{"id":11316,"date":"2022-12-13T16:55:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T16:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/?p=11316"},"modified":"2022-12-13T16:55:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T16:55:12","slug":"low-family-wealth-harms-child-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2022\/12\/13\/low-family-wealth-harms-child-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Low Family Wealth Harms Child Development<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Christina Gibson-Davis, Lisa A. Keister, Lisa A. Gennetian, and Warren Lowell, <\/span>“Net Worth Poverty and Child Development,” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World <\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2022<\/span><\/div>\n\n
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In this black-and-white photo, two people sit on couches, both holding babies. Elsewhere in the room, a children\u2019s play area can be observed with a toy horse inside. “Interior of Maternal and Child Welfare Centre at Dalby, May 1973<\/a>” by Queensland State Archives<\/a> is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we hear about \u201cpoverty\u201d in the news, it\u2019s usually measured<\/a> by income. These measures are very useful! But, we also know that poverty isn\u2019t just about how much money you\u2019re making, it\u2019s also about your net worth: the value of your assets minus your debts. If people suddenly lose income, having savings or selling belongings can cushion families and cover basic expenses such as food and housing. Additionally, some assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), have asset tests<\/a> that kick people with “too many assets” off benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This puts many poor Americans in a double bind: they need assets as an economic safety net but are penalized for accumulating too many. Despite the importance of assets to the lives of poor Americans, according to Christina Gibson-Davis and her colleagues, there is not enough research on net worth poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their new study, Gibson-Davis and colleagues address our lack of knowledge about net worth poverty, which they define as a net worth less than one fourth of the federal poverty line, by examining how it affects children\u2019s development compared to income poverty. To do so, they analyze\u00a0 survey data from 2002 through 2019. This survey include information on household wealth and income, as well as children\u2019s cognitive and behavioral development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>The researchers found that, for kids ages 3-17, net worth poverty was associated with worse reading scores, math scores, and\u00a0behavioral outcomes, such as sadness and aggression. Although the effects of net worth poverty were similar to those of\u00a0income poverty, kids who experienced poverty in both<\/em> net worth and income had the worst <\/em>outcomes.kids who experienced poverty in both<\/em> net worth and income had the worst <\/em>outcomes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, this research shows that having fewer assets had a greater negative influence on children\u2019s outcomes than having more debt, although both could contribute to net worth poverty.\u00a0 Debt poverty alone was associated with worse behavioral outcomes while\u00a0 asset poverty was associated with worse cognitive and<\/em> behavioral measures. The authors suggest that this is because asset-poor households have fewer resources on hand to invest in their kids than debt-poor households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, this study suggests that children who are \u201cdoubly poor,\u201d lacking in both income and net worth, are at the highest risk for cognitive and behavioral concerns. Policy makers should consider that interventions  that target income-poor children alone may overlook the needs of those who are net worth poor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christina Gibson-Davis, Lisa A. Keister, Lisa A. Gennetian, and Warren Lowell, “Net Worth Poverty and Child Development,” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World , 2022 When we hear about \u201cpoverty\u201d in the news, it\u2019s usually measured by income. These measures are very useful! But, we also know that poverty isn\u2019t just about how much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2106,"featured_media":11317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,13],"tags":[138027,138026,138021,137959,138020,138019,138022,34,105356,37332,30840,138024,138025,137995,138028,119,138029],"class_list":["post-11316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-inequality","tag-asset-tests","tag-assets","tag-behavioral-outcomes","tag-child-development","tag-child-development-outcomes","tag-child-outcomes","tag-cognitive-outcomes","tag-education","tag-government-assistance","tag-inequality","tag-low-income","tag-net-worth","tag-net-worth-poverty","tag-poor-americans","tag-poor-people","tag-poverty","tag-social-science-research"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/files\/2022\/12\/43356135641_ef6290b60e_o.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11316"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11327,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11316\/revisions\/11327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}