Explaining income disparities in young children’s development: The role of community contexts and family processes✰

Abstract

Growing economic disparities and the increased sorting of families into economically segregated communities have heightened the need to clearly delineate pathways through which family income promotes children’s development. Combining hypotheses from investment and stress theories, we developed and tested a multi-context and cross-domain conceptual model assessing how community and family contexts mediate links between family income and children’s cognitive and behavioral skills at kindergarten entry. We drew data on family income, parenting processes, and child functioning from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study– Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; N ≈ 10,650), following children from infancy through age 5. We used Geographic Information Systems technology to create and validate community measures using administrative data from the Economic Census, Decennial Census, National Center of Education Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigations, and Environmental Protection Agency, which were then linked to each child in the ECLS-B. Using structural equation modeling, our analyses revealed three primary lessons. First, lower-income children have limited access to community educational and cultural resources and heightened exposure to community stressors including concentrated disadvantage and violent crime. Second, these community characteristics are associated with lower cognitive stimulation and emotional support and with higher harsh discipline from parents. And third, community and family contexts together mediate connections between family income and children’s cognitive and behavioral functioning. Results, albeit showing small effect sizes, provide a more complex, multi-contextual view than prior research, delineating the role of both resources and stressors at community and family levels in explaining income disparities in young children’s developmental success.