Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:43:36.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Familial transient financial difficulties during infancy and long-term developmental concerns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2017

S. Ramanathan ,
N. Balasubramanian  and
S. V. Faraone
S. Ramanathan*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA Hutchings Psychiatric Center, Syracuse, NY, USA
N. Balasubramanian
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
S. V. Faraone
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: S. Ramanathan, M.D., Hutchings Psychiatric Center, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA. (Email: seetha.ramanathan@omh.ny.gov)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Socioeconomic difficulties affect the cognitive and emotional development of children. However, the focus of prior studies has largely been on poverty and material hardship. This study expands on the existing literature by examining the impact of familial transient financial difficulties during infancy on long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

Methods

The National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (79) were used to assess the association between a transient drop in family income by 50% or more (called transient income decline or TID) during the first 3 years of life and later-life Peabody Individual Achievement Math and Reading scores and behavior problem index (BPI) scores (N = 8272–17 348; median assessment age = 9 years). A subsample of matched siblings (N = 2049–4238) was examined to tease out maternal and intra-familial effects.

Results

Exposure to TID predicted increased total and externalizing BPI scores (std. coefficients of 0.10 and 0.09, respectively, p < 0.01) in the overall sample. Among matched siblings, exposure to TID predicted increased total, externalizing, and internalizing BPI scores (std. coefficients of 0.27, 0.25, and 0.23, respectively, p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Familial transient financial difficulties can have long-lasting behavioral effects for infants. The study identifies an early risk factor and at-risk children, thus providing insight into developing early intervention measures for infants to avoid long-term behavioral problems.

