The 2021 Child Tax Credit, the Living Arrangements and Housing Affordability of Families with Low Incomes

Pilkauskas, Natasha V.; Michelmore, Katherine; Kovski, Nicole

doi:10.3386/w31339

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…In general, our findings align with several prior studies that indicated that the expanded CTC had favorable associations with alleviating mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety symptoms, 11 , 13 while diverging from those of Glasner et al, 14 who reported no short-term association of the CTC expansion with measures of life satisfaction and anxiety and depression symptoms. Given that several studies have shown that the expanded CTC significantly improved financial burdens and economic difficulties, including poverty and material hardship, 10 , 12 , 19 all of which are strongly associated with mental health, it is plausible to posit that the positive outcomes on these economic aspects may have partially or entirely translated into enhancements in parental mental health, as evidenced in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…This expansion aimed to provide financial relief and promote child development by making the credit nearly universal with more generous credit amounts and periodic distributions. 9 , 10 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While we know that the 2021 CTC expansion has been shown to improve various aspects of family well-being and economic outcomes, 2 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 it is important to note that there are currently only a handful of relevant studies on the association of the policy with mental health. The aim of our study was to fill this crucial gap by identifying the association of the 2021 CTC expansion with parental mental health as measured by depression and anxiety symptoms using a refined methodology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expansion of Child Tax Credits and Mental Health of Parents With Low Income in 2021

Nam,

Kwon

2024

JAMA Netw Open

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ImportanceThe 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion, as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, offered financial relief through generous monthly tax benefits to families with children amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of heightened concerns about mental health during the pandemic, the expanded CTC may have alleviated parental mental health challenges, especially within families with low income.ObjectiveTo investigate the association between the 2021 CTC expansion and mental health among parents with low income as measured by depression and anxiety symptoms.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis repeated cross-sectional study used data from the Household Pulse Survey covering April 14, 2021, to January 10, 2022, in the US. A difference-in-difference-in-differences estimator combined with propensity score matching was used to estimate the association of the expanded CTC with mental health symptoms among households with income less than $35 000.ExposureThe monthly payment of expanded CTC from July 15 to December 15, 2021.Main Outcomes and MeasuresParental mental health was measured by analyzing depression and anxiety symptoms using logistic regression.ResultsThe weighted sample comprised 546 366 adults (mean [SD] age, 43.02 [14.54] years; 52.9% female). The most common education level was high school or less (36.0%), the highest frequency of household income distribution was $50 000 to $74 999 (16.1%), and the majority of the sample was employed (67.3%). The weighted mean (SD) number of children in the household was 0.92 (1.18). For the full sample, receiving expanded CTC benefits was associated with lower odds of experiencing anxiety symptoms (odds ratio, 0.730; 95% CI, 0.598-0.890). Subgroup analyses indicated that the positive associations of the policy with anxiety symptoms were particularly pronounced among the female, working-age (17-60 years), non-Hispanic White, and higher education groups. However, the policy expansion had no association with depression.Conclusions and RelevanceThese findings may provide valuable evidence for policy makers to consider when deliberating on the possibility of making the CTC expansion permanent or transforming it into a universal program.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…This expansion aimed to provide financial relief and promote child development by making the credit nearly universal with more generous credit amounts and periodic distributions. 9 , 10 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expansion of Child Tax Credits and Mental Health of Parents With Low Income in 2021

Nam,

Kwon

2024

JAMA Netw Open

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“…Unfortunately, the 2021 CTC was short‐lived and many economically vulnerable families did not receive monthly payments for which they were eligible, because they did not file taxes, had a change in living arrangements (that meant the child was not on their prior tax filing), or because they experienced some other tax filing error 68,69,70 . Additionally, the 2021 CTC was implemented during a global pandemic, when the federal government put forth a robust policy response (e.g., expanded SNAP benefits, stimulus checks) to help families avoid extreme hardships, but also coincided with a period of high inflation.…”

Section: What Do We Know About Us Income Transfer Policies and Child ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Poverty and Health: The Role of Income Support Policies

Pilkauskas

2023

Milbank Quarterly

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r Child poverty is associated with both short-and long-term health and well-being, and income support policies can be used to improve child health.r This article reviews the types of income support policies used in the United States and the evidence of the effectiveness of these policies in improving child health, highlighting areas for future research and policy considerations specific to income support policies. C hild poverty is associated with both short-and long-term health and well-being. 1,2 Poverty affects child health directly through the experience of deprivation, such as through food insufficiency or lack of housing, but also indirectly through the availability of parental or community resources. 3 Economic resources also shape children's access to health-promoting policies, like education, child care, parental leave, and health care, which affect both current and later-life health and mortality. Many income support policies also reduce poverty and improve economic well-being, which in turn improves child health. In this paper, I review the evidence on income support policies in the United States and their effects on child health. I focus on income support policies because there is a growing interest in considering how

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“…Zippel (2021) found that 91 percent of families at this income level used their payment for food, utilities, housing, school costs, or clothing. Pilkauskas and Cooney (2021) and Michelmore and Pilkauskas (2023) found that among SNAP recipients, the most common use of the payments was to cover essential bills.…”

Section: The Federal Ctc During the Arp Expansionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Child Tax Credit and Family Well-Being: An Overview of Reforms and Impacts

Collyer,

Curran,

Garfinkel

et al. 2023

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

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The Child Tax Credit (CTC) has become an increasingly important element of the U.S. safety net. We discuss the structure of the CTC and its effects on childhood poverty and other indicators of well-being during its three distinct phases: prior to the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) expansion, during the expansion, and after the expansion’s expiration. We also examine recent efforts to establish state-level CTCs. We show that, in 2020, roughly one in three children were ineligible for the full CTC because it is tied to family earnings. The temporary expansion under the ARP extended full CTC eligibility to nearly all of these children, thus moving more than three million children out of poverty in the expansion months. State-level analyses show how states could establish CTCs that reduce child poverty rates by half, either as a complement to an expanded federal CTC or in the absence of a continued federal expansion.

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The 2021 Child Tax Credit, the Living Arrangements and Housing Affordability of Families with Low Incomes

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Expansion of Child Tax Credits and Mental Health of Parents With Low Income in 2021

Expansion of Child Tax Credits and Mental Health of Parents With Low Income in 2021

Child Poverty and Health: The Role of Income Support Policies

The Child Tax Credit and Family Well-Being: An Overview of Reforms and Impacts

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