Center for Child & Family Policy | Duke University

Anna Gassman-Pines summarizes her research on the daily variability of food security in a recent article on Public Health Post. Leveraging daily survey reports from a sample of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipient parents with young children, Gassman-Pines and co-author of the study, Anika Schenck-Fontaine, found that the severity of recipients’ daily food insecurity is higher at the end of the SNAP month than at the beginning. These findings add to growing evidence that SNAP benefits may be inadequate for too many families.

An article in Maclean’s Magazine highlights a research initiative led by Lisa Gennetian that is testing whether an injection of cash for poorer families can reshape a child’s early life and educational outcomes. The study, called Baby’s First Years, launched in 2018 and involves giving monthly installments of unconditional cash to low-income mothers over the first three years of their child’s life to test whether money itself improves family life and child development.

On November 22, Lisa A. Gennetian joined a panel of experts on racial and ethnic inequities in family income stability. The panel was part of a day-long event hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), Brandeis University’s The Heller School for Social Policy and Management and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, to engage in a dialogue on racial/ethnic equity and policy proposals to reduce child poverty. During the panel, Gennetian spoke about how poverty as well as stability of income can affect children’s development and presented findings from her work on income stability among Hispanic families with children.

The event was one of many featuring conclusions from the 2019 NASEM report, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. To watch the webcast recording of the event and download the report, visit: https://sites.nationalacademies.org/dbasse/bcyf/reducing_child_poverty/index.htm

View Gennetian’s presentation: Income Instability, Child Poverty, and Child Wellbeing: Race/ethnicity and informing policies to alleviate poverty

Education NC covered the Center’s latest Early Childhood Initiative lecture, featuring Elizabeth Cascio of Dartmouth College. Cascio discussed her research that looks at the cost efficacy of universal over means-tested (targeted) pre-K. During a presentation of her latest study, Cascio pointed to findings that show universal programs across states do not cost more per pupil than targeted programs, but they deliver ‘more bang for your buck,’ she said. She also discussed some possible reasons.

Family Connects, a program in which nurses conduct home visits for newborns and their families, is linked to substantial reductions in child maltreatment investigations in children’s earliest years, according to new research from Duke University.

Program participants had 44 percent lower rates of child maltreatment investigations during children’s first 24 months of life, compared with parents who did not receive the program, researchers found.

“We now have evidence from a rigorous evaluation that the Family Connects program can reduce the community rate of early child abuse investigations,” said lead author Kenneth Dodge. “Supporting families with newborns is key to child and family well-being.”

For more information on the study and key findings, access the news release or download the full report.

Economist Philip J. Cook, a professor in Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Center faculty fellow, has been awarded the 2020 Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his decades of research on gun violence and its wide-ranging effects on society.

Cook and co-winner Franklin Zimring, the William G. Simon Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, will share the prize: $1.5 million Swedish kroner, or about $150,000. The prize will be awarded by the Queen of Sweden in a ceremony in Stockholm June 10, 2020.

An article in the Charlotte Parent explores a popular topic of whether parents have a favorite child — “a topic worth exploring because of the deep effects favoritism can have on both parents and children.” In the article, Jennifer Lansford explains there are “no really good empirical studies on this issue.”

“She suggests that the ‘strong social preference not to have a favorite’ may cause some parents to feel too embarrassed or guilty to admit they have a favorite, while other parents might have difficulty interpreting the question itself: Does having a ‘favorite’ mean you actually “love” one child more than your other(s)? Or does it simply mean that you treat your children differently for any number of reasons?”

In response to a reader-submitted ‘Chronquiry,’ a recent article in Duke University’s student newspaper reveals The Duke Endowment as Duke University’s largest donor. Since 1924, the Endowment has given $1.6 billion. Susan McConnell, director of the higher education program for The Duke Endowment, explains that Duke receives grants in four areas: education, health care, rural churches and childcare. In the childcare program, she says “the Endowment has partnered with the Center for Child and Family Policy, contributing $7.4 million since 2000 to collaborate on evidence-based programs. An additional $13 million in grants has gone toward Durham Connects, a community-wide nursing home visiting program for parents of newborns.”

Moving children up out of poverty will require more than “moving to opportunity,” explains Lisa Gennetian and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, of Temple University, in a recent blog post for Brookings Institution. In order “to genuinely alter children’s prospects,” the authors call for “a multi-pronged, coordinated set of policy investments that enable each child to fully reach her potential.” 

Research studies about the impacts of new laws to end unpredictable work scheduling are starting to emerge. A Vox article points to Anna Gassman-Pines‘ study of parents of young children in Emeryville, CA, as an example. As part of the study, Gassman-Pines, along with Elizabeth Ananat of Columbia University, and their colleagues surveyed a group of working parents before and after the 2017 Fair Workweek Ordinance was enacted. Workers at covered companies reported that their schedules improved — with a 35 percent reduction in instability (such as cancelled shifts or changed hours) — as did their sleep quality and levels of stress, compared to no change for workers in the uncovered companies.