Trends in Income Insecurity Among US Children, 1984 to 2010

Has income insecurity increased among US children with the emergence of an employment-based safety net and the polarization of labor markets and family structure? We study the trend in insecurity by analyzing fluctuations in children’s monthly family incomes in the Survey of Income and Program Participation from 1984 to 2010. Going beyond earlier research on income instability, we study income insecurity more directly by analyzing income gains and losses separately and by relating income fluctuations to changes in family composition and employment. We find that extreme (5th and 95th percentile) income fluctuations increased in size for low-income children. Large income losses increased more than large income gains, offering new evidence of increased economic insecurity. Half the increase in extreme income losses is related to the unequal distribution of family composition and employment. Growth in large income losses is associated with the increased incidence of very low incomes, under $150 a month. Extreme income losses and very low monthly incomes became more common for children of nonworking single parents in the mid-1990s.