ArticleHealth affairs (Project Hope)2023
Effects Of The 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit On Adults' Mental Health: A Quasi-Experimental Study.
Article in Health affairs (Project Hope), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations Between Unconditional Cash Transfers and Postpartum Outcomes in the United States : A Systematic Review.Annals of internal medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of unconditional cash transfers on family processes and wellbeing among mothers with low incomes.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- The Impact of the 2021 Child Tax Credit on Perinatal Health: Evidence From the Expansion and Postexpiration Periods.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- The Impact of Unemployment Insurance Benefit Cuts on Mental Health: Evidence From Early Pandemic Program Expirations.Health economics · 2026Article
- Association of pandemic-era US county-level policies with adult health and health behaviors.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- State-level restorative justice policies and mental health disparities among girl dating violence survivors in the US: A lagged cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Income Volatility During Early to Mid-adulthood and 10-year Memory Decline in a Longitudinal Synthetic Cohort.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Evaluability assessment of a targeted national anti-child poverty policy: option appraisal for evaluating the Scottish Child Payment.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- The Associations Between Income and Depression: A Cross-National Analysis.Depression and anxiety · 2026Article
- Impacts of the 2021 child tax credit advance monthly payments on birth outcomes in the United States: a natural experiment.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Health Effects of the 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit Expansion on Young Adults Without Children.The Milbank quarterly · 2025Article
- Hardship and Hope: The Relationship Between Unconditional Prenatal and Infant Cash Transfers, Economic Stability, and Maternal Mental Health and Well-Being.American journal of public health · 2025Article
- Take-up of the 2021 child tax credit expansion among disadvantaged households in California: Continuing barriers to health equity.Annals of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Expanded Child Tax Credit, Family Health, and Material Hardships.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- County-Level COVID-19 Policy Comprehensiveness and Adult Behavioral Health during 2021 : County-Level COVID-19 Policy and Adult Behavioral Health.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2025Article
- Safety Net Program Participation Patterns, Sociodemographic Factors, and Health.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- More Money, More Questions: How Caregivers Spent the Expanded Child Tax Credit.Children and youth services review · 2025Article
- The effects of public long-term care insurance on the long-term care industry in China: a quasi-experimental study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Annual Research Review: Cash transfer programs and young people's mental health - a review of studies in the United States.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Review
- A New Approach To Guide Research And Policy At The Intersection Of Income, Food, Nutrition, And Health.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The US Congress temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC) during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide economic assistance for families with children. Although formerly the CTC provided $2,000 per child for mostly middle-income parents, during July-December 2021 it provided up to $3,600 per child. Eligibility criteria were also expanded to reach more economically disadvantaged families. There has been little research evaluating the effect of the policy expansion on mental health. Using data from the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey and a quasi-experimental study design, we examined the effects of the expanded CTC on mental health and related outcomes among low-income adults with children, and by racial and ethnic subgroup. We found fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms among low-income adults. Adults of Black, Hispanic, and other racial and ethnic backgrounds demonstrated greater reductions in anxiety symptoms compared to non-Hispanic White adults with children. There were no changes in mental health care use. These findings are important for Congress and state legislators to weigh as they consider making the expanded CTC and other similar tax credits permanent to support economically disadvantaged families.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.