MANY OF THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT - MATERIAL HARDSHIP AMONG CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

Study summarizes how material hardship affects children in the United States, using nationally representative Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data. In 2011, 38.4% of children lived in households reporting material hardship, including food insecurity, inability to pay essential bills, cost-related inability to access medical care, and substandard or overcrowded housing. It highlights stark racial disparities and compares risks to seniors. The report defines material hardship measurement across food, fiscal, medical, and housing domains and explains the resource-demand framework.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Overview

What is material hardship?

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

Measuring hardship: food, fiscal, medical, housing

MANY OF THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT: MATERIAL HARDSHIP AMONG CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES By Richard Rodems, H. Luke Shaefer AUGUST 2019 1 OVERVIEW According to the most recent data available from the nationally-representative Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), as of 2011, 38. 4% of children lived in households reporting at least one form of material hardship, such as food insecurity, inability to pay essential household bills, inability to access medical care due to cost, or substandard and overcrowded housing. This is well above the rate considered to be in poverty by official estimates (17. 5% as of 2017) . Children were more likely to live in households experiencing material hardship than working age adults, and were two to four times more likely to be in households reporting material hardship than seniors . This is true for every form of hardship examined, as well as for the depth of hardship. Among children, racial disparities in rates of material hardship are stark. Among Black and Hispanic children, half lived in households that report material hardship, whereas rates among white and Asian children were under 30% . THE SURVEY OF INCOME AND PROGRAM PARTICIPATION (SIPP) IS A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY CONDUCTED BY THE CENSUS BUREAU. THE SIPP WAS DESIGNED TO HELP RESEARCHERS UNDERSTAND THE ECONOMIC LIVES OF AMERICANS, PARTICULARLY THOSE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ECONOMIC LADDER. IT IS THE ONLY NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY WITH A FULL SUITE OF MATERIAL HARDSHIP MEASURES.1 WHAT IS MATERIAL HARDSHIP? The official way to measure poverty in the United States is through income poverty. The idea behind such a measure is that if you determine how much money flows into a household, you can assess whether or not the household is able to meet basic needs . All income-based poverty measures contain within thema quiet imperative: that the income of a given poverty line should be sufficient for a household to meet their material needs . ×2.6 CHILDREN ARE 2.6 TIMES AS LIKELY TO LIVE IN A HOUSEHOLD WITH ANY HARDSHIP COMPARED TO SENIORS ×2 CHILDREN ARE 2 TIMES AS LIKELY TO LIVE IN A HOUSEHOLD WITH ONE HARDSHIP COMPARED TO SENIORS ×3.8 CHILDREN ARE 3.8 TIMES AS LIKELY TO LIVE IN A HOUSEHOLD WITH MULTIPLE HARDSHIPS COMPARED TO SENIORS 2 That the child poverty rate is high in the United States based on income measures is a well-known and documented fact. The Census Bureau reports that 17.5% of children lived in households below the official poverty line in 2017, while the Supplemental Poverty Rate for children was 15. 6% .2 A relative poverty measure commonly used for international comparisons finds the U.S. has a child poverty rate of 20.9%, higher than Canada (14%) or the United Kingdom (12%), and more similar to Chile (21%) and Mexico (19.7%) .3 Yet all of these estimates rely on family income, an outcome that scholars have long understood as an imperfect measure of well-being, and far from perfectly measured in household surveys .4 Some have sought to account for the shortcoming of income data by making statistical adjustments, but such adjustments themselves are subject to substantial measurement error.5 Measuring expenditures might be a reasonable alternative to income, however, scholars are not in agreement as to the reliability of available consumption data or the treatment of consumption, in part due to rising debt among the poor.6 An alternative way of looking at well-being is from the perspective of material hardship. First developed by Mayer and Jencks,7 this approach dispenses with proxies like income and instead seeks to directly measure the material well-being of households . The intuition behind material hardship is straightforward: when demands on a household’s resources (income, savings, credit, favors, social assistance benefits, and so on) exceed available resources, the result is some form of material hardship. While income poverty and material h

FAQs

What does “material hardship” mean in this report?

Material hardship occurs when household demands on resources exceed available resources, leading to direct shortcomings in material well-being. The study distinguishes it from income poverty by measuring hardship more directly.

Which data source is used to analyze children’s hardship?

The report uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a nationally representative survey conducted by the Census Bureau with a full suite of material hardship measures.

How is material hardship measured in the study?

It is grouped into four categories: food hardship, fiscal hardship, health (medical) hardship, and housing hardship, each measured using specific survey questions and conditions described in the text.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel