Study: State Public Benefit Programs for Poverty Reduce Child Abuse and Death

A new study, “State Spending on Public Benefit Programs and Child Maltreatment,” in the November 2021 Pediatrics (available online Oct. 18) found increased spending on state public benefit programs, such as housing, childcare and medical assistance, reduced foster care placements, child deaths, and child abuse and neglect. Researchers looked at state annual spending in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. during fiscal years 2010-2017 on local, state, and federal benefit. For every additional $1,000 states spent on benefit programs per person living in poverty, child abuse and neglect reports went down 4.3%, foster care placements went down 2.1%, and abuse-related child deaths went down 7.7%. Researchers estimated that, for example, $1,000 of additional spending for each person living in poverty, $46.5 billion nationally, might have resulted in 4,168 fewer foster care placements, 181,850 fewer reports of child abuse and 130 fewer abuse-related deaths in 2017. The study also finds that some public benefit program costs might be offset by the cost savings associated with preventing child abuse, avoiding costs in criminal justice, child welfare systems, health care and special education for abused children, amounting to $1.5 billion to $9.3 billion in the near-term or $25.8 billion to $153.2 billion in the long-term. Researchers concluded that policymakers should account for these findings when making fiscal decisions concerning public benefit programs and that more research is needed into the impacts these programs might have on racial/ethnic disparities in child abuse, and health equity more broadly.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.