Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

During the Great Recession millions of U.S. families lost jobs and endured declines in income (Garfinkel, McLanahan, & Wimer, 2016). Low-income families were hit hardest. Households with income below $12,500 experienced an unemployment rate of 30.8% (Sum & Khatiwada, 2010). Public program expenditures increased to provide necessarily relief (Moffitt, 2013).

Though scholars are beginning to understand how the Great Recession impacted family health and financial well-being, less is known how it affected mothers with newborns. In our study, we focus on low-income single mothers with newborns, as they may be more vulnerable to income loss and reliant on the public safety-net to address basic needs post-childbirth.

We explore the factors associated with entry into the labor force for mothers with newborns before the recession compared to during the recession. We then investigate the different factors associated with public safety-net use before versus during the recession. Lastly, we examine the average income from all sources for mothers during the pre-recession period compared to mothers during the recession to assess income differences.

Methods:

We use data from the Survey of Income and Public Program Participation (SIPP), a nationally representative data set. The study population includes single low-income women with newborns between 2004 and 2012. The pre-recession period is defined as between 2004 and 2008, and the recession period is defined as between 2008 and 2012. Descriptive tests of significance and probit regression models are used to examine relationships between the timing of births and participation in the labor force and TANF, SNAP, and WIC at three and six months following a birth. We create income profiles to explore average income from all sources.

Results:

Probit results suggest that compared with mothers with education above high school, mothers with a high school education or less are more likely to report using SNAP at 6 months post-birth during the Great Recession – this is not the case for the pre-recession period. Surprisingly, none of the covariates show differences in mother’s employment post-birth prior or during the recession. Income profiles reveal differences across education and race. Mothers with below high school education have lower earned income and total income in the recession period compared to similarly educated moms in the pre-recession period - the opposite is found for mothers with education above high school. Comparing the pre-recession averages to the recession averages, black mothers reported less earned income and total income, whereas both Hispanic and white mothers reported higher earned income and total income.

Conclusions:

Though we did not find factors that help explain labor force participation during the recession, we did find that mothers with lower levels of education benefited more from the public safety net (ie. SNAP) during the Great Recession. By examining average income across education and race, we find that black mothers and mothers with lower levels of education had lower levels of earned income during the recession compared similar mothers pre-recession. This has implications for social policy and maternal and child health given the impact of economic deprivation during infancy.