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Understanding the relationship between family income and conduct problems: findings from the mental health of children and young people survey

Understanding the relationship between family income and conduct problems: findings from the mental health of children and young people survey
Understanding the relationship between family income and conduct problems: findings from the mental health of children and young people survey
Background
Children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds exhibit more behavioural difficulties than those from more affluent families. Influential theoretical models specify family stress and child characteristics as mediating this effect. These accounts, however, have often been based on cross-sectional data or longitudinal analyses that do not capture all potential pathways, and therefore may not provide good policy guidance.

Methods
In a UK representative sample of 2399 children aged 5–15, we tested mediation of the effect of household income on parent and teacher reports of conduct problems (CP) via unhealthy family functioning, poor parental mental health, stressful life events, child physical health and reading ability. We applied cross-lagged longitudinal mediation models which allowed for testing of reciprocal effects whereby the hypothesised mediators were modelled as outcomes as well as predictors of CP.

Results
We found the predicted significant longitudinal effect of income on CP, but no evidence that it was mediated by the child and family factors included in the study. Instead, we found significant indirect paths from income to parental mental health, child physical health and stressful life events that were transmitted via child CP.

Conclusion
The results confirm that income is associated with change in CP but do not support models that suggest this effect is transmitted via unhealthy family functioning, parental mental health, child physical health, stressful life events or reading difficulties. Instead, the results highlight that child CP may be a mediator of social inequalities in family psychosocial functioning.

conduct problems, family functioning, income, socio-economic status
0033-2917
1-8
Piotrowska, Patrycja
01c0d151-53d6-4399-ae19-285aeaeec0ea
Stride, Chris
138626e0-e19b-42f9-b4aa-8a8ac07b5690
Maughan, Barbara
f5bf3f12-6f06-4548-aa7b-2fed616e5b23
Ford, Tamsin
165cccd7-c8dc-41e5-8a6a-9fc954dfca14
McIntyre, Nora
c9a9ecfb-10a7-4f59-b1f5-652f9db2f28f
Rowe, Richard
17515899-652c-4237-b005-4a4629170523
Piotrowska, Patrycja
01c0d151-53d6-4399-ae19-285aeaeec0ea
Stride, Chris
138626e0-e19b-42f9-b4aa-8a8ac07b5690
Maughan, Barbara
f5bf3f12-6f06-4548-aa7b-2fed616e5b23
Ford, Tamsin
165cccd7-c8dc-41e5-8a6a-9fc954dfca14
McIntyre, Nora
c9a9ecfb-10a7-4f59-b1f5-652f9db2f28f
Rowe, Richard
17515899-652c-4237-b005-4a4629170523

Piotrowska, Patrycja, Stride, Chris, Maughan, Barbara, Ford, Tamsin, McIntyre, Nora and Rowe, Richard (2022) Understanding the relationship between family income and conduct problems: findings from the mental health of children and young people survey. Psychological Medicine, 1-8. (doi:10.1017/S0033291722000654).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background
Children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds exhibit more behavioural difficulties than those from more affluent families. Influential theoretical models specify family stress and child characteristics as mediating this effect. These accounts, however, have often been based on cross-sectional data or longitudinal analyses that do not capture all potential pathways, and therefore may not provide good policy guidance.

Methods
In a UK representative sample of 2399 children aged 5–15, we tested mediation of the effect of household income on parent and teacher reports of conduct problems (CP) via unhealthy family functioning, poor parental mental health, stressful life events, child physical health and reading ability. We applied cross-lagged longitudinal mediation models which allowed for testing of reciprocal effects whereby the hypothesised mediators were modelled as outcomes as well as predictors of CP.

Results
We found the predicted significant longitudinal effect of income on CP, but no evidence that it was mediated by the child and family factors included in the study. Instead, we found significant indirect paths from income to parental mental health, child physical health and stressful life events that were transmitted via child CP.

Conclusion
The results confirm that income is associated with change in CP but do not support models that suggest this effect is transmitted via unhealthy family functioning, parental mental health, child physical health, stressful life events or reading difficulties. Instead, the results highlight that child CP may be a mediator of social inequalities in family psychosocial functioning.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 18 February 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 March 2022
Published date: 21 March 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: The project has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation (KID/42423), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation. Visit www.nuffieldfoundation.org Publisher Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. Copyright: Copyright 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords: conduct problems, family functioning, income, socio-economic status

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 456871
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456871
ISSN: 0033-2917
PURE UUID: a7216b1c-b559-40ce-8f4e-191d9ad6692b
ORCID for Nora McIntyre: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4626-3298

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 May 2022 16:41
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:07

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Contributors

Author: Patrycja Piotrowska
Author: Chris Stride
Author: Barbara Maughan
Author: Tamsin Ford
Author: Nora McIntyre ORCID iD
Author: Richard Rowe

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