Pac Jessica, Nam JaeHyun, Waldfogel Jane, Wimer Christopher
Columbia University School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027.
Columbia University School of Social Work.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2017 Mar;74:35-49. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.01.022. Epub 2017 Jan 28.
Between 1968 and 2013, the poverty rate of young children age 0 to 5 years fell by nearly one third, in large part because of the role played by anti-poverty programs. However, young children in the U.S. still face a much higher rate of poverty than do older children in the U.S. They also continue to have a much higher poverty rate than do young children in other developed countries around the world. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of trends in poverty and the role of anti-poverty programs in addressing poverty among young children, using an improved measure of poverty, the Supplemental Poverty Measure. We examine changes over time and the current status, both for young children overall and for key subgroups (by child age, and by child race/ethnicity). Our findings can be summarized in three key points. First, poverty among all young children age 0-5 years has fallen since the beginning of our time series; but absent the safety net, today's poverty rate among young children would be identical to or higher than it was in 1968. Second, the safety net plays an increasing role in reducing the poverty of young children, especially among Black non-Hispanic children, whose poverty rate would otherwise be 20.8 percentage points higher in 2013. Third, the composition of support has changed from virtually all cash transfers in 1968, to about one third each of cash, credit and in-kind transfers today.
1968年至2013年间，0至5岁幼儿的贫困率下降了近三分之一，这在很大程度上归功于反贫困项目所发挥的作用。然而，美国的幼儿贫困率仍远高于美国年龄较大儿童的贫困率。与世界其他发达国家的幼儿相比，美国幼儿的贫困率也依然高得多。在本文中，我们使用一种改进后的贫困衡量标准——补充贫困衡量标准，对贫困趋势以及反贫困项目在解决幼儿贫困问题中所起的作用进行了详细分析。我们考察了随着时间推移的变化情况以及当前状况，包括全体幼儿以及关键子群体（按儿童年龄和儿童种族/族裔划分）的情况。我们的研究结果可概括为三个关键点。第一，自我们的时间序列开始以来，所有0至5岁幼儿的贫困率都有所下降；但如果没有安全网，如今幼儿的贫困率将与1968年持平或更高。第二，安全网在降低幼儿贫困率方面发挥着越来越大的作用，尤其是在非西班牙裔黑人儿童中，否则其2013年的贫困率会高出20.8个百分点。第三，支持的构成已从1968年几乎全是现金转移，转变为如今现金、信贷和实物转移各占约三分之一。
