Session: Building Assets for Child Development: Policy Innovations from Around the Globe (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

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 22 million children worldwide have CDAs to build assets for investment in their future development.

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, increase positive parenting and reduce the level of harsh parenting, and increase the social-emotional development of children.

This session presents four CDA policy examples and policy designs in the United States, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. Built on a CDA policy model including ten design features, the first study uses a longitudinal experimental design to examine the impacts of CDAs on parent-child educational engagement and children's hope in the United States. The second study reports policy impact by comparing two waves of data for Taiwan's CDA policy which was initiated in 2017 for the future education and development of all low-income children and youth. The third study describes the newly launched universal CDAs in Kazakhstan, which automatically opened accounts for 7 million children and allocated $100.52 from the natural resource fund, the National Fund's annual investment income for children. Finally, the fourth study explores design elements of CDAs for another natural resource-rich country, Azerbaijan. These studies present the latest policy and research findings in CDAs and will have important implications for global CDA development.