Digital Commons Network^™

Child Development Accounts Improve Parenting Practices, Particularly For Financially Vulnerable Families, Jin Huang

Center for Social Development Research

Parenting practices, such as parental involvement and discipline, define parent–child interactions and influence child functioning. Child Development Accounts may have positive impacts on parenting practices by increasing parents’ perceived levels of economic safety, enhancing their optimism regarding the long-term development of their child, and improving parents’ mental health. This research brief synthesizes findings of the CDA effects on parenting practices from three research studies in the SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment.

Findings show that the SEED OK CDA has significantly reduced mothers’ punitive parenting practices, and also increased positive parenting practices among mothers in financially vulnerable families. The size of …

State License Renewal Information For Licensed Professional Counselors And Addiction Counselors, Kelley Mccall, Lindsey Manshack

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

The purpose of this document is to provide an analysis of continuing education requirements for professional counselors and addiction counselors by state. The chart below shows 1) Profession Title(s), 2) Allowable CE sources, 3) CE Hours/Topic Requirements, 4) Training Type/Delivery Methods, and 5) Renewal Fees.

Please carefully read your state licensure renewal requirements. State laws often change, so please remember it is your responsibility for interpreting your state’s laws, licensure requirements, course relevancy, and all requirements for your state. Note: The CE Allowable Sources section listings are not an exhaustive list. Please consult the state’s licensing board for a complete …

Accountable Policing: Policies To Advance The Personal Safety Of Black Boys And Young Men, Robert Motley

Center for Social Development Research

The policies and practices that perpetuate the continual, unjust murder of Black males by the nation’s law-enforcement professionals have gone unchanged for far too long. This Brief Report from HomeGrown StL provides local, state, and federal policymakers with concrete, evidence-based policy recommendations for building an equitable, transparent, and accountable public-safety approach that will serve and protect all.

Social Work And The Future Of Policing: Key Points For Changes In Policy And Practice, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

High-profile police violence and killings have prompted struggles to reconceptualize public order, safety and justice. As reform proposals emerge, this brief proposes key elements for new approach to public safety: an expanded professional partnership between police and social workers.

Material Hardship Among Lower-Income Households: The Role Of Liquid Assets And Place, Mathieu Despard, Valerie Taing, Addie Weaver, Stephen Roll, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Lower income households are at risk for material hardship, particularly amidst the economic fallout of COVID-19. Where one lives (e.g. suburb, small town) may affect this risk due to variable access to resources, yet the evidence is mixed concerning the influence of place. We used a pooled, national cross-sectional sample of 66,046 lower-income tax filers to examine differences in material hardship in rural, small town, micropolitan, and urban areas. Controlling only for standard demographic variables, hardship risk appears higher in non-urban areas, yet these differences disappear after controlling for financial characteristics such as liquid assets and home ownership.

Tax-Time Saving And The Earned Income Tax Credit: Results From Online Field And Survey Experiments, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Stephen Roll, Bradley Hardy, Dana Perantie, Jane Oliphant

Social Policy Institute Research

Tax refunds are an opportunity for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients to build emergency savings. Randomly assigned behavioral interventions in 2015 and 2016 have statistically significant impacts on refund saving take-up and amounts among EITC recipients who filed their taxes online. From a survey experiment, we also find that EITC recipients have a 49 percent and 59 percent increased likelihood of deferring 20 percent of their refunds for six months when hypothetically offered 25 and 50 percent savings matches (p < .001), respectively. These findings can inform policy development related to encouraging emergency saving at tax time.

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Promising New Benefit For Frontline Workers?, Mathieu Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller, Yingying Zeng, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Geraldine Germain, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Meredith Covington

Social Policy Institute Research

Interest among employers is growing in Employee financial wellness programs (EFWPs), a new type of benefit to address financial stress among employees. EFWPs benefits include financial counseling, small-dollar loans, and savings programs that address employees' non-retirement financial needs. Little evidence exists concerning the availability and use of and outcomes associated with EFWPs, especially among low- and moderate-income (LMI) workers who may be in greatest need of these benefits. We present findings concerning awareness and use of EFWPs from a national survey of LMI workers (N=16,650). Availability of different EFWP benefits ranged from 11 to 15% and over a third of …

The Impact Of Tax Refund Delays On The Experience Of Hardship And Unsecured Debt, Olga Kondratjeva, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides substantial financial support to low-income workers, yet around a quarter of EITC payments are estimated to be erroneous or fraudulent. Beginning in 2017, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 requires the Internal Revenue Service to spend additional time processing early EITC claims, delaying the issuance of tax refunds. Leveraging unique data, we investigate how delayed tax refunds affected the experience of hardship and unsecured debt among EITC recipients. We find that early filers experienced increased food insecurity relative to later filers after the implementation of the refund delay.

