How Much Does Childhood Poverty Affect the Life Chances of Children?

Duncan, Greg J.; Yeung, Wei‐Jun Jean; Brooks‐Gunn, Jeanne; Smith, Judith R.

doi:10.2307/2657556

Cited by 1,254 publications

(936 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Here, we use an econometric change model that minimizes the likelihood of such confounding, because any permanent or stable factors that differ among men but that have not changed in the follow-up period are included within the error term of both regression models, and thus are eliminated as potential influences on any change in T experienced during the period of follow-up (26). Table 1 summarizes sociodemographic and biological characteristics for the full sample and also stratified on a median split of AM T measured at follow-up (2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males

Gettler

McDade

Feranil

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

434

381

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In species in which males care for young, testosterone (T) is often high during mating periods but then declines to allow for caregiving of resulting offspring. This model may apply to human males, but past human studies of T and fatherhood have been cross-sectional, making it unclear whether fatherhood suppresses T or if men with lower T are more likely to become fathers. Here, we use a large representative study in the Philippines (n = 624) to show that among single nonfathers at baseline (2005) (21.5 ± 0.3 y), men with high waking T were more likely to become partnered fathers by the time of follow-up 4.5 y later (P < 0.05). Men who became partnered fathers then experienced large declines in waking (median: −26%) and evening (median: −34%) T, which were significantly greater than declines in single nonfathers (P < 0.001). Consistent with the hypothesis that child interaction suppresses T, fathers reporting 3 h or more of daily childcare had lower T at follow-up compared with fathers not involved in care (P < 0.05). Using longitudinal data, these findings show that T and reproductive strategy have bidirectional relationships in human males, with high T predicting subsequent mating success but then declining rapidly after men become fathers. Our findings suggest that T mediates tradeoffs between mating and parenting in humans, as seen in other species in which fathers care for young. They also highlight one likely explanation for previously observed health disparities between partnered fathers and single men.challenge hypothesis | human evolution | hormones and behavior | paternal care | reproductive ecology I n male mammals, testosterone (T) stimulates the development and maintenance of traits and behaviors that contribute to male mating effort, including musculature, libido, conspecific aggressivity, and courtship (1-4). Although these T-driven traits factor into mating success, male reproductive fitness in some avian and mammalian species also depends on contributions to offspring care (5, 6). Because time and energy are finite (7), males in these species often face tradeoffs between conflicting behaviors related to mating and parenting. Adjustment of T production has been proposed as a physiological mechanism underlying this tradeoff, with males who focus on mating effort predicted to maintain elevated T, whereas males who cooperate with a female partner and invest in parental care should reduce T production (6,8). This model is well supported by data from a variety of avian species (6, 8), but evidence for its applicability to mammalian species in which males provide direct care is mixed (9). It is presently unclear whether T mediates the tradeoff between mating and parenting effort in human males, who often express paternal care facultatively.Humans have been described as serial monogamists who frequently engage in one or more long-lasting partnerships with females during reproductive life spans that last several decades (10-12). Humans are one of the few mammalian species in which paternal care is relati...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males

Gettler

McDade

Feranil

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

434

381

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“…They are consequently unlikely to be embedded in a social network in which family instability is anticipated, or at least less stigmatized (Brand and Simon Thomas 2014;Cherlin 2004;McDermott, Fowler, and Christakis 2013;Ross 1995). 3 By contrast, parental divorce may not further encumber the educational attainment of children who have grown accustomed to disruption in their lives, such as job loss, health shocks, residential mobility, and income decline (Duncan et al 1998). In this study, we consider how the effects of parental divorce on children's education differ across families with different likelihoods of disruption.…”

Section: Heterogeneous Effects Of Parental Divorce On Children's Educmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Divorce is associated with a decline in family income (condition 1), and decades of social science research demonstrates that family economic resources play a significant role in children's education (condition 2) (Coleman, Ganong, and Fine 2000;Crosnoe and Cavanagh 2010;Duncan et al 1998;Lee and McLanahan 2015;McLanahan and Percheski 2008;McLanahan and Sandefur 1994). In addition to the strong impact on home, neighborhood, and school environment, health and emotional well-being, and procuring educational goods and resources, family income facilitates paying the increasingly high price of college (Goldrick-Rab 2016).…”

Section: Mediating Effects Of Parental Divorce On Children's Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unequal Families, Unequal Effects: How Parental Divorce Differentially Impacts Children's Educational Attainment

Brand¹,

Moore²,

Song³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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A substantial literature suggests that family disruption leads to lower educational attainment among children. We focus on how the effects of parental divorce on children's education differ across families with varying likelihoods of disruption. Using U.S. panel data, with careful attention to the assumptions and methods needed to estimate total and mediating causal effects, we find a significant effect of parental divorce on educational attainment among children whose parents were unlikely to divorce, for whom divorce was thus a relative shock. We find no effect among children whose parents were likely to divorce and for whom divorce was one of many disadvantages, and thus less economically and socially disruptive. We also find that the observed effect of divorce on children's education is strongly mediated by post-divorce family income. Children's psychosocial skills also explain a portion of the effect among children with a low propensity for parental divorce, while cognitive skills play no role in explaining the negative association between divorce and children's education. Our results suggest that family disruption does not uniformly disrupt children's attainment. UNEQUAL FAMILIES, UNEQUAL EFFECTS:HOW PARENTAL DIVORCE DIFFERENTIALLY IMPACTS CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT Family disruption has long been implicated as a critical event impacting the lives of children.Parental divorce negatively affects a variety of children's outcomes, including psychological wellbeing and academic achievement (see McLanahan, Tach, and Schneider [2013] for a review).Highly-cited research has shown that divorce is negative for children's educational attainment Prior research has also largely overlooked how the predisposition to experience parental divorce may condition the mechanisms by which parental divorce impacts children's education.We assess the degree to which decreased educational attainment among children in response to parental divorce is mediated by three factors: post-divorce family instability, family economic resources, and children's skills. Our study is thus motivated by two central aims. First, we assess how the effects of parental divorce vary across families with varying likelihoods, or propensities, of disruption. We hypothesize that family "disruption" is not uniformly disruptive. For some, such events require no more than a modicum of social-psychological and behavioral response. For others, such events are 3 unexpected shocks and necessitate considerable adjustment. The degree of disruption varies by the likelihood and corresponding expectation that such events will occur. Through examining heterogeneity in the effects of divorce by the observed likelihood that children experience a parental divorce, we shed new light on subpopulations for whom the causal effects of divorce may be considerable, modest, or even absent. Second, once we establish how total effects vary across families, we assess several key mediating effects, or mechanisms through which parental divorce affects children's educatio...

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“…The limitation common to all three aforementioned studies is the problem of confounding in the means comparison; that is, the problem of finding a credible comparison group. For example, girls from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to give birth as teenagers, regardless of experiencing parental divorce or adoption (Lundberg and Plotnick 1995;Duncan et al 1998;Kearney and Levine 2014).…”

Section: Importancementioning

confidence: 99%