Poverty, Parenting, and Children's Mental Health

Author(s): Jane D. McLeod and Michael J. Shanahan

Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Jun., 1993), pp. 351-366
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095905
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 POVERTY, PARENTING,AND CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH*

JANE D. MCLEOD MICHAELJ. SHANAHAN

Universityof Minnesota Universityof North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Poor children experience greater psychological distress than do nonpoor children. How-
ever, evidence for the relationship between poverty and children's distress is limited by
the use of measures of poverty at a single point in time, by a failure to examine race or
ethnic differences, and by a lack of concern with explanations for poverty's effects. Us-
ing data from the 1986 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth(NLSY)
data set, we explored the relationships among current poverty, length of time spent in
poverty, maternal parenting behaviors, and children's mental health. Persistent poverty
significantly predicts children's internalizing symptoms above and beyond the effect of
current poverty, whereas only currentpoverty predicts externalizing symptoms. Mother's
weak emotional responsiveness and frequent use of physical punishment explain the ef-
fect of current poverty on mental health, but not the effect of persistent poverty. The
relationships among poverty, parenting behaviors, and children's mental health do not
vary by race/ethnicity. These findings support theoretical developments calling for
greater emphasis on family processes in studies of children's poverty. They also argue
for greater attention to trajectories of socioeconomic status in analyses of the effects of
status on mental health.

Recent research on poverty has docu-
mented substantialvariationin families'
economic histories. Incomes and poverty sta-
tus fluctuate appreciablyover the life course
(Bane and Ellwood 1986). For many families,
poverty is short-lived - it follows a job loss
or a divorce and lasts only until a new job is
obtainedor a remarriagetakesplace (Corcoran,
Duncan, Gurin, and Gurin 1985). For other
families, poverty lasts a lifetime. To date, re-
searchon these most disadvantagedfamilies
sometimes called the economic underclass
*
Direct all correspondenceto Jane D. McLeod,
Department of Sociology, 909 Social Sciences,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,MN 55455.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance
of the Life Course Centerat the University of Min-
nesota for preparingthe data set, and the Graduate
School for its supportof the first authorthrougha
Faculty ResearchFellowship and a McKnight-Land
GrantProfessorship.KarlKrohnand Evgeny Hanin
implemented the data preparations.An earlier ver-
sion of this paperwas presentedat the annualmeet-
ing of the American Sociological Association, Au-
gust 1992, Pittsburgh,PA. We are indebtedto Glen
H. Elder Jr., Candace Kruttschnitt,Phyllis Moen,
and Jeylan Mortimer for comments on earlier
drafts, to Kevan Edwardswho ran the models, and
to Ariel Ducey who typed the manuscript.We also
benefited from the comments of the ASR editor and
reviewers.
has not examinedthe contributionof persistent
poverty to mental health.
This neglect is surprising,given the promi-
nence of psychological outcomes in discus-
sions of poverty's effects. Wilson (1991) hy-
pothesized that the greater depth and persis-
tence of poverty among blacks compared to
whites may create disproportionatelylow lev-
els of self-efficacy among blacks. Dash (1989)
attributed childbearing among persistently
poor, black teenagers to low self-esteem and
the search for self-identity.Similarly,theorists
of child development have arguedthat persis-
tent poverty leads to high levels of psychopa-
thology and poor self-concepts among black
children (see Spencer 1988 for a review). Re-
cent research on the self-concept has chal-
lenged the assumptionthat persistent poverty
erodes self-esteem (Spencer 1984). However,
comparableanalyses of the effect of persistent
poverty on other indicatorsof children's men-
tal healthhave not been conducted.
Clear evidence exists that poor children ex-
perience high levels of conduct disorder
(Velez, Johnson, and Cohen 1989), behavior
problems (Verhalst, Akkerhais, and Althaus
1985; Werner1985), depression(Gibbs 1986),
and low levels of self-confidence (Langner,
Herson,Greene, Jameson,and Goff 1970) and
social adaptation (Kellam, Ensminger, and

