Home, school, and the hidden cost of parental mental health

This study examines the association between parental mental health and children's socioeconomic status (SES) across both home and school environments, using nationally representative data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Traditional childhood SES markers often focus on parental income, occupational prestige, and maternal education; however, they may not fully capture how children's proximal experiences of SES differ across daily contexts due to parents' personal challenges. Employing latent variable path analyses (LVPA), we explored whether parents' mental health, often a critical aspect of childhood adversity, shapes both home-based and school-based SES. Our findings revealed that poorer parental mental health is significantly linked to more disadvantaged SES in home and school settings. This suggests that parental mental health may affect not only the resources families possess but also the degree to which children benefit from those resources across critical developmental settings. These findings highlight the importance of addressing parental mental health as a key mechanism in understanding and reducing invisible developmental inequality.