Sociology and Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, 483 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309-0483, USA,
Demography. 2014 Aug;51(4):1199-224. doi: 10.1007/s13524-014-0301-1.
This study examines the puzzle of disparities experienced by U.S. teen parents' young children, whose health and development increasingly lag behind those of peers while their parents are simultaneously experiencing socioeconomic improvements. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001-2007; N ≈ 8,600), we assess four dynamic patterns in socioeconomic resources that might account for these growing developmental and health disparities throughout early childhood and then test them in multilevel growth curve models. Persistently low socioeconomic resources constituted the strongest explanation, given that consistently low income, maternal education, and assets fully or partially account for growth in cognitive, behavioral, and health disparities experienced by teen parents' children from infancy through kindergarten. That is, although teen parents gained socioeconomic resources over time, those resources remained relatively low, and the duration of exposure to limited resources explains observed growing disparities. Results suggest that policy interventions addressing the time dynamics of low socioeconomic resources in a household, in terms of both duration and developmental timing, are promising for reducing disparities experienced by teen parents' children.
本研究探讨了美国青少年父母的年幼子女所经历的差距之谜，尽管这些父母的社会经济状况在不断改善，但他们的孩子的健康和发展却越来越落后于同龄人。本研究使用具有全国代表性的早期儿童纵向研究-出生队列（2001-2007 年；N≈8600），评估了四种可能导致整个幼儿期不断扩大的发展和健康差距的社会经济资源的动态模式，然后在多层次增长曲线模型中对这些模式进行了检验。鉴于持续较低的收入、母亲的教育程度和资产完全或部分解释了青少年父母的孩子从婴儿期到幼儿园期间认知、行为和健康差距的增长，持续较低的社会经济资源构成了最强有力的解释。也就是说，尽管青少年父母随着时间的推移获得了社会经济资源，但这些资源仍然相对较低，并且接触有限资源的持续时间解释了观察到的差距不断扩大的现象。研究结果表明，针对家庭中社会经济资源的时间动态（包括持续时间和发展时间）的政策干预措施，有望减少青少年父母子女所经历的差距。
