Family wealth and adolescent physical health.

Inequalities in the distribution of wealth among families with children may have deleterious health consequences, especially for adolescent children. Marked by significant psychosocial and physiological changes, adolescence is a period when socioeconomic differences in chronic disease risk factors are observed. Unfortunately, research on socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health has overlooked wealth, focusing instead on differences in health based on household income and parental educational attainment.

Managing and Minimizing Online Survey Questionnaire Fraud: Lessons from the Triple C Project.

With the increasing sophistication of online survey tools and the necessity of distanced research during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online questionnaires for research purposes has proliferated. Still, many researchers undertake online survey research without knowledge of the prevalence and likelihood of experiencing survey questionnaire fraud nor familiarity with measures used to identify fraud once it has occurred. This research note is based on the experience of researchers across four sites who implemented an online survey of families' experiences with COVID-19 in the U.

Beyond Parental Wealth: Grandparental Wealth and the Transition to Adulthood.

This study considers the multigenerational consequences of wealth transmission for the transition to young adulthood. Using a wider set of outcomes than has previously been considered, and by analyzing parental and grandparental wealth simultaneously, this work underscores the salience of multiple generations of wealth as a predictor for young adult well-being. Data comes from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics on a sample of youth followed from mid-adolescence until the age of 20.

The Buffering Effect of State Eviction and Foreclosure Policies for Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred an economic downturn that may have eroded population mental health, especially for renters and homeowners who experienced financial hardship and were at risk of housing loss. Using household-level data from the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (n = 805,223; August 2020-August 2021) and state-level data on eviction/foreclosure bans, we estimated linear probability models with two-way fixed effects to (1) examine links between COVID-related financial hardship and anxiety/depression and (2) assess whether state eviction/foreclosure bans buffered the detrimental mental health impacts of financial hardship. Findings show that individuals who reported difficulty paying for household expenses and keeping up with rent or mortgage had increased anxiety and depression risks but that state eviction/foreclosure bans weakened these associations.

Net worth poverty and adult health.

This study broadens the traditional focus on income as the primary measure of economic deprivation by providing the first analysis of wealth deprivation, or net worth poverty (NWP), and adult health. Net worth poverty-having wealth (assets minus debts) less than one-fourth of the federal poverty line-likely exacerbates the negative effects of income poverty (IP). In 2019, one-third of US households were net worth poor, with substantially higher rates among Black (60%) relative to White (25%) households.

Marriage, Kids, and the Picket Fence? Household Type and Wealth among U.S. Households, 1989 to 2019.

Evidence on how parenthood impacts household wealth in the United States has been inconclusive, partially because previous studies have decontextualized parenthood from gender, marital, and relationship status. Yet, insights from economic sociology suggest that wealth-related behaviors are shaped by the intersection of identities, not by a binary classification of parental status. We examine net worth by the intersection of gender, parental, and relationship status during a period of increasing wealth inequality and family diversification.

Net Worth Poverty and Child Development.

The authors investigate whether net worth poverty (NWP) reduces children's well-being. NWP-having wealth (assets minus debts) less than one fourth of the federal poverty line-is both theoretically and empirically distinct from income poverty (IP) and is the modal form of poverty among children. Data come from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its Child Development Supplement on children ages 3 to 17 years observed between 2002 and 2019.

Net Worth Poverty in Child Households by Race and Ethnicity, 1989-2019.

Objective: This study is the first to examine net worth poverty, and its intersection with income poverty, by race and ethnicity among child households in the United States.

Background: Scholarship on economic scarcity for children has largely concentrated on income deficits and thus leaves open important questions about wealth deficits.

Method: Data come from the 1989-2019 waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, on households with at least one resident child under the age of 18.

Means-Tested Safety Net Programs and Hispanic Families: Evidence from Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC.

Hispanic families have historically used means-tested assistance less than high-poverty peers, and one explanation for this may be that anti-immigrant politics and policies are a barrier to program participation. We document the participation of Hispanic children in three antipoverty programs by age and parental citizenship and the correlation of participation with state immigrant-based restrictions. Hispanic citizen children with citizen parents participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid more than Hispanic citizen children with noncitizen parents.

Heightened immigration enforcement impacts US citizens' birth outcomes: Evidence from early ICE interventions in North Carolina.

We examine how increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities impacted newborn health and prenatal care utilization in North Carolina around the time Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act was first being implemented within the state. Focusing on administrative data between 2004 and 2006, we conduct difference-in-differences and triple-difference case-control regression analysis. Pregnancies were classified by levels of potential exposure to immigration enforcement depending on parental nativity and educational attainment.

A Penny on the Dollar: Racial Inequalities in Wealth among Households with Children.

The dynamics of racial/ethnic wealth inequality among U.S. families with resident children (child households) have been understudied, a major oversight because of wealth's impact on child development and intergenerational mobility.

Social Class Divergence in Family Transitions: The Importance of Cohabitation.

Objective: This study examined trends in familial transitions by maternal education and whether transitions rose because of changes in prevalence (the share of children exposed to a relationship state, either marriage or cohabitation) or churning (the number of entrances and exits conditional on being exposed to a relationship state).

