The Effect of Poverty Reduction on Home Chaos and Maternal Agency: Evidence from the Baby’s First Years Study

Faculty Mentor

Sara Haden

Major/Area of Research

Clinical Psychology

Description

INTRODUCTION: Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) have associations with increased household stability and decreased risk of child mortality for families living in poverty. Research consistently finds a connection between UCTs and parental well-being. Home Chaos (HC) may partially explain this relationship; maternal mental health, such as depression, may also play a role. The present study aimed to investigate whether HC partially explained the effect of UCT on Maternal Agency (MA) in the first three years of a child’s life.

METHOD: The current study is a secondary analysis of publicly available data from a cross-sectional, longitudinal study, Baby’s First Years Study. One thousand participating mother-infant dyads were recruited from 12 hospitals across 4 metropolitan areas. 40% of the sample was allocated to receive $333 monthly cash gifts, while 60% received $20 monthly gifts.

CONCLUSION: Our results showed HC was significantly negatively associated with MA. UCT amount did not cause differences in HC nor MA. There was no mediating effect of HC. Yet, in the moderation model, UCT group did moderate the relationship between HC and MA in the low UCT group, such that HC led to less MA only in the low UCT group. This suggests that high UCT group assignments perhaps buffered the negative impact of HC on MA.

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The Effect of Poverty Reduction on Home Chaos and Maternal Agency: Evidence from the Baby’s First Years Study

INTRODUCTION: Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) have associations with increased household stability and decreased risk of child mortality for families living in poverty. Research consistently finds a connection between UCTs and parental well-being. Home Chaos (HC) may partially explain this relationship; maternal mental health, such as depression, may also play a role. The present study aimed to investigate whether HC partially explained the effect of UCT on Maternal Agency (MA) in the first three years of a child’s life.

METHOD: The current study is a secondary analysis of publicly available data from a cross-sectional, longitudinal study, Baby’s First Years Study. One thousand participating mother-infant dyads were recruited from 12 hospitals across 4 metropolitan areas. 40% of the sample was allocated to receive $333 monthly cash gifts, while 60% received $20 monthly gifts.

CONCLUSION: Our results showed HC was significantly negatively associated with MA. UCT amount did not cause differences in HC nor MA. There was no mediating effect of HC. Yet, in the moderation model, UCT group did moderate the relationship between HC and MA in the low UCT group, such that HC led to less MA only in the low UCT group. This suggests that high UCT group assignments perhaps buffered the negative impact of HC on MA.