Many Kinds of Poverty: Three Dimensions of Economic Hardship, Their Combinations, and Children’s Behavior Problems
Open accessAbstract
Income poverty, material deprivation, and subjective financial stress are three distinct dimensions of economic hardship. The majority of the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of economic hardship on children has treated material deprivation and subjective financial stress as only mediators of the effects of income poverty, not considering the independent effects of each dimension or the effects of their combinations. Using nationally representative, longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study on more than 18,000 families in the United Kingdom, we propose seven distinct experiences of economic hardship, based on the possible combinations of income poverty, material deprivation, and subjective financial stress. We use mixed- and fixed-effects linear regression models to identify whether these different economic hardship combinations are differentially associated with children's behavior problems between ages 3 and 7. We find that all economic hardship combinations, including those without income poverty, are associated with higher levels of children's behavior problems. The combination of material deprivation and subjective financial stress and the combination of all three dimensions of economic hardship are associated with the highest levels of behavior problems. Based on these findings, we argue that income poverty is an important but insufficient measure of economic hardship for children and that theory and research on the effects of economic hardship on children should consider the multidimensional nature of economic stressors for families.
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Material hardship and income poverty are only modestly correlated.
“These findings are consistent with several studies that report that material hardship and income poverty are only modestly correlated [6,7,12].”
From Poverty, Material Hardship, and Children’s Outcomes: A Nuanced Understanding of Material Hardship in Childhood (2022) · cites this paper as [7]
Material hardship and income poverty are not synonymous; some income poor families do not experience material hardship, while other families with incomes well above the poverty threshold struggle to meet their material needs.
“Although material hardship is closely linked to income poverty, these are not synonymous. Some income poor families do not experience material hardship, while other families with incomes well above the poverty threshold struggle to meet their material needs [1,5,6,7].”
From Poverty, Material Hardship, and Children’s Outcomes: A Nuanced Understanding of Material Hardship in Childhood (2022) · cites this paper as [7]
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Hansen K (2014). Millennium Cohort Study: A guide to the datasets (8th ed.). London, UK: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
Cited by
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Schenck-Fontaine, A., & Ryan, R. M. (2022) · Children · doi:10.3390/children9070981 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
“These findings are consistent with several studies that report that material hardship and income poverty are only modestly correlated [6,7,12].”
BackgroundMethodResultSelf-citation
- Authors
- Schenck-Fontaine, A., & Panico, L.
- Affiliations
- Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Wilhelmsplatz 3, 96047 Bamberg, Germany
- Institut national d'études démographiques (FR)
- ORCID
- Panico, Lidia
- Venue
- Demography
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Published
- 2019-12-01
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 2279-2305
- ISSN
- 0070-3370 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-7790
- PMC
- PMC7172985
- OpenAlex
- W2993941396
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 20.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Demography (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Archined (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD065563)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- economic hardship, income poverty, material deprivation, child behavior problems, multidimensional poverty, Millennium Cohort Study, early childhood
- MeSH terms
- Child, Child Behavior Disorders, Child Welfare, Child, Preschool, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Poverty
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