Vanessa Wight

Who Are America's Poor Children? The Official Story

On the expense side, the official poverty measure does not include the cost of payroll and income taxes or work-related expenses, such as child care and transportation. Nor does it take into account varying family needs, such as the cost of out-of-pocket medical expenses. And finally, the poverty measure does not adjust for the substantial variation in the cost of living from state to state and between urban and rural areas. Who are America’s Poor Children? The Official Story

Basic Facts About Low-income Children, 2010: Children Under Age 18

Children represent 24 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty.1 Among all children, 44 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (21 percent) live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 48 percent living in low-income families, including 25 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children’s experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents’ educational attainment and employment. This fact sheet, which is an update to the series based on the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of children and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children from their less disadvantaged counterparts.

Basic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Under Age 18

Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in low-income families and nearly one in every five live in poor families. Young children under age 6 appear to be particularly vulnerable with 46 percent living in low-income and 24 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children’s experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.

Explaining Racial/Ethnic Variation in Partnered Women’s and Men’s Housework Does One Size Fit All?

Using a national sample of 12,424 partnered women and 10,721 partnered men from the 2003-2006 American Time Use Survey, this article examines racial/ethnic variation in women’s and men’s housework time and its covariates. The ratio of women’s to men’s housework hours is greatest for Hispanics and Asians and smallest for Whites and Blacks. White and Hispanic women’s housework hours are associated with household composition and employment suggesting that the time availability perspective is a good predictor for these women, but may have less explanatory power for other race/ethnic groups of women. Relative resources also have explanatory power for White women’s housework time but are weak predictors for women of Other race/ethnicities. Time availability and relative resource measures show some association with White men’s housework time but are generally poor predictors among other race/ethnic groups of men, suggesting that traditional models of housework allocation do not “fit” all groups equally.

Food Insecurity and SNAP Participation in Mexican Immigrant Families: The Impact of the Outreach Initiative

Abstract We study the factors associated with food insecurity and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Mexican immigrant families in the US. Estimates from analyses that control for a rich set of economic, demographic, and geographic variables show that children in Mexican immigrant families are more likely to be food insecure than children in native families, but are less likely to participate in SNAP. Further, more vulnerable groups such as the first-generation Mexican immigrant families, families in the US for less than 5 years, and families with non-citizen children – that are at a higher risk of food insecurity are the least likely to participate in SNAP. Our analysis suggests that the US Department of Agriculture outreach initiative and SNAP expansion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased SNAP participation of the mixed-status Mexican families, and there is some evidence that food insecurity declined among children in low-educated mixed status families. We do not find any evidence that the outreach and ARRA expansion increased SNAP receipt among Mexican immigrant families with only non-citizen members who are likely to be undocumented.

Basic Facts About Food Insecurity Among Children in the United States, 2008

215 W. 125th Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10027-4426 Ph. 646-284-9600 www.nccp.org How many households have food insecurity among children? There are about 39.5 million households with children (approximately 34 percent of all households). ◆ 79 percent were food secure. ◆ 10.2 percent reported food security among adults only. ◆ 9.6 percent reported low food security among children. ◆ 1.2 percent reported very low food security among children.

Basic Facts About Low-income Children, 2008: Children Aged 12-17

Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, 41 percent of all children and 36 percent of adolescents ages 12 through 17 live in low-income families. In addition, nearly 20 percent of all children and 16 percent of adolescents live in poor families. Winding up in a lowincome or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children’s experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of adolescents and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.

Examining the Landscape of Child Poverty in the US Today

R ecent data from the US Census Bureau indicate that many of our youngest citizens live in poverty; the size of this population has been teadily increasing over time since the 1970s. There s a wide body of research documenting the imporance of family income for children’s health and ell-being. Thus, trends in child poverty suggest that growing share of children today are experiencing ircumstances that are detrimental to their overall ealth and development and that could have lifelong onsequences. In this article we use data from the urrent Population Survey, March Annual Social and conomic Supplements, to describe the prevalence of hild poverty in the US over time and the sociodemoraphic and geographic characteristics of children and heir parents living in poverty. We also expand on berg and Aga’s (2010—see article in this issue) iscussion of the social safety net by providing a etailed illustration of what families need to meet their ost basic necessities and the very real impact work upports and public benefits, such as the Earned ncome Tax Credit and child care assistance, have on family’s budget and net family resources. This nalysis is based on data from the National Center for hildren in Poverty’s Basic Needs Budget Calculator nd Family Resource Simulator, web-based tools that alculate how much families need to afford minimum

Basic Facts About Low-income Children, 2008: Children Under Age 18

Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, 41 percent of all children live in low-income families and nearly one in every five live in poor families. Our very youngest children, infants and toddlers under age 3, appear to be particularly vulnerable with 44 percent living in lowincome and 22 percent living in poor families. Winding up in a lowincome or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children’s experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of infants and toddlers and their parents – highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.

Basic Facts About Low-income Children, 2009: Children Aged 12 through 17

Children represent 25 percent of the population. Yet, they comprise 36 percent of all people in poverty. Among children, 42 percent live in lowincome families and 21 percent live in poor families. Among our oldest children, adolescents aged 12 through 17, 38 percent live in low-income families and 17 percent live in poor families. Winding up in a lowincome or poor family does not happen by chance. There are significant factors related to children’s experiences with economic insecurity, such as race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of adolescents and their parents, highlighting the important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts.