Session: Long-Term Impacts of Universal Child Development Accounts: Testing a Strategy to Reduce Inequality (Society for Social Work and Research 27th Annual Conference - Social Work Science and Complex Problems: Battling Inequities + Building Solutions)

This symposium includes four papers from a long-term Child Development Accounts (CDAs) policy experiment, and reports its longitudinal impacts on: families’ asset building for children, parents’ educational expectations and college preparation, and child development. CDAs are investment accounts that provide financial access, subsidies, and incentives to advance inclusive asset building for children. Universal and progressive CDAs are a structural strategy for advancing racial equity in asset building, financial well-being, and child development.

Four studies use new survey data from Wave 3 of the SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment (SEED OK). In 2007, the experiment randomly selected a sample of 2,704 individuals from the population of newborns in Oklahoma (oversampling populations of color) and randomly assigned their parents to the treatment (n = 1,356) or control group (n = 1,348). The treatment included a CDA consisting of an automatically opened state-owned Oklahoma 529 College Savings Plan account, an initial deposit of $1000, and savings matches for deposits from lower income families. These features follow a policy concept in which CDAs are universal and automatic (including everyone), progressive (providing greater subsidies for vulnerable populations), and potentially lifelong (starting at birth).

The Wave 3 survey was conducted between January and August, 2020 when the children were about age 14. About 67% (n=1,799) of mothers completed the survey (Treatment=921 and Control=878). About 30% of families could not be reached due to their moving to other states, loss of contact, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the death of the child. The COVID pandemic greatly affected data collection (e.g., call center closed, field visits cancelled) and families’ daily living and activities. To better assess the CDA impacts, we conduct analyses on the pre-COVID sample (n= 707) unaffected by the pandemic and also the whole sample. Listwise deletion is applied to remove missing values.

Study #1 reports families’ historical harm experience (measured by stolen land, enslavement, housing restrictions, and family exclusion) by race/ethnicity, and provides a background to understand asset building and racial inequality.

Study #2 updates previous results on financial outcomes, and finds that the CDA experiment has a very large impact on overall OK 529 account holding and also the mean balance across all OK 529 accounts.

In Study #3, mothers in the treatment group have higher educational expectations and are more likely to prepare for children’s postsecondary education.

Study #4 suggests that, especially in the pre-COVID sample, treatment children are more likely to have better behavioral competencies. Analyses stratified by race/ethnicity suggest larger effects for minorities on some outcomes.

SEED OK has the most rigorous research design possible with random assignment in a full population sample; results can be generalized to the full population because of the research design. Consistent with previous results, new findings from Wave 3 show that asset building for all children (and its positive impacts) can be achieved through a universal CDA model built on the 529 plan. SEED OK evidence has already informed policies in seven U.S. states and in other countries. Future policy development is explored.