Relationships between Household Economic Distress and Child Mental Health: Determinants, Mechanisms, and Interventions

Economic inequality has grown dramatically worldwide, creating serious problems for children and families. At the same time, child and adolescent mental health problems have reached crisis levels, yet many of them cannot access treatment. Researchers have studied how economic inequality affects mental and behavioral health, but most of this work focuses on adults rather than children. This dissertation used recent data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2019 and 2021 waves) to unpack the complex relationships between household economic distress and child mental health across multiple levels, including individual, family, school, and community factors in the United States. This dissertation includes three interconnected components. The first part used machine learning models to identify factors that predict household income and asset poverty across different levels. The second study examined how household economic distress influences child mental health through different pathways, using structural equation models to understand these mechanisms across individual, household, school, and community levels. The third study tested whether families with child savings accounts have better child mental health outcomes, using generalized linear models combined with propensity score weighting. The results reveal important determinants and mechanisms and offer practical insights for interventions and policies that could support children and families at multiple levels.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social Work

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Yang, Yuanyuan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Michael Sherraden
• Darrell Hudson; Patricia Kohl; Ruopeng An; Shenyang Guo

• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Social Work

Language dc:language

English (en)

Identifier

https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/brown_etds/53

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:brown_etds-1052