The Child Tax Credit, Educational Investments, and the American Dream: A Moderated-Mediation Analysis

• In Event: Education Policy's Role in Social Equality

Abstract

In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan increased the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to $3,000 for children six to 17 years old and to $3,600 for children below six. Nevertheless, research has to explore educational investments in this context. We leverage a probability-based panel survey of CTC-eligible families across 49 states to examine how parents’ short-term investments in child tutoring and long-term investments in college savings relate to the degree to which parents believe that their children will have a better life than they did. We find that intentions were only related to increased optimism through actions for college savings and that the direct effects of using the CTC for college savings on optimism were only significant for lower-income families.

Authors

• Jason F. Jabbari, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• J. Cameron Anglum, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephen Roll
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leah Hamilton
  Non-Presenting Author