Session: The American Guaranteed Income Studies: Impact of Guaranteed Income on Children and Families (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

Since 2018, a resurgence of interest in unconditional cash transfers or guaranteed income has proliferated across the United States. Emerging out of Jackson, Mississippi and Stockton, California, approximately 150 guaranteed income pilot programs have begun. While many began as philanthropically funded endeavors, others beginning in 2020 leveraged use of ARPA and other pandemic-era funding. These programs range in target population, dosage or amount of cash provided, and duration of the intervention, yet have all been catalyzed by an interest in testing new interventions that may more effectively and humanely meet lower-income families' material and social needs without traditional, paternalistic regulations of the current social safety net.

This collection of studies captures the experiences of individuals receiving guaranteed income and their parenting and family dynamics across the country--in Los Angeles, Columbia, South Carolina, and Cambridge, MA. Each of these locations are part of the multi-site American Guaranteed Income Studies, which leverages common research strategies to answer policy-relevant questions using mixed-methods randomized controlled trials. Taken together, results of these studies illustrate a collective experience of parents whereby receipt of a guaranteed income may provide both material and immaterial benefits for children. In, The Impact of Guaranteed Income in Los Angeles: Helping low-income families provide safer and more enriching environment for their children, the first causal link between guaranteed income receipt and increases in child enrichment activities (sports, extracurricular activities), and improvements in social interactions within neighborhoods is established. In Los Angeles county, Qualitative Effects of a Guaranteed Income Program on Parental Stress and Early Childhood Investments describes parents' accounts of how additional time and material support through a guaranteed income led to reductions in perceived stress and provided opportunities to enjoy recreation and quality time with their children. Similarly, in A Bit of Light in that Tunnel of Darkness: Guaranteed Income for Nonresident Fathers, participants recall the dignity of providing for their children with the guaranteed income. In Two-Generation Impacts of Guaranteed Income in Cambridge, Massachusetts, causal evidence is established regarding the positive impacts of guaranteed income on full time-employment and preparedness for withstanding a financial emergency alongside significant shifts in children's academic performance. These findings are situated in a broader framework of care and reproductive labor.

As multiple states have passed legislation and federal agencies (ACF, HHS, and HUD) consider codification of unconditional cash into poverty alleviation strategies, these studies provide important causal and experiential evidence, situated within the social work knowledgebase, for potential short and longer-term effects for children and families.