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Publication Date

6-28-2024

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Presentation: 5:40

Poster attached as supplemental file below

Abstract

Child poverty in the United States is an urgent public health concern that undermines multiple dimensions of well-being. Child tax credits aim to increase a family’s resources and thereby increase well-being. Although 13 states have introduced state-level child tax credits (SCTC) in the last five years, there have been no systemic efforts to understand their effect on health outcomes. This project examines the relationship between SCTC and quality-of-life measures from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Trends in quality-of-life measures were analyzed using the difference-in-differences method of analysis in four states with SCTC and four comparison states without SCTC. The findings from these comparisons were mixed in terms of the magnitude and significance of observed associations. Refining and expanding these analyses, including adjustment for other confounding factors and use of a longer time span of comparison, is essential to understanding the effect of these policies and to the broader effort to improve the well-being of households experiencing financial precarity.

Lay Summary

Many children around the United States experience poverty, which is not having enough money to meet their basic needs. Poor children have worse health than wealthier children. People disagree about the best way to fix this problem. One way is offering child tax credits. These are rebates. People who pay taxes get some money back if they have children. There is a federal child tax credit, and some states have these too. No research has studied the effects of state child tax credits. This project uses statistics to explore the effects of different child tax credit policies. It will do this by looking at trends in well-being in states that have child tax credits and those that do not. The data comes from an annual survey performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Answers from 2016 to 2022 were used so there would be information from before and after a state child tax credit was adopted. The results did not show a clear connection between a child tax credit and health. There could be many reasons for this. Many of the laws were made recently, so they may not have had enough time to make changes. Other studies may find different results.

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202406_Stettheimer_Katie_poster.pptx (361 kB)

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English

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