Beyond Monetary Terms: Redefining Childhood Poverty and Examining Familial Factors Contributing to the Longitudinal Psychological Development of Poor Youths in Hong Kong

Background and Purpose:According to Family Stress Model (Conger,1994), the familial factors of parental perceived economic pressure and poor parent-child relationships affect youths' psychological development. Yet, in Hong Kong, childhood poverty is merely defined with monetary terms and poverty alleviation policy is dominated by financial assistance. Using monetary value to define childhood poverty neglect the effect of familial socio-economic factors on youths’ well-being (Minujin,2006). With a childhood poverty rate of 23% in Hong Kong (CoP,2015), studies in the city have yet to establish a socio-economic definition of childhood poverty and examine familial factors contributing to the psychological development of poor youths. To address the gap, we redefined childhood poverty with familial socio-economic characteristics (Aim1); and examined the effect of the familial socio-economic definition of childhood poverty, parental perceived economic pressure and parent-child relationships on youths’ psychological development (Aim2). 

Method:This study includes 750 participants (age 9-17; all from low income families recruited from local non-profit organizations via convenient sampling) of the Child Development Fund Project (2009-2012) initiated by the Hong Kong Government. A longitudinal quantitative survey (4 data waves) was implemented. Binary categorical parental-report items included familial socio-economic characteristics (i.e., social security recipients, parental homeownership, parental education level, parental unemployment and single parent family) and parental perceived economic pressure (1=High Pressure v.s. 0=Not High). Standardized youth-reported measurements were General Health Questionnaires-12 (Li,2009) and 18-items Relatedness Questionnaire with Parents (Lynch,1997). Aim1 used latent class analysis to define childhood poverty with familial socio-economic indicators and to classify participants into subgroups according to their poverty levels. The newly classified variable of childhood poverty was used in Aim2. Aim2 employed longitudinal multilevel modeling. Outcome time-varying variable was psychological health from 4 data waves. Predictors were the variable of time (i.e.,data wave) and the time-invariant variables collected at baseline line are the newly classified childhood poverty, parental perceived economic pressure and parent-child relationships.

Results:Results of Aim1 indicated two latent classes of poverty level (poorest vs. less poor) represented by familial socio-economic indicators among the participants. Youths classified as poorest exhibited higher percentages of being social security recipients (100%), absence of parental homeownership (88%), having low parental education (53%), having unemployed parent(s) (68%) and living in single parent family (57%) compared to less poor group (p<.05). For Aim2, adjusting for gender and age at baseline, multilevel regressions showed that psychological health of participants decreased over time (b=-0.26). Low parental perceived economic pressure (b=-1.74) and high parent-child relationships (b=0.16) at baseline predicted better psychological health across all 4 waves (p<.05). The familial socio-economic defintion of childhood poverty had no effect on psychological health.

Conclusion and implications:The definition of childhood poverty goes beyond monetary terms and can be represented by familial socio-economic indicators. The psychological health of poor youths may be determined by parental well-being and parent-child relationships rather than the tangible socio-economic indicators of childhood poverty, although additional research is necessary to explore the issue. Poverty alleviation programs and policies for youths in Hong Kong can focus on enhancing familial psychological health at the same time providing financial assistance.