Continuity and change in early material hardship domains on the development of children’s behavioral self-regulation in middle childhood

Child poverty adversely impacts children’s behavioral self-regulation; however, the extent to which this association varies across different forms of material hardship (i.e., food, housing, bill-paying, utility, and medical) from infancy to early childhood is not well understood. The current study aims to identify the longitudinal patterns of early material hardship in five domains, examine demographic factors to distinguish class membership, and assess how hardship class membership predicts children’s behavioral self-regulation in middle childhood. We used data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,677) across ages 1 to 9. The Multidimensional Growth Mixture Model identified four trajectory classes: Low Stable (n = 2,215, 47.4%), Increasing Bill and Utility Hardship (n = 1,180, 25.2%), High Infancy Bill Hardship (n = 799, 17.1%), and Persistent and Pervasive (n = 483, 10.3%). White, married mothers, mothers who were employed, families with income above 200% of the federal poverty threshold, and those who did not receive SNAP had higher odds of being in the Low Stable class than the three other classes. Children in the Persistent and Pervasive class exhibited the lowest levels of behavioral self-regulation in middle childhood compared to the other three classes. Children in the Increasing Bill and Utility Hardship and High Infancy Bill Hardship classes had lower behavioral self-regulation than those in the Low Stable class. These findings underscore the need for tailored interventions to alleviate the prolonged effects of financial adversity and exposure to early material deprivation experienced by children. Findings also highlight the importance of implementing intervention programs designed specifically to support the development of behavioral self-regulation among economically disadvantaged children.