Background: Children's experiences of transitions, an important predictor of well-being, have leveled off in recent decades. Plateauing in transitions may reflect heterogeneity by socioeconomic status.

"His" and "Hers": Meeting the Economic Bar to Marriage.

Scholars have suggested that low-income parents avoid marriage because they have not met the so-called economic bar to marriage. The economic bar is multidimensional, referring to a bundle of financial achievements that determine whether couples feel ready to wed. Using the Building Strong Families data set of low-income parents (n = 4,444), we operationalized this qualitative concept into a seven-item index and examined whether couples who met the economic bar by achieving the majority of the items were more likely to marry than couples who did not.

Children and the Elderly: Wealth Inequality Among America's Dependents.

Life cycle theory predicts that elderly households have higher levels of wealth than households with children, but these wealth gaps are likely dynamic, responding to changes in labor market conditions, patterns of debt accumulation, and the overall economic context. Using Survey of Consumer Finances data from 1989 through 2013, we compare wealth levels between and within the two groups that make up America's dependents: the elderly and child households (households with a resident child aged 18 or younger). Over the observed period, the absolute wealth gap between elderly and child households in the United States increased substantially, and diverging trends in wealth accumulation exacerbated preexisting between-group disparities.

Low-income Childless Young Adults' Marriage and Fertility Frameworks.

We investigate how low-income young adults without children understand marriage and fertility. Data come from the Becoming Partners and Parents Study (=) a qualitative study of African-American adults ages 18-22 in a midsize southern city. This is the first study to analyze young, low-income, childless and unmarried Black respondents' frameworks (i.

Local Job Losses and Child Maltreatment: The Importance of Community Context.

A growing body of literature suggests that economic downturns predict an increase in child maltreatment. However, to inform policies and practices to prevent and intervene in child maltreatment, it is necessary to identify how, when, and under what conditions community-level economic conditions affect child maltreatment. In this study, we use North Carolina administrative data from 2006 to 2011 on child maltreatment reports and job losses to distinguish effects on maltreatment frequency from effects on severity, identify the timing of these effects, and test whether community characteristics moderate these effects.

They Should Say "I Don't": Norms About Midpregnancy Marriage and Job Loss.

This study examined effects of local economic conditions on individuals' attitudes toward midpregnancy marriages using an experimental vignette method. Adults (N = 460) were each shown two vignettes about a hypothetical couple expecting a baby; within each vignette pair, vignettes randomly varied as to whether the couple lived in a community that had recently experienced job losses or had stable employment. Respondents indicated if the couple should and will get married before the baby's birth.

Midpregnancy Marriage and Divorce: Why the Death of Shotgun Marriage Has Been Greatly Exaggerated.

Conventional wisdom holds that births following the colloquially termed "shotgun marriage"-that is, births to parents who married between conception and the birth-are nearing obsolescence. To investigate trends in shotgun marriage, we matched North Carolina administrative data on nearly 800,000 first births among white and black mothers to marriage and divorce records. We found that among married births, midpregnancy-married births (our preferred term for shotgun-married births) have been relatively stable at about 10 % over the past quarter-century while increasing substantially for vulnerable population subgroups.

How Economic Downturns Affect Children's Development: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Pathways of Influence.

To understand how economic downturns affect children's development, scholars have concentrated on how parents' loss of a job affects children's well-being, but have largely ignored the potential effects of downturns on children whose parents remain employed. In this article, we review research across disciplines to demonstrate that economic downturns should be conceptualized as a community-level event that affects all children in a community, not just those whose parents have lost jobs. We focus on three mechanisms linking downturns to children's developmental outcomes: structural changes to communities, the economic and psychological effects on individuals who are continuously employed, and the strain of job loss on social networks.

Magic moment? Maternal marriage for children born out of wedlock.

To test the existence of the "magic moment" for parental marriage immediately post-birth and to inform policies that preferentially encourage biological over step parent marriage, this study estimates the incidence and stability of maternal marriage for children born out of wedlock. Data came from the National Survey of Family Growth on 5,255 children born non maritally. By age 15, 29 % of children born non maritally experienced a biological-father marriage, and 36 % experienced a stepfather marriage.

Community-wide job loss and teenage fertility: evidence from North Carolina.

Using North Carolina data for the period 1990-2010, we estimate the effects of economic downturns on the birthrates of 15- to 19-year-olds, using county-level business closings and layoffs as a plausibly exogenous source of variation in the strength of the local economy. We find little effect of job losses on the white teen birthrate. For black teens, however, job losses to 1 % of the working-age population decrease the birthrate by around 2 %.

Breastfeeding and the child cognitive outcomes: a propensity score matching approach.

To estimate the effect of breastfeeding initiation and duration on child development outcomes. 3,271 children and their mothers participating in the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics provide data for these analyses. Main outcomes include Woodcock Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised (WJ-R) test score (letter word, passage comprehension, applied problem, and broad reading), and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) test score at the 2002 survey.