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Socio-economic status and family structure differences in early trajectories of child adjustment: Individual and neighbourhood effects

Flouri, E; Midouhas, E; Ruddy, A; (2016) Socio-economic status and family structure differences in early trajectories of child adjustment: Individual and neighbourhood effects. Health Place , 37 pp. 8-15. 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.11.005. Green open access

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Abstract

We examined the effects of single-parent family status and high parental socio-economic status (SES) on the trajectories of children's emotional/behavioural adjustment in early-to-middle childhood (ages 3-7 years). We also assessed whether these family characteristics interact with the equivalent neighbourhood characteristics of shares of single-parent families and high-SES adults in predicting these trajectories. Using data on 9850 children in England participating in the Millennium Cohort Study, we found that family status and parental SES predicted children's trajectories of adjustment. Even after controlling for these family factors and key child and parent characteristics, the neighbourhood shares of high-SES adults and single-parent families were related (negatively and positively, respectively) to child problem behaviour. Importantly, children of low-SES parents in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of high-SES adults had fewer emotional symptoms than their counterparts in areas with fewer high-SES adults. Surprisingly, the adverse effect of single-parent family status on child hyperactivity was attenuated in areas with a higher share of single-parent families.

Type: Article
Title: Socio-economic status and family structure differences in early trajectories of child adjustment: Individual and neighbourhood effects
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.11.005
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.11.00...
Language: English
Additional information: © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Child behaviour, Millennium Cohort Study, Neighbourhood composition, Neighbourhood effects, Single parenthood, Socio–economic status
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1476629
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