Despite decades of research describing the harmful effects of family poverty on children's emotional and behavioral development, eg,12 - 17 experimental or quasi-experimental manipulations of family income that could go beyond description are rare18 and
tend to examine the effect of such manipulations on physical health or academic attainment, rather than emotional or behavioral functioning.19, 20 Other analyses of the Great Smoky Mountains data set have focused on educational and criminal outcomes.21 The few studies looking at emotional or behavioral outcomes
tend to have a short time frame.22, 23 Some studies of school - based interventions have followed up with children through to adulthood, 24,25 but we have found none that have looked at the long -
term effects of family income supplementation on adult
psychological functioning.
In
psychological terms, I recognize this incident as an early attachment injury — a relational trauma that, if unrepaired,
tends to be carried into our adult lives and relationships.