Timing and Persistence of Material Hardship Among Children in the United States

Screening for social determinants of health (SDH) has been widely adopted to identify child health risks associated with exposure to material hardship. Whereas SDH screening typically addresses a 12-month span, we sought to compare the prevalence of exposure to present (within the past year) as compared to recent (2-4 years ago) hardship among children in the United States.

We analyzed the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation, a nationally representative survey that interviewed participating households annually between 2014 and 2017. We included data from households with children in all waves. As of 2017, households were categorized as (1) experiencing present hardship (within the last year); (2) experiencing recent but not present hardship (any year between 2014 and 2016); and (3) experiencing no hardship over the 4-year period.

Of 2422 households, 27% experienced present hardship and 29% experienced recent but not present hardship. Households presently experiencing hardship were more likely to have Medicaid insurance, less likely to be married, and had more children than families who had experienced recent hardship. However, these groups were similar on caregivers' educational attainment, race/ethnicity, language spoken in the home, and age of the youngest child.

Our results suggest that clinical screening tools for SDH that use a 12-month time frame risk missing many children who have recently (within the past 4 years) experienced material hardship and may benefit from interventions to improve social support; a longer time frame could provide clinicians with valuable information for understanding social factors that impact child health and development.