Financial Counseling For Front-Line Workers: A Pilot Study Of Engagement And Outcomes, Mathieu Despard, Yingying Zeng, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Ellen Frank-Miller, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Although financial counseling has been studied in community-based settings, programs offered in the workplace are understudied and yet may aid low- to moderate income employees in improving their financial situations. This study examines workers’ engagement in and associated credit outcomes from an employer-based financial counseling program in the New York City area. Findings suggest that participants engaged equally in services except for older and non-English speaking workers, who had lower levels of digital engagement. In-person engagement in services was minimal. Credit score improvements were modest, but greater for workers who had

scores in the lowest quartile at baseline. These credit …

Dismantling Of Obesity-Related Policies, Alexandra Borosova Morshed

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation fills an important research gap in the study of obesity policymaking by characterizing to what extent the phenomenon of dismantling is happening at the state level for obesity-related policies targeting the context of consumption, identifying determinants, and characterizing actors and processes involved. The five-year rate of dismantling of these policies is close to one-third for any attempts and one-tenth for enacted dismantling. Food and beverage tax policies face a particularly high rate of dismantling. Case studies and news coverage of state- level dismantling identified actors, motivations, and strategies used in the process of dismantling. Review of health-related empirical …

A Public Health Examination Of The Discipline Gap, Karishma Furtado

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Education is often positioned as the great equalizer in the United Statesѡ cure all for many social ills, from poverty, to family instability, to exposure to violence. However, disadvantaged students tend, on average, to get a lower quality education. One example of a barrier that impedes educational equity is the discipline gap, or the disproportionate rate of exclusionary discipline like suspension and expulsion experienced by students with disabilities and those from historically disadvantaged racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups. Removing a student from class for punitive reasons puts them at greater risk of academic disengagement, a diminished sense of belonging and …

A Case Study Of The Experiences Of Black Female Faculty At Research-Intensive Schools Of Social Work, Lashawnda N. Fields

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Representation has improved over the past 40 years among Black female faculty members in social work schools; however, low academic rank and distribution of this demographic across institutions is one way in which predominately White institutions (PWI) of higher education perpetuate racial inequalities. Higher education, in general, continues to result in negative experiences and poor outcomes for Black female faculty members such as time to tenure, low academic rank, and feelings of isolation. However, little is known about the experiences of this demographic in schools of social work, particularly those identified as research-intensive (R-1) Carnegie-designated institutions of higher education. This …

Rompiendo Alambres: Immigrant Youth Navigating School And Life In St. Louis, Julia Campus Macias

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on educational and life trajectories of Central American youth in St. Louis, Missouri, who have immigrated unaccompanied from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. By tracking and telling their stories, I hope to amplify these young immigrants’ voices, and complicate others’ perceptions of their place and worth in this country. Current immigration policies and enforcement practices have made the entry process more punitive, restrictive and deadly. The immigrant experience, especially for young people, confronts many state institutions, chief among them the educational system. Institutions like schools become entry points for immigrants but can also be spaces for …

Maintaining Natural Recovery From Prescription Opioid Use Disorder, Christina Drymon

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Prescription opioid use disorder (POUD) has been steadily rising in the United States since 1999 and is often accompanied by increases in heroin and synthetic opioid use, overdose deaths, and other adverse public health outcomes. Women in particular are at greater risk of developing POUD and associated outcomes. Even though high rates of mortality and morbidity are common among those with POUD, recovery is possible with nearly half of all individuals with POUD recovering naturally (i. e. , without formal or informal treatment). The natural recovery process from POUD has received little empirical attention. Using a grounded theory approach, semi-structured …

Improving The Take-Up Of Homecare Services Among Holocaust Survivors In A Jewish Charitable Organization, Olga Kondratjeva, Stephen Roll, Odelya Mantsura, Pini Miretski, Olga Statland-Vaintraub, Hannah Brumbaum, Ariel Tikotsky, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

This research brief is part of a series by the Social Impact Nudgeathon initiative. This initiative incorporated insights from behavioral economics into the design and delivery of social welfare programs. Developed through a partnership between the Joint Distribution Committee in Israel (JDC-Israel) and the Social Policy Institute (SPI) at Washington University in St. Louis, this initiative is among the first of its kind to launch in Israel. Working in close collaboration, research teams from the United States and Israel investigated whether using behavioral insights to make small changes in the delivery of social service programs in Israel and Russia would …

Improving Educational And Career Opportunities For Youth With Disabilities In The Future Trend Program, Yifat Klein, Osnat Elnathan, Mayzahav Itiel Barkai, Miriam Palachi, Anat Halevy, Yair Feingold, Ariel Tikotsky, Guy Hochman

