Who Crowds the Home? Household Composition, Overcrowding, and the Mother--Child Relationship

Who Crowds the Home? Household Composition, Overcrowding, and the Mother--Child Relationship | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Who Crowds the Home? Household Composition, Overcrowding, and the Mother--Child Relationship Esteban Puentes, Alex Vargas This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6183972/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract This paper studies how residential overcrowding relates to parenting during early childhood in Chile. Motivated by a household production framework, we examine whether the consequences of crowding depend not only on the number of people sharing space, but also on who those household members are. We use two waves of the Encuesta Longitudinal de la Primera Infancia (ELPI), a nationally representative longitudinal survey, to analyse three dimensions of the caregiver--child relationship: reported engagement in stimulating activities, directly observed parenting behaviours and emotional warmth, and children's behavioural problems measured through the Child Behavior Checklist. Our main contribution is to distinguish between child crowding and adult crowding. While pooled OLS estimates show broad negative associations between overcrowding and all outcomes, household fixed-effects models substantially attenuate the results for reported stimulation and children's behavioural problems. In contrast, observed parenting remains responsive to within-household changes in crowding. A higher number of children per bedroom is associated with lower caregiver warmth and poorer home environment quality, whereas a higher number of adults per bedroom is associated with better observed parenting outcomes. These findings suggest that residential crowding is not only a matter of density, but also of household composition. They are consistent with a framework in which additional children increase demands on caregivers' time and attention, while additional adults may relax caregiving constraints through support and supervision. Social Policy Housing Overcrowding Child Maltreatment Parental Stress Harsh Parenting Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. The datasets used for this study are publicly available at https://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/elpi Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6183972","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":427979762,"identity":"b18637d0-cb17-46a1-920d-1f586662c7b6","order_by":0,"name":"Esteban Puentes","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA8klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDADfuYDYDqBjR1EFRBSn8DAINmWANXCDKIMiNBicAyqhYGQFn7pHsPHhT9s7I2PMR97wNhml8fHDHTiDzxaJOecMTaekZCWuO0YW7oBY1tyMRszWwJjDx4tBjdyzKR5Eg4nmN3vMZNgbDuQ2MbMY8CMz2H2N3LMf/Mk/Lc3buP/BtXC/wGvFgOJHDNmnoQDjBvYeNhgtjDg1SJx51ixNE9acuKMY2xmEgnnkoFa2AwO4vML/+zmjZ95bOzs+duYn0l8KLNLnN/e/PDBjwrcWhgkkDkJUPoAHg1oWkbBKBgFo2AUYAMA5vFFVqPc0E0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Universidad de Chile","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Esteban","middleName":"","lastName":"Puentes","suffix":""},{"id":427979763,"identity":"1d6ebd1e-b08e-4e76-8a37-870ee062e4b6","order_by":1,"name":"Alex Vargas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universidad de Chile","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alex","middleName":"","lastName":"Vargas","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-08 11:59:11","currentVersionCode":2,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6183972/v2","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6183972/v2","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105904486,"identity":"7856151c-35d0-430f-8d40-a335a8e24428","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 10:08:58","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":256078,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"paperovercrowding0326.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6183972/v2_covered_7293aca2-c860-471b-8d1a-b9d42474caad.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe datasets used for this study are publicly available at\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/elpi__;!!NLFGqXoFfo8MMQ!urR6xDHwhH3GF8LGxsQ-75g7JY8MCddYbVu2j79Yo_EspTkjA4x9DnKMAVxfgIi415V2wyPpK8nRntectiv9QJxO%24\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/elpi__;!!nlfgqxoffo8mmq!urr6xdhwhh3gf8lgxsq-75g7jy8mcddybvu2j79yo_esptkja4x9dnkmavxfgii415v2wyppk8nrntectiv9qjxo%24\"\u003ehttps://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/elpi\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eWho Crowds the Home? Household Composition, Overcrowding, and the Mother--Child Relationship\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Housing; Overcrowding, Child Maltreatment, Parental Stress, Harsh Parenting","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6183972/v2","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6183972/v2","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper studies how residential overcrowding relates to parenting during early childhood in Chile. Motivated by a household production framework, we examine whether the consequences of crowding depend not only on the number of people sharing space, but also on who those household members are. We use two waves of the Encuesta Longitudinal de la Primera Infancia \u0026nbsp;(ELPI), a nationally representative longitudinal survey, to analyse three dimensions of the caregiver--child relationship: reported engagement in stimulating activities, directly observed parenting behaviours and emotional warmth, and children's behavioural problems measured through the Child Behavior Checklist. Our main contribution is to distinguish between child crowding and adult crowding. While pooled OLS estimates show broad negative associations between overcrowding and all outcomes, household fixed-effects models substantially attenuate the results for reported stimulation and children's behavioural problems. In contrast, observed parenting remains responsive to within-household changes in crowding. A higher number of children per bedroom is associated with lower caregiver warmth and poorer home environment quality, whereas a higher number of adults per bedroom is associated with better observed parenting outcomes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;These findings suggest that residential crowding is not only a matter of density, but also of household composition. They are consistent with a framework in which additional children increase demands on caregivers' time and attention, while additional adults may relax caregiving constraints through support and supervision.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Who Crowds the Home? 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