The effect of unconditional cash transfers on maternal assessments of children's early language and socioemotional development: Experimental evidence from U.S. families residing in poverty.

Economic disadvantage has often been associated with poorer performance on measures of early childhood development. However, the causal impacts of income on child development remain unclear. The present study uses data from the Baby's First Years randomized control trial to identify the causal impact of unconditional cash transfers on maternal reports of early childhood development.

Unconditional Cash and Breastfeeding, Child Care, and Maternal Employment among Families with Young Children Residing in Poverty.

Poverty interferes with parents' breastfeeding, child-care, and employment options and ability to meet their parenting goals. This study-the first randomized controlled trial of early childhood poverty reduction in the United States-investigates how increased economic resources affect 1,000 low-income US mothers' breastfeeding, child-care, and employment practices and the ability to meet their intentions for these practices in the first year of their infant's life. The likelihood and length of breastfeeding, use of nonparental child care, and maternal employment did not statistically differ among mothers who received a high ($333) or low ($20) monthly unconditional cash gift.

Mothers with low incomes view both individual and structural interventions as potentially helpful for supporting early child development.

Many developmental psychologists aspire to conduct research that informs interventions and policies to prevent income-related disparities in child development. Among growing researcher discussion about the value of interventions that target "structural" and resource-related correlates of income inequality and child development (e.g.

Monthly unconditional income supplements starting at birth: Experiences among mothers of young children with low incomes in the U.S.

Recently, U.S. advocates and funders have supported direct cash transfers for individuals and families as an efficient, immediate, and non-paternalistic path to poverty alleviation.

Effects of a monthly unconditional cash transfer starting at birth on family investments among US families with low income.

How does unconditional income for families in poverty affect parental investments for their young children? Mothers in four US metropolitan areas were randomized to receive a monthly unconditional cash transfer of either $333 per month (high) or $20 per month (low) for the first several years after childbirth. During the first 3 years, high-cash gift households spent more money on child-specific goods and more time on child-specific early learning activities than the low-cash gift group. Few changes were evident in other core household expenditures.

"I Used to Get WIC… But Then I Stopped": How WIC Participants Perceive the Value and Burdens of Maintaining Benefits.

This study examines how individuals assess administrative burdens and how these views change over time within the context of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food to pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under age five. Using interview data from the Baby's First Years: Mothers' Voices study (n. = 80), we demonstrate how the circumstances of family life, shifiing food needs and preferences, and the receipt of other resources shape how mothers perceive the costs and benefits of program participation.

"If I don't have credit, I don't have anything": Perspectives on the credit scoring system among mothers with low incomes.

This mixed-methods study examines consumer perspectives on the credit scoring system drawn from in-depth interviews with 72 mothers with low incomes and national survey data from the National Financial Capability Study. Interviewees express strong awareness of credit scoring and a desire to have good credit. National survey data corroborate these findings, showing that most mothers with low incomes are knowledgeable about their credit scores.

Contraception use and satisfaction among mothers with low income: Evidence from the Baby's First Years study.

Objectives: Low income can lead to limited choice of and access to contraception. We examine whether an unconditional cash transfer (UCT) impacts contraceptive use, including increased satisfaction with and reduced barriers to preferred methods, for individuals with low income.

Study Design: Baby's First Years is a randomized control study of a monthly UCT to families with low incomes.

Unconditional Cash Transfers and Maternal Assessments of Children's Health, Nutrition, and Sleep: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Children experiencing poverty are more likely to experience worse health outcomes, including injury, chronic illness, worse nutrition, and poorer sleep. The extent to which poverty reduction improves these outcomes is unknown.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a 3-year, monthly unconditional cash transfer on health, nutrition, sleep, and health care utilization among children experiencing poverty who were healthy at birth.

The Effect of a U.S. Poverty Reduction Intervention on Maternal Assessments of Young Children's Health, Nutrition, and Sleep: A Randomized Control Trial.

Importance: Children experiencing poverty are more likely to experience worse health outcomes during the first few years of life, including injury, chronic illness, worse nutrition, and poorer sleep. The extent to which a poverty reduction intervention improves children's health, nutrition, sleep, and healthcare utilization is unknown.

Objective: To determine the effect of a 3-year, monthly unconditional cash transfer on health, nutrition, sleep, and healthcare utilization of children experiencing poverty who are healthy at birth.

Unconditional Cash and Family Investments in Infants: Evidence from a Large-Scale Cash Transfer Experiment in the U.S.

Economists have limited causal evidence on how families receiving unconditional income would spend those funds. We examine financial and time investments in infants among families living in poverty from a large-scale, multi-site randomized controlled study of monthly unconditional cash. We find increased spending on child-specific goods and mothers' early-learning activities with their infants.

