Poverty Experiences of Young Children and the Quality of Their Home Environments

Abstract

This paper assesses the relative contribution of maternal, household, child, and poverty characteristics to the quality of the home environment. The sample consists of 1,887 children birth to 4 years old from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Ordinary least-squares regression is used to explore conceptually distinct aspects of children's poverty experiences. Poverty variables are found to have a statistically significant effect on the quality of the home environment, after controlling for the effects of other variables in the models. Statistically significant interactions among poverty variables are identified. A major finding is that improvements in family income have the strongest effects on the quality of the home environment for children who were born poor or lived much of their lives in poverty. The conclusion emphasizes implications for future research.

The effect of poverty on developmental screening scores among infants

“…Experiments both with animals and with children have demonstrated that secure attachment and an enriched environment for development are protective factors. 9,15,[27][28][29][30] By means of a psychosocial stimulation program aimed at mothers, Eickmann et al 15 recorded a significant increase in the mental and motor development indexes, as assessed using Bayley II at 18 months, in the group that received the intervention, compared with the control group.…”

Role of cash in conditional cash transfer programmes for child health, growth, and development: an analysis of Mexico's Oportunidades

“…As a proxy for maternal intelligence, which is an important contributing factor for child development, we used the TVIP to measure working vocabulary of the caregiver. 30 Household-level socio-demographic data-The following household-level information was obtained at baseline: composition of the household (i.e. age and sex of all family members), father's education, number of people in the household, whether an indigenous language was spoken in the home, presence of electricity and water in the household and number of small and draft animals owned.…”

The Impact of Economic Inequality on Children’s Development and Achievement

“…While wealthier families are able to purchase materials, experiences, and services to invest in their children (e.g., books, computers, educational outings to museums, or tutoring) (Garrett et al 1994), children from families with limited resources may not have access to these investments. Furthermore, these families' housing conditions may not be conducive to learning (e.g., poor lighting, limited space, or high noise levels) (Dearing and Taylor 2007;Evans 2004).…”