Although adverse consequences of poverty for children are documented widely, little is understood about the mechanisms through which the effects of poverty disadvantage young children. In this analysis we investigate multiple mechanisms through which poverty affects a child's intellectual development. Using data from the NLSY and structural equation models, we have constructed five latent factors (cognitive stimulation, parenting style, physical environment, child's ill health at birth, and ill health in childhood) and have allowed these factors, along with child care, to mediate the effects of poverty and other exogenous variables. We produce two main findings. First, the influence of family poverty on children's intellectual development is mediated completely by the intervening mechanisms measured by our latent factors. Second, our analysis points to cognitive stimulation in the home, and (to a lesser extent) to parenting style, physical environment of the home, and poor child health at birth, as mediating factors that are affected by lack of income and that influence children's intellectual development.
Demography is the official journal of the Population Association of America. It is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed periodical that publishes articles of general interest to population scientists. Fields represented in its contents include geography, history, biology, statistics, business, epidemiology, and public health, in addition to social scientific disciplines such as sociology, economics, psychology, and political science. Published quarterly, it includes theoretical and methodological articles, commentaries, and specialized research papers covering both developed and developing nations.
Duke University Press publishes approximately one hundred books per year and thirty journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences, though it does also publish two journals of advanced mathematics and a few publications for primarily professional audiences (e.g., in law or medicine). The relative magnitude of the journals program within the Press is unique among American university presses. In recent years, it has developed its strongest reputation in the broad and interdisciplinary area of "theory and history of cultural production," and is known in general as a publisher willing to take chances with nontraditional and interdisciplinary publications, both books and journals.
This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions
Demography
© 2000 Population Association of America
Request Permissions
