ArticleMaternal and child health journal2015
Linking Family Economic Hardship to Early Childhood Health: An Investigation of Mediating Pathways.
Article in Maternal and child health journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pathways to child mental health: A structural equation model of economic deprivation, parenting, and internalizing problems.SSM. Mental health · 2025Article
- Financial Strain and Child Health: Measures and Evidence From a Systematic Literature Review.AJPM focus · 2025Review
- Socioeconomic gradient in the developmental health of Canadian children with disabilities at school entry: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2020Article
- A diaper bank and home visiting partnership: Initial exploration of research and policy questions.Public health nursing (Boston, Mass.) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe underlying mechanisms through which family economic adversity influences child health are less understood. Taking a process-oriented approach, this study examined maternal mental health and investment in children, child health insurance, and child healthcare as mediators linking family economic hardship (FEH) to child health.
methodsA structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypothesized mediating model.
resultsAfter adjustment for sociodemographic risk factors, results revealed: (1) a significant direct path linking FEH to poor child health (effect size = .372), and (2) six significant mediating pathways (total effect size = .089). In two mediating pathways, exposures to FEH undermined mothers' mental health: in the first pathway poor maternal mental health led to decreased parental investment, which, in turn, contributed to poor child health, whereas in the second pathway the adverse effect of poor maternal mental health was cascaded through child unmet healthcare need, which resulted in poor child health. One pathway involved child insurance status, where the effect of FEH increased the likelihood to be uninsured, which led to unmet healthcare need, and, in turn, to poor health. Three pathways involved preventive care: in one pathway FEH contributed to poor preventive care, which led to unmet healthcare need and then to poor health; in the other two pathways where poor preventive care respectively gave rise to decreased investment in children or poor maternal mental health, which further contributed to poor child health.
conclusionsResults suggest that the association between FEH and children's health is mediated by multiple pathways.
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