Moderating Effect of Social Support on the Relationship Between Poverty and Child Development in Bayelsa State

This study examines the moderating effect of social support on the relationship between household poverty and child development outcomes in Bayelsa State, South South Nigeria. Poverty is a pervasive developmental risk in the Niger Delta region, where oil wealth coexists with community-level deprivation. Social support from extended family networks, community organisations, and government social services has been theorised as a resilience resource capable of buffering poverty's adverse developmental effects. Using a cross-sectional moderation design, this research recruited 350 caregivers and their children aged 2 to 8 from riverine and urban communities in Yenagoa and Brass local government areas. Household poverty was assessed using a multidimensional poverty index, social support with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and child development using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Moderated multiple regression with interaction terms was employed. Results reveal that high levels of social support significantly attenuated the negative relationship between poverty and developmental delay, particularly for social-emotional and communication milestones. Extended family support emerged as the strongest buffering mechanism in rural riverine communities. The findings underscore the need for developmental research to consider contextual resilience resources alongside risk factors and recommend that Bayelsa State social protection programmes leverage and strengthen existing family support structures. Keywords: social support, poverty, child development, Bayelsa State, moderation analysis.