Asset Poverty in Canadian
Families with Children
A presentation of thesis results
Anne Blumenthal
Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why should social work measure poverty?
Assets & children
Research Questions
Results
Discussion
1
Why should social workers be
concerned with the measurement of
child poverty?
2
1. Child poverty is associated with
lifelong negative consequences
• Including:
– Biological
– Psychological
– Social
– Economic
(Bradbury, Corak, Waldfogel, & Washbrook, 2012; Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997;
Heckman & Masterov, 2007; Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev, & Yavitz, 2010;
Heckman, 2012; Hill & Duncan, 1987; Magnuson & Votruba-Drzal, 2009)
3
2. Child poverty is a social injustice
• Social workers are mandated to pursue social
justice (CASW, 2005)
• If social work promotes interventions that
maximize benefits to the most disadvantaged
members of society, then it must place
particular emphasis on the welfare of children
4
3. Social work’s professional location
• Whether knowingly or unknowingly, social
workers are, essentially, poverty experts
5
4. To achieve poverty reduction, we
must identify the poor
• Measureable poverty reduction is important
to sustaining positive social programs
• Social workers are largely absent from the
poverty policy/poverty measurement
conversation
6
Assets and Children
• Theory:
– Income = short-term well-being
– Assets = long-term well-being (Sherraden, 1991; Shanks,
2007)
– Family stress model (Rothwell & Han, 2010b; Shanks et al., 2010;
Shanks & Robinson, 2013)
– Identity-based motivation (Destin & Oyserman, 2009;
Oyserman, 2013)
– Family investment model (Conger & Donnellan, 2007; Kaushal,
Magnuson, & Waldfogel, 2011)
7
Assets and Children
• Influences
– Children’s school focused goals
– Math, reading, behaviour scores
– Educational attainment
• Preliminary evidence that assets impact
parenting and socio-emotional functioning
(Elliott & Beverly, 2011; Elliott & Nam, 2012; Elliott & Sherraden, 2013; Friedline, Elliott, &
Chowa, 2013; Grinstein-Weiss et al., 2010; Haurin, Parcel, & Haurin, 2002; Huang et al.,
2014; Huang, 2013; Kim & Sherraden, 2011; Shanks, 2007; Zhan & Sherraden, 2003)
8
Asset Poverty and Families
• Many families have no assets
• Scant information on child asset poverty in
general
– Very limited information in Canada
(Chawla, 2004, 2008; Robson, 2013)
9
Asset Poverty in American Families
(Arartani & Chau, 2010)
Research Questions
• Prevalence
• Provincial variation
• Predictors
11
What is the prevalence of asset
poverty for families with children
compared to those without children
using different poverty thresholds?
12
Asset Poverty based on LIM
Asset Poverty based on LICO
Measurement Questions
13
Asset Poverty Thresholds
• LIM threshold for income
• $29,208 for family of 2 adults & 2 kids
• Asset poverty LIM threshold = $7,302
• Asset poverty LICO threshold = $8,139
14
Measures (1)
• Binary dependent variables:
– Net worth LICO poverty (NW LICO)
– Net worth LIM poverty (NW LIM)
– Financial asset LICO poverty (FA LICO)
– Financial asset LIM poverty (FA LIM)
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Measures (2)
• Personal characteristics:
– Age category (0/1/2/3/4)
– Sex & marital status (0/1/2/3)
– Education level (0/1/2/3)
– Disability status (1/0)
– Language (0/1)
– Immigration (0/1)
16
Measures (3)
• Economic/regional:
– Homeownership (0/1)
– Province (0/1/2/3)
– Rural (1/0)
– Income (log)
– Work full time (0/1)
17
Different Measures of Poverty for
Families in 2005
Income
Assets
18
Different Measures of Poverty for
Families in 2005
19
How do these prevalence estimates
vary by province?
20
Income poverty by province
21
Financial asset poverty by province
22
Net worth poverty by province
23
What are the predictors of asset
poverty for families with children
versus those without children?
24
Odds of Being Asset Poor
• Previous research showed that certain family
types and the number of kids were associated
with higher odds of asset poverty
• Two separate models were run: one for
children w/ families and one for families w/o
children
25
Odds of Financial Asset (LICO) Poverty
26
n = 2,924
Odds of Financial Asset (LICO) Poverty
27
n = 2,924
Odds of Net Worth (LICO) Poverty
28
n = 2,924
Odds of Net Worth (LICO) Poverty
29
n = 2,924
Odds of Income (LICO) Poverty
30
n = 2,924
Odds of Income (LICO) Poverty
31
n = 2,924
Comparison of Predictors
32
Discussion
• Many families are financially insecure
• Provincial variation exists
• Predictors of asset poverty are different
– For families with children
– From income poverty
33
Limitations
• Limited information in the poverty measures
used
• No casual inferences can be made
• Small sample size in 2005
• Limited demographic information in the SFS
• Possible model misspecification
– Uncontrolled variation = high likelihood of biased
and inconsistent model results
34
Future Work
• Alternative measures of poverty
• 2012 Survey of Financial Security
• Heterogeneity in asset poor families
• Other statistical models to control for
observed & unobserved variation
35
Conclusions
• It is important for social work to investigate
concepts, measurements, causes, consequences,
and interventions related to poverty
• The effect of financial insecurity on families may
be negative in both the short- and long-term
• More work needs to explore how asset poor
families differ from each other, as well as from
non-asset poor families
36
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