The Relationship between Poverty, Economic Stress, and Child Internalizing Problems

Background and purpose

      Children with early emergent behavior problems are likely to evince serious behavior problems, social skill deficits, and academic difficulties later in life. Substantial evidence indicates that children who live in poverty are at greater risk for the development of behavior problems than are children from higher SES backgrounds. Based on the Family Stress Model, financial hardship often results in economic stress, a construct that reflects the psychological impact of insufficient monetary resources.  Such adversity threatens the healthy development and well-being of children and destabilizes family processes. The present study investigates the association between poverty, parental economic stress, and child internalizing behaviors. Additionally, the moderating role of received tangible and emotional support for parents is assessed as a mitigating factor, thus reducing child internalizing behavioral issues.

Methods

      The analysis sample included 975 participants (6-18) from Wave II of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II). The dependent variable is child internalizing behavior standard scores, derived from the Child Behavior Checklist. The independent variables are poverty level (below 100% FPL), and parental economic stress, measured by parental report of whether they were ‘saving a little money each month’, ‘just getting by’, or ‘struggling to make it’. Moderators include variables regarding receipt of tangible supports: food, housing, job-related services, and child care. Emotional support was measured using indicators noting the receipt of mental health services and participation in support groups. The covariates are child age, gender, race, parental depression, and number of children in the household.

      Using Stata 14.1, an OLS regression was conducted to assess the relationships between poverty, economic stress, and child internalizing behaviors. Interactions between poverty and the various social supports parents received were included to test the moderation effect.

Results

      Thirty-four percent of children in our sample were in families under 100% of the federal poverty level. Poverty is positively related to parental economic stress, yet not significantly related to child internalizing behaviors. However, significant relationships existed between the measures of parental economic stress and child internalizing behaviors. Financially struggling parents as opposed to those able to save a little each month had children with more internalizing behaviors (ß=3.75, p<.05). Among the covariates, older children had slightly higher internalizing scores (ß=.45, p<.01); Black children demonstrated fewer internalizing behaviors than other racial groups (ß=-2.19, p<.05); and parents with depression had children with much higher internalizing scores than parents who were not depressed (ß=5.59, p<.01). A moderation effect was identified among financially struggling families and those who had received tangible and emotional supports. The receipt of food, housing, and treatment for mental health problems buffered the impact of economic stress resulting in their children scoring lower on the internalizing behavior scale.  

Implications for practice 

      The study underscores the deleterious effects of financial stress on child internalizing behaviors. Compared to poverty, economic stress is a more meaningful predictor of child internalizing behaviors. Further, research, interventions, and policies should be developed with consideration of the impact of parental economic stress on child internalizing behaviors.