Economic Instability, Food Insecurity, and Child Health in the Wake of the Great Recession

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
GSE Faculty Research
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Policy and Administration
Language and Literacy
child health
early childhood development
employment instability
food insecurity
income instability
Developmental Psychology
Early Childhood Education
Economic Policy
Education
Food Studies
Labor Economics
Maternal and Child Health
Social Policy
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Morrissey, Taryn
Contributor
Abstract

Although there is a wealth of research on the relationship between income level and employment status and child well-being, the relationship between economic instability and health during early childhood is understudied. We examine the associations between the incidence, accumulation, and timing of intrayear employment and income instability with household and child food insecurity and child health using a nationally representative sample of households. The sample includes children age 3–5 from households in the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation (N = 5,056). We find that young children’s households experience high levels of both income and employment instability. Both the incidence and the accumulation of instability predict poorer child outcomes, more recent instability is more strongly associated with child outcomes, and these relations are stronger for children with less educated parents. Employment and income changes have separate, unique associations with each outcome and operate in somewhat different ways.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2017-09-01
Journal title
Social Service Review
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection