NCJ Number
116014
Journal
Journal of Social Issues Volume: 44 Issue: 4 Dated: (1988) Pages: 25-45
Date Published
1988
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study examines how economic stress during the Great Depression affected family relationships and child development.
Abstract
Two longitudinal child studies were used to obtain data on how families and children coped with financial problems: the Oakland Growth Study, a seven-year study of children who were in the fifth grade in 1931 and the Berkeley Guidance Study, which included children born in 1928 and 1929 who were studied for a ten-year period. During the Great Depression average family income in the Oakland group declined by nearly 40 percent and in the Berkeley group by 29 percent. The study identifies two models of how economic stress affects child development. First, a family's relationships change when its economy shifts from capital to labor intensive operations, thus shifting more responsibility to mothers and children and causing some children to assume adult work roles and to leave school sooner than expected. Second, economic stress causes family disorganization, especially in fathers who showed personal instability, experienced marital tension, and carried out arbitrary and inconsistent parenting. Children reflected their fathers' inconsistent parenting through difficult behavior and temper tantrums. The study points out that children with strong and affectionate mothers fared better than did those whose mothers were unable to cope. Future studies should focus on how some kinds of parenting can protect children from harmful economic stress. 62 references. (Publisher's abstract modified.)