Patterns of Perinatal Income Instability among American Indian and Alaska Native Working Parents in Washington State

• In Event: Beyond Income: Economic Contexts and Children's Development

Abstract

Poverty and economic instability remain salient drivers of health and social inequity in the United States, and Indigenous communities experience the highest rates of poverty among all racial and ethnic groups. Between 20-25% of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) adults (a rate roughly double the national average) and 1 in 3 AIAN children live in poverty in the United States (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2020 & 2021; The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2020). In addition to poverty alone, income instability (i.e., disruptive changes in financial status over time) has been shown to have its own distinct effects on family wellbeing, especially among low-income households where it is most prevalent. Existing studies have shown that families are particularly vulnerable to negative income disruptions in the months before and after the birth of a new child. However, less is known about how these issues differentially impact families from distinct racial and ethnic groups. The present study utilizes the Washington Merged Longitudinal Administrative Dataset (WMLAD) to examine disproportionate income instability around the time of childbirth among AIAN families in Washington state. Among other data, WMLAD contains employment, quarterly earnings, and birth records for nearly all workers in Washington state. Due to the large and detailed nature of the data in WMLAD, it is possible to disaggregate findings for populations often missing or underrepresented in other studies. As a precursor to investigating the impacts of Washington’s new Paid Family Leave policy on alleviating perinatal income disruptions, this current research endeavors to understand work and income patterns among AIAN parents during the perinatal period. Early results show that 1 in 5 working AIAN parents do not meet work-hours eligibility requirements to qualify for Washington Paid Family Leave, a higher percentage than any other racial or ethnic group in the state. Additional analyses will examine hours worked, earnings, and earnings changes across all AIAN parents in the time period surrounding the birth of a new child, as well as differences among AIAN parents with varying levels of educational attainment and wage earnings and between those in rural versus urban environments. The author will present findings from these analyses in the context of the community engaged process for developing this research project, ethical factors surrounding the use of large administrative datasets in AIAN research, and implications for ongoing policy and program implementation efforts to support AIAN family economic wellbeing.

Author

• Tess Abrahamson-Richards, University of Washington
  Presenting Author