Income, Family Context, and Self-Regulation in 5-Year-Old Children.
Mengying Li, Jenna L Riis, Sharon R Ghazarian and 1 others
PMID 28092295WHAT IT FOUND
Income was not linked to emotional regulation, but household instability was, especially in low-income families, and maternal depressive symptoms were linked to worse cognitive regulation.
Key findings
01Household instability was linked to worse emotional regulation, and income buffered this effect: each SD increase in instability was associated with 0.86 SD lower emotional regulation in the lowest income group, and the effect was not significant for families earning $35,000 or more.
02Income was linked to better cognitive regulation before adjustment, but not after family context and vocabulary were included.
03Maternal depressive symptoms were linked to worse cognitive regulation: every 10-point increase on the 0-60 depression scale was associated with 0.20 SD lower cognitive regulation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study measured associations in five-year-olds, so it cannot show that income, household instability, or maternal depression caused regulation differences. The sample came from two different recruitment sources, and children from the earlier fetal development study may have differed in ways not measured. Only 140 of 166 enrolled children were analyzed, and some family data were missing and imputed. The study did not test treatment, so it cannot tell therapists whether changing family context improves self-regulation. Children performed very well on some tasks, especially waiting and the Pig Game, which may have hidden differences at the high end. The sample was limited to English-speaking children without conditions affecting cognitive or motor development, or regulatory functioning, so results may not apply to children with disabilities or non-English-speaking families.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflicts-of-interest declaration. Publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read income gaps as proof that money itself changes self-regulation. The paper reports associations in five-year-olds, and after family context was included, income was no longer associated with either regulation score.