TY - JOUR
T1 - Poverty, parental work intensity and child emotional and conduct problems
AU - Treanor, Morag
AU - Troncoso, Patricio
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council through the following grants: 1) Understanding Children’s Lives and Outcomes and 2) Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (grant numbers ES/V011243/1 and ES/S007407/1 , respectively). The authors are affiliated with the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), which is part of the Administrative Data Research U.K. partnership, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Poverty is known to be associated with poorer child mental wellbeing. Relatedly, the security and quality of employment are reported to affect adult wellbeing. Less is known about how both poverty and parental employment affect children's mental wellbeing. This paper uses nine waves (2005/06–2017/18) of the Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study to examine how the longitudinal trajectories of poverty and work intensity are associated with the longitudinal trajectories of mental wellbeing in a nationally representative sample of 3994 children (ages 0 to 12). This analysis was conducted via a bivariate multilevel non-linear growth curve model for the widely used Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) subscales of conduct problems and emotional symptoms. Results show that unstable work intensity and poverty trajectories arising from the 2008 financial crisis are associated with substantial changes in the trajectories of conduct and emotional problems, but with key differences between the individual outcomes: increasing work intensity is associated with around a fifth of a standard deviation increase in conduct problems; decreasing work intensity over time is associated with around a fifth of a standard deviation increase in emotional problems; material deprivation is associated with an increase in both conduct and emotional problems, at around a tenth of a standard deviation; and longitudinal income poverty trajectories are associated with up to around a fifth of a standard deviation increase in conduct problems, but not emotional symptoms. These findings are discussed with the purpose of informing policies to tackle the effects of unstable and/or changing socioeconomic circumstances on children's mental health wellbeing in the context of an economic crisis, as well as its implications for the contemporary socioeconomic landscape and the devastating effects expected of the COVID-19 crisis.
AB - Poverty is known to be associated with poorer child mental wellbeing. Relatedly, the security and quality of employment are reported to affect adult wellbeing. Less is known about how both poverty and parental employment affect children's mental wellbeing. This paper uses nine waves (2005/06–2017/18) of the Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study to examine how the longitudinal trajectories of poverty and work intensity are associated with the longitudinal trajectories of mental wellbeing in a nationally representative sample of 3994 children (ages 0 to 12). This analysis was conducted via a bivariate multilevel non-linear growth curve model for the widely used Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) subscales of conduct problems and emotional symptoms. Results show that unstable work intensity and poverty trajectories arising from the 2008 financial crisis are associated with substantial changes in the trajectories of conduct and emotional problems, but with key differences between the individual outcomes: increasing work intensity is associated with around a fifth of a standard deviation increase in conduct problems; decreasing work intensity over time is associated with around a fifth of a standard deviation increase in emotional problems; material deprivation is associated with an increase in both conduct and emotional problems, at around a tenth of a standard deviation; and longitudinal income poverty trajectories are associated with up to around a fifth of a standard deviation increase in conduct problems, but not emotional symptoms. These findings are discussed with the purpose of informing policies to tackle the effects of unstable and/or changing socioeconomic circumstances on children's mental health wellbeing in the context of an economic crisis, as well as its implications for the contemporary socioeconomic landscape and the devastating effects expected of the COVID-19 crisis.
KW - Children's mental health
KW - Conduct problems
KW - Emotional wellbeing
KW - Growing up in Scotland
KW - Growth curve modelling
KW - Multivariate multilevel modelling
KW - Parental work intensity
KW - Poverty
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138545993&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115373
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115373
M3 - Article
C2 - 36152585
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 312
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
M1 - 115373
ER -