Policies to Promote Child Health - Future of Children

Policies to Promote Child Health

VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 SPRING 2015 3 Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue

11 How Healthy Are Our Children? 35 Promoting Health in Early Childhood 65 Child Health and Access to Medical Care 91 Food Assistance Programs and Child Health 111 Preventing and Treating Child Mental Health Problems 135 Housing, Neighborhoods, and Children's Health 155 The Role of the Family and Family-Centered Programs and Policies 177 Children's Health in a Legal Framework

A COLLABORATION OF THE WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

The Future of Children promotes effective policies and programs for children by providing timely, objective information based on the best available research.

Senior Editorial Staff

Sara McLanahan Editor-in-Chief Princeton University Director, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, and William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs

Janet M. Currie Senior Editor Princeton University Director, Center for Health and Wellbeing; Chair, Department of Economics; and Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs

Ron Haskins Senior Editor Brookings Institution Senior Fellow, Cabot Family Chair, and Co-Director, Center on Children and Families

Cecilia Elena Rouse Senior Editor Princeton University Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Katzman-Ernst Professor in the Economics of Education, and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs

Isabel Sawhill Senior Editor Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Center on Children and Families

Journal Staff

Kris McDonald Associate Editor Princeton University

Jon Wallace Managing Editor Princeton University

Lisa Markman-Pithers Outreach Director Princeton University Associate Director, Education Research Section

Stephanie Cencula Outreach Coordinator Brookings Institution

Regina Leidy Communications Coordinator Princeton University

Tracy Merone Administrator Princeton University

The Future of Children would like to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Spitzer Family Foundation for their generous support.

ISSN: 1054-8289 ISBN: 978-0-9857863-3-5

VOLUME 25NUMBER 1SPRING 2015

Policies to Promote Child Health

3 Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue by Janet Currie and Nancy Reichman

11 How Healthy Are Our Children? by Sara Rosenbaum and Robert Blum

35 Promoting Health in Early Childhood by Maya Rossin-Slater 65 Child Health and Access to Medical Care

by Lindsey Leininger and Helen Levy 91 Food Assistance Programs and Child Health by Craig Gundersen 111 Preventing and Treating Child Mental Health Problems

by Alison Cuellar 135 Housing, Neighborhoods, and Children's Health

by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Sherry Glied 155 The Role of the Family and Family-Centered Programs and Policies

by Lawrence M. Berger and Sarah A. Font 177 Children's Health in a Legal Framework

by Clare Huntington and Elizabeth Scott



Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue

Policies to Promote Child Health: Introducing the Issue

Janet Currie and Nancy Reichman

Alarge volume of high-quality research shows that unhealthy children grow up to be unhealthy adults, that poor health and low income go hand in hand, and that the consequences of both poverty and poor health make large demands on public coffers. Thus promoting children's health is essential for improving the population's health; policies to prevent children's health problems can be wise investments; and policy makers should implement carefully designed policies and programs to promote child health.

According to the World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. We view health in this broad sense, encompassing both physical and mental health indicators. And because some children's health problems may go undiagnosed or take years to become apparent, we also consider conditions that predict poor child health (such as low birth weight) and behaviors that affect health (such as substance use).

We view policies in a broad sense as well. Because an array of physical and social factors--including unsafe housing, pollution, food insecurity, and maltreatment, all of which are related to poverty--can adversely affect health, many types of policies are important for child health. Thus we consider the effects of policies that don't specifically focus on health (such as cash or in-kind assistance, or parenting education programs) in addition to policies that focus on access to health care or the direct provision of medical services. Relevant policies come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from large federal programs such as Head Start and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to more modest local public health initiatives.

U.S. child health policy is thus a patchwork of efforts at the federal, state, and local levels. Many policies aim specifically to improve child health, while others have different goals but could indirectly affect the health of children. Some health-related policies target children directly, attempting to treat health problems once they occur or to prevent them



Janet Currie is the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, chair of the Department of Economics, and director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. Nancy Reichman is a professor of pediatrics at Rutgers University's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a visiting professor of economics at Princeton University.

VOL. 25 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2015 3

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