Earned Income Tax Credit Access Study

The EITC Access Study an intervention study provided to families in 7 counties in Michigan.The intervention involves appending a concentrated benefits advocacy intervention onto an existing home visiting program. There are 5 treatment counties and 2 control counties that will survey families in the home visiting program to compare the relative benefits of the added benefits advocacy intervention on the outcomes of parent mental health, intimate partner violence, economic hardship, earned income tax credit take-up, and child maltreatment.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: The Study is Intended to Increase Take-up of EITC
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Education; Other: Home visiting

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 208
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Michigan
    • Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, 49017
      • Calhoun Intermediate School District
    • Belleville, Michigan, United States, 48197
      • SOS Community Services
    • Croswell, Michigan, United States, 48422
      • Sanilac Intermediate School District
    • Houghton, Michigan, United States, 49931
      • Keweenaw Family Resource Center
    • Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States, 49048
      • Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo
    • Marysville, Michigan, United States, 48040
      • St Clair RESA
    • Portage, Michigan, United States, 49002
      • Kalamazoo KRESA

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age, has a child in their home

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not speak or read English, Spanish, Burmese, or Arabic

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Education intervention; Parents in the treatment group will receive information about Earned Income Tax Credit, including how to sign up for free. They will also receive help with budgeting and finances from their home visitor.	Other: Education; Parents will be provided with information about Earned Income Tax Credits and budgeting; Other: Home visiting; Parents as Teachers home visiting program
Other: Control group; Control group families will receive home visiting services as usual.	Other: Home visiting; Parents as Teachers home visiting program

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Earned Income Tax Credit receipt	Self-report	Within 2 years of receiving the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Child maltreatment behaviors	Self-report on the Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory. 34 Yes/No questions. E.g. "A child needs very strict rules."	Within 2 years of receiving the intervention
Intimate partner violence	Self-report from Women's Experiences of Battering Scale. 10 items relating to how they would describe their life with their partner. Scale ranges from Strongly agree to strongly disagree. E.g. 1. He makes me feel unsafe even in my own home.	Within 2 years of receiving the intervention
Depression	Self-report from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). 20 questions on a scale from "rarely" to "most or all of the time" relating to things experienced within the past week. E.g. "I was bothered by things that usually don't bother me."	Within 2 years of receiving the intervention
Anxiety	Self-report from the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). 7 questions relating to feelings experienced over the past 2 weeks, with response options ranging from "not at all" to "nearly every day." E.g. "Not being able to stop or control worrying."	Within 2 years of receiving the intervention
Economic hardship	Self-report on 11 yes or no items indicating whether individual hardships were experienced in the past year. E.g. "Was there anyone in your household who needed to see a doctor or go to the hospital but could not go because of the cost?"	Within 2 years of receiving the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Michigan

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 29, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): September 29, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 20, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 20, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): May 25, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): January 8, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 5, 2024
• Last Verified: January 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: HUM00190754

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Only aggregate information will be shared with other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No