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Better results for kids and families through research-informed policy

Root Causes: Child Poverty

  • Unemployed and working poor families struggle. Parental employment is a significant factor in child poverty. While about one third of children with one parent employed full-time, year-round live in poverty, the risk of living in poverty increases drastically when a parent is employed part-time, part-year or unemployed.
  • Costs of living further burden low-income families. Paying for necessities such as housing, transportation, health care, and child care can pose major barriers for parents seeking to gain and maintain employment, and is a significant factor contributing to the number of children in poverty. Compared to children in above low-income families, children living in low-income families are twice as likely to have moved residences in the past year and three times as likely to live with a family that rents a home. Approximately 12 percent of children in low-income families lack health insurance, and while public insurance covers nearly 80 percent of poor children, health care costs can substantially burden uninsured families. Income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and other taxes can significantly reduce the resources available to families.
  • Families are victimized by wealth-stripping practices. Each year, families lose millions of dollars to financial service providers using unscrupulous practices in the areas of predatory mortgage lending, payday lending, auto title lending, refund anticipation lending, and high-fee check-cashing and tax preparation services.
  • The “toxic stress” of poverty impacts children’s brain development. The "toxic stress" associated with living in poverty significantly limits children’s brain development, and early brain development is critical to children’s health and future well-being. Children in poverty are more likely to experience negative outcomes in educational, employment, health, and emotional development. Reducing child poverty can therefore have a beneficial effect on many outcomes for children, as well as reduce the significant costs to taxpayers of these negative outcomes.

How Can Policy Influence These Root Causes? See policy strategies for reducing poverty and promoting economic opportunity for families.

Credit Markets. A tool from the Federal Reserve looks at local economic conditions with maps of delinquency rates for credit cards and mortgage, automobile, and student loans.

The Urban Institute Children of Immigrants Data Tool provides information by state on the characteristics of immigrant children and citizen children with non-citizen parents.