Childhood Safety Net Investments and Health Disparities From Birth Through Young Adulthood
openNICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Project Summary/Abstract
Safety net supports for families with children are a key component of the resources available to U.S. families
with low and moderate incomes. Effective provision of social supports through the state may positively affect
child health and development by augmenting access to resources both within and outside of the home, with
benefits accruing from the prenatal period through early adulthood and beyond. Most research seeks to isolate
the effects of a single program or public investment, providing critical evidence but not accounting for the fact
that most households with children—particularly low-income households—access multiple public supports
(Edelstein, Pergamit, and Ratcliffe 2014; Jackson and Fanelli 2023; Macartney and Ghertner 2023). Because
federal, state, and local governments must determine spending levels and how to spend funds for the children
and families who rely on it, it is critical to understand how different forms of public investment work
independently and in combination to affect children. Drawing on an interdisciplinary team, we will use quasiexperimental methods to estimate the effects of early-life exposure to safety net generosity–spending and
benefits levels–on a multidimensional set of outcomes. Specifically, we will: (1) Examine the causal effects of
early-life exposure to safety net investments on health and development from birth through middle childhood;
(2) Examine how early-life safety net environments differentially affect children by socioeconomic status (SES)
and race/ethnicity.
We will analyze two large-scale sources of data on short- and medium-term outcomes for children: birth
outcomes from the universe of U.S. births, using data from the CDC National Vital Statistics System (NVSS);
and age 8/9 health and skill development, using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH).
Our analyses of existing high-quality, publicly available data will enable additional research examining the
effects of federal, state, and local investments on the health and development of U.S. children and families.
Up to $500K
health research