Within-child Associations between Changes in Family Income and Changes in Externalizing and Internalizing Problems

Abstract

Within-child associations between family income and child externalizing and internalizing problems were examined using longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,132). Variations in income effects were estimated as a function of whether families were poor, whether mothers were partnered or not, and the number of hours mothers and their partners were employed. For all study children, increases in family income were associated with decreases in externalizing problems, although the estimated benefits of gains in income were greatest for children who were chronically poor. For both externalizing and internalizing problems, income gains were most strongly associated with problem decreases when chronically poor children’s mothers were partnered and employed.