UNPAID – UNcovering PArenting and Income Dynamics
Children have disparate life chances depending on the financial circumstances in which they grow up. Yet, whether household finances themselves are to blame, why, and what should be done about it is questioned in both the scholarly and public debate, whose focus often turns to parents and their behaviours towards children. When a “deficit model” of parenting emerges, for example, the confines between parenting and poverty are blurred under the label of “poor parents”, and calls ensue for policies targeting parenting and not poverty. Ample research, on the other hand, has shown that policies ameliorating household finances can improve child outcomes, but whether and how parenting is what ties together household finances and child well-being is not fully clear.
We particularly lack a dynamic account of household finances, parenting, and child outcomes. Household finances are more adequately captured not by snapshot measures, but dynamically, as families move in and out of poverty, in and out of benefit receipt, and experience income volatility. A dynamic account of parenting, in addition, is one that untangles how its different components, from time investments to stress and parenting styles, interact with each other to affect children – also in response to income volatility.
This project is thus one of the first to uncover the dynamics of income and parenting, and how child well-being is thereby affected. The aim is to provide novel scientific evidence that can inform how to design and target policies aimed at ensuring equitable parental and child well-being.
Outputs
Mari, G. (2023, August 7). Income Volatility and Parenting Styles during Hard Times. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/jq976
