# Evaluating family economic policies as primary prevention strategies to prevent family and youth violence

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $346,881

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, and youth violence are pervasive, preventable public health
issues with negative lifelong consequences. Family economic policies, including Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF), Minimum Wage (MW), and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), provide economic
support to low-income families who are often at greatest risk of family and youth violence. Although family
economic policies reduce key risk factors for violence, including caregiver stress and mental health problems
due to economic pressure, there are limited studies examining these policies as violence prevention strategies.
Extant literature examining the effect of economic policies on violence have left several important gaps in
knowledge. Studies have provided limited understanding of the mediators that link policies to violence
outcomes, failed to adequately examine the effect of policies on individuals by race/ethnicity, and offered a
relatively limited understanding of how economic policies interact with one another, despite evidence that
individuals often experience more than one policy at a time. Our study seeks to fill in these gaps through a
series of quasi experimental, empirical analyses that will rigorously evaluate the effect of TANF, MW, and EITC
as primary prevention strategies for child maltreatment, adult IPV, and youth violence. We measure the effect
of economic policies on participants in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Cohort, a longitudinal birth-
cohort of children born to relatively low-income, urban families who are among those disproportionately
affected by family and youth violence and economic policies. Our research adds to the literature in several
important ways. First, our research is guided by a well-established theoretical model, the Family Stress Model,
adapted for family and youth violence, which guides our selection of caregiver depression as a mediator
between the policy environment and violence. Second, this study explicitly examines the effect of policies by
race/ethnicity. We hypothesize that economic policies may be especially protective for African Americans who
disproportionately live in poverty and experience higher rates of family and youth violence compared to Whites
that disappear or are reversed after accounting for income and other material factors. Third, we are able to
leverage a complete database of EITC, TANF, and MW policies to evaluate the effect of each policy alone and
in synergy with the others. This study aligns with violence prevention priorities set by NCIPC by evaluating
societal-level strategies to prevent multiple forms of violence that enhance resiliency within families and
incorporate a dual-generation approach for caregivers and their children.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10022291
- **Project number:** 5R01CE003104-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Melvin D Livingston
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $346,881
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2022-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10022291

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10022291, Evaluating family economic policies as primary prevention strategies to prevent family and youth violence (5R01CE003104-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10022291. Licensed CC0.

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