The impacts of poverty on children’s social, emotional and behavioural outcomes
Published: 4 October 2024
Research insight
Using Growing Up in Scotland data, Prof Morag Treanor and Dr Patricio Troncoso explore how social factors can help reduce disparities in areas like poverty, health, housing, and discrimination for young people.
Their research examines the effects of poverty on children's social, emotional, and behavioural outcomes, as well as on maternal mental health. Using data from the Growing Up in Scotland study, which follows around 5,000 children, we analysed the interconnections between poverty, parental employment, and mental health. They found that unstable work and poverty significantly affect children's behaviour and mental health, while parental and child mental health are closely linked over time. Structural inequalities, particularly poverty, exacerbate these outcomes for both parents and children. Our findings underline the need for policies that take a holistic, family-wide approach to mental health.
Children are deeply influenced by their family's economic conditions and structural inequalities. Poverty negatively impacts both child and parental mental health, and the relationship between the two changes and intensifies over time. Their work aims to understand the factors affecting childhood development, particularly how poverty and poor mental health create lasting challenges. They emphasise the importance of social factors, such as access to essential services like education, in reducing these disparities.
In this research, they applied advanced statistical methods, including structural equations and longitudinal modelling, to explore the complex relationships between poverty, employment, and family wellbeing. These insights are drawn from data in the Growing Up in Scotland study and reveal that poverty has a far-reaching influence, not just on children's immediate wellbeing but also on long-term developmental outcomes. For example, it is not lone parenthood itself but the accompanying poverty and social isolation that affect children's wellbeing. Additionally, children living in poverty often face educational disadvantages, not due to their ability, but because of barriers inherent in the education system.
Their findings demonstrate that addressing child mental health also requires supporting parents' mental health. Tackling family poverty is essential to improving mental health outcomes for both parents and children. The research has had tangible impacts, including influencing Scotland's Child Poverty Act 2017, leading to policies that support low-income families, and inspiring changes in local authority practices and educational approaches across Scotland. It has also prompted shifts in professional practices, with new training and resources developed for education and health professionals to better support families in poverty and promote overall wellbeing.
Read the full impact case study UK Service Data webpage.
First published: 4 October 2024