Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Building Blocks: How Social Support Systems are Key to Improving Child Health

(Family and Child Policy)

There is emerging evidence that policies and programs outside of the health care system influence health. In this panel we will use program, city, state, and national data sets to examine how social support systems foster better health among our most important—and often most vulnerable—population: children. We will examine the effects of high-quality, birth-to-five child programming, universal public pre-kindergarten, paid family leave programs, and state spending choices on health. The first paper examines the impact of two comprehensive early childhood programs on the adult health of enrollees who were randomly assigned to these programs. The second paper assesses the impact of New York City’s universal public pre-kindergarten program on health care use and detection of developmental delays and hearing and vision problems and the prevalence of influenza using a difference-in regression discontinuity design. The third paper examines the effects of the California’s paid family leave law on breastfeeding, the child’s receipt of well-baby care and immunizations, and maternal mental health using a quasi-experimental pre-post design with a comparison group. The final paper examines how state policies on health care, education, income support and other spending categories impact a variety of child health measures using a quasi-experimental design that exploits changes within state changes in policy over time. Together the papers from the panel will shed light on the many mechanisms through which non-health sector policies and programs can influence child and subsequently adult health. All four projects are funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policies for Action program.