Safety net policies are intended to provide some level of basic income support and economic security to eligible families, in turn improving developmental outcomes and life course trajectories for children. Yet, despite high rates of poverty, Latinx families are less likely than other groups to utilize these benefits. Gennetian and colleagues will utilize a novel dataset, the creation of which was supported by a prior Foundation grant, to examine how variation in the state and local design of policies and their front-line delivery can hinder or facilitate the uptake of income support policies by Latinx families. The team will use difference-in-difference models contrasting Latinx families with equivalent low-income non-Latinx families to estimate the effects of different income support policies and their front-line implementation on youth social-emotional and academic outcomes. They will also examine variation in impact by parental nativity and citizenship status and youth age and gender. Findings from this study may inform policy and practice to reduce inequalities for Latinx families and build on existing knowledge about the impact of income-support policies for improving child outcomes.
Do state income support policies and practices explain differences in program receipt between Latinx and non-Latinx families and the relative well-being of Latinx children?
