Child poverty and its consequences on development: Evidence from a Chilean Longitudinal Study 2010-2017

• In Event: Contesting State and Corporate Ideologies of Childhood

Abstract

This study combines two facts – the well-known socioeconomic gaps in children development and the remaining children poverty levels in Chile – to better understand the association between poverty and child development, but also to provide evidence on the pathways driving this relationship. This paper aims to shed light on the association between poverty and cognitive and socio-emotional developmental outcomes disentangling relevant aspects of this relationship. First, we examine the effects of timing, depth, and duration of child poverty on children's outcomes. We explore the hypothesis that children living in poverty for longer periods suffer the worst outcomes. The same hypothesis is suggested with children who experience poverty during their early childhood and those who live in extreme or deeper poverty. Second, given the richness of the dataset we explore the association of experiencing poverty during childhood and its effect on future child development, including important pathways through which poverty operates. We define at least five potential pathways: health and nutrition; parental interaction with children; maternal mental health; home environment and; provision of learning experiences outside the home.

This paper is unique because uses the three rounds (the third round soon to be release to public) of the Chilean Longitudinal Survey of Early Childhood (ELPI) which includes a socio-demographic survey applied to all mothers; and a battery of tests for evaluating cognitive, socio-emotional and anthropometric development in children and their mothers.

Author

• Alejandra Abufhele, Centro de Justicia Educacional