How the Earned Income Tax Credit Sustains Informal Child-Care Arrangements with Family Members and Helps Maintain Intergenerational Relations

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10539136
AutoresDylan Bellisle (0000-0003-2017-4983, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, autor de correspondencia), Dylan J F Bellisle
Año2022
Volumen96
Número4
Páginas744-778
Fecha de publicación2022-10-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Service Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0037-7961 • E-ISSN: 1537-5404
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/722002
OpenAlexW4307406397
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas98

The earned income tax credit (EITC) is one of the largest antipoverty programs in the United States. Although extensive research suggests the EITC is linked to various positive parent and child outcomes, limited attention has been paid to how familial obligations shape ways in which the EITC is spent. Research indicates that social networks of extended family and friends can be vital to low-income families’ social and economic well-being, suggesting the importance of exploring their roles in shaping EITC spending decisions. Drawing from in-depth interviews with primarily women of color, this article reveals how some women maintain extended family caregiving arrangements through monetary gifts from their EITC. The women’s narratives illustrate how they identified the social and economic value of the caregiving and how caregiving and monetary reciprocity facilitated the maintenance of intergenerational social support; they also expose limitations of current policies designed to support care arrangements among low-income families

Child support · Demographic economics · Earned income tax credit · Economics · Labour economics · Low income · Political science · Public economics · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology · Sociology · Tax credit · Value (mathematics · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology · Social Psychology