AmericanSociological Review, 1993, Vol. 58 (June:351-366) 351

352
Turner 1977) relative to nonpoor children.
However, this evidence has threelimitations.
First, it derives from analyses that rely on
measures of poverty at a single point in time.
These analyses implicitly assume that current
poverty captures all theoretically relevant
variation in economic experiences when pre-
dicting mental health. However, that assump-
tion cannot be tested without also measuring
poverty history because measuresof persistent
poverty and current poverty are confounded.
Currentlypoor persons are disproportionately
likely to have been poor for a long time and
vice versa (Corcoran et al. 1985; Bane and
Ellwood 1986). Thus, documented relation-
ships between current poverty and mental
health may actually reflect the effects of per-
sistent poverty.
Previous researchleads to contradictoryhy-
potheses aboutthe relative effects of persistent
poverty and currentpoverty on mental health.
A common theory is that persistentpoverty is
more harmfulthantransientpovertybecause it
implies greatereconomic deprivation(Devine,
Plunkett,andWright1992;Wilson 1987, 1991).
Economic deprivation,in turn,has been linked
to poor mentalhealththroughthe chronicstress
deprivation creates (Makosky 1982; Pearlin
1983, 1989). Advocates of this position claim,
for example, that documentedassociationsbe-
tween economic loss and mental health reflect
the persistent deprivation caused by the loss
rather than the loss itself' (Augustyniak,
Duncan, and Liker 1985; Pearlin, Lieberman,
Menaghan,and Mullan 1981).
Alternatively,currentpoverty may be more
harmfulthanpersistentpovertybecauseit most
strongly predicts currentlevels of stress. Pre-
vious economic experiences,good or bad, may
be overwhelmedby immediatefinancialprob-
lems, such as difficulty paying bills or the
threatof a mortgageforeclosure.The assumed
predominanceof currentstresseswhen predict-
ing mentalhealthis implicit in many sociologi-
cal models of stress (see Wheaton 1990;
Wheaton and Roszell 1992 for notable excep-
tions).
Finally, some theoristsarguethatpoor fami-
lies reach an emotional equilibriumwithin a
persistent impoverished state once the initial
shock of an economic loss has passed (Elder
and Caspi 1988). According to this argument,
currentpovertyshouldhave a strongerrelation-
ship with mental health in families who re-
AMERICANSOCIOLOGICAL
REVIEW
cently became poor; i.e., a negative interaction
obtainsbetween currentpoverty and persistent
poverty when predictingmental health.
A second limitation to previous research is
its failureto considerdifferencesby race. Race
differences are plausible because different
races and ethnic groups experience different
kindsof poverty.Poor blacks and Hispanicsare
more likely thanpoor whites to live in isolated,
urban ghettos (U.S. Bureau of the Census
1982, p. 15; Farley 1987;Wilson 1987). Blacks
enter poverty with fewer economic resources
than whites, and they are less likely to have
family members with resources to loan
(McLoyd 1990). Finally, poor black women
are less likely than poor white women to be
married(Duncanand Rodgers 1987).
Variationsby race in the correlates of eco-
nomic deprivationimply variationsin material
well-being and the psychological meaning of
poverty (Bronfenbrenner 1986; Myers and
King 1983). The children of poor blacks and
Hispanics experience more frequentand more
severe economic deprivationwith fewer pros-
pects for economic improvement, which in-
creases the risk of pregnancyand droppingout
of school among teenagers (Crane 1991;
Mayer 1991). However,childrenof poor white
families who live among wealthier peers may
be at greatestrisk of negative social compari-
sons and poor mental health (Elder 1974;
Rosenberg 1979; Rosenberg and Simmons
1972). Using race as a proxy for area of resi-
dence and availabilityof resources enables us
to evaluate the potential of more refined con-
textual analyses.
A final limitationto previous researchis the
lack of informationon what accounts for the
relationship between poverty and children's
mental health. Comparisonsof the predictive
power of absolutedeprivationandrelativedep-
rivation suggest that relative deprivationpre-
dicts mentalhealthmost stronglyamong adults
(Easterlin1973; Elder 1974; Rosenberg 1979).
Thus, the association between income and the
mentalhealthof adultsmay result,in part,from
negative social comparisons. However, very
young childrenappearto be less distressedthan
adults by the comparisonsimplicit in relative
deprivation(Rosenbergand Simmons 1972).
If poor childrendo not comparethemselves
unfavorablyto more affluent peers, what ac-
counts for their poor outcomes? Perhapspar-
ents' responsesto povertycan explain the poor
POVERTYAND CHILDREN'SMENTALHEALTH 353

