The effect of poverty on children's psychological development 

Byron Egeland, Alan Sroufe, and Andrew Collins are working to find ways to help more children succeed despite difficult beginnings in life. All three are professors in the Institute of Child Development and researchers in the Parent-Child Project, a 25-year longitudinal research effort devoted to examining poverty as a risk factor in the development and growth of children and young adults.

The project has generated hundreds of articles that are cited in hundreds of other articles that have had enormous impact on professionals in the field of child development, psychology, education, childcare, and on parenting practices around the globe. Their research has teased out many factors that can help us—as parents, educators, and a society—do a better job in raising children to psychologically and emotionally healthy adulthood.

Egeland and Amos Deinard, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics of the University's medical school, began the project in 1975 by recruiting 267 young mothers-to-be. Sroufe joined the study in 1978. Almost 200 of those women remain with the study, an amazing retention rate.

How the Parent-Child Project works

Egeland and Sroufe were interested in determining the long-term effects of poverty, early (often single) parenthood, and unstable living situations on the development of these women's children. As the children grew older, Collins, who is interested in issues related to adolescent development, joined the study. They now are collecting data on the children of the children born back in 1975.

Hence the name of the project was changed from “Mother-Child” to “Parent-Child” to reflect the fact that the sons of those first mothers are now fathers themselves and they and their children continue to participate in the study.

Egeland, Sroufe, and Collins have explored numerous issues, including the causes and consequences of child maltreatment, the quality of attachment between mother and infant, the effects of risk and protective factors on child functioning, behavior problems, and school failure. They are interested not only in the children who have struggled but also in the children who have succeeded. This data is collected through individual interviews, family observation, and collection of personal, educational, and work information for all participants.

What the research shows

One major factor protecting children from the negative effects of poverty, according to Egeland, is a good early foundation built on a secure relationship between parent and child. “Resilience is not a 'magical' trait in a child, it is not something a child is born with," he says. “Instead, resilience develops over time and, even with a bad beginning, later support can bring change. Knowing this and being able to support it with highly reliable data has great significance for public policy at so many different levels.”

Using the Parent-Child Project data, these researchers have produced studies looking at cross-generational patterns of child abuse, the effects of welfare-to-work policies on parent-child relationships, how early childhood experiences can help to predict current difficulties in relationships with peers, and how parental support and healthy peer relationships during adolescence can be a strong factor for psychologically healthy development in early adulthood.

What others say about the Parent-Child Project

Federal grant reviewers have described the Parent-Child Project as “highly significant, extremely innovative, and internationally respected.” Their opinion is seconded by fellow researchers at other universities.

Bob Pianta, William Clay Parrish Professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and a college alumnus, says the Parent-Child Project is “enormously important. Its data refutes all those overly-simplistic concepts about the source of children's problems. Without this study, we would be missing many opportunities to help kids and to get them the resources they need to succeed. Researchers anywhere on the globe doing work in this field will at one time or another refer to and utilize this study.”

“The Parent-Child Project at the University of Minnesota is a landmark study in child development research,” says James Elicker, associate professor of child development and family studies at Purdue University. “These longitudinal data and the brilliant theoretical contributions of Alan Sroufe, Byron Egeland, Andy Collins, and their many collaborators over the years have taught us a great deal about attachment, close relationships, social emotional processes, peer relations, and parenting. The project continues to break new ground as one of the most influential studies of child development ever conducted.”

Deborah Jacobvitz, associate professor of human ecology at the University of Texas, says Egeland and Sroufe's “landmark studies of the lasting effects of physical abuse, neglect, and emotional unavailability on children heavily influenced my research. In an era when researchers, for the most part, traced children's personality to genetically determined temperament traits, Alan and Byron advocated the critical importance of early care. They generated the most impressive and in-depth longitudinal data set in the world demonstrating the profound effects of early relationship experiences on children's emotional health and capacity to form trusting relationships.”

“This is the only study of this magnitude that I'm aware of,” says Shane Jimerson, associate professor of education at the University of California at Santa Barbara and alumnus of the College. “In my research, data from the Parent-Child Project has provided a wealth of information and insight into the educational process and how early experience impacts a child all the way into young adulthood.”

August 2001