NCJ Number
239841
Date Published
September 2012
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This research report examines the magnitude of the problem of children living in poverty and ways to target particularly vulnerable children.
Abstract
Earlier research by the authors examined the relationship between child poverty and adult outcomes for a cohort of children born in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Ratcliff and McKernan 2010). The current report builds on the earlier work by presenting the poverty rate of newborns for more recent cohorts over time, with attention to these newborns' subsequent poverty experiences. Over the past four decades, 16 percent of children were born to poor parents. Minority children are less economically secure than White children; 40 percent of Black newborns are poor compared with 10 percent of White newborns. Over the past four decades, 9 percent of children born to poor parents were poor for at least half of their childhoods, and there has been little improvement over time. Parents' educational attainment at the time of the child's birth is a key factor related to childhood poverty persistence for both White and Black children. Family employment status at the child's birth also plays a role for Black children. Children who are poor for half of their childhoods are nearly 90 percent more likely to fail to graduate from high school compared with people never poor as a child; poor children are also four times more likely to have a teen premarital birth (controlling for race, parents' education at birth, family characteristics, and other factors). Targeting vulnerable children at birth is vital. Children born to poor parents, particularly those with parents having low educational levels, should be connected with appropriate program services. Parent education and job training are critical to rising above the poverty level. Appended data and sample information and 27 references