U.S. Social Safety Net Programs and Child Wellbeing

• In Event: 4167 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Children & Youth Roundtable 4: Social Policy

Abstract

Social policies are an important means through which societies ensure the wellbeing of children. U.S. social safety net programs support the wellbeing of children and their families through a variety of different program types. This paper compares how in-kind and income support safety net programs are associated with a range of child wellbeing outcomes. Using a cross-sectional time series regression modeling strategy, this paper employs comparable measures of benefit generosity and inclusion for five in-kind and three income support safety net programs from 2003-2013 in order to analyze the relationship between state social safety net policies and a range of child wellbeing indicators. In preliminary results, generosity and inclusion levels of the in-kind policies tend to be more frequently and more highly associated with child education, health, and economic wellbeing than the income support policies. Yet, the overall pattern of association between social safety net policies and child wellbeing outcomes appears more nuanced. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications state safety net policies have on across state disparities in child wellbeing.

Authors

• KaLeigh K. White, University of Iowa

• Sarah K. Bruch, University of Delaware