Childcare Subsidy Enrollment Income Generosity and Child Maltreatment

Abstract

In the United States, childcare subsidies are available to low-income working parents to assist with the cost of childcare. The subsidies are provided as block grants to states, which allows for a great deal of flexibility in the specific policies guiding their distribution. Prior research has found a protective link between childcare subsidies and child maltreatment, but the variations in policies have been much less explored. The current study used longitudinal administrative child welfare data from 10 years (2009–2019) linked with state policies regarding the income eligibility requirements of states to examine the impact of these policies on child abuse and neglect among young children (0–5); early school-age children (6–12), and older children (13–17). Using multiple regression and controlling for state demographic characteristics, the study found that more generous policies surrounding income eligibility were related to lower rates of child abuse and neglect investigations at the state level.

Disentangling Poverty From Neglect: Using a Person-Centered Approach to Examine Risk Factors for Neglect Among Families in Poverty

“…Indeed, based on the Family Stress Model, poverty combined with economic pressures (e.g., residential instability, lack of health insurance) and parental psychological distress (e.g., depressive symptoms and parenting stress) increases the risk of disrupted parenting (Conger et al, 2010), or in this case neglect. As such, addressing financial, housing, food, child care, and health care insecurity requires policy-level change to reduce society-level risk factors associated with poverty (Elias et al, 2018; Klika et al, 2022; Smith et al, 2021; Thomas & Waldfogel, 2022; Zhang et al, 2022). Therefore, practitioners and policymakers should consider how to address structural inequalities when working with families in poverty, in addition to providing family-level supports (Briar-Lawson et al, 2021; Saar-Heiman, 2022).…”