A decomposition analysis of the relationship between parental income and multiple child outcomes

The paper explores the relationship between family income and a range of cognitive, socioemotional and health outcomes in mid-childhood. Child developmental outcomes are conceptualized as the result of an underlying set of associations or pathways running from distal factors (broad indicators of family characteristics and resources) to proximal factors (parental behaviours and aspects of the child's lived environment).We use a decomposition framework to compare the associations underpinning the raw income gradients in the different outcomes systematically. We find considerable variation in the extent of the income gradients, and in the factors that can account for them, across developmental domains.