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Poverty and intellectual development in childhood

Leslie L Roos¹, Gilles Detillieux¹, Gillian Fransoo¹

¹Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, Max Rady College of Medicine, Room 408-727 McDermot Ave, University of Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P5 Canada.

International Journal of Population Data Science

|November 20, 2025

Abstract

Introduction:

Childhood exposure to and duration of poverty can affect several individual characteristics related to intellectual development.

Objectives:

This paper examines the implications of movement in and out of childhood poverty using a unique linkable database from the Canadian province of Manitoba. Differences in measurement of poverty and intellectual development are explored.

Methods:

Almost 90,000 children were followed using two definitions of poverty - neighborhood and household poverty. The large database permitted exploring the role of another variable - maternal mental health.

Results:

The association of household poverty with poorer intellectual outcomes has been shown to be stronger than the association of neighborhood poverty with such outcomes. This was true using various outcome measures appropriate across childhood (from age 5 to age 17). Comparisons with the role of maternal mental health were made and further analyses suggested.

Conclusion:

The richness of the data has facilitated the study of childhood intellectual development. Household poverty appears to play an important role; neighborhood poverty and maternal mental health also seem to influence such development, but less strongly.

Keywords:

child development developmental vulnerability poverty routinely collected data

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