Much of the variation in adult income in the United States has to
do with the family background a child has while growing up.
One-third to one-half of children who are poor for a substantial
part of their childhood will be poor as adults. The growing
income inequality in the U.S. has been accompanied by a widening
gap in school achievement between children living in high- vs.
low-income families. Welfare participation is also
substantially correlated across generations.
See below for more information on research projects and other
resources related to this topic.
Much of the variation in adult income in the United States is
related to family background during childhood. One-third to
one-half of children who are poor for a substantial part of their
childhood will be poor as adults. Welfare participation is also
substantially correlated across generations. Widening income
inequality in the U.S. has been accompanied by a widening
achievement gap between children living in high- vs. low-income
families.
Across the social sciences, our Faculty Affiliates are engaging
in projects aimed at better understanding and isolating the
causal relationships between parents’ socioeconomic status and
their children’s eventual ability to escape poverty. Research
Affiliates are also investigating how the stressors that many
poor children face affect their emotional development and
behaviors.
Do mothers’ biological responses to stress transfer to her child?
This is a question addressed in a recently published study by
Leah Hibel of UC Davis and Evelyn Mercado of UCLA. Though prior
reports have shown that mothers help their children regulate
distress through calming and soothing, there are few studies that
examine the ways in which a mother facing stress might transmit
stress to her child. This study shows that mothers transmit
stress to their infants and that mothers’ emotions appear to play
a role in this transmission.
The idea that individuals can escape poverty through hard work is
a fundamental tenant of American society. Intergenerational
mobility is lower in the United States than in any other
developed country in the world. One in ten American children
spends at least half of their childhood in poverty. Understanding
the mechanisms that lie behind the intergenerational transmission
of poverty is necessary in order to design effective policies to
improve poor children’s life chances.
These briefs are short and informative analyses of our research
relating to poverty policies. Policy Briefs deliver our
cutting-edge research directly to policy makers, researchers, and
stakeholders in an accessible format.
In a recent study[1], we explored whether Black students benefit from being matched to a Black teacher. Specifically, we examined whether it affects the likelihood of them being identified for gifted education programs or special education services.
In 2012, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) placed strict nutritional requirements on food served at public schools. In a recent study, we explored whether changes to the healthiness of school meals led parents to substitute towards them, away from purchasing meals from supermarkets; and, if so, which households were more willing to do so.
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages for children aged one to four years include a cash value benefit (CVB) redeemable for fruits and vegetables with participating vendors. Beginning in June 2021, the CVB value was increased. In a recent study, we evaluated associations of the augmented CVB with the amount and diversity of redeemed fruits and vegetables. We found that the augmented CVB was associated with greater and more diverse purchases of fruits and vegetables.
Center podcasts are a great way to keep up with today’s poverty
research and public policy. We record most of our conference
presentations and talks by our seminar speakers. We also produce
exclusive content, such as our Poverty in Focus series, as well
as expert discussions on research.
In this podcast, David Figlio and Michal Kurlaender discuss how
inequality before a child is even born can compound across a
lifetime, and the difference high-quality schools can make for
low-income children.
In this podcast, Peter Bergman and Cassandra M.D.
Hart discuss how access to timely,
actionable information about how students are performing in
school can help parents keep their kids on track.
In this podcast, Kathleen Short and Center Director Ann Stevens
discuss the Supplemental Poverty Measure and other attempts to
measure poverty throughout the nation. In November, 2014, Short
visited the center to present the seminar “The Supplemental
Poverty Measure for 2013: Latest Estimates and Research.”
