Research Assistant Professor Jessica Carson of the Carsey School explores the poverty-reducing effects of key federal safety net programs among 18-24 year old (“young adult”) parents. An estimated 2.5 million very young children live with a young adult parent, with low income children especially likely to do so.

Jessica's latest brief, The Poverty-Reducing Effects of the EITC and Other Safety Nets for Young Adult Parents, finds that more than 4 in 5 young adult parents, regardless of income, participate in at least one major safety net program. Of these, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the most widely used and the most effective at reducing poverty under the Supplemental Poverty Measure, and poverty would increase by 6.7 percentage points without the EITC.

Read this research brief and others at https://carsey.unh.edu/Publications