Researchers have known for years that one of the reasons poverty is bad for children's development is because low-income mothers are less responsive to their children. Cornell researchers have recently uncovered some of the reasons for that difference.

"We show for the first time that poverty erodes maternal responsiveness because low-income mothers face a daunting array of psychosocial and physical stressors that diminishes their capacity to be a responsive parent," said Gary Evans, a Cornell environmental psychologist and lead author of a paper in a recent issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Development.

"Secondly, mothers living in poverty may also be less attuned to the needs of their children because they themselves lack adequate social networks."

Evans, professor of design and environmental analysis and of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, added that his study, which was conducted with two Cornell undergraduate students who have since graduated, examined the link between poverty and maternal responsiveness among rural whites, an understudied population. Almost all the data available focusing on poverty and parenting stems from studies with urban, minority families.

Although previous studies have linked poverty to stress, poverty to smaller social networks (social networks buffer the effects of stress) and parental stress to reduced parental responsiveness, researchers had not examined directly why poverty leads to unresponsive parenting.

To sort that out, Evans, Louise Boxill '03 and Michael Pinkava '05 evaluated 223 mothers and their seventh- to eighth-grade children in their homes, using validated instruments to measure maternal stress, social networks and children's perceptions of maternal responsiveness.

"Our findings contrast with the view that inherent, personal qualities of low-income parents are the root cause of deficient parenting," said Evans. "They also have implications for policy: well-meaning programs to enhance parenting practices among low-income families at risk need to consider more carefully the ecological context of poverty."

The study was funded in part by the W.T. Grant Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health.