- Anna Aizer
- Spring/Summer 2017
- Focus-33-2f1
- Link to foc332f1 (PDF)
- Link to foc332sup (PDF)
By any measure, there is a large income gradient in child health in the United States, meaning that children born into poorer families have worse child health. This relationship can be observed across a wide range of child health outcomes, including newborn health, infant mortality, and physiological differences in brain structure.1 The gradient also increases as children age, meaning that a given decrease in income is associated with a larger decline in health for older children.2 In this article, I explore current knowledge about the effect of parental income on child health and discuss the implications for policy.
Categories
Child Development & Well-Being, Child Poverty, Children, Health, Health General, Inequality & Mobility, Intergenerational Poverty