This study compares the wellbeing of children who receive assistance from TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid to their non-recipient counterparts.  The goal is to determine whether program participant children have better, similar, or worse wellbeing than non-participants.  Furthermore, this study explores the role of personal characteristics (e.g., race, age, and sex), parental characteristics (e.g., mother’s educational attainment, mother’s employment, and levels of parent-child interaction), and household characteristics (e.g., average income-to-poverty ratio and whether someone in the household owns a car) in explaining the relationship between program participation and child wellbeing.       

Data for this study come from Waves 1-3 of the 2004 Panel and Waves 2-4 of the 2008 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).  Monthly data from the core questionnaire are merged with data from the medical expenses, assets, and child wellbeing topical modules, which were administered in Wave 3 in the 2004 SIPP and Wave 4 in the 2008 SIPP.  The sample includes children ages 5 to 17 who resided with their biological mother and lived in a low-income household – defined as having an average household income-to-poverty ratio of less than 1.3 across the 12-month reference period.   

Two dimensions of child wellbeing are examined – educational development and health.  Educational development is measured by (1) participation in extracurricular activities and (2) having positive attitudes towards school.  Health is measured by (1) being in excellent or very good health and (2) having seen a doctor at least once in the 12 months prior to interview.

The personal characteristics examined in this study include the child’s race, age, and sex.  Key parental characteristics include mother’s educational attainment, employment status, and marital status, in addition to whether the child’s biological father lives in the household.  How often the child eats dinner with his/her mother and how often the mother plays or talks with the child measure parent-child interaction.  Household characteristics include the number of people in the household, ownership status of the living quarters, and whether someone in the household owns a vehicle. 

Analyses are conducted using the “proc surveylogistic” function in SAS because each of the dependent variables is dichotomous and to adjust the standard errors to account for SIPP’s complex sampling design.  

Preliminary results show that program participant children are less likely than non-participants are to participate in extracurricular activities, to have positive attitudes towards school, and to be in excellent or very good health.  Program participant children are, however, more likely to have seen a doctor in the past 12 months.  To some extent, program participation effects on child wellbeing are explained by differences in personal characteristics, parental characteristics, levels of parent-child interaction, and household characteristics.  However, some differences remain after these factors are controlled for.  Mother’s educational attainment – but not mother’s employment status – is a strong predictor of better child wellbeing.