Income Inequality and Child Maltreatment in the United States

Eckenrode, John; Smith, Elliott; McCarthy, M.; Dineen, Michael

doi:10.1542/peds.2013-1707

Cited by 208 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…An analysis of adolescent health in 34 mostly high-income countries found that national income inequality related to higher body mass indices, less physical activity, and more self-rated mental and physical health symptoms (Elgar et al, 2015). Other research on children and youth found that national or regional income inequality relates to poor self-rated health (Rözer & Volker, 2016) (Eckenrode, Smith, McCarthy, & Dineen, 2014). Pickett and Wilkinson (2007; reported that international differences in UNICEF indices of child well-being relate more closely to national income inequality than to country wealth.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, very little is currently known about how income inequality affects prenatal development, parent-child attachment, early temperament, and parenting styles in various cultural contexts. Some research in US has found that state-level income inequality correlates to preterm births, low birth weight, and infant mortality (Olson, Diekema, Elliot, & Renier, 2010) and to rates of child maltreatment (Eckenrode et al, 2014). Still, international replication and extension of these studies are needed to determine the total impact of income inequality on infant and child development and to devise early interventions that might mitigate these influences in early life.…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being

Elgar

Gariépy

Torsheim

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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A prevailing hypothesis about the association between income inequality and poor health is that inequality intensifies social hierarchies, increases stress, erodes social and material resources that support health, and subsequently harms health. However, the evidence in support of this hypothesis is limited by cross-sectional, ecological studies and a scarcity of developmental studies. To address this limitation, we used pooled, multilevel data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study to examine lagged, cumulative, and trajectory associations between early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being. Psychosomatic symptoms and life satisfaction were assessed in surveys of 11-to 15-year-olds in 40 countries between 1994 and 2014. We linked these data to national Gini indices of income inequality for every life year from 1979 to 2014. The results showed that exposure to income inequality from 0 to 4 years uniquely predicted psychosomatic symptoms and lower life satisfaction after controlling lifetime mean income inequality, national per capita income, family affluence, age, and cohort and period effects.Income inequality from 5 to 9 years also related to symptoms and low life satisfaction in females.The cumulative income inequality exposure in infancy and childhood (i.e., average Gini index from birth to age 10) related to more symptoms and lower life satisfaction in adolescence. Finally, individual trajectories in early-life inequality (i.e., linear slopes in Gini indices from birth to 10 years) related to fewer symptoms and higher life satisfaction, indicating that earlier exposures mattered more to predicting adolescent health and wellbeing. These results help to establish the antecedent-consequence conditions in the association between income inequality and health and suggest that both the magnitude and timing of income inequality in early life have developmental consequences that manifest in reduced health and well-being in adolescence. M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT3 Keywords: Income inequality; adolescents; children; health; well-being; Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT4 Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being Socioeconomic contexts shape and constrain adolescent health and well-being (Chen & Paterson, 2006). Recent evidence suggests that socioeconomic differences in adolescent health have widened due to rising income inequality (Elgar et al., 2015; Viner et al., 2012). Income inequality also correlates with poor health and social outcomes (Kondo et al., 2009; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010). An analysis of adolescent health in 34 mostly high-income countries found that national income inequality related to higher body mass indices, less physical activity, and more self-rated mental and physical health symptoms (Elgar et al., 2015). Other research on children and youth found that national or regional income inequality relates to poor self-rated health (Rözer ...

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Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being

Elgar

Gariépy

Torsheim

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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“…ACEs were surprisingly common in the original CDC sample, but are even more pervasive in poor, minority, marginalized, and oppressed populations commonly served by social workers (Eckenrode, Smith, McCarthy, & Dineen, 2014;Larkin, Felitti, & Anda, 2014). Pathogenic parenting and deprivational environments hinder family functioning and reinforce maladaptive coping styles, and household dysfunction is often exacerbated by the stress of impoverished socioeconomic conditions (Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1990).…”

Section: The Frequency and Correlates Of Aces In Criminal Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

You Learn What You Live: Prevalence of Childhood Adversity in the Lives of Juveniles Arrested for Sexual Offenses

Levenson

Baglivio²,

Epps³

et al. 2017

ASW

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“…Recent survey data confirm that both poverty and income inequality are positively associated with the rates of protective service referrals for child maltreatment. 88 Within families, poverty is associated with intimate partner violence, maternal depression, single-parent families, and parental substance abuse, all of which are risk factors for child maltreatment. 89 102 For example, poverty is a risk factor for lead exposure in the home, and poor black children are twice as likely as poor Hispanic and white children to have concentrations of lead in their blood of at least 2.5 μg/dL (33% vs 17% and 13%, respectively).…”

Section: Unintentional Injuries and Child Maltreatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediators and Adverse Effects of Child Poverty in the United States

Pascoe¹,

Wood²,

Duffee³

et al. 2016

Pediatrics

134

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The link between poverty and children's health is well recognized. Even temporary poverty may have an adverse effect on children's health, and data consistently support the observation that poverty in childhood continues to have a negative effect on health into adulthood. In addition to childhood morbidity being related to child poverty, epidemiologic studies have documented a mortality gradient for children aged 1 to 15 years (and adults), with poor children experiencing a higher mortality rate than children from higher-income families. The global great recession is only now very slowly abating for millions of America's children and their families. At this diffi cult time in the history of our nation's families and immediately after the 50th anniversary year of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, it is particularly germane for the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is "dedicated to the health of all children, " to publish a research-supported technical report that examines the mediators associated with the longrecognized adverse effects of child poverty on children and their families. This technical report draws on research from a number of disciplines, including physiology, sociology, psychology, economics, and epidemiology, to describe the present state of knowledge regarding poverty's negative impact on children's health and development. Children inherit not only their parents' genes but also the family ecology and its social milieu. Thus, parenting skills, housing, neighborhood, schools, and other factors (eg, medical care) all have complex relations to each other and infl uence how each child's genetic canvas is expressed. Accompanying this technical report is a policy statement that describes specifi c actions that pediatricians and other child advocates can take to attenuate the negative effects of the mediators identifi ed in this technical report and improve the well-being of our nation's children and their families.There is no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children. Although medical care and access to medical care are important factors in the health of children as well as adults, a broader perspective of the social determinants of health throughout the life cycle is critically important if significant gains are to be realized in our efforts to improve the health of this nation's children. -Nelson Mandela TECHNICAL REPORTResearch that examines mediators of health as well as the effects of poverty and other circumstances in which people grow, live, work, and age in childhood and throughout the life course is accumulating rapidly, and findings are providing critical insights that can inform these efforts. 4 The environment in which a child develops is influenced by parents' health, the immediate and extended family, housing, and community. All these factors are related to a family's social, economic, and health status. 5 These multiple factors in both the social and the physical domains have dynamic influences that link them to the long-t...

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Income Inequality and Child Maltreatment in the United States

Cited by 208 publications

References 37 publications

Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being

Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being

You Learn What You Live: Prevalence of Childhood Adversity in the Lives of Juveniles Arrested for Sexual Offenses

Mediators and Adverse Effects of Child Poverty in the United States

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