My lab has been discussing the findings from Babies First Years and cash transfer policies in general. This Vox article does a good job summarizing what is there. An important part for Dev. theory is that the Family Stress model is not holding. www.vox.com/future-perfe... - ThreadSky

pdakean.bsky.social • 37 days ago

My lab has been discussing the findings from Babies First Years and cash transfer policies in general. This Vox article does a good job summarizing what is there. An important part for Dev. theory is that the Family Stress model is not holding. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/359737/researchers-parenting-mom-stress

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pdakean.bsky.social•37 days ago

In general very modest changes on any developmental aspect and no difference for maternal stress "While cash transfers might help kids develop by letting their parents spend more time and money on them, the idea that it’s an effective stress-reducer is looking more dubious."

andyperfors.bsky.social•36 days ago

I'd be curious how much (if at all) these results would change if the cash amounts were substantially more - say $40K instead of $4K. Obviously that would be prohibitively expensive to run, but $4K (though a lot when you're poor) still isn't enough to do things like stop working or

andyperfors.bsky.social•36 days ago

change your lifestyle significantly. Or, if you're very poor, probably even have much effect on stress, because there's so much to be stressed about. $4K would change stuff at the margins, like observed in the study, but that's it. Doesn't mean cash doesn't matter. Maybe they just needed more of it.

pdakean.bsky.social•36 days ago

I think that’s right-a few questions I ask myself. How can any change in income be sustained? Cash transfers in the U.S. are at the whim of our political parties.

pdakean.bsky.social•36 days ago

Would more permanent solutions be better-like stable housing, effective education, reliable transportation-then cash transfers?

naomiekas.bsky.social•36 days ago

I wonder about effects of universal health care, subsidized (free) child care, universal pre-K, child tax benefits, and improved public transportation. Although I guess we could just compare USA to every other industrialized nation to find the answer :/

bwroberts.bsky.social•36 days ago

Well, these are at the whim of our political system too...

drewhalbailey.bsky.social•36 days ago

I agree dosage is a big deal here. I encourage anyone with relevant non-experimental data to regress mother and child outcomes on increments of $4,000 annual income. You might be surprised-I was!

drandreahoward.bsky.social•36 days ago

Wondering the same. Canada implemented a benefit program about 10 years that’s income-tested. So the very poorest families are getting $7800/yr *per kid*. My 2-kid household was still able to get $500 a month when the program was new and we were not poor.

pdakean.bsky.social•36 days ago

Do you think parents feel less stress and provide better parenting because of this policy? (Just walking through the family stress model variables)

drandreahoward.bsky.social•36 days ago

I really don’t know, but sufficiently high income relief should be stress-reducing if poverty is stressful. But how much? If it brings your catastrophic stress to 90% of maximum would we even detect that with available measures?

cdelawalla.bsky.social•36 days ago

Very interesting! N of 1 here, but I’m not surprised by this. I had an “easy baby”, lots of resources, family close by, etc. and I’ve never been so stressed in my life. Idk that *any* dollar amount would mitigate the stress of having a kid. My intuition is that stressors get swapped out w/ diff ones

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