Peer-reviewed article
Does greater purchasing power of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program improve children's development?
Hong YS ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines whether the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the United States improves child development outcomes in early childhood (ages 4-6). Using longitudinal data and variation in SNAP purchasing power across states and years, researchers found that greater SNAP benefits were associated with improvements in children's early reading skills, and possibly math skills and overall health. The effects appear to work partly through increased parental engagement in reading activities with children.
Key points
- Cumulative SNAP purchasing power showed a positive association with early reading skills among SNAP-recipient families
- The reading skills benefit appears partly driven by increases in parental reading time with children
- Greater SNAP purchasing power was positively associated with early math skills, approaches to learning, and general health status, but these associations were not robust
- The study used two-way fixed effects and random effects models to leverage variation in SNAP purchasing power across market groups and years
- Increasing SNAP benefit levels to account for local prices could enhance program effectiveness in improving children's early cognitive development
Limitations
The study relies on observational data and cannot establish causation with certainty; some findings (math skills, learning approaches, health status) were not robust across model specifications and should be interpreted cautiously.
Abstract
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) plays an important role in reducing poverty. Despite the strong link between poverty and child development, particularly in early childhood, there is limited evidence on the effect of SNAP on the health and development of children, who comprise the largest group of SNAP recipients. The lack of research on this topic is partly due to a lack of variation in SNAP benefit policies across states. This study addresses this research gap by examining associations between cumulative SNAP purchasing power and cognitive, socioemotional, and health development among children in early childhood (age 4-6), drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. The study uses two empirical strategies, a two-way (child and year) fixed effects model and a random effects model, to leverage the variation in SNAP purchasing power across the market group and year in which a child is observed. Findings suggest cumulative benefits of SNAP purchasing power for children's early reading skills among families who receive SNAP. Although not conclusive, this association seems to be partly driven by increases in parental reading time with the child. While greater SNAP purchasing power is positively associated with early math skills, approaches to learning skills, and general health status, these estimates are not robust and should be interpreted with caution. This paper informs policymakers that increasing SNAP benefit levels to account for local prices can enhance the effectiveness of SNAP in improving children's early cognitive development.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Increased purchasing power of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits adjusted for local market prices
- Population
- Children ages 4-6 in families receiving SNAP, from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort
Key finding
Greater SNAP purchasing power was positively associated with early reading skills (robust finding)