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Before the pandemic, one-third of U.S. households with children were already “net worth poor,” lacking enough financial resources to sustain their families for three months at a poverty level, finds new research from Duke University. In 2019, 57 percent of Black families and 50 percent of Latino families with children were poor in terms of net worth. By comparison, the rate for white families was 24 percent. “These ‘net worth poor’ households have no assets to withstand a sudden economic loss, like we have seen with COVID-19,” said Christina Gibson-Davis, co-author of the study and professor of public policy and sociology at Duke University’s Center for Child and Family Policy. “Their savings are virtually nil, and they have no financial cushion to provide the basics for their children.” The study is among the first to consider family poverty in terms of assets, not income. Using 1989-2019 data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, researchers analyzed net worth and income data from more than 19,000 U.S. households with children under age 18. Among households with children, net worth poverty has been steadily rising over the past 30 years, the authors found. In 2019, a two-parent, two-child household was deemed to be net-worth poor if they had less than $6,500 in assets – or less than one-fourth of the federal poverty line. “Uncovering this aspect of poverty, which hinges on wealth, is game-changing,” said Lisa Gennetian, co-author of the study and associate professor of early learning policy studies at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Kenneth Dodge, William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies  at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and DUPRI Scholar, selected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children from Birth to Age Eight. The Committee will conduct a consensus study on the causes and consequences of the opportunity gap for these children. The group will produce a consensus report that synthesizes the information gathered on the relationship between the opportunity and achievement gaps young children from birth to eight, and will make recommendations on how to improve conditions and promote success for children--at home, in communities, and in schools.