Three Essays on Investments in the Well-being of Children and Families

Abstract

A large body of evidence from economics, social and behavioral sciences, neuroscience, and clinical medicine demonstrate the importance of the environments and experiences of early childhood on shaping long-term health and economic well-being. This dissertation examines the impacts of two separate interventions on inputs important to child health and well-being. In the first chapter, I study the causal impact of a monthly, unconditional cash transfer given to low-income mothers starting at the time of their infant’s birth on breastfeeding, child care and maternal employment in the first year of their infant’s life. The second chapter assesses the causal impact of the same unconditional cash transfer on four dimensions of housing important for children’s well-being—stability, affordability, quality, and members—over the first three years of the children’s lives. In the third chapter, I combine a scoping literature review with qualitative interviews with child maltreatment experts and clinicians to examine the current landscape and use electronic health record (EHR) based child abuse screens (EHR-CA-S) and child abuse clinical decision support system (EHR-CA-CDSS). Given the importance of early detection of maltreatment, as well as the unintended harms of an unnecessary investigation by child protective services (CPS), it is critical to understand the effectiveness and limitations of these tools.