mental health of their children (Elder, Liker, history of poverty was assessed beginning in
and Cross 1984; Moen, Kain, and Elder 1983). 1979 and thus is complete only for children
This link has been establishedempiricallyfor eight years of age or younger.Finally, because
economic loss but not for poverty. Evidence the available poverty histories were based on
consistentlyindicatesthatparentswho undergo the mother's economic history, children who
economic loss transmittheir distress to their were living with someone other than the
children by becoming more rejecting (Conger, mother were excluded. These restrictions re-
Conger, Elder,Lorenz, Simons, and Whitbeck sulted in a final sample of 1,733 children of
1992; Elder, Nguyen, and Caspi 1985; 1,344 mothers with valid values on all vari-
Lempers, Clark-Lempers,and Simons 1989) ables in analysis.1
and by using harshand inconsistentdiscipline The original NLSY sample of mothers was
(Horowitz and Wolock 1985; Lempers et al. selected using a multi-stage stratified cluster
1989). Rejection and harshdiscipline, in turn, randomsampling procedurewith oversamples
are associated with poor goal orientation,low of blacks, Hispanics, and poor non-Hispanic
levels of self-adequacyand social competence, whites. We used weighted datato adjustfor the
and high levels of moodiness (Elder et al. differential probabilities of selection across
1985) and conduct problems among children groups. The unweighted sample sizes are 841
(Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber1986). The children of blacks or Hispanics and 892 non-
concern with parents'responsesin researchon Hispanicwhite children;weightedsample sizes
economic loss has been extended to research are 482 and 1,251 respectively.
on poverty recently (McLoyd 1990). We Because the data were not selected through
present the first analysis of whetherparenting a simple randomsamplingprocedure,standard
behaviors account for the effect of poverty on errorsfor sample statistics are underestimated,
children'smental health. which increasesthe probabilityof a Type I er-
ror. Although proceduresexist for correcting
this problem, they are difficult to implement
DATAAND METHODS
with these data because the samplingstrataare
Data for this analysis are from the 1986 Chil- not easily identified (Center for Human Re-
dren of the National Longitudinal Survey of source Research 1988). Furthermore,design
Youth (NLSY) data set, collected by the Cen- effects for the means of the children'svariables
ter for HumanResource Researchat The Ohio are not available from the Center.In lieu of a
State University. The NLSY traces the labor formal adjustmentfor the sample design, we
market experience of young men and women present significance levels at both the .01 and
longitudinally.Youngwomen in the studyhave .05 levels to allow readers to draw their own
been interviewedannuallysince 1979, at which conclusionsregardingthe substantiveimportof
time they were between the ages of 14 and 21. statisticallysignificantparameters.2
In 1986, when they were between the ages of
I A total of 2,021 children were eligible for the
21 and 28, the first of a series of assessments
of their children was conducted to track their analysis based on the listed criteria. Of these, 288
developmentalprogress(N = 4,971). These as- lacked data on one or more variables. Given the
well-documented problems with mean imputation
sessments involved interviewswith the mother, techniques (Little and Rubin 1989), we chose to
interviewer ratings of the home environment, eliminate missing cases listwise in the models pre-
and direct assessments of the child's cognitive sented here. To evaluate the effect of this decision
and intellectual abilities. As this description on our results, we estimated OLS versions of the
makes clear,the NLSY mothersareyoung rela- statisticalmodels using listwise deletion, mean im-
tive to the ages of their children, suggesting putation, and pairwise correlations. The different
caution when generalizingour findings to chil- analyses yielded similar results.
2 All childrenof each motherare included in the
dren of older mothers.
For several reasons, we restrictedour analy- sample. As a result, our analyses are based on non-
independent, clustered observations. We assessed
sis to children between the ages of four and the influence of this clusteringon our resultsby rep-
eight who were living with theirmothersat the licating the analysis on a sample that included only
time of the interview. The items on mental the youngest eligible child of each mother
health were obtained only for children four (Menaghanand Parcel 1991). The results from the
years of age or older. In addition,the family's reanalysis did not differ substantiallyfrom the re-
354
Measures
Poverty.At each annualinterview,mothersre-
portedtheirfamily income for the previouscal-
endar year, i.e., reports given during the
mother's 1987 interviewreferredto 1986. Offi-
cial government poverty levels for each year
had not been determinedat the time of the in-
terviews. To determinewho was living in pov-
ertyeach year,the Centerestimatedannualpov-
erty levels based on family size, farm/nonfarm
residence,andstateof residence,following pro-
cedures comparableto those used by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
(Centerfor Human Resource Research 1988).
Each annualindicatorof poverty status(i.e., in
poverty, not in poverty) was based on a com-
parison of the Center's estimated levels with
the mothers' reportedincomes.
We defined the persistenceof poverty as the
percentage of years of life during which the
child lived in poverty.3Although other mea-
sures of persistence have been developed
(Duncan and Rodgers 1991), our measureis a
straightforward indicatorof the stabilityof eco-
nomic deprivationthat allows direct compari-
sons among childrenof differentages. In addi-
tion to the measureof persistence,we included
a dummy variable indicating currentpoverty
status in all of the analyses. This strategy al-
lows us to addressthe extent to which the per-
sistence of poverty influences children's dis-
tress above and beyond the effect of current
poverty.
As in most survey studies, a relatively large
percentage(47.6 percent)of respondentsfailed
to provide sufficient informationto calculate
theirfamily's total income andhence theirpov-
suits we presenthere. Kish (1965, p. 397) suggested
that small clusters (of approximately 1.2 persons)
should have negligible effects on estimates. The
average number of children per mother in our
sample is 1.29.
3 Thus, for 4-year-olds, poverty status for calen-
dar years 1983 through 1986 was used to define
persistence, and so on. Children who were eight
years old at the 1986 interview were born in 1977
or 1978, which argues for including poverty status
in 1978 in the measure of persistence. However,
because the 1986 interviews were conducted
throughJuly, some children may have been born as
late as July 1978, exposing them to their families'
economic conditions for less than half the year. For
this reason, we did not use 1978 poverty status
when defining persistence.
AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEW
erty status during at least one year. The per-
centage missing in a year ranged from 7.2 to
17.3. However, the vast majorityof cases with
missing income data (an average of 86.4 per-
cent a year)reportedwhetherthey hadreceived
any AFDC payments or food stamps during
that year.We assigned respondentslacking in-
come datato the "inpoverty"group when they
reported receiving AFDC or food stamps,
while those who reportednot receiving AFDC
or food stamps were assigned to the "not in
poverty"group.Althoughthis imputationis not
perfect - some mothers may have received
AFDC duringthe year, but still have had a to-
tal annual income above the poverty line -
mothers living in poverty in any given year
were six to seven times more likely thanmoth-
ers not living in poverty to receive AFDC or
food stamps.
Mental health. Mothers completed a rating
scale covering six areas of problem behavior
for their children aged 4 or older: antisocial
behavior;anxiety or depression;hyperactivity;
dependency;peer conflict or withdrawal;and
headstrong behavior. Each area was repre-
sented by between three and six items. Moth-
ers ratedeach item as "oftentrue","sometimes
true",or "not true" of each of their children.
Factor analyses revealed that these items can
be representedby two dimensions - internal-
izing and externalizing symptoms. The inter-
nalizing index includes most items covering
anxiety/depressionand dependency (ox = .76
based on raw scores). The externalizingindex
includes the remainingitems (cx= .81 based on
raw scores). AppendixTable 1 presentsthe in-
dicatorsfor the internalizingand externalizing
indices and their unstandardizedlambdacoef-
ficients. With one exception (sudden changes
in mood loaded on the internalizingdimension
ratherthanon the externalizingdimension),the
resultsof our factoranalysisareconsistentwith
those reported in previous analyses of these
data (Rogers, Parcel, and Menaghan 1991).
Because our measures of children's mental
healtharebasedon mothers'reportsratherthan
on the children'sself-reports,any associations
between poverty and children's mental health
could be interpretedas the effect of poverty on
mothers'interpretationsof their children'sbe-
haviors,ratherthanthe effect of povertyon the
children.Angel andWorobey(1988) found that
a mother's reportof her child's overall health
was strongly influenced by the mother's own
POVERTYAND CHILDREN'SMENTALHEALTH
distress and by whethershe was currentlymar-
ried, independent of physician-rated health:
Distressed mothers and single mothers were
more likely to report "poor"health for their
children.Although we cannot establishthe va-
lidity of our measures of mental health, we
thinkit is unlikelythatourmeasuresareunduly
influenced by the mother's distress or marital
status.Mother'smaritalstatusdoes not consis-
tently predict children's mental health in our
sample. Furthermore,the NLSY mothersrated
specific behaviorsof theirchildren,ratherthan
providing an overall assessment of health. Fi-
nally, externalvalidationof parents'reportsof
mental health indicatesthey are generallycon-
sistent with the reportsof teachers and others
(Achenbach,McConaughy,and Howell 1987).
Parenting behaviors. Recent efforts to ex-
plain relationships between poverty and
children's mental health have focused on par-
ents' distress and parenting behaviors
(McLoyd 1990). The stresses of living in pov-
erty are thoughtto impede parents' abilities to
respondappropriatelyto the physical andemo-
tional needs of their children. Two variables
assess the quality of each mother's interaction
with her children: emotional responsiveness
and use of physical punishment.(Fathers'be-
haviors were not assessed in the NLSY.) The
items were derived from Caldwell and
Bradley's HOME Scale (Caldwelland Bradley
1979). Emotional responsiveness is measured
by the interviewer's rating.(i.e., present, ab-
sent) of three maternalreactions to the child
during the child's assessment interview:voice
conveyed positive feeling; conversed without
scolding; answeredquestionsverbally(ox= .75
based on raw scores). To assess the use of
physical punishment,each mother was asked
the numberof times she had spankedher child
in the past week. These indicatorsof parenting
are consistent with documented associations
between economic loss, parentalrejection,and
harsh discipline (Conger et al. 1992; Elder et
al. 1985; Lemperset al. 1989).
Control variables. Several demographic
characteristicsof mothersarerelatedto poverty
status and to children's mental health. For ex-
ample, previously married or never married
mothers are much more likely than married
mothersto live in poverty(DuncanandRodgers
1987), and children of single mothers experi-
ence psychological and socioeconomic disad-
vantagesrelativeto otherchildren(Baldwinand
355
Cain 1981). Mother's education (years of
school completed) and her age at the birthof a
child also predictthe probabilitiesthatthe child
will experience poverty (Baldwin and Cain
1981) and behavior problems (Werner 1985).
To reduce the possibility that any observed re-
lationships between poverty and children's
mental health reflect these associations, our
analysis controlsfor these variables.
Finally, we assigned children to race/ethnic
groups based on the reported primary racial
origin of the child's mother. Although a
mother'srace does not correlateperfectly with
the race of her children, it is an indication of
the social context in which the child is likely
to be raised.We consideredtwo groups:blacks
or Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites. We
combined Cubans with other Hispanics, de-
spite evidence that these groups differ in their
levels of economic success (Valdivieso and
Davis 1988, p. 8), because there were too few
Cubans(N = 6) to treatthem as a separatecat-
egory. We combinedAsians with non-Hispanic
whites because their earningslevels and living
conditions resemble those for whites (Tienda
and Lii 1987).
Analysis Plan
We pose three main questions:
(1) Does the persistence of poverty predict
children'smentalhealthabove and beyond
the effect of currentpoverty?
(2) Do the relationshipsbetween poverty and
I children'smentalhealth vary by race?
(3) Do parentingbehaviorsexplain the effects
of persistent poverty versus currentpov-
erty on children'smentalhealth;or do they
explain race/ethnic differences in the ef-
fect of poverty on children's mental
health?
To answer these questions, we estimated a
series of linear structuralequation models us-
ing LISREL 7 as applied to weighted covari-
ance matrices (Joreskog and Sorbom 1989).
The key features of the models are presented
in Figure 1. The solid lines representpaths es-
timated in the initial models of the relation-
ships between currentpoverty, persistence of
poverty, the control variables, and the mental
health indicators. The dashed lines represent
the effects of poverty on parentingbehaviors
356 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICAL
REVIEW

