Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016:37:16-25.
doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.02.004.

The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children's academic achievement

Patricia T Garrett-Peters  1 , Irina Mokrova  1 , Lynne Vernon-Feagans  1 , Michael Willoughby  2 , Yi Pan  1 ; Family Life Project Key Investigators
Affiliations

The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children's academic achievement

Patricia T Garrett-Peters et al. Early Child Res Q. 2016.

Abstract

The following prospective longitudinal study used an epidemiological sample (N = 1,236) to consider the potential mediating role of early cumulative household chaos (6-58 months) on associations between early family income poverty (6 months) and children's academic achievement in kindergarten. Two dimensions of household chaos, disorganization and instability, were examined as mediators. Results revealed that, in the presence of household disorganization (but not instability) and relevant covariates, income poverty was no longer directly related to academic achievement. Income poverty was, however, positively related to household disorganization, which was, in turn, associated with lower academic achievement. Study results are consistent with previous research indicating that household chaos conveys some of the adverse longitudinal effects of income poverty on children's outcomes and extend previous findings specifically to academic achievement in early childhood.

Keywords: Academic achievement; Chaos; Disorganization; Early childhood; Instability; Poverty.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Measurement model, standardized estimates.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Tested structural model with control variables.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Results of the structural model with control variables.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ackerman BP, Kogos J, Youngstrom E, Schoff K, Izard C. Family instability and the problem behaviors of children from economically disadvantaged families. Developmental Psychology. 1999;35:258–268. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0012-1649.35.1.258. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bayley N. Manual for the Bayley scales of infant development-II. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation; 1993.
    1. Berry D, Blair C, Ursache A, Willoughby M, Garrett-Peters P, Vernon-Feagans L, et al. Child care and cortisol across early childhood: context matters. Developmental Psychology. 2013;50(2):514–525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033379. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bradley RH, Corwyn RF. Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual review of psychology. 2002;53(1):371–399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135233. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bradley RH, Corwyn RF, Burchinal M, McAdoo HP, Garcia Coll C. The home environments of children in the United States, part II: relations with behavioural development through age thirteen. Child Development. 2001;72:1868–1886. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.t01-1-00383. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources