The elimination of child poverty is a priority for government at all levels. Canada's governmental social transfer system has helped to mitigate material deprivation for poor families (Campaign 2000 1997; Zyblock 1996). Research demonstrating the effects of poverty on child development has contributed to the definition of poverty as a national priority. Research has consistently demonstrated that poverty is a risk factor that threatens the health status, cognitive abilities, behaviours, and educational attainment of children (Aber et al. 1997; Lipman and Offord 1995). However, the reasons why poverty affects some, but not all poor children remain unclear. Understanding protective factors that mitigate the risk induced by poverty can have significant implications for policy and for health promotion.
Developmental psychologists examining resilience and vulnerability have identified parental characteristics, negative events, as well as personal and familial resources as factors that mediate the effects of poverty (Brooks-Gunn 1995; Elder, Nguyen and Caspi 1985; Huston 1991; McLoyd 1989). Social-economic studies attempt to explain differential effects of poverty by looking at the persistence and severity of poverty, sources of income, allocation of financial and non-monetary resources within the family, and contextual factors such as neighbourhood characteristics, race, ethnicity, and immigrant status (Blau 1999; Guo 1998; Lefebvre and Merrigan 1998; Mayer 1997; McLeod and Shanahan 1996). In order to develop effective policy, it will be necessary to adopt a more contextual approach to research, an approach sensitive on the one hand to developmental issues, and, on the other, to protective resources, as well as to changes in family poverty status and the sources of the changes.
Using data from both cycle 1 and cycle 2 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this study draws from both developmental and social-economic approaches to examine the effects of changes in poverty status on children's behavioural outcomes. This study will compare changes in parenting behaviours, family function, parental mental health, and children's developmental behaviours among families in four different situations: a. Families poor over both cycles, b. Families which change from poor at time 1 to non-poor at time 2, c. Families which change from non-poor to poor, and d. Families which are non-poor at both cycles. This study will further examine the extent to which the effects of changes in poverty status depend on the
amount and sources of family income change.
This study also compares the effects of change in poverty status in immigrant and non-immigrant families. Previous analyses using NLSCY data have indicated that immigrant children have better behavioural outcomes than their Canadian-born peers, even though they are more likely to be poor, a finding suggesting that poverty among new immigrants may have a different meaning than it has for native-born families (Beiser, Hou, Hyman and Tousignant 1998, 2000).
Examination of the manner in which poverty affects developmental outcomes in children of immigrant and native-born families will facilitate understanding of the role of contextual variations in explaining the impact of poverty, as well as the personal and familial resources which protect children against the adverse effects of poverty
What's New
