Category: Family

Resource Category Topic Type
Related Foster Parents Less Likely to Receive Support Services Compared With Nonrelative Foster Parents
This brief identifies gaps in support services among foster parents using data from a nationally representative survey of children involved in the child welfare system (the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being).
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Health, Safety Net Publication
Retaining Residents Is Important to New Hampshire’s Future
In this brief, authors Kristine Bundschuh and Kenneth Johnson discuss the results of NH Granite State Polls conducted from 2010–2012 and 2018–2019 that asked a representative sample of over 3,300 established residents to share, in their own words, their top three reasons for staying in New Hampshire rather than moving to another state.
Demography, New Hampshire Demography, Economy, Employment, Family, Migration, New Hampshire Publication
Rural Children Now Less Likely to Live in Married-Couple Families
The percentage of rural children living in married-couple families dropped to 68 percent in 2008, one percentage point below that of children in metropolitan areas. In 1990, 76 percent of rural children and 72 percent of metropolitan-area children were living in married-couple families. But while marriage declined in both areas in the 1990s, urban rates bottomed out at 68 percent in 1998. The share of rural children living in married-couple families plunged from 73 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2008.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Housing, Rural Publication
Rural Families Choose Home-Based Child Care for their Preschool-Aged Children
This policy brief examines who is taking care of preschoolers of employed mothers in rural America. While most rural families choose home-based child care (such as relatives or informal nonrelated care providers), formal care (such as in day care centers) has positive benefits to a child's development. The brief recommends that programs are needed that either make formal care more affordable and accessible in rural communities, or that train home-based care providers to provide quality care.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Child Care, Children, Education, Family, Rural Publication
Rural Families with a Child Abuse Report are More Likely Headed by a Single Parent and Endure Economic and Family Stress
This brief, which is based on data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, finds that rural families who have been reported to Child Protective Services are more likely than urban families to have financial difficulties and high family stress, as well as grow up in single-parent households. To effectively address these issues, the brief urges policy makers to look at the lack of accessible and adequate services for struggling rural families.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Health, Rural Publication
Rural Workers Have Less Access to Paid Sick Days
This brief, using data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) survey, analyzes paid sick time rates of workers by place and type of work. Paid sick days provide job protection to workers and a steady paycheck when they need to care for themselves or family members. Paid sick days also help workers with more limited resources who cannot otherwise afford to take a day off. Authors Kristin Smith and Andrew Schaefer report that a greater proportion of rural workers than urban workers (both suburban and central-city) lack access to at least five paid sick days per year. Their analysis suggests that where one works matters, both geographically and by sector, and the quality of the job also matters. The rural disadvantage is particularly pronounced among rural private-sector workers and part-time workers, but even rural full-time workers have less access to paid sick days than their urban counterparts.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Family, Health, Rural Publication
Seventy-eight Percent of Working Rural Families to Receive Full Making Work Pay Tax Credit
The Making Work Pay Tax Credit provides eligible U.S. workers with additional money in each paycheck throughout the year. The fact sheet shows that 78 percent of rural working families will receive the full amount of the credit, while an additional 10 percent of families will receive a partial credit due to low earnings or high earnings. These tax credits, along with the expansion to the Child Tax Credit, are an important financial boost to families in rural America, particularly low-income working families.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Employment, Family, Rural, Safety Net, Tax Publication
SNAP Use Increased Slightly in 2012
This brief uses data from the American Community Survey to examine rates of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) receipt in 2012, track changes since the onset of the recession, and monitor receipt by region and place type.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Food Assistance, Health, Poverty, Safety Net Publication
Stay or Leave Coös County? Parents' Messages Matter
When it comes to deciding whether to stay in New Hampshire's rural Coös County or leave for other opportunities, young people are listening to their parents. Surveying 78 percent of all seventh and eleventh graders in public schools in Coös County, researchers found that young peoples' future intentions to migrate from Coös in search of economic or educational opportunities or to remain in Coös to pursue a future close to home are closely aligned with the messages their parents deliver to them.
New Hampshire Coös Youth Study, Family, Migration, New Hampshire, Young Adults Publication
Subprime and Predatory Lending in Rural America: Mortgage lending practices that can trap low-income rural people
This brief examines predatory mortgage loans and the harmful impact they have on rural homeowners and their communities. The report finds that minorities and low-income people are more likely to fall victim to higher-cost loans. The brief includes recommendations for policy changes at the state and federal levels, as well as advice on identifying and avoiding predatory loans.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Low Income, Rural Publication
Supportive Program Strengths and Gaps for New Hampshire Families
In this brief, authors Sarah Boege and Jess Carson describe child and family program use and gaps among respondents to the 2022 New Hampshire Preschool Development Grant Family Needs Assessment Survey.
