Understanding Associations between Family Economic Hardship and Primary School-Aged Children’s Behavioral and Socio-Emotional Outcomes: Mediating Mechanisms and the Moderating Roles of Parental Social Support

ABSTRACT

It has been well established in the extant literature that children from low-income

families or families living in poverty are at greater risk of having negative developmental outcomes than those who are from more socioeconomically advantaged families. That is, economic hardship has been identified as a major barrier to children’s healthy development as well as caregivers’ psychological well-being and relationships. Overall, empirical findings have suggested that economic adversities of families indirectly affect child behavioral and socio-emotional development through poor family functioning measures (also called as family stress processes), such as caregiver emotional problems, caregiver relationship conflicts, and negative parenting. However, the existing literature has almost exclusively examined the associations among family economic hardship, family processes, and child outcomes among families with young children (aged 5 and under) or adolescents, with the middle childhood years receiving relatively less empirical attention in family economic hardship research. In addition, the majority of research examining the effects of economic hardship on child and family well-being has been guided by the Family Stress Model (FSM),

with a mediating mechanisms focus; however, there has been lack of discussion regarding potential moderators that may buffer the adverse effects of economic disadvantage on the stress processes and child outcomes. Thus, the current dissertation seeks to address these gaps in the literature by not only focusing on middle childhood but also expanding the main theoretical framework (FSM) by examining the potential moderating role of caregiver social support in associations between economic adversities and child behavioral and socioemotional outcomes Using longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten

Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011), findings from my first study indicate that family poverty status is significantly and positively associated with economic pressure, which in turn negatively affects caregiver psychological health and parenting behaviors, sequentially. Harsh, negative parenting significantly and positively predicts poor child behavioral and socioemotional outcomes, such as greater levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors and lower levels of self-control and interpersonal skills. These observed pathways are consistent with the theoretical predictions in the FSM. Results also suggest that the relationships between family economic hardship and child outcomes are partially or fully mediated through family stress processes, including parental stress and negative parenting practices.

My second dissertation paper is the first study, to my knowledge, to longitudinally

examine the moderating role of caregiver social support in the relationship between family economic hardship and child behavioral and socio-emotional outcomes with the full examination of sequential pathways among the key study constructs as well as the mediated, indirect pathways. Results indicate that significant group differences, lower levels vs. moderate to higher levels of social support, are observed between harsh parenting and child outcomes, such that children in the lower parental social support group are more likely to have lower scores on child self-control and interpersonal skills compared to those in the moderate to high parental social support group. These results of the moderated path analysis suggest that children of caregivers with insufficient social support are more vulnerable to poor behavioral and socioemotional development as a function of economic hardship.

Additionally, findings support the hypothesized moderated mediation showing significant group differences for the mediated, indirect pathways between family poverty and child outcomes. 

Taken together, this dissertation contributes to the current knowledge by fully examining the theoretically predictive pathways using a longitudinal study design with a middle childhood focus and expanding the theoretical framework and empirical evidence by exploring the potential moderator of caregiver social support in the models. Overall, the findings have implications for future research and interventions to promote policies and services that buffer the negative effects of economic hardship on the well-being of families and their primary school-aged children.