1-102 - The Great Recession: Associations with Family and Child Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium brings together new research on economic hardship and child wellbeing. It draws on scholarship from disciplines including, economics, psychology, demography, and sociology. The discussant is a developmental psychologist who is preeminent in the study of poverty and inequality as they influence parents and children. There is a well-established link between parents’ experience of economic hardship and the provision of lower-quality care, and increased child problem behaviors and maltreatment. The Great Recession (2007-2009) severely disrupted the American economy and family life. This symposium combines papers with up to date evidence about how children and families were affected by the Great Recession. The first paper links consumer confidence data and the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal cohort study representative of children born in large US cities. It finds an association between the Great Recession, parenting, and 9-year old children’s behavior problems. The second paper draws on the Job Loss Dataset, a unique source representative of counties in North Carolina, and examines the impact of job losses on the rate of child abuse and neglect and the role of child characteristics. The third paper uses data from the American Freshman Survey and College Senior Survey. It investigates the role of the Great Recession in college student’s individualism, finding that as compared with a pre-recession cohort, students who experienced the Great Recession are less individualistic and more oriented toward looking to others. These studies offer a new understanding of the formative role of the Great Recession in children lives.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University

Discussant

• Ariel Kalil, University of Chicago

Individual Presentations

• The Great Recession, Parenting, and 9-Year Old Children’s Behavior Problems - Presenting Author: William Joseph Schneider, Columbia University; Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University

• Effects of County-Level Job Losses on the Prevalence of Child Maltreatment Authors - Presenting Author: Anika Schenck-Fontaine, Duke University; Anna Gassman-Pines, Duke University; Christina Gibson-Davis, Duke University; Elizabeth O Ananat, Duke University

• Impact of the Great Recession on Young Adults: Investigating Cohort Differences and Longitudinal Trajectories - Presenting Author: Heejung Park, Beloit College; Patricia M Greenfield, UCLA; Jean Twenge, San Diego State University