The Great Recession and Child Behavior Problems: Differential Effects By Child Gender
A growing body of research has begun to examine the effect of the Great Recession on children and families. Recent research has demonstrated an association between the Great Recession and increased maternal spanking, child maltreatment (Berger et al., 2011; Lee, Brooks-Gunn, McLanahan, & Garfinkel, 2013; Lindo, Hanson, & Schaller, 2013), material hardship (Pilkauskas, Currie, & Garfinkel, 2012), marriage (Harknett & Schneider, 2012), parenting, and health (Lindo, 2011). Ours study is among the first to examine how the Great Recession directly affected children.
Data/Methods
In this analysis, we examine the effect of the Great Recession on boy’s and girl’s externalizing and internalizing behavior and children’s own reports of early drug and alcohol use and vandalism. The Great Recession, beginning in December 2007 and officially ending in June 2009 (NBER), severely disrupted the American economy and family life. In addition, it serves as an exogenous shock allowing us to investigate the link between economic instability and children’s behavior.
The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is particularly well suited for examining the effects of the Great Recession on families and children. The 9-year follow up survey was collected beginning in May 2007 and ending in February 2010, providing us with a survey frame that includes the Great Recession as well as data prior to and after the recession. In addition, we match the Consumer Sentiment Index, an exogenous measure of the Great Recession, to the Fragile Families data.
Based on theory and prior research with the family stress model (Elder, 1974), we estimate separate models for boys and girls. Next, we test the moderating role of family to examine if the effects of the Great Recession on child behavior problems are exacerbated for children living with a single mother. Last, we test the mediating role of different aspects of parent.
Results
We find that the decreased consumer confidence during the Great Recession was associated with increased externalizing, internalizing, vandalism, and drug and alcohol use for boys but not girls, for whom worse consumer confidence is associated with decreased externalizing and drug and alcohol use. Analyses testing the moderating role of family structure indicate that the effects of the Great Recession on child behavior problems are exacerbated for children living with a single mother. Last, analyses of the mediating role of aspects of parenting (harsh parenting, maternal warmth, and maternal depression) suggest that parenting may mediate the association between the Great Recession and boys’ behavior problems among boys living with a single mother.
Conclusions
This study provides new evidence about the association between the Great Recession and children’s problem behaviors. Perhaps most importantly, the study provides evidence that boys and girls may react differently to economic hardship, with boys increasing problem behaviors and girls reducing theirs. In particular, we find that boys living with single mothers may be at particular risk during times of economic hardship, perhaps because of the increased instability faced by these families.