Contextual Factors that Influence the Effects of Anti-Poverty Policies and Programs

• In Event: 1-182 - Reducing Child Poverty by Half in 10 Years: A National Academies Report

Integrative Statement

A fundamental lesson from the social and developmental sciences is that the contexts in which people function can affect their behaviors in profound ways. Poverty is a powerful context because of its economic, physical, social, and psychological dimensions. In Presentation 1, we presented the adverse consequences for children living in poverty, and also the severe constraints and stresses that inadequate financial resources can place on families, which may in turn result in difficult choices and circumstances for parents and children.

In this presentation, we consider a more general set of contextual factors that can promote or impede the effectiveness of anti-poverty policies and programs. For example, SNAP payments can best promote children’s nutrition and health when families have ready access to healthy, affordable food, and families benefit more from cash transfers when they have convenient, receptive banking institutions to help them manage their funds. Conversely, a job training program for parents may be less effective when there is racial discrimination in hiring, the absence of employment opportunities, reliable transportation, or affordable child care options.

Through internal discussions, public information-gathering sessions, and a review of the scholarly and policy literatures, the committee identified major contextual factors that policy makers and program administrators are advised to consider when designing and implementing anti-poverty programs of the sort discussed in Presentations 2 and 3. In this presentation, we describe these major factors and why they may moderate the impact of our proposed policy changes. The presentation summarizes why each contextual factor matters, its relationship to anti-poverty policy, and the conclusions reached by the committee.

Authors

• Lawrence J. Aber, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia Osborne, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author