Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2023 Jul;38(13-14):7893-7910. doi: 10.1177/08862605221150458. Epub 2023 Jan 30.
Children in poverty are at significantly greater risk of experiencing child maltreatment. Family economic security policies, such as minimum wage laws, offer a promising prevention strategy to support low-income families. This study utilized data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal birth cohort study, to examine the effect of changes in state-specific minimum wage laws on maternal self-reported child maltreatment and material hardship as it varies by developmental age of the child. A series of fixed effects models with an interaction between the minimum wage and the age of the focal child were used to estimate if there was variation by developmental period of the impact of minimum wage laws on the following outcome variables: all domains of child maltreatment, maternal work-related stress, reported material hardship, aggravation in parenting, and maternal depression. Results revealed significant effects of increased minimum wage on maternal self-reported child neglect and material hardship when children are 3 years of age, and this relationship became non-significant as children aged. No effect was observed by age for other forms of child maltreatment nor any other outcome variables. Study findings suggest minimum wage laws may have differential effects on child neglect depending on the developmental period in which they are received.
贫困儿童遭受虐待的风险显著更高。家庭经济安全政策，如最低工资法，为支持低收入家庭提供了一种有前途的预防策略。本研究利用脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究（一项纵向出生队列研究）的数据，考察了州特定最低工资法的变化对母亲自我报告的儿童虐待和物质困难的影响，这些影响因儿童的发育年龄而异。采用最小二乘法与儿童年龄之间的交互作用的一系列固定效应模型，来估计最低工资法对以下结果变量的影响在发育阶段是否存在差异：儿童虐待的所有领域、与工作相关的母亲压力、报告的物质困难、育儿恶化以及母亲抑郁。结果表明，当儿童 3 岁时，提高最低工资对母亲自我报告的儿童忽视和物质困难有显著影响，随着儿童年龄的增长，这种关系变得不显著。对于其他形式的儿童虐待或任何其他结果变量，年龄均没有影响。研究结果表明，最低工资法可能对儿童忽视产生不同的影响，具体取决于他们接受的发育阶段。
