Poster #118 - The impact of SNAP extensions during COVID-19 on health, learning, and food insufficiency of young children

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federal nutritional and anti-hunger program in the U.S. SNAP provides nutritional support to low-income households through monthly payments and two-thirds of SNAP participants are families with children (CBPP, 2022). As the COVID-19 pandemic spread in the spring of 2020, household food insecurity increased significantly (Higashi, 2022). In response, the federal government expanded the generosity of SNAP benefits through SNAP Emergency Allotment (SNAP-EA) -averaging a 40% increase in benefits (CBPP, 2022; Bitler et al. 2023). While all states adopted it in April 2020, states varied in the timing that they opted out of the program.  

Our study answers the following questions: (1) How do measures of food sufficiency, health, health care utilization, learning, and socio-emotional development vary before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic for low-income families with young children? (2) What are the effects of the SNAP-EA policy on food sufficiency, health, and health care utilization among low-income for low-income families with young children? (3) What are the effects of the SNAP-EA policy on children’s cognitive and behavioral development?

We use the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) available annually from 2016 to 2023 to understand the impact of SNAP-EA policy on children’s health and developmental outcomes, ages 0-5. The NSCH consists of annual waves of nationally representative samples of households with children that survey the physical and emotional health of children from age 0 to 17. We restrict our study sample to low-income, SNAP eligible households with children under age five. We further examine the policy impact for Black, Hispanic, and immigrant families as these are underserved populations for SNAP and were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

Our primary outcome variables include household food sufficiency, child health, healthcare utilization, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development. These are measured using seven indicators: (1) household food sufficiency, (2) child obesity, (3) child ER visits, (4) child well-visits, (5) mother-child interaction (based on the Family Care Indicator–Play subscale), (6) child’s learning index, and (7) child’s socio-emotional behavior index.

Our identification strategy relies on an exogenous shock, SNAP-EA, that was outside the control of parents who made decisions about their child’s health, reading, and health care utilization. Our main independent variable indicates time of SNAP-EA exposure. SNAP-EA benefit expansion began in April 2020 and states ended participation at varying times. Seventeen states ended their SNAP-EA before the federal program’s nationwide termination in February 2023. This variation serves as the basis for a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal effects of SNAP-EA on child and family outcomes. 

This project aligns with the conference theme of providing transformative and resilient policy solutions. Our study offers insights to guide future decisions on expanding SNAP programming and funding to meaningfully reduce food insecurity and improve well-being among families with young children, especially underserved groups such as Black, Hispanic, and immigrant families.

Authors

• Irma Arteaga, University of Missouri-Columbia
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Sangyoo Lee, University of Nebraska Medical Center
  Presenting Author

• Judy A Temple, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Co-Author