WASHINGTON — Implementing a portfolio of programs and policies to reduce intergenerational poverty would yield a high payoff for children and the entire nation, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The report examines the key drivers of intergenerational poverty in the U.S. and concludes that evidence-based policies — such as increasing K-12 spending for underfunded districts, expanding occupational training programs, increasing access to the Medicaid program, and expanding the earned income tax credit — appear likely to lessen the chances that children living in poverty will experience poverty as adults.
Intergenerational poverty occurs when children who grow up in families with incomes below the poverty line are themselves poor as adults. Among U.S. children born around 1980 who grew up in households with incomes near or below the poverty line, 34 percent were still living in low-income households when they were in their 30s. Rates of intergenerational poverty are much higher for Black (37%) and Native American (46%) children than other children. Contemporary and historical disparities, discrimination, and structural racism create further challenges for Black and Native American families in establishing economic security for their children.
“The costs of persistent intergenerational poverty fall not just on individuals and families with low incomes but on society as a whole,” said Greg Duncan, distinguished professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “Intergenerational poverty reduces overall economic output and places increased burdens on the educational, criminal justice, and health care systems. Our report sifts through decades of evidence to point to our ‘best bets’ for overcoming these challenges.”
Child and Maternal Health and Welfare
Children in families with low incomes have worse health than other children, a disparity that begins before birth and increases as children grow older. There is a strong association between growing up in a single-parent family and experiencing childhood poverty. Income and poverty are also highly correlated with child maltreatment and involvement in the child welfare system. The report suggests that increasing funding for Title X family planning programs and ensuring that Medicaid beneficiaries have access to family planning services are promising policy changes for reducing intergenerational poverty. The report also concludes that expanding access to Medicaid with continuous 12-month eligibility and 12-month post-partum coverage and expanding access to Indian Health Services for all eligible mothers and children are likely to reduce intergenerational poverty.
Education
Children from low-income families start school with lower levels of academic and social skills than other children, on average, and these gaps do not close as they progress through school. Large gaps in school achievement and completed schooling also persist across racial and ethnic subgroups. The report concludes that there is strong support for reducing intergenerational poverty through increasing K-12 spending in the poorest school districts, increasing the diversity of the teaching workforce, boosting campus supports like tutoring and case management, and expanding high-quality career and technical education programs in high schools and after. Intergenerational poverty could also be reduced through effective financial aid programs for college students with low incomes and expanding industry-specific training programs for youth and young adults.
Neighborhood Safety and Criminal Justice
Individuals with low incomes are most likely to report being victims of crime in their neighborhoods and schools, and incarceration rates disproportionately affect children in families with low incomes. In addition, the report says, juvenile detention lowers the rate of high school completion and increases the likelihood of experiencing incarceration as an adult. Rigorous research shows that neighborhood violent crime can be reduced through community investments and engagement, certain kinds of policing, and gun safety regulations.
Family Income, Employment, and Wealth
Low wages, earnings, and income perpetuate the cycle of economic disadvantage. Evidence suggests that income transfer programs during childhood and adolescence have the potential to improve children’s educational and labor market attainment, as well as physical health, in adulthood. Studies examining policy changes over the past 30 years of positive intergenerational impacts provide the strongest evidence for expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Housing
Intergenerational poverty is linked with high lead levels, homelessness, overcrowding, frequent moves, and high housing costs in childhood. The report concludes that expanding coverage of the Housing Choice Voucher program, coupled with customized counseling and case management services, would support a reduction in intergenerational poverty.
Recommendation for Further Research
The report identifies a number of programs and policies that appeared to be effective in reducing intergenerational poverty, but high-quality evidence on the intergenerational impacts of many other promising programs is lacking. Improving existing census, survey, and administrative data — linked for families over time and across subject domains — would be invaluable for promoting needed policy research on intergenerational mobility. Specifically, the report recommends that the White House Office of Management and Budget facilitate research on economic opportunity, intergenerational poverty, and related topics and that the federal government make available existing census, survey, and administrative data to researchers, in ways that respect and protect the confidentiality of respondents’ data.
The study — undertaken by the Committee on Policies and Programs to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty — was sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Bainum Family Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, Foundation for Child Development, National Academy of Sciences W.K. Kellogg Fund, Russell Sage Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.
Source : National Academies
