understand the relative contribution of longitudinal survey evidence to examine the link factors, such as increased stress, more between income and child development outcomes, screen use, and other variables that explain with added analysis of the roles maternal stress the association between income and child and children’s screen use play in the relationship behaviour; and between income and chil. [...] The first section of the analysis sets the Wellbeing and Poverty Unit at the Department of scene for a later, more detailed analysis of the the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Te Puni Kōkiri and relationship between household income and child Save the Children New Zealand. [...] While partners were interviewed in the first three waves 2.2 Analytical approach of the study, the sample for this report is restricted to mother-reported data.7 It was decided that the Overall approach The analytical approach was guided by the benefit of including partners was likely to be research questions and the constraints of the data. [...] Appendix 2 for a full list of the survey questions by Due to the small differences in the questions subscale).14 Prosocial behaviour provides the between the early years and the regular SDQ, the strengths score. [...] The What other factors influence the relationship relationship is statistically significant both with and between household income and stress? without the inclusion of control variables, although The findings in the previous section have provided the addition of the control variables reduces the evidence of the association between household effect size and level of statistical significance.
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Table of Contents
- Authors 2
- Acknowledgements 2
- Disclaimer 2
- Motu Economic and Public Policy Research 2
- Research aims 3
- Data and sample 3
- Lower incomes are associated with more reports of behaviour problems in children 4
- The strength of the association between low income and greater behaviour problems—and explanations for how income matters—changes across the early-to-middle childhood life course 4
- Maternal stress and children’s screen use play a role in explaining the association between lower incomes and children’s behaviour problems 4
- These development trajectories differ by child gender 4
- The first 1,000 days are important 5
- Increasing incomes are important for supporting children’s development—but other types of resources also are salient 5
- Importance of intergenerational approaches to supporting children 5
- Large amounts of screen time during early childhood are associated with poorer child outcomes, but the utility of parents moderating children’s screens when they are older, or in small doses is unclear 6
- Income as a source and compounding effect on ethnic inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand 6
- 1 Introduction 10
- 1.1 Literature review 11
- Income and child behaviour 11
- Maternal stress 12
- Children’s screen use 12
- 1.2 Conceptual relationships and report structure 14
- 1.3 Engagement with policy collaborators 14
- 2. Methodology 15
- 2.1 Data and sample 15
- 2.2 Analytical approach 15
- Overall approach 15
- Missing data 17
- Variables 18
- 3. Results 22
- 3.1 Household income and children’s behaviour – associations and changes over time 22
- Child behaviour changes over time 22
- Household income changes over time 26
- How children’s behaviour scores vary by income group (2 – 8 years of age) 28
- 3.2 The role of maternal stress in the first 1,000 days 31
- Income and maternal stress in the first 1,000 days 31
- Distribution of stress scores over each wave and by household income group 31
- OLS regression results 32
- What other factors influence the relationship between household income and stress? 33
- Maternal stress fixed effects results 36
- Mothers’ stress and children’s behaviour at two years of age 39
- Stress and children’s behaviour at two years – OLS regression results 40
- 3.3 Household income and children’s behaviour from 2 - 8 years 42
- Household income and child difficulties (2-8 years) 42
- Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) results 42
- What other factors influence the relationship between household income and child difficulties? 45
- Child difficulties fixed effects results 47
- Internalising and externalising problems fixed effects results 50
- Household income and child strengths 52
- (2-8 years) 52
- Screen use and children's behaviour (2-8 years) 54
- OLS regression results 55
- Fixed effects results 55
- 4. Discussion and policy implications 57
- 4.1 Discussion – key findings 57
- The strength of the association between low income and greater behaviour problems—and explanations for how income matters—changed across the early-to-middle childhood life course 58
- Maternal stress and children’s screen use played a role in explaining the association between lower incomes and children’s behaviour problems 59
- These development trajectories differed by child gender 60
- 4.2 Policy implications and study limitations 60
- The first 1,000 days are important 60
- Increasing incomes are important for supporting children’s development—but other types of resources are also important 61
- Importance of intergenerational approaches to supporting children 61
- Large amounts of screen time during early childhood are associated with poorer child outcomes, but the utility of parents moderating children’s screens when they are older, or in small doses is unclear 62
- Income as a source and compounding effect on ethnic inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand 63
- Limitations 63
- Appendices 65
- Appendix 1 – Summary statistics 65
- Appendix 2 – Strengths and difficulties questionnaire questions 70
- Appendix 3 – Variable description 71
- Appendix 4 – Full OLS results for Equation (2) estimating maternal stress 74
- Appendix 5 – Full Gelbach decomposition results showing how the addition of covariates affects the relationship between income and stress 76
- Appendix 6 – Full OLS results for equations (7) and (8) 77
- Appendix 7 – Full OLS results for equations (9) and (10) at 2 years, 4.5 years and 8 years 79
- Appendix 8 – Full Gelbach decomposition results showing how the addition of covariates affects the relationship between income and child difficulties 82
- Appendix 9 – Full fixed effects results for equations (13)-(15) estimating child difficulties 84
- Appendix 10 – Full fixed effect results for equations (16)-(19) estimating internalising and externalising problems 86
- Appendix 11 – Full OLS results for Equation (18) estimating child strengths at 2, 4.5 and 8 years 88
- Appendix 12 – Unrestricted versus restricted fixed effects results 91
- Estimating maternal stress (Pregnancy – 2 years) 91
- Unbalanced vs balanced results estimating child difficulties (2-8 years) 92
- Appendix 13 – Comparing OLS estimates for child difficulties using complete case analysis and multiple imputation 93
- References 94
