IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0197961.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of socioeconomic status on behavioral problems from preschool to early elementary school – A Japanese longitudinal study

Author

Listed:
  • Rikuya Hosokawa
  • Toshiki Katsura

Abstract

Purpose: Social inequalities are widely accepted to have a deleterious effect on children’s mental health, and those with lower socioeconomic status generally experience more mental health issues. In this study, we examine the impact of socioeconomic situations of children’s families during their early childhood on the children’s social adaptation in Japanese elementary school. Methods: The current investigation consisted of two sets of data relating to two separate years (with a one-year interval). The participants included preschoolers aged five years at Time 1 (the first year) and first graders aged six years at Time 2 (the second year); 1,712 met the inclusion criteria for both years. Parents of the participants completed a self-reported questionnaire regarding their SES (i.e., family economy and mother’s education) and their children’s mental health. Mental health was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18, Parent Report. Results: For each SES indicator, we found an inverse relationship across all the symptom dimensions. Specifically, bivariate analyses revealed that lower family income, maternal education level, and paternal education level predict all three domains of behavioral problems (i.e., internalized problems, externalized problems, and total behavioral problems). Further, multivariate analyses revealed that lower family income consistently predicts all domains of behavioral problems, lower maternal education level predicted externalized problems and total behavioral problems, and paternal education level did not predict any clinically significant behavioral problems. Conclusion: In this sample, we found that, for children, family income and parental education when entering preschool were significant predictors of mental health problems after elementary school enrollment; in particular, low income and low maternal educational achievement predicted a high probability of the development of a psychiatric disorder. A greater understanding of the mechanisms of these associations could contribute to improvements in interventions aimed at preventing child maladjustment.

Suggested Citation

  • Rikuya Hosokawa & Toshiki Katsura, 2018. "Effect of socioeconomic status on behavioral problems from preschool to early elementary school – A Japanese longitudinal study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0197961
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197961
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0197961
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0197961&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0197961?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile, 2003. "Socioeconomic Status and Child Health: Why Is the Relationship Stronger for Older Children?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1813-1823, December.
    2. Mendelson, Tamar & Kubzansky, Laura D. & Datta, Geetanjali D. & Buka, Stephen L., 2008. "Relation of female gender and low socioeconomic status to internalizing symptoms among adolescents: A case of double jeopardy?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1284-1296, March.
    3. Currie, Janet & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Does Head Start Make a Difference?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 341-364, June.
    4. Najman, J.M. & Hayatbakhsh, M.R. & Clavarino, A. & Bor, W. & O'Callaghan, M.J. & Williams, G.M., 2010. "Family poverty over the early life course and recurrent adolescent and young adult anxiety and depression: A longitudinal study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(9), pages 1719-1723.
    5. Melissa S. Kearney & Phillip B. Levine, 2016. "Income Inequality, Social Mobility, and the Decision to Drop Out of High School," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 47(1 (Spring), pages 333-396.
    6. Christine Eibner & William N. Evans, 2005. "Relative Deprivation, Poor Health Habits, and Mortality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    7. Korenman, Sanders & Miller, Jane E. & Sjaastad, John E., 1995. "Long-term poverty and child development in the United States: Results from the NLSY," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 127-155.
    8. Reagan, Patricia B. & Salsberry, Pamela J. & Olsen, Randall J., 2007. "Does the measure of economic disadvantage matter? Exploring the effect of individual and relative deprivation on intrauterine growth restriction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 2016-2029, May.
    9. Elgar, Frank J. & De Clercq, Bart & Schnohr, Christina W. & Bird, Phillippa & Pickett, Kate E. & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Hofmann, Felix & Currie, Candace, 2013. "Absolute and relative family affluence and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 25-31.
    10. Rahkonen, Ossi & Lahelma, Eero & Huuhka, Minna, 1997. "Past or present? Childhood living conditions and current socioeconomic status as determinants of adult health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 327-336, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rikuya Hosokawa & Toshiki Katsura, 2018. "Role of Parenting Style in Children’s Behavioral Problems through the Transition from Preschool to Elementary School According to Gender in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Rosa S. Wong & Keith T. S. Tung & Nirmala Rao & Frederick K. W. Ho & Ko Ling Chan & King-Wa Fu & Winnie W. Y. Tso & Fan Jiang & Jason C. S. Yam & David Coghill & Ian C. K. Wong & Patrick Ip, 2021. "A Longitudinal Study of the Relation between Childhood Activities and Psychosocial Adjustment in Early Adolescence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Rafaquat Ali & Furrukh Bashir & Rashid Ahmad, 2021. "Imprints of Lower Socioeconomic Class in English Speaking Anxieties and Academic Performance of Rural and Urban Students," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 3(3), pages 412-425, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sun, Yu & You, Wen, 2016. "Relative-deprivation effects on child health in China," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235926, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Lhila, Aparna & Simon, Kosali I., 2010. "Relative deprivation and child health in the USA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 777-785, August.
    3. Reiss, Franziska, 2013. "Socioeconomic inequalities and mental health problems in children and adolescents: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 24-31.
    4. Siflinger, Bettina & van den Berg, Gerard, 2016. "The Effects of a Universal Child Care Reform on Child Health – Evidence from Sweden," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145765, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Janet Currie & Duncan Thomas, 1995. "Race, Children's Cognitive Achievement and The Bell Curve," NBER Working Papers 5240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. Blau, David & Currie, Janet, 2006. "Pre-School, Day Care, and After-School Care: Who's Minding the Kids?," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 20, pages 1163-1278, Elsevier.
    8. Jane G. Fortson & Lisa Sanbonmatsu, 2010. "Child Health and Neighborhood Conditions: Results from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(4), pages 840-864.
    9. Pham-Kanter, Genevieve, 2009. "Social comparisons and health: Can having richer friends and neighbors make you sick?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 335-344, August.
    10. Janet Currie & Duncan Thomas, 2000. "School Quality and the Longer-Term Effects of Head Start," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(4), pages 755-774.
    11. Currie, Janet & Stabile, Mark, 2006. "Child mental health and human capital accumulation: The case of ADHD," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1094-1118, November.
    12. Jonas Helgertz & Wolfgang Hess & Kirk Scott, 2013. "Relative Deprivation and Sickness Absence in Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-24, August.
    13. David M. Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Tom Vogl, 2008. "Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms," NBER Working Papers 14333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Adjaye-Gbewonyo, Kafui & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2012. "Use of the Yitzhaki Index as a test of relative deprivation for health outcomes: A review of recent literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 129-137.
    15. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    16. Chris M. Herbst & Erdal Tekin, 2010. "The Impact of Child Care Subsidies on Child Well-Being: Evidence from Geographic Variation in the Distance to Social Service Agencies," NBER Working Papers 16250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Wankyo Chung & Beomsoo Kim, 2012. "Money Transfer and Birth Weight: A Causal Link from Alaska," Discussion Paper Series 1202, Institute of Economic Research, Korea University.
    18. Alice Chen & Emily Oster & Heidi Williams, 2016. "Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States Than in Europe?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 89-124, May.
    19. Jaesang Sung & Qihua Qiu & Will Davis & Rusty Tchernis, 2022. "Design and Application of an Area-Level Suicide Risk Index with Spatial Correlation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 77-104, May.
    20. Hounkpatin, Hilda Osafo & Wood, Alex M. & Dunn, Graham, 2016. "Does income relate to health due to psychosocial or material factors? Consistent support for the psychosocial hypothesis requires operationalization with income rank not the Yitzhaki Index," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 76-84.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0197961. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.