The Impact of Housing Assistance on Risk of Young Child Maltreatment: New Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study

Background:

Displacement or unstable housing situations have detrimental effects on adults’ financial and mental stress resulting in maltreatment behaviors. While scholars increasingly pay attention to the association of housing insecurity with experiences of child maltreatment, studies assessing the program impacts of housing assistance on child maltreatment risk, especially in younger children (a group that is disproportionally the victim of child maltreatment) is scarce. This paper will be the first to investigate whether receiving housing subsidies has a causal impact on reducing the risk of maltreatment in the first 3 years of life.

Data and Method:

Data are drawn from baseline, age 1 and age 3 interviews from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The sample includes renter mothers with income levels of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line (n=1,509). The key predictors are status of subsidy receipt from birth up to 3 years old, including three mutually exclusive groups: (1) eligible but non-participant; (2) intermittent recipient of subsidy, and (3) consistently participant. Mothers’ abuse and neglect behaviors at child year 3 interviews are two outcomes of interest and are dichotomous variables. Using the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale as a proxy measure of the risk of any maltreatment behavior, this study uses seven indicators to conceptualize abuse behavior, including hitting the child with hard objects, shaking or spanking the child, cursing at the child, putting the child in time out, etc. Mothers’ risk of neglect is assessed through eight items, such as inability to get food or medical care for the child, leaving the child home alone even when adult supervision is needed, being evicted, inability to care for the child due to drunkenness, etc. A mother is deemed as abusing or neglecting her child if the total score of these items for each type lie in the top quartile of values across the sample for abuse and neglect, respectively. Logistic models with robust standard errors and propensity score matching techniques are used to estimate the housing program impact.

Results:

Employing propensity score analysis to adjust selection bias of participation in housing programs, this study shows robust evidence that families receiving consistent subsidies have substantially lower probability of child neglect (OR: 0.18, p<.05), compared to eligible but non-participant counterparts as well as beneficiaries of intermittent subsidy, after controlling for baseline characteristics. Although positive effects for abuse behavior also appear, the results are not significant.

Conclusions and Implications:

The study suggests that not only is providing affordable housing for low-income families fundamental, but the stability/continuity of receiving housing subsidy is crucial to relax the stress experienced by low-income displaced families with children, which could substantially reduce the behavioral risk of maltreatment. The evidence emphasizes a strong need for housing and child welfare partnership and expansion of rental assistance/subsidies. Beyond the regular social service delivery, additional support from case workers could assist low-income mothers with children in securing long-term and stable housing subsidies so as to provide a more nurturing environment in which children feel safe and can thrive.