Social Policy Institute Research

This research brief is part of a series by the Social Impact Nudgeathon initiative. This initiative incorporated insights from behavioral economics into the design and delivery of social welfare programs. Developed through a partnership between the Joint Distribution Committee in Israel (JDC-Israel) and the Social Policy Institute (SPI) at Washington University in St. Louis, this initiative is among the first of its kind to launch in Israel. Working in close collaboration, research teams from the United States and Israel investigated whether using behavioral insights to make small changes in the delivery of social service programs in Israel and Russia would …

Child Development Accounts In The Covid-19 Crisis: Lessons From The Great Recession, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an economic downturn that will likely be worse than the Great Recession, especially for financially vulnerable households. Child Development Accounts (CDAs) were rigorously tested in the 2008-09 recession and produced positive financial and family results. Likewise, CDAs can be expected to have positive impacts on children in financially vulnerable households during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To confront this health and economic crisis, this research and policy report examines how CDA research from the previous recession can inform a new kind of social policy to address the current one. The report draws from in-person interviews …

Nothing To Show For It: Non-Degreed Debt And The Financial Circumstances Associated With It, Jason Jabbari, Mathieu Despard, Olga Kondratjeva, Brinda Gupta, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

The number of individuals with student loan debt who do not earn their degrees is on the rise; nevertheless, there is little research that demonstrates the financial conditions and circumstances of these individuals. We address this knowledge gap by comparing the financial outcomes of student debt-holders who started college but did not earn a degree—those with non-degreed debt (NDD)—with similar individuals who did not attend college and did not take on student debt. We find that individuals with NDD had greater odds of experiencing material and healthcare hardships, as well as financial difficulties. Individuals with NDD also had greater financial …

Household Savings Decisions In Israel’S Child Savings Program: The Role Of Demographic, Financial, And Intrinsic Factors, Ofir Pinto, Olga Kondratjeva, Maya Haran Rosen, Stephen P. Roll, Aytakin Huseynli, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Social Policy Institute Working Paper

Israel’s Child Development Account (CDA) program, the Savings for Every Child Program (SECP), is universal and automatically enrolls all children under the age of 18, depositing approximately $14 into their accounts every month. Parents can transfer an additional monthly $14 into these long-term savings accounts and can choose an investment vehicle for their children’s deposits. The total realized benefits from the SECP depend heavily on parents’ choices. This study examines how demographic, financial, and intrinsic personality characteristics predict household participation in this program. Using a unique data set combining administrative and survey data, we find …

A Framework For Explaining Black–White Inequality In Homeownership Sustainability, Chunhui Ren

Center for Social Development Research

Why do housing outcomes differ by race?

To understand Black–White disparities in homeownership sustainability, this study proposes a conceptual framework that emphasizes Black homeowners’ socioeconomic challenges, challenges that go beyond the mortgage market, and focuses on the mediating role of liquid assets. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) enable a test of the framework through an examination of racial differences in the exit rates of homeowners during the recent housing crisis. The findings suggest that liquid assets played a significant role in such disparities.

This is a pre-print of an article published in Demography. The final …

Chıld Development Accounts: A Policy Design And Opportunity For Azerbaijan, Aytakin Huseynli, Michael Sherraden, Daniel Gottlieb

Center for Social Development Research

In Azerbaijan, recent economic growth and sizable oil revenues offer a path for improving the well-being of the nation’s children. This brief makes the case for a national CDA policy in Azerbaijan and suggests viable paths to implementation of such a policy.

Son zamanlar Azərbaycanda baş verən iqtisadi inkişaf və neft gəlirlərinin artamsı, uşaqların rifahının yaxşılaşdırılamsı sahəsində dayanıqlı proqramlar tətbiq etməyə imkan yaradır. Sənəd, Azərbaycanda hər bir uşağa qənaet hesabları olan- Uşaq İnkişaf Hesablarının-açılması üçün yazılan siyasi sənədin qısa xülasəsidir.

The Financial Capability And Financial Well-Being Of Low-Income Entrepreneurs, Jin Huang, Baorong Guo

Center for Social Development Research

Entrepreneurship can offer a path out of poverty, but do low-income entrepreneurs have the knowledge and resources they need to succeed?

Reporting on analyses of data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey, this brief suggests that many would-be entrepreneurs turn to alternative financial products in lieu of mainstream options and could benefit from comprehensive financial guidance designed to bolster financial capability.

