Social inequalities in child development: the role of differential exposure and susceptibility to stressful family conditions.

Background: Stressful family conditions may contribute to inequalities in child development because they are more common among disadvantaged groups (ie, differential exposure) and/or because their negative effects are stronger among disadvantaged groups (ie, differential impact/susceptibility). We used counterfactual mediation analysis to investigate to what extent stressful family conditions contribute to inequalities in child development via differential exposure and susceptibility.

Methods: We used data from the Generation R Study, a population-based birth cohort in the Netherlands (n=6842). Mother's education was used as the exposure. Developmental outcomes, measured at age 13 years, were emotional and behavioural problems (Youth Self-Report), cognitive development (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and secondary education entry level. Financial and social stress at age 9 years were the putative mediators.

Results: Differential exposure to financial stress caused a 0.07 (95% CI -0.12 to -0.01) SD worse emotional and behavioural problem -score, a 0.05 (95% CI -0.08 to -0.02) SD lower intelligence score and a 0.05 (95% CI -0.05 to -0.01) SD lower secondary educational level, respectively, among children of less-educated mothers compared with children of more-educated mothers. This corresponds to a relative contribution of 54%, 9% and 6% of the total effect of mother's education on these outcomes, respectively. Estimates for differential exposure to social stress, and differential susceptibility to financial or social stress, were much less pronounced.

Conclusion: Among children of less-educated mothers, higher exposure to financial stress in the family substantially contributes to inequalities in socioemotional development, but less so for cognitive development and educational attainment.