1-177 - Socioeconomic Inequality and Children’s Development: Trajectories, Contributing Factors, and Policy Approaches

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Decades of research show that children born into lower SES families enter school with worse cognitive and behavioral skills than their more advantaged peers. This symposium presents research from psychology and public policy on how this socioeconomic inequality in children’s development emerges and the factors that exacerbate and ameliorate this inequality.

Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY) data, the first paper documents the emergence and development of socioeconomic differences in children’s reading and math skills, finding that reading and math skills develop at a slower rate for low-SES children than for high-SES children.

The second paper uses NLSY data to show that the effect of infants’ difficult temperament on behavior problems is stronger for low-SES children, possibly because of higher rates of spanking among low-SES parents, which may further exacerbate their risk for poor developmental outcomes.

Using Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study data, the third paper finds that mothers’ precarious work schedules and volatile work hours, which are increasing among economically disadvantaged groups, negatively affect children’s expressive language abilities and behavior problems.

The fourth paper uses experimental Head Start Impact Study data to show that Head Start participation can effectively buffer children from the adverse effects of household instability by reducing hyperactivity for children experiencing high instability.

These studies show that socioeconomic inequality, which affects children’s outcomes, as well as the developmental process itself, is exacerbated by contextual stressors, such as harsh parenting and precarious work schedules, and that policies can ameliorate the effects of such stressors.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Anika Schenck-Fontaine, Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories

Individual Presentations

• Unequal Trajectories: Inequalities in the Development of Children’s Cognitive Abilities - Presenting Author: Anika Schenck-Fontaine, Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories

• Infant Temperament and Early Childhood Behavior Problems: Variation in Effects by Family Socioeconomic Status - Presenting Author: Rebecca M. Ryan, Georgetown University; Non-Presenting Author: Christina Padilla, Georgetown University; Non-Presenting Author: Caitlin Hines, Georgetown University

• Maternal Work Schedules and Child Wellbeing - Presenting Author: Natasha Pilkauskas, University of Michigan

• Head Start’s Buffering Effect against Household Instability - Presenting Author: Elise Chor, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: William Schneider, Northwestern University