Federal Social Safety Nets, Single-Mother Households, and Children’s Grade Repetition
Abstract
Children from single-mother households face increased risks of poverty and poor academic
outcomes. This analysis used the National Survey of Children’s Health 2011-2012 data
set to examine the correlation between federal social safety net programs – namely
SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid/SCHIP – for U.S. single-mother households under the poverty
line, and children’s grade repetition. Given the income support and increased access
to resources that federal benefits provide, this analysis hypothesized that more receipt
of federal benefits would correlate with lower chances of grade repetition. Results
from a t-test and a logistic regression were contrary to the hypothesis, and instead
suggested that receiving more benefits is associated with greater probability of grade
repetition. Selection bias in federal benefit recipients may explain these results,
as those who face more poverty may use more federal benefits, and the same poverty
depth may contribute to worse child outcomes. When analyzing how each benefit correlated
with grade repetition, this analysis found that receipt of public or private healthcare
insurance was consistently associated with lower probabilities of grade repetition
at marginally statistically-significant levels even after controlling for a broad
set of covariates. This result provides encouraging insight into the positive connection
between healthcare receipt and child academic outcomes.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
Public Policy StudiesPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11539Citation
Colorado, Stephanie (2016). Federal Social Safety Nets, Single-Mother Households, and Children’s Grade Repetition.
Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11539.Collections
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