Presenting author details :
Full name: Julia Rachel Sampaio Elesbao Mazza
Contact number:+1 514 2383913
Session name/ number: Track 7
Category: Poster presentation
Title: Poverty and Behavior Problems from 1.5 to 8 Years of Age: Is The Gap Widening
Over Time Between Poor and Non-Poor Children?
Julia Mazza
University of Montreal School of Public health, QC, Canada
Poverty has been associated with increased levels of behavior problems across
childhood, yet patterns of associations over time remain understudied. The present study
examines whether poverty predicts changes in behavior problems over time. Outcomes
measures are continuous scores of hyperactivity, physical aggression and oppositiondefiant behavior from 1.5 to 8 years of age as rated by mothers. Poverty was defined
using Statistics Canada’s thresholds. Using a population-based longitudinal study of
Canadian children (N =2120), linear mixed-effects models showed that that the number
of years that children were poor was associated with changes in behavior problems.
Hyperactivity and opposition-defiant behavior decreased over time at a slower rate for
poor children. For physical aggression, the declining gap between poor and non-poor
children remained uniform overtime. For all outcomes, a curvilinear shape best
represented patterns of change. Poverty main effects in each model increased when using
propensity score matching to estimate selection effects over time. Models adjusted for
child’s sex, maternal education, immigration status, maternal history of antisocial
behavior, and family structure. Our findings suggest that higher levels of behavior
problems are more likely among poor children over the first 8 years of life and disparities
appear to be bounded by age. Over time selective attrition of poor children is unlikely to
compromise the validity our results. Public health policies directed at child poverty will
help decreasing behavior problems across development, at least through age 8 years.
Keywords: Hyperactivity, Physical aggression, Opposition defiant, Poverty, Fixed and
Random effects, Selective attrition, Propensity score.
Biography: Julia Mazza is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Preventive and
Social Medicine at the University of Montreal. Her research broadly examines how
economic and social deprivation influence mental health from early childhood to
adolescence. Her dissertation examines the importance of the timing of exposure to
poverty and potential mechanisms of the poverty-behavior problems association (i.e.
family processes, parenting, and parental psychopathology) that might come into play
during different developmental periods. And most recently, her research has been resubmitted to the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.