"I Don't Like All Those Fees" Pragmatism About Financial Services Among Low-Income Parents.

Basic financial services facilitate people's ability to manage their finances, save, and receive payments from employers or the government. Drawing on survey data as well as qualitative interviews with 80 mothers with limited incomes, we find that parents take a pragmatic view and use a wide range of financial services to meet their needs including fintech, prepaid cards, and mobile phone-based solutions, as well as traditional banks. Mistrust in institutions is an important factor in shaping the services mothers avoid.

Romantic Unions and Mental Health: The Role of Relationship Churning.

The stress process perspective suggests that romantic relationship transitions can be stressors that impair mental health. Research on romantic relationships and mental health has ignored one common stressor, on-again/off-again relationships, or . Using five waves of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,176), we examine associations between relationship churning and mothers' mental health.

Unconditional cash transfers and maternal substance use: findings from a randomized control trial of low-income mothers with infants in the U.S.

Background: Policy debates over anti-poverty programs are often marked by pernicious stereotypes suggesting that direct cash transfers to people residing in poverty encourage health-risking behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and other substance use. Causal evidence on this issue is limited in the U.S.

The impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain activity.

Early childhood poverty is a risk factor for lower school achievement, reduced earnings, and poorer health, and has been associated with differences in brain structure and function. Whether poverty causes differences in neurodevelopment, or is merely associated with factors that cause such differences, remains unclear. Here, we report estimates of the causal impact of a poverty reduction intervention on brain activity in the first year of life.

Baby's First Years: Design of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Poverty Reduction in the United States.

Childhood economic disadvantage is associated with lower cognitive and social-emotional skills, reduced educational attainment, and lower earnings in adulthood. Despite these robust correlations, it is unclear whether family income is the cause of differences observed between children growing up in poverty and their more fortunate peers or whether these differences are merely due to the many other aspects of family life that co-occur with poverty. Baby's First Years is the first randomized controlled trial in the United States designed to identify the causal impact of poverty reduction on children's early development.

Intimate Partner Violence Screening in the Prenatal Period: Variation by State, Insurance, and Patient Characteristics.

Objective To measure the proportion of women screened for IPV during prenatal care; to assess the predictors of prenatal IPV screening. Methods We use the CDC's 2012 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, representative of births in 24 states and New York City (N = 28,581). We calculated descriptive and logistic regressions, weighted to deal with state-clustered observations.

Relationship Churning and Desistance From Intimate Abuse.

It is essential to understand how desistance from intimate abuse occurs so it can be facilitated for those experiencing it. Recognizing the category of churning relationships-in which partners separate and reunite-gives us analytic leverage in identifying the relationship dynamics that predict abuse desistance. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal survey of parents in urban areas, we compare desistance among churners (who experience a breakup only) with those who repartner (who experience a breakup and a new partnership) and those who are stably together (who experience neither a breakup nor a new partnership).

Parenting in On/Off Relationships: The Link Between Relationship Churning and Father Involvement.

Family systems theory points to the interconnected nature of dyadic relationships within the family unit, arguing for attention to how the parental relationship shapes their ties to and interactions with their children. Grounded in family systems theory, we consider how relationship churning-defined as being in an on-again/off-again relationship with the same partner-is associated with father involvement. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine how father involvement among relationship churners compares with father involvement among those in three other relationship types (measured during the first five years of the focal child's life): stably together relationships, stably broken-up relationships, and repartnered relationships.

Relationship Churning and Parenting Stress Among Mothers and Fathers.

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Relationship Churning in Emerging Adulthood: On/Off Relationships and Sex with an Ex.

We build on the emerging adulthood and marital reconciliation literatures to examine two forms of relationship instability: reconciliations and sex with an ex. Analyzing recent data on young adult daters and cohabitors (n = 792), we find that nearly half report a reconciliation (breakup followed by reunion) and over half of those who break up continue a sexual relationship (sex with an ex). In this young adult sample, cohabitors experience greater relationship churning than daters.

Relationship Churning, Physical Violence, and Verbal Abuse in Young Adult Relationships.

Young adults' romantic relationships are often unstable, commonly including breakup-reconcile patterns. From the developmental perspective of emerging adulthood exploration, such relationship "churning" is expected; however, minor conflicts are more common in churning relationships. Using TARS data (N = 792), we test whether relationship churning is associated with more serious conflict: physical violence and verbal abuse.

Discordance in couples' reporting of courtship stages: Implications for measurement and marital quality.

The symbolism of rituals creates a shared understanding of events among group members. In the context of romantic relationships, a shared understanding of relationship status transitions may be associated with greater commitment and higher quality relationships. We argue that couples with differing retrospective accounts of their premarital courtship may not have had clear discussions or rituals marking relationship turning points.