Emotonall
rsponsivness

/ \ N
/N
/ \ Ns
/\( Internalizin

( Current

(ersistence~
/~~ \->
Control
| | Pov~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xertyali
variables/

\ I-

0 Latentvariablewith
multipleindicators
Number of
W Singleindicator
= times spanked

Figure 1. Simplified Path Diagram for a StructuralEquationModel PredictingChildren's Mental Health

and the effects of parenting behaviors on
children's mental health, estimated in subse-
quent models. We assumed perfect measure-
ment of the variablesfor poverty status,physi-
cal punishment,and the controlvariables.Each
of the latentvariables- emotionalresponsive-
ness, internalizingsymptoms, and externaliz-
ing symptoms - was representedby multiple
indicators. All reported significance tests are
one-tailed tests.4
We evaluatedthe significance of race/ethnic
differences in the relationshipsamongpoverty,
parenting behaviors, and children's mental
health using a multi-groupcomparison strat-
egy. This strategyinvolves estimatingtwo sets
of models: One set constrainsstructuralcoeffi-
cients to be equal across race/ethnicgroups;a
second set allows structural coefficients to
vary. The difference in chi-square values be-
tween the constrainedand unconstrainedmod-
els provides a test for race/ethnic differences
in the structuralmodel.
4 The modelsreportedarenot strictlyhierarchi-
cal. Foreachmodel,onlythevariableswhosecoef-
ficientsarereportedwere"selected"intothecova-
riancematrixusedto estimatethemodel.Thus,the
x2 valuescannotbe comparedacrosstables.
Such difference tests, which are frequently
appliedin social research,can yield misleading
results if the measurementparametersin the
model are significantlydifferentacross groups
(Bielby 1986; Williams and Thomson 1986).
Therefore, before estimating two-group mod-
els for race/ethnicdifferencesin the parameters
of the structuralmodel, we evaluated the sig-
nificance of race/ethnicdifferencesin the mea-
surementmodel (lambdacoefficients)using the
same strategy, i.e. comparing the fit of con-
strainedand unconstrainedmodels. The differ-
ence in the chi-squarevalues (X2= 26.33, d.f. =
24, p > .10) was not significant. Accordingly,
all tests of race/ethnicdifferencesin parameters
of the structuralmodel constrainedparameters
in the measurement model to be equal for
blacks/Hispanicsand non-Hispanicwhites.
RESULTS
Table1 presentspercentagedistributionsof cur-
rentlypoorandnonpoorchildrenby persistence
of poverty for the total sample and for the two
race/ethnicgroups. Persistenceof poverty,de-
fined as the percentof life spentin poverty,was
collapsed into five categories (0, 1-25, 26-50,
51-75, and76-100 percent).Approximately30
POVERTYAND CHILDREN'SMENTALHEALTH 357
Table 1. Percentage Distributionof CurrentlyPoor and CurrentlyNonpoor Children by Percent of Life in Poverty,
for Race/Ethnic Groups:Childrenof the NLSY, 1986

Percent of Life
in Poverty Total Black/Hispanic Non-Hispanic White
(Poverty Currently Currently Currently Currently Currently Currently
Persistence) Poor Nonpoor Total Poor Nonpoor Total Poor Nonpoor Total

