The Child-Parent Center Education Program and Economic Well-Being in Midlife

• In Event: The Child-Parent Center Program and Age 40 Well-Being: Impacts and Returns, Processes, and Scale Up Evidence

Abstract

Extensive evidence indicates that public early childhood programs can improve school success and lead to better developmental outcomes in adulthood. However, few studies have investigated impacts on economic well-being. This is primarily due to the lack of follow up beyond age 25. Of the few studies assessing economic well-being, findings are inconsistent with some showing positive Schweinhart et al., 2005) or no effects (Garces et al., 2002). The present study investigates the effects of the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Program, an early childhood intervention from preschool to third grade, on midlife economic well-being. The main questions are: (1) What are the effects of the CPC program on measures of economic well-being by age 39? (2) Do these vary by the timing and duration of services?

The study sample was drawn from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), an on-going investigation of the school and social adjustment of low-income minority children growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods in Chicago. Seventy-six percent of the sample participated in the CPC program. Income data were obtained from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) and the midlife survey. The study sample included 1,218 participants who had available data from the IDES between 2015 and 2019, the midlife survey between 2015 and 2017, or had known education and crime history by 2016. Our primary measures were based on the average annual income from employment between ages 35-39 converted to 2017 dollars. Several measures are created: income $16,025 or higher, income $22,334 or higher (average entry salary in IL for all categories of work in 2017), income $38,873 or higher (median wage of all occupations in IL), and by quartile.

Table 1 presents the findings from regression analyses inclusive of covariates. Findings show that the CPC preschool group had significantly higher average income than the comparison group ($29,581 vs. $25,784; p < .01). Preschool participants had higher rates of meeting the threshold of $16,025 (68.3% vs. 61.4%; p < .05), the median wage of $38,873 (29.6% vs. 20.8%, p < .01), and in the top quartile of income in the study sample (26.8% vs. 18.9%, p < .01). There is no significant difference between the CPC school-age and comparison groups. P-3 group participating in 4 to 6 years of intervention had significantly higher average income than the comparison group with less than 4 years of intervention ($30,846 vs. $26,728; p < .001). P-3 participants also had a higher rate of meeting the median wage of $38,873 (32% vs. 23.4%, p < .001), and in the top quartile of income in the study sample (30.4% vs. 20.5%, p < .001).

Differences by child, family, and neighborhood risk and whether the Five-Hypothesis Model (5HM) account for the observed program effects will be examined along with robustness testing. Findiings indicate that large-scale public programs can enhance midlife economic well-being, a key goal of the War on Poverty planners of the mid 1960s. Scaling programs of high quality more broadly to achieve this goal will be an important direction for policy and practice.

Authors

• Suh-Ruu Ou, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Arthur Reynolds, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author

• Judy Temple, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christina Mondi-Rago, Boston Children's Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole Smerillo, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author