Housing and Healthy Child Development

Project Summary

The project team is testing whether assisted housing affects children's healthy development by reducing family housing cost burden, and/or by improving their housing and neighborhood conditions. A nationally representative sample of children ages 0-12 in 1997 who lived in assisted housing are followed into adulthood and their outcomes are compared to those of a comparison group of children who were eligible for but did not live in assisted housing.

Research Questions/Aims

  • How does assisted housing impact children’s cognitive and social-emotional development and psychological distress?

Actionability

  • Inform assistive and affordable housing policies.

Outcomes

  Measure Source
Child/Youth (age ≤17)    
Cognitive development Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement: CDS
 
  • Letter-Word
  • Passage Comprehension
  • Applied Problems
  • Broad Reading
  • Combined Cognitive
 
Socioemotional Behavior Problem Index (BPI): CDS
Adjustment
  • Total
  • Internalizing
  • Externalizing
 
Health
  • Parent/self-reported health
  • Chronic conditions
  • Activity limitations
  • ACEs
CDS
Disconnection
  • Neither in school nor working
CDS
Young Adults:    
Health
  • self-assessment of overall health
  • presence of chronic conditions: asthma, diabetes, hypertension
  • activity limitation
TA; PSID
Psychological distress
  • Kessler psychological distress scale
 
Disconnection
  • Neither working nor in school
TA; PSID

 

Methodology

The researchers are using three main data sources from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (Assisted Housing Database, Child Development Supplement, and Transition to Adulthood Supplement) to simulate an experiment to create quasi-treatment and control groups of children who lived in assisted housing at some point before age 18 and comparable children who never lived in assisted housing although their families were income eligible to receive it. Instrumental variables and inverse probability of treatment weighting are used to support causal inference.


A smiling little girl holding a teddy bear while parents move boxes
Grantee and Partner organizations

Johns Hopkins University

Grant status
Completed
Project Director(s)
Sandra Newman, PhD, MUP
Charles Scott Holupka, PhD
Start date
Award amount
$295,016
Duration
30 months

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