Does Receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Benefi ts Impact Elementary Children’s Academic Achievement? A Propensity Score Method Analysis

Abstract

Since 1997, the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program has funded state welfare programs aimed at providing monetary assistance to low-income families with children. The program serves over 1.6 million children across nearly one million families (Ziliak, 2015). Such a program, executed well, benefi ts children directly by increasing the resources available to their families, but there may by indirect benefi ts as well. We seek to explore whether and to what extent receiving TANF benefi ts impact a child’s academic achievement. Such a link is a plausible one, since school achievement is already linked to various negative outcomes TANF seeks to mitigate, like food insecurity (Reid, 2000). We seek to answer the following research question: What is the short-term impact of a family’s receiving TANF benefits on an elementary school-aged child’s academic achievement, as measured by math and reading test scores?