The Russell Sage Foundation recently completed a major initiative to assess the effects of the Great Recession on the economic, political, and social life of the country. Officially over in 2009, the Great Recession is now generally acknowledged to be the most devastating global economic crisis since the Great Depression. Prolonged economic stagnation is likely to transform American institutions and severely erode the life chances of many Americans. To understand these effects across a broad swath of social and economic life, the Foundation identified 15 areas of inquiry—such as retirement, education, income and wealth—and funded proposals for innovative projects from a distinguished team of scholars.

Three new Recession Briefs summarizing research from the Great Recession initiative now are available for download. These reports use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) in order to analyze the effects of the Recession on families in the U.S.:

The Great Recession and the Private Safety Net

Research on the response of government policies such as unemployment insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has shown that these programs responded robustly to the Great Recession, and blunted some of the rise in family poverty that might have occurred in their absence. But what about the private safety net? When a family experiences an economic crisis, family members and friends are often the first people they call. In a recent paper, Princeton University’s Aaron Gottlieb and Columbia University’s Natasha Pilkauskas and Irwin Garfinkel provide some of the first insights into how families’ private safety nets responded to the Great Recession. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), the authors investigate whether the Great Recession was associated with increased transfers to parents of young children by anyone other than the child’s father. Read more

The Great Recession and High-Frequency Spanking

The impact of the Recession on parenting and child well-being is still poorly understood. Harsh economic conditions may result in harsh parenting practices, as parents respond to the fear and stress associated with deteriorating economic conditions—but little is currently known about the extent of such responses in the Great Recession. In a recent paper, the Columbia Population Research Center’s Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, William Schneider, and Jane Waldfogel offer new insight into the connection between economic distress and child well-being. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), the authors investigate whether the Great Recession was associated with increased use of high-frequency maternal spanking, which previous studies have shown elevates the risk of child abuse. Read more

Public Transfers and Material Hardship in the Great Recession

The Great Recession was the worst episode of unemployment in the United States in decades. Job losses were distributed unevenly and affected disproportionately younger workers, minorities, and lesser-educated Americans. In a new paper, the Columbia Population Research Center’s Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Janet M. Currie, and Irwin Garfinkel explore the material hardships experienced by disadvantaged families and how well government programs were able to staunch the bleeding. The results indicate that the recession did indeed lead to spikes in material hardships, but that things would have been quite a bit worse if not for the response of the social safety net. Read more