Session: Building Assets for Child Development: A Global Policy Innovation (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Household assets enable families to invest in their children's long-term development and expand their capabilities and economic opportunities. Building assets for child development has become even more important in today's rapidly changing knowledge-based global economy. As an example of an asset-building policy for children, Child Development Accounts (CDAs) are inclusive asset-building accounts for children's future development and security. Many countries have explored the potential of CDAs for children, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Canada, Israel, the United States, and others. More than 15 million children worldwide have built assets for investment in their future development through CDAs.

CDAs, typically opened for young children to promote asset accumulation, have been shown to have positive impacts on multiple household outcomes, including parental educational expectations and children's social-emotional development. They also have the potential to promote children's asset ownership and economic mobility in the future. Studies indicate that CDAs are related to enhanced family well-being: they improve parental expectations about children's college attendance, lower depressive symptoms among parents, increase the amount in college-specific savings accounts, reduce the level of punitive parenting, and increase the social-emotional development of children.

This session presents four CDA policy examples in the United States, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Built on a CDA policy model including ten design features, the first study uses a longitudinal experimental design to examine the impacts of CDAs for families' financial well-being in the United States. The second study describes the newly-launched universal CDAs in Kazakhstan, which will automatically open accounts for all children at birth and allocate 50% of the National Fund's annual investment income for children. The third study reports on the implementation and research development of CDAs in Taiwan, a policy initiated in 2017 targeting all low-income children. Finally, the last study explores designing and developing CDAs using insurance products for children with disabilities in China to support their healthcare and long-term economic security. These studies present the latest policy and research findings in CDAs and will have important implications for global CDA development.