. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 34, 259–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, R., & Johnson, D. R. (2015). Handling missing values in longitudinal panel data with multiple imputation. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77, 277–294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilanawala, A., & Pilkauskas, N. V. (2012). Material hardship and child socioemotional behaviors: Differences by types of hardship, timing, and duration. Children and Youth Services Review, 34, 814–825.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the Duke Population Research Center, Duke University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD065563). This work was also partly funded through an INED visiting fellowship to Anika Schenck-Fontaine. Thanks go to the three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on this article. We would like to thank the Millennium Cohort Study families for their time and cooperation as well as the Millennium Cohort Study team at the Institute of Education, UCL. The Millennium Cohort Study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Wilhelmsplatz 3, 96047, Bamberg, Germany

    Anika Schenck-Fontaine

  2. Institut National d’Études Démographiques, 133 Boulevard Davout, 75020, Paris, France

    Lidia Panico

Authors
  1. Anika Schenck-Fontaine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lidia Panico
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anika Schenck-Fontaine.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Schenck-Fontaine, A., Panico, L. Many Kinds of Poverty: Three Dimensions of Economic Hardship, Their Combinations, and Children’s Behavior Problems. Demography 56, 2279–2305 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-019-00833-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-019-00833-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation