The multifaceted nature of poverty and differential trajectories of health among children

ABSTRACT

The relationships between poverty and children’s health have been well documented, but the diverse and dynamic nature of poverty has not been thoroughly explored. Drawing on cumulative disadvantage and human capital theory, we examined to what extent the duration and depth of poverty, as well as the level of material hardship, affected changes in physical health among children over time. Data came from eight waves of the Korea Welfare Panel Study between 2006 and 2013. Using children who were under age 10 at baseline (N = 1657, Observations = 13,256), we conducted random coefficient regression in a multilevel growth curve framework to examine poverty group differences in intra-individual change in health status. Results showed that chronically poor children were most likely to have poor health. Children in households located far below the poverty line were most likely to be in poor health at baseline, while near-poor children’s health got significantly worse over time. Material hardship also had a significant impact on child health.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty duration
• poverty gap
• material hardships
• child health trajectories

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Eunsun Kwon, Ph.D., MSW, is a research associate at the Center for Social Science of Seoul National University. She focuses on topics related to socioeconomic disparities in health and healthcare, with a special emphasis on poverty dynamics.

BoRin Kim, Ph.D., MSW, is an assistant professor in the College of Health and Human Services at the University of New Hampshire. Her current research focuses on social support and physical/mental health among older adults in diverse social and cultural contexts.

Sojung Park, Ph.D., MSW, is an assistant professor at George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in Saint Louis. Her research interests include health and healthcare disparities among vulnerable older populations.

ORCID

Eunsun Kwon http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9908-0271