Cash Transfers to Address Child Welfare Involvement

Unconditional Cash Transfers to Address Poverty as a Fundamental Cause of Child Welfare Involvement

In partnership with New York Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS), investigators will execute a randomized controlled trial to determine the impacts of unconditional cash transfers of $500 per month for 12 months. Investigators will measure the impacts of the unconditional cash transfers on parental physical and mental health, child health and healthcare utilization, financial stability, and interactions with the child welfare system.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Child Poverty
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Unconditional Cash Transfer; Other: No Direct Cash Transfer

Detailed Description

Poverty has been identified as a powerful predictor of child maltreatment and child welfare involvement. Recent research shows that even modest economic and concrete supports are associated with reduced child maltreatment and involvement with child welfare. Toward that end, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), in partnership with the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance (OTDA) and the Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR), University of Pennsylvania is conducting on randomized controlled trial of unconditional cash transfers among families with prior child welfare referrals in three New York counties in 2023.

The project will enroll approximately 150 households in Monroe, Onondaga, and Westchester counties to receive $500 per month, unconditionally, over a one-year period, totaling $6,000 per family. Another 300 will be assigned to the control group and will not receive the unconditional cash transfers but will be eligible to participate in research activities. Families will be eligible if they were served through differential response, called Family Assessment Response (FAR) in New York State. FAR is used for CPS reports that have been accepted by the New York State Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR) where there is no safety concern that rises to the level of immediate or impending danger for the child and/or family. Often, families served in the FAR track have been referred for poverty-related social needs.

Randomized Controlled Trial Design: Households referred and determined eligible for Family Assessment Response (FAR) will be invited to participate in a randomized controlled trial of unconditional cash transfers. Approximately 150 individuals will be randomly assigned to the treatment group and will receive the $500 unconditional cash transfers for one year. Another 300 will be assigned to the control group and will not receive the unconditional cash transfers but will be eligible to participate in research activities. Youth Research Inc. (YRI), an agency contracted by the New York Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS), will disburse funds on a debit card. me but will be invited to participate in compensated research activities. Longitudinal repeated measures will be utilized through surveys conducted at baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months. Future involvement with child welfare will be measured using linked administrative data from OCFS.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 450
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19106
      • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

To participate in this pilot, caregivers must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Received an invitation from an OCFS caseworker to apply
• Have met the state eligibility requirements for the Family Assessment Response (FAR) within the previous six months
• Live in Monroe, Onondaga, or Westchester County, New York
• Be 18 years of age or older at the time of application.

Exclusion criteria:

● Self-reported enrollment in another cash transfer study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment Group; Participants in the treatment group will receive $500 per month for 12 months	Other: Unconditional Cash Transfer; Unconditional monthly transfer of $500 to household; Other Names: Direct Cash Transfer; Guaranteed Income
Active Comparator: Control Group; Participants in the control group will not receive monthly cash benefits.	Other: No Direct Cash Transfer; No intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Unfounded reports to CPS	Count of unfounded reports using CPS administrative data	18 months
Investigative Track reports to CPS	Count of Investigative Track using CPS administrative data	18 months
Indicated reports to CPS	Count of Indicated reports using CPS administrative data	18 Months
Substantiated reports to CPS	Count of Substantiated reports using CPS administrative data	18 Months
Family Assessment Response (FAR) track reports to CPS	Count of Family Assessment Response (FAR) track reports using CPS administrative dat	18 months
Unsubstantiated reports to CPS	Count of Unsubstantiated reports using CPS administrative data	18 months
Foster care placements	Count of Foster care placements using CPS administrative data	18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parental self-reported general health (SF-36)	Average of 5-point likert scale score on 5 questions	12 months
Mental health (Kessler 10)	Each item is scored from one 'none of the time' to five 'all of the time'. Scores of the 10 items are then summed, yielding a minimum score of 10 and a maximum score of 50. Low scores indicate low levels of psychological distress and high scores indicate high levels of psychological distress.	12 months
Stress and coping (Perceived Stress Scale - 4)	Each item is scored from "never" to "all of the time" on a 5-point scale. Scores of 4 items are then summed, yielding a minimum score of 0 and a highest score of 16. Higher scores are correlated to more stress	12 months
Family dynamics and parenting (CHAOS)	Each item is scored "yes" or "no". Scores of the items are then summed. The higher the score the higher the level of environmental chaos in the home.	12 months
Parental Stress Sale	18-item questionnaire assessing parents' feelings about their parenting role, exploring both positive aspects (e.g. emotional benefits, personal development) and negative aspects of parenthood (e.g. demands on resources, feelings of stress). Each item is scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Parental stress scores range from 18 to 90, with lower scores indicating lower levels of parental stress.	12 months
Food insecurity	Answer to single item question "In the past four weeks, did you worry that your household would not have enough food?"	12 months
Child missed medical care	Parental yes/no report of any child in home with missed medical care in preceding 6 months	12 months
Child school truancy	Parental report of day of missed school for each child in the home aged 6-17 in the preceding 6 months	12 months
Hours per week of relative childcare	Parent-reported number of hours each week each child 0-5 spends receiving care from a relative other than a parent or guardian	12 months
Hours per week of non-relative childcare	Parent-reported number of hours each week each child 0-5 spends receiving care from a non-relative	12 hours
Hours per week of formal childcare	Parent-reported number of hours each week each child 0-5 spends receiving care in a day care center, preschool, or prekindergarten	12 months
Financial-well being (CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale	Each item is scored 0 to 4 and summed to a total. The sum total is then converted to a total response value on the CFPB Financial Well-Being Scale score from 0-100.	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Collaborators: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Rutgers University; Redlich Horwitz Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Stacia West, PhD, University of Pennsylvania/University of Tennessee

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 15, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): December 15, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 28, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 9, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): May 12, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 26, 2025
• Last Verified: January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: OCFS DCT Pilot

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

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