*New* West Coast Poverty Center Presentation: To “Get Ahead” or “Ease the Burden”? Inequities in Financially Intensive Parenting a Universal Cash Transfer (4/4/24)

Posted: 3/28/2024 ()

The West Coast Poverty Center at UW will host a Economic Security Roundtable presentation on Thursday, April 4th from 9:30-10:45 am on Zoom with Mariana Amorim (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Washington State University). Amorim’s talk is titled “To “Get Ahead” or “Ease the Burden”? Inequities in Financially Intensive Parenting a Universal Cash Transfer”. Register here and see the full story for the abstract!

Abstract. Sociologists have long argued that parenting practices differ by social class, which has important implications for children’s life chances. The childrearing behaviors of middle and upper-class families has been consistently described as “intensive” – child-centered and time-consuming. In this qualitative study, we investigate the extent and ways in which parents across the socioeconomic spectrum engage in “financially intensive parenting” with money from the only long-standing universal, unconditional, individual, anticipated, and large cash-transfer program in the western world, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend. Overall, our findings suggest that differences in the application of financially intensive parenting practices may inadvertently contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in resources available to children and in children’s life chances. Our results offer insight into the unintended consequences of universal cash transfers within the context of a weak social safety net. Register here.