Safety Net Spending on Children and the Sources of Household Income Across U.S. States, 1997-2016.

High levels of poverty and economic precarity in the United States relative to other countries have led to academic and policy debates about whether welfare state investments accomplish what they are intended to. Although social safety net spending clearly has antipoverty effects at the national level, there is scant evidence on the "resource pathway" presumed to underlie the effects of the local welfare state on families with children. Which types of public investments have especially contributed to the total resources of households with children? Understanding this question at the state level is important, given dramatic variation in states' safety net spending on children and the rise of federalism, which increases state autonomy in designing and administering social programs.

Public Investments and Class Gaps in Parents' Developmental Expenditures.

Families and governments are the primary sources of investment in children, providing access to basic resources and other developmental opportunities. Recent research identifies significant class gaps in parental investments that contribute to high levels of inequality by family income and education. State-level public investments in children and families have the potential to reduce class inequality in children's developmental environments by affecting parents' behavior.

Social Spending and Educational Gaps in Infant Health in the United States, 1998-2017.

Recent expansions of child tax, food assistance, and health insurance programs have made American families' need for a robust social safety net highly evident, while researchers and policymakers continue to debate the best way to support families via the welfare state. How much do children-and which children-benefit from social spending? Using the State-by-State Spending on Kids Dataset, linked to National Vital Statistics System birth data from 1998 to 2017, we examine how state-level child spending affects infant health across maternal education groups. We find that social spending has benefits for both low birth weight and preterm birth rates, especially among babies born to mothers with less than a high school education.

The Educational Gradient in Health among Children in Immigrant Families.

Educational inequality in the health of U.S. children-what social scientists refer to as the "educational gradient" in health-is present at birth for virtually every marker of health, and increases throughout childhood.

Child access to the nutritional safety net during and after the Great Recession: The case of WIC.

Because children disproportionately live in poverty, they are especially vulnerable during economic crises, making the social safety net a key buffer against the effects of economic disadvantage on their development. The Great Recession of 2007-2009 had strong and lasting effects on American children and families, including striking negative effects on their health environments. Understanding access to the health safety net during this time of increased economic need, as well as the extent to which all children-regardless of age, income or race/ethnicity-share in the increased use of transfer programs, is therefore important in identifying the availability and accessibility of government assistance for those in need.

Cumulative inequality in child health and academic achievement.

Our understanding of health and social stratification can be enriched by testing tenets of cumulative inequality theory that emphasize how the accumulation of inequality is dependent on the developmental stage being considered, the duration and stability of poor health, and the family resources available to children. I analyze longitudinal data from the British National Child Development Study (N = 9,252) to ask: (1) if child health is a source of cumulative inequality in academic achievement, (2) whether this relationship depends on the timing and duration of poor health, and (3) whether trajectories are sensitive to levels of family capital. The results suggest that the relationship between health and academic achievement emerges very early in life and persists and that whether we observe shrinking or widening inequality as children age depends on when we measure their health and whether children have access to compensatory resources.

Early childhood WIC participation, cognitive development and academic achievement.

For the 22% of American children who live below the federal poverty line, and the additional 23% who live below twice that level, nutritional policy is part of the safety net against hunger and its negative effects on children's development. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides steadily available food from the food groups essential for physical and cognitive development. The effects of WIC on dietary quality among participating women and children are strong and positive.

Immigrant-native differences in child health: does maternal education narrow or widen the gap?

Abundant U.S. research documents an "immigrant advantage" in children's physical health.

Nativity Differences in Youths' Weight Trajectories: Foreign-Born Health Integration during the Transition to Adulthood.

Nativity differences in youths' health in the United States are striking, with the children of foreign-born parents showing more favorable outcomes than those of native-born parents. Very little is known about how inequalities evolve within the same individuals over time, or more generally about life cycle aspects of the health integration of youth with migration backgrounds. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I examine nativity differences in trajectories of weight gain during adolescence and early adulthood, as well as the degree to which trajectories are stratified by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Schooling Location and Economic, Occupational and Cognitive Success among Immigrants and Their Children: The Case of Los Angeles.

Large numbers of foreign-born residents in the United States mean that many people receive at least part of their education abroad. Despite this fact, our understanding of nativity differences in the success of adults and their children is based on research that does not empirically consider variation in the benefits to schooling depending on where it is received. We use data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.

Understanding links between adolescent health and educational attainment.

The educational and economic consequences of poor health during childhood and adolescence have become increasingly clear, with a resurgence of evidence leading researchers to reconsider the potentially significant contribution of early-life health to population welfare both within and across generations. Meaningful relationships between early-life health and educational attainment raise important questions about how health may influence educational success in young adulthood and beyond, as well as for whom its influence is strongest. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I examine how adolescents'health and social status act together to create educational disparities in young adulthood, focusing on two questions in particular.

A Life Course Perspective on Child Health, Academic Experiences and Occupational Skill Qualifications in Adulthood: Evidence from a British Cohort.

Existing research rarely examines the social consequences of poor childhood health from a longitudinal perspective. Using data from the British National Child Development Study, I follow a cohort from before birth through middle age to examine whether children's health limitations before and during the educational process predict occupational skill qualifications in mid-adulthood, and whether any negative consequences are strongest for children in persistently poor health. I also examine whether differences in achievement explain the observed associations, and at what point during the schooling process performance begins to play a large explanatory role.

CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL MEASUREMENTS OF NEIGHBORHOOD EXPERIENCE AND THEIR EFFECTS ON CHILDREN.

Despite the abundance of research on neighborhoods' effects on children, most studies of neighborhood effects are cross-sectional, rendering them unable to depict the dynamic nature of social life, and obscuring important aspects of community processes and outcomes. This study uses residential histories from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explore two questions: 1) How much do residential mobility and neighborhood change contribute to the overall socioeconomic variation in children's neighborhoods? 2) Does measuring community factors at more than one point in time matter for the conclusions that we draw from research on "neighborhood effects" on children's behavioral, cognitive and health-related well-being? Residential mobility plays a non-trivial role over the period of childhood in determining children's exposure to neighborhoods of different economic types. However, quantitative estimates of neighborhood effects that allow neighborhood characteristics to vary through residential mobility and neighborhood change do not depict a strikingly different picture from cross-sectional estimates.