0 64.7 45.1 43.1 21.4 70.0 54.2

1-25 7.8 17.4 14.5 2.5 20.5 11.4 12.4 16.6 15.7
26-50 13.7 9.8 11.0 5.8 19.2 12.4 20.6 7.4 10.4
51-75 12.4 6.0 8.0 11.1 12.1 11.6 13.5 4.5 6.6
76-100 66.1 2.2 21.5 80.7 5.0 43.2 53.5 1.4 13.2
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
(N) (525) (1,208) (1,733) (243) (239) (482) (282) (969) (1,251)

percent (525/1,733) of the children in the by race/ethnicgroup. Only 43 percent of cur-

samplewere currentlyliving in povertyin 1986.
This percentageis slightly higherthanhas been
found in samples of the general population
(Duncan 1988 as reportedin McLoyd 1990),
and presumably is a result of the relatively
young ages of the mothers in the NLSY The
percentagecurrentlyin povertyis significantly
higheramongblacksandHispanics(50 percent,
243/482) than among non-Hispanicwhites (23
percent, 282/1,251) (z = 11.31, p < .01).
Children'sexperiences of persistentpoverty
follow a similarpattern.Black or Hispanicchil-
dren have spent longer periods in poverty than
non-Hispanic white children:Forty-threeper-
cent of the black/Hispanicchildrenhave lived
in poverty for over 75 percent of their lives
compared to only 13 percent of non-Hispanic
white children (Duncan and Rodgers 1988).
The percent of children who have never lived
in povertyalso variesstrikinglyby race:21 per-
cent of black/Hispanicchildrencomparedto 54
percentof non-Hispanicwhite children.
As expected, the relationship between the
two indicatorsof poverty is strong- bivariate
correlations(using the continuousmeasure of
poverty persistence) are .81 for the black/His-
panic subsampleand .76 for the sampleof non-
Hispanic whites.5Again, there are differences
5 The high correlation between current poverty
and the persistenceof poverty may preventus from
distinguishing their relative contributions to
children's mental health. In an effort to alleviate
this problem, we replicated our analysis using a
measureof persistentpovertythatexcluded poverty
status in 1986. The correlation between current
poverty and persistence of poverty was lower, but
none of the estimated coefficients differed in sign
or significance from the coefficients we reporthere.
rently nonpoor blacks and Hispanics have
never lived in poverty comparedto 70 percent
of currently nonpoor non-Hispanic whites.
Over 80 percent of currentlypoor blacks and
Hispanics have been poor for most (over 75
percent) of their lives comparedto 54 percent
of currentlypoor non-Hispanic whites. Thus,
when poverty occurs, it is much more long-
lasting among blacks and Hispanics than
among non-Hispanicwhites.
Means, standard deviations, and inter-
correlationsfor all variables are listed in Ap-
pendix Table 2. Average values of the indica-
tors of parentingbehaviors,the index of inter-
nalizing symptoms, and the index of external-
izing symptomsare quite similarfor both race/
ethnic groups.
PovertyPersistence and Mental Health
Table2 presentsthe unstandardizedcoefficients
from a simultaneousequationmodel for the ef-
fects of currentpoverty,the persistenceof pov-
erty, and the control variables on children's
mental health for the total sample. The coeffi-
cients indicatethatpersistenceof povertyis sig-
nificantlyandpositively relatedto the presence
of internalizingsymptoms, whereas being cur-
rently poor has no net relationship to these
symptoms. Thus, the length of time children
spendin povertyhas a significanteffect on their
feelings of dependence,unhappiness,and anxi-
ety independentof the effect of current eco-
nomic deprivation.In contrast,currentpoverty
is significantly and positively related to the
presence of externalizing symptoms, whereas
persistentpoverty is unrelatedto these symp-
toms. Forthe disruptivebehaviorsthatmake up
358 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEW
Table 2. Unstandardized Coefficients From Simulta- model is not significantly better when the in-
neous Equations Predicting Children's Mental
Health From CurrentPoverty, Poverty Persis-
teractiontermis included(X2= 1.36, d.f. = 2, p
tence, and Control Variables: Children of the = .51) and the coefficients for the interaction
NLSY, 1986 terms are not significant. Thus, the effect of
povertypersistenceon children'smentalhealth
Dependent Variable does not depend on whether children are cur-
Internalizing Externalizing rentlypoor.
IndependentVariable Symptoms Symptoms Do povertyexperienceshave comparableef-
Currentlypoor .004 .058** fects on black/Hispanicchildren and non-His-
(.028) (.023) panic white children?Wilson (1991) hypoth-
Poverty persistence .089** .013 esized that persistentpoverty may be particu-
(.037) (.031) larly distressing for blacks, given the social
Mother's age (years) -.003 -.001 context in which poor blacks live. If so, we
(.004) (.003) would expect the effect of persistentpoverty to
Mother's education (years) -.012** -.004 be strongerfor blacks/Hispanicsthan it is for
(.005) (.004)
non-Hispanicwhites. We tested for race/ethnic
Never married -.008 -.008
differences in the relationshipsbetween pov-
(.028) (.023)
erty and children's mental health by compar-
Previously married .038* .036"
(.022) (.018)
ing the chi-square values from models that
R2 .04 .03
placed equality constraints only on the mea-
surementparametersto chi-squarevalues from
p<.05 **<.01 models that also included equality constraints
Note: Numbers in parenthesesare standarderrors; 2= on the pathsfrom the povertyvariablesto men-
2304.43 with 407 degrees of freedom, goodness-of-fit in- tal health. The race/ethnic difference in the
dex = .91, numberof cases = 1,733.
main effects of currentpoverty and persistence
of poverty on mental health is not significant
our measure of externalizing symptoms, cur- (X2= 4.50, d.f. = 4, p =34), and the race/ethnic
rent poverty is more predictive. differencewith respectto the multiplicativein-
Because the model assumesthatthe relation- teraction term is also not significant (%2-
ships are additive and do not interact, the 10.72, d.f. = 6, p =.10). Because the complex
model may misspecify the relationshipsamong sample design renders our significance tests
current poverty, persistence of poverty, and liberal, these results offer persuasive evidence
children'smentalhealth.For example,children against race/ethnicdifferences in the total ef-
may be more distressedby the loss of financial fects of poverty on children'smental health.
resources than by subsequent long-term pov-
erty (Elder and Caspi 1988). Or, poverty his-
The Role of ParentingBehaviors
tory may be less predictive of mental health
among children who are no longer poor. In ei- Can relationships between poverty and
ther case, currentpoverty and persistence of children'smentalhealthbe explainedby varia-
poverty interact when predicting children's tions in parentingbehaviors?Poor adults have
mental health. a high risk of majorpsychiatricdisorders,in-
To evaluate these possibilities, we estimated cluding depression and alcohol or drug abuse
a second model (not shown) that added the (Bruce,Takeuchi,and Leaf 1991), and they re-
multiplicative interaction of the two poverty port high levels of psychological distress rela-
variablesto the model presented.6The fit of the tive to nonpooradults(Kessler 1982). Because
parentaldistress is a strongpredictorof harsh,
6 The multiplicative interaction clearly violates
unresponsiveparenting(Rutter 1990; Susman,
LISREL's assumptionof multivariatenormality,as Trickett, lannotti, Hollenbeck, and Zahn-
do several other variables in the model. LISREL 7 Waxler 1985), and such parentingis related to
offers users the option of using polyserial and
polychoric correlationsin place of product-moment
correlations where appropriate. However, to the native correlationscalculated from the unweighted
best of our knowledge, this option is not available data. The results were similar: The signs and sig-
for weighted data. We comparedresultsusing prod- nificance levels of the coefficients for poverty and
uct-moment correlations to results from the alter- parentingbehaviorswere not altered.
POVERTYAND CHILDREN'SMENTALHEALTH 359