Job Training And So Much More For Low-Income Older Adults: The Senior Community Service Employment Program, Cal J. Halvorsen, Olga Yulikova

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

An important anti-poverty program for older Americans is facing a serious problem: The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) was deemed “ineffective” by the Department of Labor. The department’s 2020 budget, in fact, proposes the program’s elimination. SCSEP, which places low-income adults aged 55 and older with multiple barriers to work in on-the-job training in nonprofit and public agencies while providing a modest stipend, has the goal of helping participants to transition into unsubsidized, gainful employment. Yet measures used to determine the program’s effectiveness focus solely on employment outcomes, ignoring important outcomes related to health and social engagement. This commentary …

Assessments Of Fit And Usability Of Work-Life Supports In The Context Of Diversity And Perceptions Of Fairness, Cal J. Halvorsen, Indrani Saran, Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

There is a robust literature that examines outcomes associated with work-life supports. Scholars have considered the “fit” between employee needs and the supports available while others have examined the “usability”—or the potential consequences of using—work-life supports. In this article, we suggest that “fit” and “usability” could be related to both employees’ own demographic, social, and cultural identities, as well as perceptions of fairness at the workplace. While scholars have focused on organizational justice and workplace fairness for quite some time, the context of diversity—in its many forms—has rarely been included in this conversation or has simply been added as a …

The 2020 Washington University In St. Louis Pow Wow Committee Covid-19 Report And Resource Guide, Kellie Thompson

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

Every year since 1990, Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis students and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies organizes an annual Pow Wow. A Pow Wow is an event where both Native American and non‐Native American people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American Indian history and culture. The 30th annual event was scheduled to occur on April 11, 2020 with the theme of “Steps to Sovereignty: Decolonize, Indigenize, Revitalize.” The Washington University Pow Wow is critical in bringing the St. Louis community together to honor and celebrate Native traditions. As coronavirus spread in …

Older Workers In The Time Of Covid-19: The Senior Community Service Employment Program And Implications For Social Work, Cal J. Halvorsen, Olga Yulikova

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

It has long been the goal of many gerontological social work scholars to increase the ability and opportunity for people to be engaged in paid and unpaid work throughout the life course. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing and exacerbating the financial insecurity of many older adults. In this paper, we review information related to older workers and how they might be affected by this pandemic and its aftermath, paying particular attention to the most socioeconomically and physically vulnerable older workers. We also offer first-hand experiences from our careers working with and conducting scholarship on older workers, paying particular attention …

How Self-Employed Older Adults Differ By Age: Evidence And Implications From The Health And Retirement Study, Cal J. Halvorsen

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

Background and Objectives

There has been increased attention in recent years on self-employment in later life, with about 1 in 5 workers past of the age of 50 working for themselves. This study aims to build upon previous documentation of the characteristics of self-employed older adults by estimating how these characteristics vary by age.

Research Design and Methods

Using 7 waves of the Health and Retirement Study with a sample of more than 16,000 working older adults, this study considers how the association between self-employment and sociodemographic characteristics; indicators of human, social, and financial capital; and risk tolerance differ between …

The Good Lawyer: State-Led Professional Socialization In Contemporary China, Lawrence J. Liu, Rachel E. Stern

Scholarship@WashULaw

How do authoritarian states define and communicate notions of appropriate work conduct and professional excellence? This article examines three channels of communication used by the Chinese state to signal professional expectations to the bar: the bar exam, the administrative rules governing lawyers, and the state-sanctioned National Outstanding Lawyer Award. We find that China’s state narrative about “the good lawyer” celebrates lawyers willing to work closely with the authorities and asks more stringent critics to separate private beliefs from public behavior. In contrast to assumptions often made in research on authoritarian law, this article highlights how lawyers can participate in politics …

The 2019-20 Survey Of Applied Legal Education, Robert R. Kuehn, Margaret Reuter, David A. Santacroce

Scholarship@WashULaw

This report presents the results of the 2019-20 Center for the Study of Applied Legal Education (CSALE) Survey of Applied Legal Education. The survey was composed of two parts – a Master Survey directed to ABA accredited U.S. law schools and a Sub-Survey distributed to each person teaching in a law clinic or field placement course. Ninety-five percent of law schools and over 1,300 clinical teachers participated in the survey. The results provide valuable insight into clinical programs and law clinic and field placement courses in areas such as design, capacity, administration, funding, and pedagogy, and into the role and …

The Tortured Pre-History Of Urban Blight: African American St. Louis And The Politics Of Public Health, 1877-1940, Taylor Desloge

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a long history of the contested legal and environmental category of blight, especially in its racialized dimensions, in tandem with the African American experience of living in blighted urban spaces and forging a black politics of public health and welfare. Rethinking the conventional view that identifies blight as simply a preoccupation of post-World War II planners, this dissertation relocates its roots in a politics of public health that emerged a hundred years earlier, in the Post-Reconstruction Era, when black migration to the city and the rise of industrial capitalism raised new questions over both the social needs …