No Evidence The Child Tax Credit Expansion Had An Effect On The Well-Being And Mental Health Of Parents

Glasner, Benjamin; Jiménez-Solomon, Oscar; Collyer, Sophie; Garfinkel, Irwin; Wimer, Christopher

doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00730

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…We focus our study on families with children. Some prior CTC research has used childless individuals as a comparison group (e.g., Batra et al, 2023 ; Glasner et al, 2022 ); however, we believe that childless individuals make a poor counterfactual in our study. First, in order to conduct a difference-in-differences analysis comparing families with children to those without children, it is necessary to satisfy the parallel trends assumption.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Although we expect that, on average, the monthly credit improved the mental health symptoms of parents, some recent studies find null effects of the 2021 CTC on indicators of mental wellbeing ( Collyer et al, 2022 ; Glasner et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, other experimental studies of unconditional cash transfers have found null or negative mental health impacts ( Gennetian et al, 2022 ; Jacob et al, 2022 ; Jaroszewicz et al, 2022 ; Liebman et al, 2022 ; Magnuson et al, 2022 ; Pilkauskas et al, 2023 ).…”

Section: Why Might the 2021 Monthly Ctc Payments Affect The Mental He...mentioning

confidence: 79%

“…One study found that among adults in New York City, CTC benefits were associated with less psychological distress, but the association did not reach statistical significance ( Collyer et al, 2022 ). A second study based on a nationally representative sample of adults also found no significant association between the CTC and mental health ( Glasner et al, 2022 ). The final study used a nationally representative sample of adults and a triple interaction model to examine the link between the CTC and anxiety and depression symptoms ( Batra et al, 2023 ).…”

Section: Prior Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This well-documented association suggests that cash transfer policies might have spillover effects on mental health outcomes. However, despite quasi-experimental evidence from low- and middle-income countries that cash transfers can improve the mental wellbeing of recipients ( McGuire et al, 2022 ), both quasi-experimental and experimental studies on cash transfers in the U.S. context have found more mixed evidence (e.g., Gennetian et al, 2022 ; Glasner et al, 2022 ; Pilkauskas et al, 2023 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Estimates suggest that the 2021 CTC increased access to the credit for approximately 26 million children whose families were previously either partially or completely ineligible for the benefit, especially Black and Hispanic children ( Goldin & Michelmore, 2022 ). Research shows that the 2021 CTC reduced childhood poverty and improved material wellbeing ( Parolin et al, 2021 ; Pilkauskas et al, 2022 ), but also that the credit had no effect on parental mental health ( Collyer et al, 2022 ; Glasner et al, 2022 ; although Batra et al, [2023] find lower anxiety and depression symptoms among families with earnings below $35,000 as compared to families with higher earnings and families without children).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Unconditional cash transfers and mental health symptoms among parents with low incomes: Evidence from the 2021 child tax credit

Kovski

Pilkauskas

Michelmore

et al. 2023

SSM - Population Health

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Why Might the 2021 Monthly Ctc Payments Affect The Mental He...mentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Prior Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Unconditional cash transfers and mental health symptoms among parents with low incomes: Evidence from the 2021 child tax credit

Kovski

Pilkauskas

Michelmore

et al. 2023

SSM - Population Health

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Changes in Self-Reported Adult Health and Household Food Security With the 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit Monthly Payments

