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The problem
Intervention: Statewide universal school meals (USM) policies that make all school meals free regardless of household income
Who it was tested with: US households with children aged 6 to 17 years; stratified by household income level (highest, low-middle, lowest).
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"A difference-in-differences study using a nationally representative sample of US households with 6- to 17-year-old children from 2012 to 2021 and 2023 to 2024. The exposure was maintaining statewide USM policy after 2022, determined based on state of residence." This quasi-experimental design compares changes over time in USM-adopting versus non-adopting states, establishing temporal sequence and reducing confounding from state-level factors.
The parallel trends assumption was violated for lowest-income households, limiting causal inference for that group. The design cannot explain mechanisms by which USM policies reduce food insecurity or determine long-term sustainability of effects.
Across countries and designs
3 studies · 2 countries