poor mentalhealthamongchildren(Elderet al. Table 3. Unstandardized Coefficients From Simulta-

1985; Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber1986), neous Equations Predicting Children's Mental
Health From Poverty Status and ParentingBe-
parentingbehaviorsmay mediate the relation- haviors: Childrenof the NLSY, 1986
ship between poverty and children's mental
health. Dependent Variable
Table 3 presents the unstandardizedcoeffi- Number Inter- Exter-
cients from a structuralequationmodel for the Emotional of nal- nali-
Independent Responsive- Times izing zing
relationshipsamong poverty,parentingbehav- Variable ness Spanked SymptomsSymptoms
iors, control variables, and children's mental
health for the total sample. Currently poor Currentlypoor -.037* .805** -.016 .028
(.021) (.163) (.028) (.023)
mothersspanktheirchildrensignificantlymore
Poverty -.020 -.557** .103** .033
often than do nonpoor mothers and they are persistence (.028) (.215) (.037) (.030)
significantly less responsive to the needs of
Mother's age .008** .058** -.004 -.003
their children.This resultis consistent with ar- (years) (.003) (.023) (.004) (.003)
guments that the stresses of living in poverty Mother's .008* -.047* -.011** -.003
impede parents' abilities to respond support- education (.004) (.028) (.005) (.004)
ively to their children'sneeds (McLoyd 1990). (years)
In turn, children who are frequently spanked Never married -.053** .118 -.011 -.013
experience significantlymoreinternalizingand (.021) (.160) (.027) (.022)
externalizing symptoms than do children who Previously .031* -.171 .042* .043**
are spankedless often. married (.016) (.127) (.022) (.018)
The results with respect to the relationship Emotional .015 -.011
between poverty persistenceand parentingbe- respon- (.040) (.033)
siveness
haviors are unexpected: Mothers who have
Numberof times - - .026** .037**
been poor for a long time reportspankingtheir spanked (.004) (.004)
children significantly less often than other
mothers, after currentpoverty has been taken *p<.05 **p< .01

into account. The zero-orderrelationshipbe- Note: Numbersin parenthesesare standarderrors;%2

