Short-Term Effects of Tax Credits on Rates of Child Maltreatment Reports in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Poverty and low income are associated with increased risk for child maltreatment. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) are among the largest antipoverty programs in the United States. We estimated associations between income transfer payments via the EITC and CTC and child maltreatment reports in the period shortly after families receive payments from these programs.

Methods

We linked weekly EITC and CTC refund data from the Internal Revenue Service to state-specific child maltreatment report data from 48 states and the District of Columbia during the 2015 through 2018 tax seasons (January - April). We leveraged the natural experiment of a legislated change in the timing of EITC and CTC transfer payments to low-income families and quasi-e

SUBMITTER: Kovski NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11456322 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature