Family income, parenting styles and child behavioural–emotional outcomes

AbstractA positive relationship between income and child outcomes has been observed in data from numerous countries. A key question concerns the extent to which this association represents a causal relationship as opposed to unobserved heterogeneity. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to implement a series of empirical strategies for estimating the existence and size of the effect of income on behavioural–emotional outcomes. We also examine the role of parenting style. Our results indicate that there is little evidence of an effect of income on behavioural–emotional scores. The exclusion of parenting style from the models was found to not bias the estimated income effect, but parenting style was found to have a consistent impact on child outcomes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Family income, parenting styles and child behavioural–emotional outcomes Journal Articles