Having unemployed parents in early and late childhood creates long-lasting negative impacts on people’s quality of life. This study uses qualitative interviews on well-being and three decades of German panel data to conclude that having unemployed parents in childhood (0-5 years old) and adolescence (11-15 years old) creates a modest but psychologically and economically significant impact on reported well-being later in life. However, effects vary by gender, and some children with unemployed parents experience positive consequences like higher parental investment. Overall, though, stressors and burdens of responsibility on children of unemployed parents provide another reason to focus on lowering barriers to employment for job-seeking adults.

In this Brookings Paper on Economic Activity, the authors focus on children within the safety net programs of Medicaid, EITC, CTC, SNAP, and TANF, and how federal money has shifted over time to currently benefit families with earnings above the poverty line. Because much research has been done on the substantial and lasting effects of poverty on child development and later well-being, current social net programs may be negatively affecting the poorest children. Over the past twenty years, funds allocated toward children have mostly remained the same, as have the number of children in poverty, but social program benefits have been shifting to benefit those at or above the poverty line more than those below it. While the authors do not discuss many policy implications, they emphasize the harm that cuts to these programs may do and promote adaptable reforms that quickly supplement income during recessionary times.

Studying large public social programs can be a challenge for social scientists. Recent technological developments have allowed researchers to use big data — data sets that combine survey and administrative data — to examine how social programs work and how they affect their participants. One method by which researchers accomplish this is “text mining,” a process of finding patterns from large amounts of unstructured text data. In this report from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, researchers explore how text mining contributed to a better understanding of the behavior of families in the foster care system and the role of the courts on reunification.

On September 17, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will host a webinar on supporting youth who have been affected by drugs and addiction within their families. Specifically, they will focus on the importance of mentoring and share strategies and best practices on counseling youth from families and communities where substance abuse may be an issue. Presenters will also discuss the challenges and changes of mentoring as the abuse landscape shifts and the opioid crisis grows.

The Disaster Assistance Improvement Program (DAIP) offers a search tool by ZIP code for areas designated for Individual Assistance. The website also offers a “Find Assistance” tool where the user can answer an anonymous questionnaire to receive a personalized list of possible assistance.

In response to several proposed federal changes to safety net program requirements, the Urban Institute developed a Well Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) and published a report on the status of individual and family health and well-being. The data serves as a baseline against which to measure deviations as a result of potential policy change. Despite a low unemployment rate and growing labor market, the first round of WBNS data from 2017 shows that nearly 40 percent of adults had trouble meeting at least one basic need, a number which may increase due to proposed safety net changes. Hispanic, black, female, young, ill, and less educated demographics are the most likely to face hardships. The survey will continue to measure potential effects of policy changes and highlight areas of programmatic need.

The Disaster Recovery Services by Career OneStop includes state resources, along with a general national resource guide. The Toolkit contains a Resource and Social Services Finder for disaster assistance and a page that provides U.S. Department of Labor aid resources for general disaster recovery.

This bulletin, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides an overview of the literature around disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for low-income populations, and the vulnerability of communities and families with low socioeconomic status. The bulletin explores differences between these populations compared to others regarding preparedness prior to a disaster, response to official communication/warnings as well as the impact post-disaster has on housing, physical effects like injuries, financial recovery, difficulty with obtaining and receiving aid, depression, and posttraumatic stress.

As the rains from Hurricane Florence finally move out to sea this week, the long recovery process from such a devastating natural disaster has just begun. Families and communities impacted by last year’s Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are still in recovery mode, and many people continue rebuilding their homes, communities, and lives. This blog post from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response highlights available resources, including the Disaster Distress Helpline. Further, there are suggestions about how one can be engaged to support in recovery efforts; the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters are a great starting place. The blog also notes how to prepare yourself and your family for the next disaster and its aftermath, as well as how to learn about disaster recovery.