Children, Poverty, and the Safety Net

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together scholars from Public Policy, Social Work, and Sociology to explore how families with children are affected by public safety net programs and how families respond to gaps in the safety net.

The first two papers provide new insights into the effects of social safety net programs on families with children. Jackson et al. merge state-level safety net generosity data with individual-level data to examine the effects of early-life exposure to safety net generosity on health outcomes across childhood using multiple birth cohorts. Their findings will shed light on how contemporary social policies surrounding the birth of a child support their health and development. Wiersma Strauss et al. examine another potential impact of safety net programs: changes in parental time use in both paid work and unpaid activities. They find that parents shift their time from paid work to activities with relatively high potential social returns, like caregiving, when they choose to work less, suggesting that in a labor-leisure framework the behavioral costs of income support receipt may be relatively small.

The second two papers reveal how families experience and respond to gaps in the public safety net, with lessons for how we conceptualize and measure the material wellbeing of children’s households. Thomas et al. use qualitative data to study what essential needs families must meet, which basic economic needs they struggle to meet, and how they navigate meeting their essential needs when they do not have enough money to meet them all. The findings can inform the development of a robust inventory for consistent material hardship measurement, and they highlight the sophisticated strategies families employ to manage risk of hardship. Harvey and Perkins focus on one strategy that families with children may use to address economic need: shared households. The findings show that shared households are more beneficial for raising families with children from income poverty than they are for reducing experiences of material hardship, and that the benefits of household sharing differ between families who “host” others in their home and families who live as “guests” in someone else’s home. 

Our presider and two discussants will enrich the panel conversation. Our two discussants are both social welfare policy researchers. Stacie Tao is a Research Senior Analyst at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, and Natasha Pilkauskas is an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. Our presider, Uchenna Ndulue,* will provide valuable policy insight from his role as Bureau Director for the Child, Adolescent, and Family Health Bureau of the Boston Public Health Commission. Together, our discussants and presider will lead a productive discussion of how the papers in this panel can inform poverty and income policy for families with children.

*Please note that Uchenna Ndulue had to receive approval to participate, which prevented him from making a profile before the panel submission deadline. He has received approval and will be presiding over the panel if it is accepted.

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Chair

• Uchenna Ndulue, Boston Public Health Commission

Discussants

• Natasha Pilkauskas, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

• Stacie Tao, The University of Chicago

Organizer

• Hope Harvey, University of Kentucky

Individual Presentations

• Conceptualizing Material Hardship: Perspectives from Low-Income Families in a Guaranteed Income Program - Presenting Author: Margaret M. C. Thomas, The University of Chicago

• Children’s Shared Households, Poverty, and Material Hardship - Presenting Author: Hope Harvey, University of Kentucky

• Childhood Safety Net Investments and Childhood Health - Presenting Author: Taryn W. Morrissey, American University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Tara Watson, Brookings Institution; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Margot Jackson, Brown University

• Parental Time Use Amid Changing Incentives: Implications for the Design of Income Support Policies - Presenting Author: Anna Wiersma Strauss, Indiana University