How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?

Year

Existing research has investigated the effect of early childhood educational interventions on the child's later-life outcomes. These studies have found limited impact of supplementary programs on children's cognitive skills, but sustained effects on personality traits. We examine how a positive change in unearned household income affects children's emotional and behavioral health and personality traits. Our results indicate that there are large beneficial effects of improved household financial wellbeing on children's emotional and behavioral health and positive personality trait development. Moreover, we find that these effects are most pronounced for children who are lagging behind their peers in these measures before the intervention. Increasing household incomes reduce differences across adolescents with different levels of initial emotional-behavioral symptoms and personality traits. We also examine potential channels through which the increased household income may contribute to these positive changes. Parenting and relationships within the family appear to be an important mechanism. We also find evidence that a sub-sample of the population moves to census tracts with better income levels and educational attainment.

Resource Type
Citation

Akee, Randall, Emilia Simeonova, E. Jane Costello, & William Copeland. "How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?" National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series. September 2015. Paper. (http://www.nber.org/papers/w21562.pdf, accessed July 18, 2023)

Related Resources

Image
How does measuring poverty and welfare affect American Indian children?

For one group of children in particular, American Indians and Alaska Natives, exceedingly high poverty rates have had profound impacts on community wellbeing and long-term cohesiveness. Given the best available data, from the U.S. Census data, child poverty rates among American Indians and Alaska…

Image
Protecting Our Children: A Review of 100+ Tribal Welfare Codes

NNI researchers Mary Beth Jäger (Citizen Potawatomi), Rachel Starks (Zuni/Navajo), and National Indian Child Welfare Association governmental affairs staff attorney, Adrian Smith shared the results of an ongoing study on culture, removal, termination of parental rights, and adoption in tribal child…

Thumbnail

This seven-minute video presents the founding, development, and current work of the Hopi Education Endowment Fund (HEEF), which won an Honoring Nations award (High Honors) from the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development in 2006. The video chronicles HEEF's work in support of…