Being born into poverty negatively affects children’s behavior
Children born into poor families are more likely to act out but where they grow up matters too
Children born into poor families are more likely to exhibit aggressive, impulsive behaviors throughout childhood, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.
Previous research connects this type of behavior to a variety of poor outcomes. Children who act out can have trouble making friends, perform poorly in school and show reduced cognitive abilities.
In the long run, these problems can lead to dropping out of school, unemployment and poor financial management.
The researchers also found a connection between economic status at birth and where children grew up.
High poverty rates affect entire communities
Children born into poor families were more likely to misbehave, engaging in behaviors such as throwing tantrums, teasing, fighting, lying and cheating — regardless of whether they lived in neighborhoods with high or low poverty rates.
For children from wealthier families, though, where they grew up mattered.
At age 3, children from wealthier families who lived in high-poverty neighborhoods were about as likely to act out as their peers born into poor families.
The study relied on data from portions of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, following more than 1,600 children from birth to age 15.
“We know that family socioeconomic status affects children’s development a lot,” said Soobin Kim, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in UGA’s School of Social Work. “The major takeaway of this paper is that children born into poor families have consistently higher rates of behavior problems throughout their first 15 years of life than children who were born into not poor families.
“But we also highlight how living in a poor neighborhood can influence kids from wealthier families too.”
Being born poor comes with variety of disadvantages
Being born into poverty can have lasting effects on children’s lives.
Children from low-income families are less likely to finish school, more likely to experience crime and mental health struggles, and often have limited access to health care services.
These disadvantages can make it incredibly challenging for individuals to break the cycle of poverty as they grow up.
Money problems also exacerbate family stress.
Parents who are worrying about finances are more likely to engage in stricter, more controlling parenting, which may backfire and lead to more acting out. They may also have less time or availability to actively participate in their children’s education, which can negatively impact development.
Addressing resource gaps key to leveling playing field
The researchers found children from low-income families consistently exhibit higher levels of problem behaviors throughout their first 15 years compared to kids from higher-income families. However, particularly around age 3, children from higher-income families who lived in low-income neighborhoods exhibited similar levels of problem behaviors.
"When children are very young, children and their families are highly affected by the lack of safety and resources … in poor neighborhoods.” —Soobin Kim, School of Social Work
“This suggests that when children are very young, children and their families are highly affected by the lack of safety and resources, such as access to day care, quality education and stable jobs, in poor neighborhoods,” Kim said. “But once children begin attending school and interacting with other friend groups, the neighborhood’s influence on child behavior seems to reduce.”
Addressing resource gaps tied to both family income and neighborhood conditions is key to leveling the playing field for children’s development, the researchers said.
Expanding programs like Head Start, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services program aimed at supporting children’s growth and learning, may help curb behavioral differences in early childhood between children born in different socioeconomic circumstances.
For school-aged children, school social workers can play a critical role by fostering stronger peer relationships and promoting a sense of belonging at school.
Additionally, anti-poverty programs aimed at supporting families need to start early to close developmental and environmental gaps between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, the researchers said.
The study was published in the Journal of Social Service Research. Co-authors include Rafael Engel, Sara Goodkind and Jeffrey Shook.
Journal
Journal of Social Service Research
Article Title
Diverging Trajectories of Child Externalizing Behavior by Family Economic Status at Birth: The Mediating Role of Neighborhood Poverty
Adverse childhood experiences influence potentially dangerous firearm-related behavior in adulthood
Rutgers University
Researchers at Rutgers University have found that adverse childhood experiences can make people more sensitive to potential threats from others, which in turn increases their risk of engaging in defensive gun use in adulthood.
Their study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, used cross-sectional data from a subsample of 3,130 adults with firearm access drawn from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.
Those surveyed were asked about their childhood experiences with abuse and neglect, their levels of social distrust and sensitivity to perceived threats, depressive symptoms and their self-reported use of a gun for self-defense.
The authors first assessed the association between adverse childhood experiences and adulthood defensive gun use. They then evaluated the role of depressive symptoms and threat sensitivity in that relationship.
“Research that links risk factors from childhood to problems later in life often neglects the role that situational and cognitive factors might play,” said Sultan Altikriti, a postdoctoral fellow at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and lead author of the study. “We tried to unpack the cognitive factors through which experiences from childhood affect behavior in adulthood.”
The findings showed that adverse childhood experiences increased adulthood levels of threat sensitivity and depression. However, only threat sensitivity was associated with defensive gun use. Further analyses suggested evidence that threat sensitivity accounts for some of the increased risk of defensive gun use among those with adverse childhood experiences.
“Sensitivity to threats from others and hypervigilance can cause people to see threats where they do not exist,” said Altikriti. “This sense of threat sensitivity can then lead to overreactions in neutral or ambiguous situations, which might lead to unnecessary gun use.”
Reducing adverse childhood experiences not only reduces the immediate harm and psychological impact but can reduce the cumulative harm throughout someone’s life, the researchers said. They added that because adverse childhood experiences are fixed in childhood and adolescence, interventions that interrupt the downstream mechanisms could be more feasible in dealing with the impact of these experiences on negative life outcomes.
The study’s coauthors include Daniel C. Semenza, director of Interpersonal Violence Research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at the Rutgers School of Public Health; Michael D. Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers; Alexander Testa, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Dylan B. Jackson, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Journal
Journal of Psychiatric Research
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Adverse childhood experiences and defensive gun use: The indirect role of threat sensitivity and depressive symptoms
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