Journal Article

Poverty Experiences of Young Children and the Quality of Their Home Environments

Garrett, Patricia, Ng'andu, Nicholas, Ferron, John

1994

Overview

This paper assesses the relative contribution of maternal, household, child, and poverty characteristics to the quality of the home environment. The sample consists of 1,887 children birth to 4 years old from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Ordinary least-squares regression is used to explore conceptually distinct aspects of children's poverty experiences. Poverty variables are found to have a statistically significant effect on the quality of the home environment, after controlling for the effects of other variables in the models. Statistically significant interactions among poverty variables are identified. A major finding is that improvements in family income have the strongest effects on the quality of the home environment for children who were born poor or lived much of their lives in poverty. The conclusion emphasizes implications for future research.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,University of Chicago Press,University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc,Oxford University Press
• Subject: Age Differences / Child care / Child poverty / Child rearing / Child, Preschool / Childbirth / Childhood / Childhood Factors / Children / Children & youth / Cohort Studies / Early Childhood Education / Economic Factors / Factors / Families & family life / Family Characteristics / Family Environment / Family Income / Female / Home Environment / Homes / Humans / Infant / Longitudinal Studies / Low income groups / Male / Mother-Child Relations / Mothers / National Longitudinal Survey of Youth / National Surveys / Parent Background / Parents / Personality Development / Poverty / Poverty - psychology / Preschool children / Psychosocial Deprivation / Quality of Life / Racial Differences / Ratios / Social Background / Social Environment / Social research / Socialization / Socioeconomic Influences