2538.44 with 518 degrees of freedom, goodness-of-fit in-
tween persistence of poverty and frequencyof dex = .92, numberof cases = 1,733.
spanking is positive, but weak. The change in
sign may result from an interaction between
currentpovertyandpersistenceof povertysuch poverty on children'smental health cannot be
that spanking is commonest among families attributedto punitive or unresponsiveparent-
recently entering poverty (Elder and Caspi ing. Table 4 presents estimates of the total ef-
1988). However, when we estimated a model fects of each poverty variableon children'sin-
that included the interactionterm for poverty, ternalizingand externalizingsymptoms (from
the coefficient for the effect of the interaction Table2), as well as estimates for the direct ef-
term on spanking was negative, as expected, fects (from Table 3) and the indirect effects
but not significant.Thus, the negative relation- throughparenting.
ship between persistenceof povertyand spank- The direct effects of currentpoverty on in-
ing holds regardless of whether families are ternalizingsymptoms and externalizingsymp-
currentlypoor.7 toms are not significant, while the indirect ef-
The negative effect of persistentpoverty on fects are significant and positive. The harsh,
spankingindicatesthatthe effects of long-term unresponsive behaviors of currently poor
motherscreatehigh levels of symptomsamong
7 To understandwhy persistentpoverty is associ- their children. In contrast,the direct effect of
ated with less frequentspankings,we calculatedthe persistence of poverty on internalizingsymp-
mean frequency of spanking across categories de- toms remains significant after controlling for
fined by currentpoverty and persistenceof poverty. parentingbehaviors, while the indirect effect
Among children who are currently poor, the fre-
quency of spankingdecreases as the length of time cumstances. Levels of spanking do not vary with
spent in poverty increases. This result is consistent persistenceof poverty in a linear way among fami-
with Elder and Caspi's (1988) claim that economic lies that are not currentlypoor. However, children
deprivationhas a diminishingeffect on parentalbe- who recently moved out of poverty are spanked
havior as families adjust to their constrained cir- least often.
360
Table 4. Total, Direct, and IndirectEffects of Poverty on Internalizingand ExternalizingSymptoms: Childrenof the
NLSY, 1986
InternalizingSymptoms
Poverty Status Total Direct
Currentlypoor .004 -.016
(.028) (.028)
Poverty persistence .089** .103**
(.037) (.037)
*<.05 **< .01
Note: Direct and indirect effects may not add to total effect because of rounding. Numbers in parentheses are
standarderrors.
is significant and negative for both measures
of mental health. The spanking variable ac-
counts for the significant indirect effects, i.e.,
the indirect effects are significant in models
that include spankingbut omit responsiveness;
they are not significant in models that include
responsiveness but omit spanking (results
available from the authors).
Although race/ethnicdifferencesin the total
effects of poverty on mentalhealth are not sig-
nificant, race/ethnic differences may occur in
the processes that account for those effects.
MatsuedaandHeimer(1987) foundracediffer-
ences in their analysis of the relationshipbe-
tween single parenthoodand delinquency,i.e.,
single parenthoodhad a strongerdirect effect
on attitudesconducive to delinquency,and on
delinquentbehavior,amongblacksthanamong
nonblacks. Most previous analyses of the ef-
fects of economic deprivation on parenting
have focused on whites (Conger et al. 1992;
Elder 1974; Elder et al. 1985; Lempers et al.
1989), leaving open the question of whether
similarrelationshipshold for other groups.
We tested for race/ethnic differences in the
relationshipsamong poverty,parentingbehav-
iors, and children's mental health by estimat-
ing a series of multi-groupmodels that con-
strainednone, some, or all of the structuralpa-
rameters to be equal for both race/ethnic
groups. Ourtests covered models thatincluded
only the main effects of poverty as well as
models that included the interactionterm for
the two poverty variablesto allow for the pos-
sibility thatthe specificationof the links among
poverty,parentingbehaviors,andmentalhealth
variedby race.
The processes that link povertyto children's
mental health throughmother's parentingbe-
haviors are substantiallysimilarfor black/His-
AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEW
Externalizing Symptoms
Indirect Total Direct Indirect
.020** .058** .028 .030**
(.006) (.023) (.023) (.007)
-.015** .013 .033 -.020**
(.006) (.031) (.030) (.008)
panic children and non-Hispanic white chil-
dren. Relative to their nonpoor peers, poor
black/Hispanicmothersand poor white moth-
ers display comparabledecreases in mother's
responsiveness and increases in the frequency
of spanking(X2= 1.61, d.f. = 4, p = .81 for the
main effects of poverty; X2= 6.20, d.f. = 6, p
=.40 for the model that included the interac-
tion term). Mother's responsiveness and fre-
quency of spanking also have comparableef-
fects on mental health in the two groups of
children(X2= 1.98, d.f. = 4, p = .74). Finally,
tests for race/ethnic differences in the comn-
bined effects of poverty on parenting behav-
iors, poverty on children's mental health, and
parentingbehaviors on mental health are not
significant(X2= 7.77, d.f. = 12, p = .65 for the
main effects of poverty;x2 = 17.69, d.f. = 16,
p = .34 for the model thatincluded the interac-
tion term). Thus, the family processes linking
povertyto children'smentalhealth do not vary
significantlyby race/ethnicity.
DISCUSSION
The length of time spent in poverty is an im-
portantpredictor of children's mental health,
even after currentpoverty status is taken into
account.As the length of time spent in poverty
increases, so too do children's feelings of un-
happiness, anxiety, and dependence. The ob-
served effect of persistent poverty challenges
the prevailingassumptionthat currentmaterial
circumstancesare the sole determinantof the
stress families face. Clearly, stress is also a
functionof the durationof poverty.
These resultshave broadimplicationsfor the
conceptualizationand measurementof socio-
economic status as it relates to mental health.
Priorresearchon adultshas usually focused on
POVERTYAND CHILDREN'SMENTALHEALTH
the relative contributionsof education, occu-
pational status, and income to psychological
distress (Kessler 1982; McLeod and Kessler
1990; see Williams 1990 for a review). While
such research enhances our understandingof
the subjective experience of status, it relies
overwhelmingly on static conceptualizations.
Research on the socioeconomic determinants
of children's mental health suffers from the
same reliance on measures of current status
(Robertson and Simons 1989; Velez et al.
1989). Our analysis shows that such research
may misrepresent the relationships between
status and psychological outcomes. A distinc-
tion between currentincome and financialhis-
tory merits attention. Similarly, occupational
trajectoriescomprise sequences of job entries
and exits that often entail substantialchange,
but such trajectories are rarely measured in
analyses of work and mental health (Spenner
1988).
Ourresults also supporttheoreticaldevelop-
ments calling for greater emphasis on family
processes in studies of the outcomes of pov-
erty (McLoyd 1990). Consistentwith the find-
ing that the stress of economic deprivation
erodes parenting skills (McLoyd 1990), we
found that currentlypoor mothers spank their
childrenmore often than do currentlynonpoor
mothers. Furthermore, the mother's use of
physical punishment contributessignificantly
to the effect of currentpoverty on children's
mental health. Elder and his colleagues have
argued that family interactionsare crucial to
understanding children's psychological re-
sponses to economic loss (e.g., Elder 1974;
Moen et al. 1983; Elderet al. 1984). Ouranaly-
sis indicates that family interactionsalso ex-
plain children'sresponses to currentpoverty.
Mother'sparentingbehavioris not a power-
ful mediatorof the effects of persistentpoverty
on children's mental health. The frequencyof
spanking does not increase with the length of
time spent in poverty nor does the mother's
emotionalresponsivenessdecrease.In fact, our
results suggest that persistently poor mothers
spank their children less often than do other
mothers.Family interactionsapparentlystabi-
lize as poverty persists and the family adapts
to economic deprivation (Elder and Caspi
1988). Nevertheless, other forms of harshdis-
cipline, includingpaternalabuse, may be more
common in persistentlypoor families, account-
ing for their children'smentalhealthproblems
361
(Kruttschnitt,McLeod, and Dornfeld 1993).
Otherstressorslike poor nutrition,exposure to
hazardous environments (Dutton 1986), and
exposure to violent crime or criminal victim-
ization(DubrowandGarbarino1989) may also
contributeto the high levels of symptoms ob-
served among persistentlypoor children.
Ourresultsmay not extend to othermeasures
of mental health or psychological well-being.
Seff (1992) reportedthatemploymenthas very
different effects on self-efficacy and on self-
esteem amongwomen receiving welfare.Thus,
psychologicaloutcomes thatareclosely related
may respond differently to economic experi-
ences. Ouranalysiscan speakonly to variations
in internalizingand externalizingsymptoms in
response to poverty history.Specific questions
about variations in achievement motivation
(Corcoranet al. 1985), feelings of self-efficacy
(Wilson 1991), or the family determinantsof
these characteristicsawait furtherresearch.
We found little evidence of race/ethnic dif-
ferences in the relationship between poverty
and children'smental health. The total effects
of poverty do not vary significantly by race/
ethnic group. Furthermore,the parenting be-
haviors linking poverty to children's mental
health are substantiallysimilar for black/His-
panic children and non-Hispanic white chil-
dren. This similarity contradicts claims that
race-specific historical and culturalconditions
have created fundamentallydifferent patterns
of parent-childinteractionamong blacks and
whites (Lassiter 1987). Rather,poor children
appearto experiencethe same parentingdisad-
vantages regardless of race, at least with re-
spect to the frequency of spanking and emo-
tional responsiveness.
Despite the absence of race/ethnic differ-
ences in our model, there may be race/ethnic
differences in the reasons why currentlypoor
mothersspanktheir children more often. Poor
black/Hispanicmothersface greatereconomic
stress than do poor non-Hispanicwhite moth-
ers, even after the persistence of poverty has
been controlled, because they enter poverty
with fewer resourcesand live in more deprived
neighborhoods(Farley 1987; Wilson 987). In
contrast,poor white mothers have better eco-
nomic prospects, but may experience more
negative social comparisons from living
among wealthier peers. Such compensating
processes are plausible but can only by tested
throughdirect analyses of social contexts.
362 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICAL
REVIEW

