Understanding Safety Nets and Maternal and Child Health from Birth through Age 1

The U.S. spends hundreds of billions of dollars on public benefit programs each year yet there are serious shortcomings of these programs. Low-income families rely on both public (i.e. government) and private supports (i.e. family friends) or safety nets in times of need. Few if any quantitative studies examine how low-income mothers combine public and private supports and how safety net timing duration and stability impact maternal and child health over the course of child development. Yet safety nets and their operation in various contexts (e.g. race and ethnicity poverty level) contribute to significant health disparities.

Goals and objectives:

Drawing from life course theory that environmental and family health assets (e.g. strong relationships communities) contribute to child health and development we will examine the nuanced effects of safety net timing (i.e. at certain points) duration (i.e. length of exposure) and stability (i.e. level of change) in influencing maternal and child health outcomes within the context of low-income mothers' lives. Our central goal is to examine public and private safety net configurations at key developmental stages to increase evidence for context-specific pathways between safety nets and health. Our specific objectives are: 1. Identify public and private safety net configurations and inequalities in low-income families with children at key developmental stages from early childhood through adolescence. 2. Identify sociodemographic predictors of safety net configurations. 3. Examine the effects of safety net configurations on maternal health outcomes. 4. Examine the effects of safety net configurations on child developmental and health outcomes through adolescence.

Proposed data sets and target populations:

We will use the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS N = 4 071) dataset a nationally-representative birth cohort of children. The longitudinal study was initiated in 1998-2000 to learn about the conditions of largely unmarried mothers and their families at the time of their child's birth and beyond. Follow-up data were collected at 1 3 5 9 and 15 years. We will include mothers who lived below 200% of the poverty line in at least one wave between baseline and Y15 to see how mothers navigate falling into and rising out of poverty.

Products:

The project will result in at least 4 peer-reviewed journal articles and 2 professional conference presentations. We also will create policy briefs translating key findings into practice recommendations for human service professionals; present results to local community groups and stakeholders; and capitalize on media outlets (e.g. social media radio news outlets) and publicly available websites to increase attention to the benefits of effective targeted culturally sensitive service provision.

Evaluation:

We will assess program outcomes by comparing the proposed project timeline to our team's output. Our past successful works indicate that the project timeline is appropriate and designed to achieve project efficiency and effectiveness. In addition pilot analyses show sufficient variability amongst study variables needed for data analysis and we have identified methodologically sound solutions to potential issues that may arise. By understanding mothers' safety nets we can better target public resources and interventions to reach disconnected families and align programs and services to better promote health and development in low-income families.