Presented By: Survey Research Center
SRC Seminar Series Presents: How Much Does Poverty Early in Life Harm Children’s Development?
Greg Duncan, Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine
Thursday, April 24, 2025 at 12:00-1:30pm ET
12:00-1:00 Seminar
1:00-1:30 Questions and Collaboration
Room 6050, ISR Thompson
RSVP to attend
Abstract
Developmental differences between children growing up in poverty and their higher-income peers are frequently reported. However, the extent to which such differences are caused by differences in family income is unclear. To study the causal role of income on children’s development, the Baby’s First Years randomized control trial provided families with monthly unconditional cash transfers. One thousand racially and ethnically diverse mothers with incomes below the U.S. federal poverty line were recruited from postpartum wards in 2018-19, and randomized to receive either $333/month or $20/month for the first several years of their children’s lives. After the first four years of the intervention (n=891), and stellar field work by SRC, we find xxx impacts of the cash transfers on four preregistered primary outcomes (language, executive function, social-emotional problems, and high-frequency brain activity) and yyy impacts on three secondary outcomes (visual processing/spatial perception, pre-literacy, maternal reports of developmental diagnoses). At the seminar we will fill in the blanks!
Biography
Greg Duncan is Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. He spent the first 25 years of his career at the University of Michigan working on and ultimately directing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data collection project. Duncan’s recent work has focused on estimating the role of school-entry skills and behaviors on later school achievement and attainment and the effects of increasing income inequality on schools and children’s life chances. He is part of a team conducting the Baby’s First Years project – a random-assignment trial assessing impacts of income supplements on the cognitive and socioemotional development of infants born to poor mothers in four diverse U.S. communities. Duncan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and has recently chaired two NAS consensus panels on child poverty.
12:00-1:00 Seminar
1:00-1:30 Questions and Collaboration
Room 6050, ISR Thompson
RSVP to attend
Abstract
Developmental differences between children growing up in poverty and their higher-income peers are frequently reported. However, the extent to which such differences are caused by differences in family income is unclear. To study the causal role of income on children’s development, the Baby’s First Years randomized control trial provided families with monthly unconditional cash transfers. One thousand racially and ethnically diverse mothers with incomes below the U.S. federal poverty line were recruited from postpartum wards in 2018-19, and randomized to receive either $333/month or $20/month for the first several years of their children’s lives. After the first four years of the intervention (n=891), and stellar field work by SRC, we find xxx impacts of the cash transfers on four preregistered primary outcomes (language, executive function, social-emotional problems, and high-frequency brain activity) and yyy impacts on three secondary outcomes (visual processing/spatial perception, pre-literacy, maternal reports of developmental diagnoses). At the seminar we will fill in the blanks!
Biography
Greg Duncan is Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. He spent the first 25 years of his career at the University of Michigan working on and ultimately directing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data collection project. Duncan’s recent work has focused on estimating the role of school-entry skills and behaviors on later school achievement and attainment and the effects of increasing income inequality on schools and children’s life chances. He is part of a team conducting the Baby’s First Years project – a random-assignment trial assessing impacts of income supplements on the cognitive and socioemotional development of infants born to poor mothers in four diverse U.S. communities. Duncan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and has recently chaired two NAS consensus panels on child poverty.
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Livestream Information
ZoomApril 24, 2025 (Thursday) 12:00pm
Meeting ID: 95162466374
Meeting Password: 532540
