Children and Families

Parent's work schedules
Commentary

Why Making Parents’ Work Schedules More Predictable Could Benefit Kids

12.17.2019
Sigrid Luhr, Kristen Harknett, Daniel Schneider

As shoppers prepare for the holidays with trips to the mall, supermarket, and big box stores, many workers who stock the shelves and work the registers are scrambling to piece together child care to match their unpredictable work schedules.

Understand Child Welfare
Commentary

To Understand Child Welfare, Involve People Who Know

12.9.2019
Peter Bodurtha, Nathan Shippee, Latasha Jennings

A unique partnership in Minnesota is linking data about health, human services, housing, and criminal justice to increase our understanding of risk factors and protective factors for children entering foster care. But how do we ensure we tailor our research approach to fit the complicated lives of real parents, caregivers, and children?

Who Cares If Parents Have Unpredictable Work Schedules?: The Association Between Just-in-Time Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements

Low-income working parents often face routine uncertainty in their schedules because of “just-in-time” scheduling practices that offer workers little notice of when they will be expected to work. In a new working paper, Kristen Harknett, Daniel Schneider, and Sigrid Luhr of P4A’s Research Hub at University of California, Berkeley, examine the consequences of unstable and unpredictable work schedules on child care arrangements.

William H. Dow

Gentrification and the Health of Low-Income Children in New York City

At this time, little is known about the health consequences of growing up in gentrifying neighborhoods. Many observers worry that gentrification could heighten stress and undermine children’s health, but it may also bring changes to low-income areas that enhance health. Kacie Dragan, Ingrid Ellen, and Sherry A. Glied, representing P4A’s NYU Wagner Research Hub, explore these issues in a new paper, focusing on children’s physical and mental health.

Sherry Glied
Multigenerational family gathers around newborn baby
Commentary

Caring for Our Families and Ourselves is Personal. The Need for Paid Leave is Universal.

9.16.2019
Elyse Shaw, Jillian West

When it comes to supporting families through paid family and medical leave policies, the U.S. lags behind other developed nations. What explains the lack of policy action? Perhaps we have not acknowledged paid leave policy for what it really is: a critical backbone of support that follows workers through all the major moments of their lives.

young students in a classroom using tablets
Commentary

How We Crafted a Child-Focused Policy Research Agenda in Tennessee

7.1.2019
Sarah Clark Henderson, Melinda Buntin, Carolyn J. Heinrich

In fall 2018, we launched a new Policies for Action Research Hub at Vanderbilt to examine barriers to the healthy development and success of low-income children in Tennessee. We knew that building a strong, policy-focused research agenda would require open communication and a cooperative spirit among our state agencies and community health and education organizations.

Finding the Bright Spots: What Policies Make Communities Healthy?

Many factors influence the health and well-being of communities, including who can afford to live in them; local, state, and private-sector policies; and the availability of opportunities to live a healthy, engaged, and productive life. This project will seek to explain why some communities seem to have more opportunity and be healthier than others.

A Healthy Start to Life: How Medicaid Expansion Improves Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes

Birth outcomes, including infant mortality and low birth weight, are shockingly poor in the U.S. Researchers will assess whether the ACA increased intended pregnancies, reduced prepregnancy smoking, and affected contraception and birth outcomes among women covered by Medicaid--and whether these changes reduced disparities across racial and ethnic groups.