Connections Among Parental Mental Health, Stress, Child Routines, and Early Emotional Behavioral Regulation of Preschool Children in Low-Income Families

BackgroundIt is a public heath priority to understand why many children with mental health problems fail to access mental health services. This study aims to quantify under-recognition of children’s mental health problems by parents across income quintiles.MethodsWe estimated under-recognition with parent-reported mental health problems and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) using a nationally representative Australian data set for children aged 4–15 years with 24 269 person-wave observations.ResultsUnder-recognition was the highest in the lowest income quintile, with 11.5% of children from the lowest income quintile families who scored in the clinical range on the SDQ perceived by parents as having no mental health problems. For the highest income quintile this was 2.4%. In terms of gender and age, under-recognition was greater for boys and younger children.ConclusionsParent’s mental health literacy, especially for low-income families, warrants prioritised attention from researchers, clinicians and policymakers.

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Material hardship and mental health among low-income families during COVID-19: experimental evidence from an unconditional cash transfer

AEA Randomized Controlled Trials ◽

10.1257/rct.6398-1.0 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Brian Jacob

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Experimental Evidence ◽

Low Income ◽

Cash Transfer ◽

Material Hardship ◽

Low Income Families ◽

Unconditional Cash Transfer

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Attachment stability and emotional and behavioral regulation from infancy to preschool age

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s095457940100102x ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 13-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 83

Author(s):

JOAN I. VONDRA ◽

DANIEL S. SHAW ◽

LAURE SWEARINGEN ◽

MEREDITH COHEN ◽

ELIZABETH B. OWENS

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Classification System ◽

Developmental Psychopathology ◽

Classification Systems ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Internalizing Behavior ◽

Behavioral Regulation ◽

Strange Situation ◽

Maternal Report ◽

Low Income Families

Relations between attachment and child emotional and behavioral regulation were studied longitudinally in a sample of 223 children from urban, low-income families. Attachment in the Strange Situation at 12 and 18 months was scored using the infant classification system and at 24 months was scored using a preschool classification system. Only modest stability was found in attachment whether within or across classification systems, with the percentage of insecure attachments consistently increasing over time. Results indicated both concurrent and predictive associations with indices of child regulation based on observer ratings or maternal report. However, only the 24-month classification predicted maternal report of externalizing and internalizing behavior problems at age 3.5 years, with additional variance accounted for by selected measures of child emotional and behavior regulation from the same assessment. Attachment security (B) and atypical attachment classifications (D, A/C, and AD) appear to provide the most consistently useful information about child functioning. Results are discussed in terms of continuity and change from the perspective of developmental psychopathology.

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