1. Higher Utilization of Social Services Is Associated with Higher Language Scores in Children from Deeply Impoverished Urban Families
- Author
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Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, Kimberly G. Noble, and Morgan A Finkel
- Subjects
Male ,Social Work ,Urban Population ,infant development ,Public housing ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,socioeconomic disparities ,New York ,lcsh:Medicine ,Social Welfare ,Article ,Developmental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,social services ,030225 pediatrics ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Child ,Poverty ,Socioeconomic status ,Language ,child development ,Social work ,05 social sciences ,lcsh:R ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Infant ,Child development ,Language development ,Social Class ,Child, Preschool ,Female ,Psychology ,Medicaid ,language development ,050104 developmental & child psychology - Abstract
Language development has been consistently linked with socioeconomic status (SES), with children from lower SES backgrounds at higher risk for language delays. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between familial social service use and language development during the first year of life. Thirty-one low-income mothers and their infants were recruited from the New York metropolitan area. Mothers provided information about demographics and utilization of social services (Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing). Infant language skills were assessed using the Preschool Language Scale. Multiple linear regressions were used to investigate the relationship between social service use and language skills. We found that the number of social services utilized was not an overall significant linear predictor of language skills. However, social service use interacted with poverty level to predict language skills. Specifically, for families living in deep poverty, higher service use significantly predicted higher infant language scores (&beta, = 3.4, p = 0.005). These results suggest that social services may be an appropriate target to help narrow socioeconomic disparities in language development.
- Published
- 2020
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