et al. 2023

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ImportanceThe 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit (ECTC) provided families with children monthly payments from July 2021 to December 2021. The association of this policy with adult health is understudied.ObjectiveTo examine changes in adult self-reported health and household food security before and during ECTC monthly payments.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis repeated cross-sectional study used multivariable regression with a difference-in-differences estimator to assess adult health and food security for 39 479 respondents to the National Health Interview Survey (January 2019 to December 2021) before vs during monthly payments. Analyses were stratified by income to focus on low-income vs middle-income and upper-income households.ExposureEligibility for ECTC monthly payments from July 2021 to December 2021.Main Outcomes and MeasuresOverall self-reported adult health and household food security as binary outcomes (excellent or very good health vs good, fair, or poor health; food secure vs food insecure).ResultsIn this nationally representative cross-sectional study of 39 479 US adults (mean [SD] age, 41.0 [13.0] years; 7234 [21.7%] Hispanic, 321 [0.9%] non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native, 2205 [5.7%] non-Hispanic Asian, 5113 [13.7%] non-Hispanic Black, and 23 704 [55.8%] White individuals), respondents were predominantly female (21 511 [52.4%]), employed (33 035 [86.7%]), and married (19 838 [55.7%]). Before disbursement of ECTC monthly payments, 7633 ECTC-eligible adults (60.1%) reported excellent or very good health, and 10 950 (87.8%) reported having food security. Among ECTC-ineligible adults, 10 778 (54.9%) reported excellent or very good health and 17 839 (89.1%) reported food security. Following disbursement of monthly payments, ECTC-eligible adults experienced a 3.0 percentage point (pp) greater adjusted increase (95% CI, 0.2-5.7) in the probability of reporting excellent or very good health compared with ECTC-ineligible adults. Additionally, ECTC-eligible adults experienced a 1.9 pp greater adjusted increase (95% CI, 0.1-3.7) in the probability of food security than ECTC-ineligible adults. In income-stratified analyses, the association between ECTC eligibility and overall health was concentrated among middle-income and upper-income households (3.7-pp increase in excellent or very good health; 95% CI, 0.5-6.9). Conversely, the association between ECTC eligibility and food security was concentrated among low-income adults (3.9-pp increase in food security; 95% CI, 0-7.9).Conclusions and RelevanceThe results of this cross-sectional study suggest that monthly ECTC payments were associated with improved adult overall health and food security. Cash transfer programs may be effective tools in improving adult health and household nutrition.

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Does Supporting Children Help Their Parents Thrive?

Shafer

2024

JAMA Netw Open

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The United States' social safety net is a patchwork at best, an ordeal by design, and adversarial to many. It is imbued with stigma, dehumanization, and a legacy of racism, reflecting an ideal that help should be temporary, if you are deserving, or simply unavailable, despite an economy with a decadeslong trend of rising inequality. We have designed programs in such a way that it takes a lot of effort for both people and the government, using burdensome paperwork and documentation that keeps many of those eligible for assistance from receiving it, with detrimental consequences for health and making health equity even harder to achieve. However, we embraced a more universalist approach with the Child Tax Credit expansion of 2021, which President Biden has referred to as "one of the most effective programs we've ever seen." 1 Elsewhere in JAMA Network Open, Nam and Kwon 2 examine how the Child Tax Credit expansion affected the mental health of low-income parents in the United States, finding a more than one-fourth decrease (27%) in the odds of self-reported anxiety symptoms among parents whose household income was less than $35 000.By early 2021, we had already lost more than half a million US residents to COVID-19, with tens of millions more at risk not (only) from the morbidity and mortality associated with an evolving pandemic, but from the collateral damage that it inflicted on our economy and our people-job loss, eviction, food insecurity, and more. The pandemic laid bare the inequities in our society-piling on more risk, disproportionate burden, and loss. We had an opportunity, need, and obligation to "think big." 3 The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), 4 passed in March 2021, was a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill designed to help the United States stem the tide of a pandemic-fueled recession. ARPA extended unemployment benefits; provided aid to state, local, and tribal governments and small businesses; ensured access and affordability of health insurance coverage; and supported COVID-19 testing and treatment nationwide. These were important and necessary bridges into a still uncertain future, as vaccines were just becoming available, but the shadow of the economic overhang of a still roiling pandemic loomed large. But Congress and the White House also took a big social policy swing, albeit on a short-term basis, by turning the Child Tax Credit into a "child allowance" as the National Academies, in their A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, 5 and poverty scholars have recommended as part of the solution.Child poverty has been an ongoing problem in the United States, and the existing Child Tax Credit made it difficult for the poorest families to benefit. ARPA made several key changes to the Child Tax Credit for 2021 by (1) increasing the credit amount and age limit, (2) making it fully refundable, and (3) distributing half of the credit through monthly advance payments. The advance payments, made for 6 months from July through December 2021, of as much as $300 per child under the age of 6 years and $250 per child u...

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No Evidence The Child Tax Credit Expansion Had An Effect On The Well-Being And Mental Health Of Parents

Cited by 18 publications

References 26 publications

Unconditional cash transfers and mental health symptoms among parents with low incomes: Evidence from the 2021 child tax credit

Unconditional cash transfers and mental health symptoms among parents with low incomes: Evidence from the 2021 child tax credit

Changes in Self-Reported Adult Health and Household Food Security With the 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit Monthly Payments

Does Supporting Children Help Their Parents Thrive?

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