Children and Families
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Turning research into actionHow “Tough on Crime” Laws Impact Population Health
Our study described below addresses how two “tough on crime” laws–Three Strikes and Truth in Sentencing–may have impacted birth outcomes of Black women between 1984 and 2004. While research exists on the role state incarceration policies play in increasing mass incarceration in the U.S., their role in shaping population health and health disparities have remained largely unknown.
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Children and FamiliesHow Structural Racism, Neighborhood Deprivation, and Maternal Characteristics Contribute to Inequities in Birth Outcomes
This study examines the persistent disparities in birth outcomes between infants born to Black and white mothers in the United States from 2007 to 2018. The research focuses on understanding how structural racism, neighborhood deprivation, and maternal characteristics contribute to these inequities.
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Turning research into actionSeeking Policy Solutions to Support Women’s Health
The body of serious research into women’s health now includes many reliable studies that help us understand the unique biological factors that affect women. There is also intriguing research on the wide range of social determinants impacting the health of women and girls.
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Children and FamiliesWhat Policies Will Allow Immigrants and Their Families to Thrive?
This post originally appeared on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Blog.
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Children and FamiliesMunicipality-level Variation in Severe Maternal Morbidity and Association with Municipal Expenditures in New Jersey
Severe maternal morbidity (SMM)—defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as unintended outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to a woman’s health—is a major determinant of maternal mortality. Each year 15 of every 1,000 people hospitalized for a delivery experience SMM. In addition to adverse health outcomes, SMM can lead to disruptions in mother-infant bonding, which can compromise children’s social and emotional development, and confers substantial economic costs to families, communities, and insurers including Medicaid.
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Children and FamiliesShort-term effects of the earned income tax credit on children's physical and mental health
Childhood poverty is associated with worse health outcomes, including poor physical and cognitive development, and can adversely influence social and health outcomes in later life. While there is increasing interest in policies to address childhood poverty, limited research exists on whether current U.S. poverty alleviation policies, including the largest such program, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), improve children's health.
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Children and FamiliesPost-ACA, More Than One-third Of Women with Prenatal Medicaid Remained Uninsured Before or After Pregnancy
Since the early 1990s, Medicaid has been critical in providing insurance coverage for pregnant women with low incomes in the United States - pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage is available to women with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level in most states. Building on existing studies tracking changes in Medicaid coverage and uninsurance under the law, researchers Emily M. Johnston, Stacey McMorrow, Clara Alvarez Caraveo and Lisa Dubay examined data for new mothers with Medicaid-covered prenatal care in this study published in Health Affairs.
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Children and FamiliesMedicaid Expansion Increased Preconception Health Counseling, Folic Acid Intake, and Postpartum Contraception
The period before pregnancy is critically important for the health of a woman and her infant, yet not all women have access to health insurance during this time. Rebecca Myerson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Samuel Crawford of the University of Southern California, and Laura R. Wherry of New York University evaluated whether increased access to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansions affected ten preconception health indicators, including the prevalence of chronic conditions and health behaviors, birth control use and pregnancy intention, and the receipt of preconception health services.
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Children and FamiliesCombating Unstable Schedules for Low-wage Workers in Oregon
In this report, P4A researchers Amelia Coffey, Eleanor Lauderback and H. Elizabeth Peters, along with their partners at the University of Oregon’s Department of Sociology Lola Loustaunau, Larissa Petrucci, Ellen Scott and Lina Stepick, examine Oregon’s implementation of S.B. 828, the first statewide predictive scheduling law in the nation, in its first year.
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Children and FamiliesThe Long-Term Effects of Childhood Exposure to the Earned Income Tax Credit on Health Outcomes
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the largest safety net programs in the United States. In 2019, the EITC reached 25 million tax filers at a total cost of $63 billion. Using variation in the federal and state EITC, Breno Braga, Fredric Blavin and Anuj Gangopadhyaya evaluated the long-term impact of EITC exposure during childhood on the health of young adults.
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Children and FamiliesAmong Low-Income Women In San Francisco, Low Awareness of Paid Parental Leave Benefits Inhibit Take-Up
Paid family leave policies have the potential to reduce health disparities, yet access to paid leave remains limited and unevenly distributed in the United States. The US is the only OECD country that does not provide paid leave for new parents, and just 8 states and the District of Columbia have passed partially-paid family leave policies. In a new paper, Julia Goodman of the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, Will Dow of UC Berkeley, and Holly Elser of Stanford University examine the impact of the 2017 San Francisco Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPLO), the first in the US to provide parental leave with full pay.
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