Research Topics

Current research and policy priorities
Major areas of ongoing research


Children’s HealthWatch Research and Policy Priorities are comprised of the topics on which we will be focusing for the next two to three years.  While we continually collect data on all of our core topics, especially food, housing, and energy insecurity, in anticipation of issues that will form the national public policy debate we focus on a subset of policy-relevant analyses.  In so doing, Children’s HealthWatch brings timely scientific evidence about the links between hardships associated with poverty – inadequate food and unstable housing conditions to name a few – and children’s health into the public policy arena.

All research and policy topics are evaluated with regards to their association with young children's food security, health and development.


Current Research and Policy Priorities


Children's HealthWatch research & policy priorities include:

  • Cumulative Hardships: impact of multiple hardships (food, housing and energy insecurities) on child health and well-being
  • Cumulative Benefits: understanding how receipt of multiple public assistance benefits impacts child's health and development
  • Housing Insecurity: crowding, frequent moves, and incremental risk
  • Childcare: impact of childcare subsidies for families in formal childcare
  • Immigrant Families: the experience of immigrant families and the associated impact on children of immigrants' health and well-bring
  • Forced Economic Trade-Offs: impact on families when out-of-pocket medical expenses force families to forgo payments of other necessities
  • Barriers to Access: understanding the most prevalent reasons why eligible families do not participate in public assistance programs
  • SNAP (formerly food stamps): measuring the health impact of participation, including the health effect of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act benefits increase
  • Energy Insecurity: access to and affordability of utility costs; participation in LIHEAP
  • Developmental Risk: impact of food and other insecurities on children's cognitive/socio-emotional development
  • The Economic Costs of Poor Oral Health: short and long-term costs for young children and America

Topics in development include:

  • Food Insecurity and Obesity 
  • Housing Evictions 
  • Barriers to Childcare Subsidy Receipt 
  • Maternal Hardship and Low Birthweight Infants 
  • Oral Health Care – Barriers and Relation to Food Insecurity

Major areas of ongoing research

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