1-041 - Child welfare, nutrition, and parent incarceration: New evidence on social policy and children’s academic and behavioral outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Ecological systems theories emphasize that development occurs within an interconnected set of systems that influence children. One understudied system is the macrosystem, or the features of the broader society in which the child is embedded. A key component of the macrosystem is social policies, including child welfare policy, nutrition policy, and criminal justice policy. This symposium will bring together three papers aimed at providing new evidence on how social policies can affect children’s development. Paper 1 uses longitudinal administrative data from Wisconsin to examine links between out-of-home placements (OHP) as a result of child protective services involvement on children’s academic achievement. The authors have shown that OHP negatively affects academic achievement in the short term, but not the long term; they will further investigate mediators of those associations. Paper 2 uses administrative data from North Carolina to examine within-month variability in the timing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) receipt and the likelihood that children experience an in-school disciplinary incident. Results show that children are more likely to be suspended the more time has passed since their family received SNAP. Finally, paper 3 utilizes data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine the effects of parental incarceration on children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Results indicate that paternal incarceration after age 3 is positively associated with behavioral problems; paternal incarceration after age 5 is negatively associated with cognitive outcomes. Together these papers will shed light on links between different social policy contexts and children’s academic and behavioral outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Chair

• Anna Gassman-Pines, Duke University

Discussant

• Heather D Hill, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• What Explains the Relationship between Foster Care and Children’s Academic Achievement? - Lawrence Berger, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Presenting Author: Maria Cancian, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jennifer Noyes, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Vanessa Rios-Salas, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• The Timing of SNAP Benefit Receipt and School Disciplinary Incidents - Anna Gassman-Pines, Duke University; Presenting Author: Laura Bellows, Duke University

• Children’s Wellbeing After Paternal Incarceration: Time-Varying Effects or Persistent Inequality? - Presenting Author: Kristin Turney, University of California-Irvine