Keywords

Behavior problemsfinancial difficultiesinfancytransient
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 47 , Issue 12 , September 2017 , pp. 2197 - 2204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benjamini, Y, Yekutieli, D (2001). The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. Annals of Statistics 29, 1165–1188.Google Scholar
Bradley, RH, Caldwell, BM, Rock, SL (1988). Home environment and school performance: a ten-year follow-up and examination of three models of environmental action. Child Development 59, 852–867.Google Scholar
Brooks-Gunn, J, Duncan, GJ (1997). The effects of poverty on children. Future of Children 7, 55–71.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor (2002). National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort, 1979–2002 (Rounds 1–20) .Center for Human Resource Research, The Ohio State University: Columbus.Google Scholar
Costello, EJ, Compton, SN, Keeler, G, Angold, A (2003). Relationships between poverty and psychopathology: a natural experiment. JAMA 290, 2023–2029.Google Scholar
Datar, A, Kilburn, MR, Loughran, DS (2010). Endowments and parental investments in infancy and early childhood. Demography 47, 145–162.Google Scholar
Dawson, G, Ashman, SB, Carver, LJ (2000). The role of early experience in shaping behavioral and brain development and its implications for social policy. Development and Psychopathology 12, 695–712.Google Scholar
Dolan, RJ (2002). Emotion, cognition, and behavior. Science 298, 1191–1194.Google Scholar
Doyle, O, Harmon, CP, Heckman, JJ, Tremblay, RE (2009). Investing in early human development: timing and economic efficiency. Economics and Human Biology 7, 1–6.Google Scholar
Duncan, GJ, Brooks-Gunn, J, Klebanov, PK (1994). Economic deprivation and early childhood development. Child Development 65, 296–318.Google Scholar
Elder, GH Jr. (1999). Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL (Reissued as 25th Anniversary Edition, Westview Press: Boulder, CO, 1999).Google Scholar
Erikson, EH (1993). Childhood and Society. WW Norton & Company: New York.Google Scholar
Fameli, M, Kitraki, E, Stylianopoulou, F (1994). Effects of hyperactivity of the maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis during pregnancy on the development of the HPA axis and brain monoamines of the offspring. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience 12, 651–659.Google Scholar
Gershoff, ET, Aber, JL, Raver, CC, Lennon, MC (2007). Income is not enough: incorporating material hardship into models of income associations with parenting and child development. Child Development 78, 70–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackman, DA, Farah, MJ (2009). Socioeconomic status and the developing brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13, 65–73.Google Scholar
Hanson, JL, Chandra, A, Wolfe, BL, Pollak, SD (2011). Association between income and the hippocampus. PLoS ONE 6, e18712.Google Scholar
Hanson, JL, Hair, N, Shen, DG, Shi, F, Gilmore, JH, Wolfe, BL, Pollak, SD (2013). Family poverty affects the rate of human infant brain growth. PLoS ONE 10, e0146434. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146434.Google Scholar
Heckman, JJ (2007). The economics, technology, and neuroscience of human capability formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 13250–13255.Google ScholarPubMed
Jutte, DP, Roos, NP, Brownell, MD, Briggs, G, MacWilliam, L, Roos, LL (2010). The ripples of adolescent motherhood: social, educational, and medical outcomes for children of teen and prior teen mothers. Academic Pediatrics 10, 293–301.Google Scholar
Korenman, S, Miller, JE, Sjaastad, JE (1995). Long-term poverty and child development in the United States: results from the NLSY. Children and Youth Services Review 17, 127–155.Google Scholar
Lahey, BB, Hammer, D, Crumrine, PL, Forehand, RL (1980). Birth order × sex interactions in child behavior problems. Developmental Psychology 16, 608.Google Scholar
Laucht, M, Esser, G, Baving, L, Gerhold, M, Hoesch, I, Ihle, W, Steigleider, P, Stock, B, Stoehr, RM, Weindrich, D, Schmidt, MH (2000). Behavioral sequelae of perinatal insults and early family adversity at 8 years of age. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 39, 1229–1237.Google Scholar
Lenroot, RK, Giedd, JN (2006). Brain development in children and adolescents: insights from anatomical magnetic resonance imaging. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 30, 718–729.Google Scholar
Masten, AS (2001). Ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. American Psychologist 56, 227.Google Scholar
McLeod, JD, Shanahan, MJ (1996). Trajectories of poverty and children's mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 37, 207–220.Google Scholar
Menaghan, EG, Parcel, TL (1988). Measuring temperament in a large cross sectional survey: reliability and validity for children of the NLS youth.Google Scholar
Parcel, T, Menaghan, EG (1988). Measuring behavior problems in a large cross sectional survey: reliability and validity for children of the NLS youth.Google Scholar
Parcel, T, Menaghan, EG (1989). Child home environment as a mediating construct between SES and child outcomes.Google Scholar
Pechtel, P, Pizzagalli, DA (2011). Effects of early life stress on cognitive and affective function: an integrated review of human literature. Psychopharmacology 214, 55–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramanathan, S, Balasubramanian, N, Krishnadas, R (2013). Macroeconomic environment during infancy as a possible risk factor for adolescent behavioral problems. JAMA Psychiatry 70, 218–225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Romens, SE, McDonald, J, Svaren, J, Pollak, SD (2015). Associations between early life stress and gene methylation in children. Child Development 86, 303–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sameroff, AJ, Seifer, R, Barocas, R, Zax, M, Greenspan, S (1987). Intelligence quotient scores of 4-year-old children: Social-environmental risk factors. Pediatrics 79, 343–350.Google Scholar
Shaw, DS, Vondra, JI, Hommerding, KD, Keenan, K, Dunn, M (1994). Chronic family adversity and early child behavior problems: a longitudinal study of low income families. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 35, 1109–1122.Google Scholar
StataCorp. (2013). Stata Statistical Software: Release 13. StataCorp LP: College Station, TX.Google Scholar
Tyrka, AR, Price, LH, Marsit, C, Walters, OC, Carpenter, LL (2012). Childhood adversity and epigenetic modulation of the leukocyte glucocorticoid receptor: preliminary findings in healthy adults. PLoS ONE 7, e30148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstock, M (1997). Does prenatal stress impair coping and regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 21, 1–10.Google ScholarPubMed
Werner, EE (1987). Vulnerability and resiliency: a longitudinal study of Asian Americans from birth to age 30.Google Scholar
Yoshikawa, H, Aber, JL, Beardslee, WR (2012). The effects of poverty on the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children and youth: implications for prevention. American Psychologist 67, 272.Google Scholar
Zigler, E, Taussig, C, Black, K (1992). Early childhood intervention: a promising preventative for juvenile delinquency. American Psychologist 47, 997.Google ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Ramanathan supplementary material

Ramanathan supplementary material 1

Download Ramanathan supplementary material(File)
File 67.4 KB