The Impact Of Unemployment On The Development Of Children?

Research has shown that children with jobless parents experience lower test scores, more school suspensions, increased likelihood of repeating a grade, lower high school graduation rates, lower college attendance, lower adult earnings, and a greater adult reliance on public aid. A new research paper in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization reveals that parental unemployment during childhood can have long-term consequences for children’s development, including loss of income, housing, and lack of career experience. The study focuses on three mechanisms linking downturns to children’s developmental outcomes: structural changes to communities, economic and psychological effects on individuals who are unemployed.

The results reveal a direct negative effect between fathers’ unemployment duration and their children’s educational attainment, as well as an indirect effect through economic and psychological stress leading to changes in housing or family structure that may have long-lasting adverse effects on children’s development. Research dating back to the Depression warns that parental unemployment places children at risk when finances fall and adult tensions rise.

The study found that families become more unstable when one parent loses a job, and long periods of unemployment could impose costs on future generations. Jobless parents may raise less ambitious kids, and children are more likely to live below the poverty threshold in later life if they experience parental joblessness at any age.

Unemployment not only affects the wellbeing of individuals who lose their jobs but can also crossover onto children. Job losses can diminish the family’s ability to invest in resources necessary for children’s cognitive development and academic achievement.