Parental investment across neighborhood contexts: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial of poverty reduction

This study investigated how low-income parents with infants and toddlers make differing caregiving investments depending on neighborhood conditions. It leverages a randomized controlled trial in which 1,000 low-income mothers and newborns (Mage = 27; 42% Black; 41% Hispanic; 10% White; 2018–2022) received unconditional cash transfers of $333 or $20 per month. Mothers’ addresses were linked with census tract-based measures of “opportunity” for economic mobility. Parents in ­lower-opportunity neighborhoods who received larger cash transfers engaged their child in more enriching activities and purchased more child-focused goods than parents who received the cash transfers in higher-opportunity neighborhoods (effect sizes of .12 and .09 more as opportunity decreased by 1 SD). These results suggest that parents compensate for challenging neighborhood conditions with increased caregiving investments.