Center for Social Policy in Practice, New Hampshire Child Care, Children, Education, Family, Food Assistance, New Hampshire, Poverty, Public Opinion, Safety Net Publication
TANF in Rural America: Informing Re-authorization
In 1996 welfare reform ushered in a new era in which cash assistance for poor parents became both temporary and conditional on activities to promote economic independence through work. Cash assistance from TANF relieves, but does not eliminate, poverty because benefit levels are far too low to lift families above the poverty threshold. These ameliorative effects are weaker in rural than urban areas. Over time, the positive impacts of TANF receipt have continued to decline. The authors assert that the necessity of re-authorizing TANF gives us an opportunity to reflect on its strengths and limitations. TANF is an important component of poor families' budgets. However, in its current form, it is insufficient; strengthening TANF would help alleviate some material hardship in the lives of America's neediest citizens. In order to adapt TANF to better support struggling families in a modern economy, the authors suggest that the TANF reauthorization keep America's rural poor in mind, acknowledge differences in ameliorative effects, re-establish the TANF Emergency Fund, reinvigorate the Contingency Fund, and reconsider TANF Supplemental Grants.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Poverty, Rural, Safety Net Publication
The Poverty-Reducing Effects of the EITC and Other Safety Nets for Young Adult Parents
In this brief, Jess Carson explores the poverty-reducing effects of key federal safety net programs among 18-24 year old (“young adult”) parents.
Center for Social Policy in Practice, COVID-19 Child Care, Children, COVID-19, Family, Food Assistance, Low Income, Safety Net, Young Adults Publication
Understanding Connections Between Rural Communities and Family Well-Being: A Study of Hampton, Iowa
In this report, author Cynthia Needles Fletcher explores the role of "place" in shaping rural residents'-and in particular low-income residents'-futures. The analysis draws from interviews with residents and community key informants in Hampton, Iowa in an original study in 1997 and again in 2012-13.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Community, Demography, Family, Health Publication
Understanding Very High Rates of Young Child Poverty in the South
It is widely known that the South is home to some of the places with the highest rates of child poverty. To address the many challenges poor families face there, policy makers and community leaders need to understand the complex factors that converge in this region of the United States. This brief presents an analysis of national and state-by-state data to help readers understand high child poverty in the South.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Poverty Publication
Utilization of Long-Term Care by an Aging Population
The aging of the U.S. population is an ongoing trend. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2050 one in every five Americans will be over 65, and that by 2060 the over-65 population will have doubled in absolute size and the over-85 population will have tripled. Life expectancy of a 65-year-old in 2014 compared to 1980 was 3.9 years longer for a man and 4.3 years longer for a woman.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Disability, Family, Health, Seniors Publication
What's for Dinner? Finding and Affording Healthy Foods in New Hampshire Communities
Access to healthy food is becoming increasingly difficult for some households in the Granite State, as grocery stores relocate or consolidate, leaving some residents to depend on convenience stores for basic groceries. This brief looks at recent data on food deserts in New Hampshire.
Evaluation, New Hampshire Family, Food Assistance, New Hampshire, Safety Net Publication
Who Cares for the Sick Kids? Parents’ Access to Paid Time to Care for a Sick Child
This brief analyzes employed parents’ access to five or more paid sick days annually to care for a sick child in 2008.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Health, Income, Wages Publication
Why Interstate Child Care Scholarship Policy Choices Matter in the Upper Valley
In this brief, the authors explore how state-level decisions in New Hampshire and Vermont manifest in the early childhood education and care sector, through the lens of the interstate Upper Valley region.
Center for Social Policy in Practice, New Hampshire Child Care, Children, Education, Family, New England, New Hampshire Publication
Wives as Breadwinners: Wives' Share of Family Earnings Hits Historic High during the Second Year of the Great Recession
In the second year of the recession, wives' contributions to family earnings leapt again, jumping two percentage points from 45 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2009. This rise marks the largest single-year increase in 15 years. This is not due to an increase in their earnings but rather to a decrease in husband’s employment, as the economy disproportionately shed male-dominated jobs during the recession.
Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Gender, Wages, Women Publication