Ourfailureto observerace/ethnicdifferences JANE D. MCLEOD is Assistant Professor of Sociol-

may result from the high correlationbetween ogy at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
currentpoverty status and persistence of pov- With the support of a FIRSTAward from NIMH,
erty.The tests for race/ethnicdifferencesin the she is currentlystudyingassortative matingfor psy-
chiatric disorders. Her other research interests in-
net effect of persistentpoverty, and in the net clude the contributions of relative and absolute
effect of the interactionterm for the two mea- deprivationto physical and mental health, and the
sures of poverty,are based on few cases, which long-termeffects of childhood trauma.
increasesthe probabilityof a Type 2 error.Fur-
MICHAELJ. SHANAHANis a Postdoctoral Fellow with
thermore, our tests of race/ethnic differences the Carolina Consortiumon Human Development.
assume that officially-defined measures of His research focuses on sociological perspectives
poverty capture comparableeconomic trajec- in human development,with an emphasis on chil-
tories for the two race/ethnicgroups. That as- dren and adolescents. His recent workexamines the
sumptionmay be invalid. Ourpovertymeasure psychological implications of employment, eco-
designateda family as "poor"if its income fell nomic distress, and neighborhoods.
below the estimated governmentpoverty lev-
els, and designateda family as "notpoor"if its Appendix Table 1. Measurement Model for Latent
income was above thatlevel. As a result,fami- Variables in Total Sample
lies thatwere "poor"in one year but "notpoor"
in the next year could have similarincomes in Latent Variable and UnstandardizedLambda Error
Observed Variable Coefficient Variance
those two years. Measuresof economic depri-
vation that rely on official definitions of pov- EmotionalResponsiveness
erty may be particularlyproblematicfor blacks Voice positive 1.000a .075
and Hispanics, whose annual incomes fluctu- Conversed with child 1.540 .054
ate around a lower mean than do those of Answered questions 1.460 .097
whites. Because families who live at or slightly Numberof times spanked 1.OO0a .OG0a
above the poverty line face many of the same InternalizingSymptoms
stresses as families living below the poverty Mood changes 1.OO0a .264
line, strict measures of entrance into or exits Feels unloved .781 .247
out of officially defined poverty may under- High strung 1.052 .275
state the depth of economic deprivation for Fearful 1.090 .252
blacks and Hispanics. Confused .784 .197
Despite this limitation in measurement,our
Feels worthless .716 .116
results present two challenges to researchers
Obsessive .771 .232
interested in the effects of economic depriva-
tion on children's development. First, family Unhappy .755 .130
histories of poverty influence children'smen- Withdrawn .518 .123
tal health above and beyond the effects of cur- Clings .828 .318
rentpoverty.Analyses thatfocus solely on cur- Cries .830 .221
rent financial circumstances,or on recent fi- Demands attention 1.204 .331
nancialchanges, may fail to accuratelyspecify Too dependent .915 .218
the economic determinantsof children'swell- ExternalizingSymptoms
being. Second, race/ethnicvariationsin the so- Cheats l.OO0a .251
cial contexts of poverty do not always imply Argues 1.568 .297
race/ethnic differences in outcomes. Whereas Bullies 1.223 .151
the absolute deprivationinherentin life in an Disobedient 1.278 .189
economically deprivedneighborhoodmay cre- Trouble getting along 1.078 .157
ate a high risk of physical illness and teenage
Impulsive 1.196 .228
pregnancy, mental health problems may be
Not liked .615 .134
equally evident for families who live in less-
deprived neighborhoods-but with more afflu- Restless 1.452 .372
ent peers. How absoluteand relativeeconomic Stubborn 1.695 .224
deprivation jointly contribute to variation in Strong temper 1.674 .261
children'swell-being representsa criticalques- Destructive .725 .130
tion for social theoristsand policymakers. a Fixed coefficient.
POVERTYAND CHILDREN'SMENTALHEALTH 363
Appendix Table 2. Means, StandardDeviations, and CorrelationsAmong Variables Included in the Analysis: Total
Sample, Childrenof the NLSY, 1986

Variable
Variable Mean s.d. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)

(1) Currentlypoor .30 .46

(2) Poverty persistence .33 .39 .80
(3) Mother's age 20.28 2.17 -.22 -.31
(years)
(4) Mother's education 11.65 1.76 -.27 -.33 .32
(years)
(5) Previously married .19 .39 .25 .22 -.06 -.01
(6) Never married .14 .35 .36 .48 -.22 -.08 -.20
(7) Voice positive .86 .35 -.10 -.09 .09 .08 .00 -.11
(8) Conversed with child .79 .41 -.14 -.14 .11 .10 .02 -.12 .52 - - -

(9) Answered questions .72 .45 -.09 -.13 .11 .10 .06 -.13 .45 .59 - -

(10) Numberoftimes 1.35 1.88 .10 .04 .04 -.04 -.02 .03 -.01 .01 .03
spanked
(11) Internalizinga 18.01 3.67 .13 .15 -.07 -.11 .07 .04 -.04 -.02 .02 .16
(12) Externalizinga 16.52 3.68 .14 .12 -.05 -.07 .08 .04 -.06 -.03 .04 .27 .64
a Simple additive scales were constructedfor these variables for this table.

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