How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?

Abstract

Existing research has investigated the effect of early childhood educational interventions on the child's later-life outcomes. These studies have found limited impact of supplementary programs on children's cognitive skills, but sustained effects on personality traits. We examine how a positive change in unearned household income affects children's emotional and behavioral health and personality traits. Our results indicate that there are large beneficial effects of improved household financial wellbeing on children's emotional and behavioral health and positive personality trait development. Moreover, we find that these effects are most pronounced for children who are lagging behind their peers in these measures before the intervention. Increasing household incomes reduce differences across adolescents with different levels of initial emotional-behavioral symptoms and personality traits. We also examine potential channels through which the increased household income may contribute to these positive changes. Parenting and relationships within the family appear to be an important mechanism. We also find evidence that a sub-sample of the population moves to census tracts with better income levels and educational attainment.

Family Income and the Intergenerational Transmission of Voting Behavior: Evidence from an Income Intervention

“…6 Some have argued that income increases individual investments in education, skills, and health that make it easier for one to participate in politics. 7 These skills may include cognitive abilities such as the ability to read and write, which make consuming political information easier (Denny and Doyle 2008; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995; Schlozman, Brady, Verba 2018), the so-called non-cognitive abilities that help citizens follow-through on their intention to participate in politics (Hillygus, Holbein, and Snell 2016; Holbein 2017), and the personality traits thought to be important for voting (Akee et al 2018;Mondak 2010;Gerber et al 2011).…”

“…Though various theoretical models have postulated that resources allocated earlier in the life course may matter more than those delivered later, little to no contemporary research has explored this possibility. 4,5 The conceptual framework that we put forth helps draw attention back on the life course dynamics 4 We are not the first to identify this gap in scholarly research. Some have lamented the "abandonment" of studies exploring the role of childhood experience for voting (Sapiro 2004, 1).…”

Renta básica universal y renta mínima: ¿soluciones para el futuro?

“…El impacto de la pobreza en la salud física y mental ha sido documentado numerosas veces (Akee et al, 2018;Mani et al, 2013;Monreal 2019). Otro efecto provocado por la falta de recursos es la barrera en el acceso a la educación (Lochner y Monge-Naranjo, 2012).…”

“…Kangas et al (2019) encuentran que los niveles de bienestar de las personas desempleadas que recibían la renta básica en Finlandia aumentaron notablemente, con un impacto en la reducción de los niveles de ansiedad y mejoras en la salud. Por último, la renta universal a los Cherokees americanos provoca, por un lado, una mejora en el estado emocional de los niños (Akee et al, 2018) y, por otro, un incremento en el índice de masa corporal (Akee et al, 2013).…”

Parent–child attachment as a mechanism of intergenerational (dis)advantage

“…For instance, adjusting for income, education and age, 20 20 residential crowding is associated with lower maternal responsiveness (Evans et al 2009), as are features of poor neighbourhoods (Pinderhughes et al 2007). Certainly, natural experiments show that an improved neighbourhood environments, and income supplements, can improve children's socio-emotional development (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn 2003;Akee et al 2015). These suggest that macro social and economic factors can influence the micro-level of parent sensitivity and attachment security.…”