The great recession and behavior problems in 9-year old children.

Abstract

This paper examines associations between the Great Recession and four aspects of 9-year olds’ behavior—aggression (externalizing), anxiety/depression (internalizing), alcohol and drug use, and vandalism—using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal birth cohort drawn from twenty U.S. cities (21%, White, 50% African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 3% other race/ethnicity). The study was in the field for the 9-year follow-up right before and during the Great Recession (2007-2010) (N = 3,311). Interview dates (month) were linked to the national Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), calculated from a national probability sample drawn monthly to assess consumer confidence and uncertainty about the economy, as well as to data on local unemployment rates. Controlling for city-fixed effects and extensive controls (including prior child behavior at age 5), we find that greater uncertainty as measured by the CSI was associated with higher rates of all four behavior problems for boys (in both maternal and child reports). Such associations were not found for girls (all gender differences were significant). Links between the CSI and boys’ behavior problems were concentrated in single-parent families and were partially explained by parenting behaviors. Local unemployment rates, in contrast, had fewer associations with children's behavior, suggesting that in the Great Recession, what was most meaningful for child behavior problems was the uncertainty about the national economy, rather than local labor markets.

Estimating Treatment Heterogeneity of International Monetary Fund Programs on Child Poverty with Generalized Random Forest

“…Material and emotional childhood disadvantages can lead to personal and social issues in middle and later life, compared to those families that did not experience economic hardship (Ferraro, Schafer, and Wilkinson 2016;McLoyd, Jocson, and Williams 2017). For example, boys are more likely to act out than girls, putting them at higher risk of deviant behavior as adults (Schneider, Waldfogel, and Brooks-Gunn 2015). Disadvantaged children tend to have weaker mental health (McLeod and Shanahan 1993), more criminal offenses (Laub and Sampson 2009), lower educational attainments and employability (Daoud and Puaca 2011;McLoyd 1998), compared to their peers that have been spared from economic turmoil in their childhood.…”

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“…The first is the expanding social, economic, and racial inequalities transpiring in U.S. society. The second is the way that this socioeconomic phenomenon contributes to the negative interpersonal outcomes of single parenthood—usually single motherhood (McLanahan & Jencks, ; Putnam, ; Schneider, Waldfogel, & Brooks‐Gunn, ). These two reflections of societal inequality affecting families seem to have proceeded virtually hand in hand for the last 50 years in the United States (McLanahan & Percheski, ).…”

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“…Further, the adverse impacts on emotional and psychological health of children experiencing parental job loss appear to persist for at least five years (Kind and Haisken-DeNew 2012). Many studies suggest that mere perceptions of parents' job insecurity are enough to cause stress that leads to poor educational outcomes and behavioral problems (Barling, Dupre, and Hepburn 1998;Barling, Zacharatos, and Hepburn 1999;Conger and Donnellan 2007;Ananat et al 2011;Schneider, Waldfogel, and Brooks-Gunn 2015). This is because fear and anxiety can tax cognitive skills, adversely affecting behavioral health (Leininger and Kalil 2012;Shah, Mullainathan, and Shafir 2012).…”