A study on poverty and subjective well-being of households with children

Abstract

Income inequality in Hong Kong has worsened dramatically during the past decade. About 19.9% of the population is below the poverty line with more than 1.34 million people. Among those poor households in 2013, 126,700 (23%) of them have children. Facing the large amount of households with children living in poverty, there has been a significant increase of studies examining the impact of poverty on family and child well-being. However, while subjective well-being is linked to the cognitive (life satisfaction) and emotional (happiness)well-being of both children and parents, studies on the subjective well-being of parents in poverty, which has been suggested to affect children’s well-being, are still very scarce. Besides, given the dynamic change of living arrangement in Hong Kong, few studies has investigated the moderating effect of having children and family structure on the association between poverty and subjective well-being. Therefore, this research aims at filling these gaps by addressing the role of children and different family structures on parents’ subjective well-being, and its relationship with poverty.

Using the first wave data of Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics 2011, which is a territory-wide representative panel survey on households and individuals, this study (1) examined the impact of poverty on parents’ subjective well-being, (2) explored the effects of having children, parental status and family structures on subjective well-being, (3) investigated the different effects of poverty and family structure on subjective well-being from a life course perspective, and (4) tested the role of having children, and different family structures in the relationship between poverty and subjective well-being.

Results suggest the following: (1) there is a distinction in happiness between adults with and without children. Being poor is negatively related to the life satisfaction of parents but not adults without children; (2) poverty is consistently associated with decreased life satisfaction and happiness of parents, and single parents with children demonstrate negative correlation with their happiness. Besides, the negative association between poverty and subjective well-being is weakened once health factors are taken into account, which indicates that health, behaviors, and community engagement may be the mediators of the relationship between poverty and parents’ happiness; (3) subjective well-being of younger and older parents are affected differently by poverty, family structure, and socio-demographic factors; (4) factors affecting life satisfaction and happiness are different, despite certain similarities; (5) without considering the interactions with neighbors, being poor interacts with having more than three children and generates positive effect on parents’ happiness. Furthermore, family structure is suggested to moderate the relationship between poverty and subjective well-being. Specifically, living in households consisting grandparents, parents, and children further reduces poor parents’ life satisfaction, while their happiness would be worsened if they were single parents with children.

This study illuminates the role of children and family structure in the relation to poverty and subjective well-being, and it provides needed information to develop policies that are more effective to alleviate poverty and improve the subjective well-being of the poor in specific vulnerable groups.