State Safety Nets and Parental Well-Being

• In Event: State Policy Contexts and Inequality in Family Well-Being

Abstract

Introduction/Background: Parents in the United States report lower well-being than parents in other wealthy countries, due in part to weaker public support for families. While cross-national research links more generous safety nets to better parental outcomes, less is known about whether variation in state-level policies within the United States shapes parental well-being.

Purpose/Research Question: This paper examines whether differences in state safety net generosity are associated with parental health and well-being, and whether these associations vary by gender, income, and marital status.

Data: We use nationally representative data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2011 to 2022 (N=947,582), merged with state-level measures of safety net generosity from the Brookings Institution. The safety net index captures simulated benefits from programs including TANF, SNAP, and tax credits.

Research Design and Methods: We estimate logistic regression models predicting fair or poor self-rated health among parents ages 25 to 54 living with a child under age 18. Models include state and year fixed effects to account for unobserved heterogeneity and national trends, and errors are clustered by state. We examine heterogeneity by gender, income, and marital status.

Results/Findings: A $1,000 increase in simulated annual benefits is associated with a 7–8% reduction in the odds of fair or poor health among low-income mothers. Effects are smaller and less consistent for fathers and show little variation by marital status. Predicted probabilities indicate that increases in safety net generosity are associated with meaningful improvements in health among economically disadvantaged mothers.

Conclusion/Implications: These findings highlight the importance of state policy environments in shaping parental well-being and suggest that more generous safety nets can mitigate health inequalities among low-income mothers. By demonstrating that within-country policy variation matters, this study underscores the potential for state-level policy reforms to improve the health of parents in the United States.

Author

• Jessica H Su, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author