Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2005

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Social Work

Major Professor

John S. Wodarski

Committee Members

William R. Nugent, Rodney Ellis, Schyler Huck

Abstract

The study examined the effects of poverty on young children’s social and emotional development through the effects poverty has on parenting. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) was the chosen data set. Total of 148 children and their parents (primarily mothers) took part in the study, at two survey time points 1998 and 2000. The study was a reanalysis of survey data and not an original survey data collection. There were two types of regression analyses performed ("snap-shot" and motion-picture"). First each of the four crafted hypotheses was tested within one time frame, and then year 1998 was used as a baseline to predict change in 2000 outcome. Some effects of poverty on child’s social and emotional development were found when hypotheses were tested for each year separately. These effects are present even after controlling for a range of individual and family characteristics that affect child development, including those that are likely to be correlated with parenting. However the significance of that effect in most cases went away when 1998 year was used as a baseline to predict change in score for 2000. This study drew a much clearer picture on drawing conclusions based on results from "snap-shot" analyses as compared to "motion-picture" analyses.

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