title: Family income and early achievement across the urban-rural continuum.
abstract: Rural and suburban children account for the majority of poor children in the United States. Yet, most research examining poverty's associations with child development is focused on urban samples. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (N ≈ 6,600), this study examines whether the form and magnitude of income's relationship with early achievement differ across the urban-rural continuum. Results suggest that there are urbanicity-related differences in the functional form of the association between income and early achievement, with nonlinear associations in urban and suburban areas and a linear relationship in rural areas. The magnitude of the association between income and early reading and math skills also differs across the urban-rural continuum, such that income increases are related to the greatest improvements in early academic skills in large urban areas and only slight improvements in rural areas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 4123 Sennott Square, 210 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. plm11@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Portia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Votruba-Drzal
authors.forename: Claude Messan
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Setodji
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population