Children in Poverty Racial Disparity in New Mexico

New Mexico

Large and persistent racial and ethnic disparities exist among children living in poverty in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 13.7% of children younger than 18 lived in poverty in 2023. There was significant variation in the poverty rate among different racial and ethnic groups, ranging from 10% of non-Hispanic white and Asian/Pacific Islander children to 29% of non-Hispanic Black and 27% of American Indian/Alaska Native children. 

Families with incomes below the federal poverty level may struggle to meet the basic needs of their children. Moreover, living in poverty can cause toxic stress among children, increasing the risk of poor physical, behavioral, socioemotional and cognitive health.

Across all age groups, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic and multiracial populations are overrepresented in poverty rates. Studies show that Black and Native American children who experience childhood poverty are more likely than their white counterparts to experience adulthood poverty.

The prevalence of childhood poverty is higher among:

• Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children, both of whom have a prevalence approximately three times higher than that of Asian and white children. 
• Children of single mothers compared with those who live in a household with two parents or a single father. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children are most likely to live in single-parent households.
• Children ages 0-5 compared with older children.

Recent innovations to mitigate the adverse effects of childhood poverty use the two-generation approach. This approach promotes family resilience by combining support and education programs for parents with early childhood intervention programs to create a stronger whole-family experience.

Access to fair opportunities in education for low-income individuals and people of color is needed to strengthen communities. This requires an equitable investment of state and federal funds into K-12 schools.

Many government programs and community interventions exist to help reduce the number of children in poverty and support low-income families:

• The earned income tax credit (EITC), the largest U.S. poverty-alleviation program, provides a tax credit to employed families and individuals living in poverty. Research shows that the program's benefits include a decreased prevalence of low birth weight and preterm births, as well as an increased prevalence of breastfeeding. One study calculated that an annual $3,000 from the EITC for a family with a child younger than age 5 will lead to an average 19% increase in a child’s future earnings.
• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, provides nutrition benefits to families in need. 
• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides food and nutritional support specifically to pregnant and postpartum women and children. WIC has been associated with a lower prevalence of low birth weight, with greater gains among women with low educational attainment levels.
• Child First is a comprehensive program that provides financial, housing and food support and early childhood interventions for low-income families. 
• Medicaid provides health care to low-income adults, pregnant women and children.
• Universal basic income programs can provide those living in poverty with regular cash transfers to meet basic needs regardless of employment status, age or other restrictive conditions.
• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine proposedfour policy packages that would reduce child poverty by 24%-52% while using existing policy options to maximize effectiveness.

While not specific to children, reducing the proportion of people living in poverty is a Healthy People 2030 economic stability objective.

Committee on Policies and Programs to Reduce Intergenerational Poverty, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Reducing Intergenerational Poverty. Edited by Greg J. Duncan, Jennifer Appleton Gootman, and Priyanka Nalamada. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.17226/27058.

Duncan, Greg J., Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, and Ariel Kalil. “Early-Childhood Poverty and Adult Attainment, Behavior, and Health.” Child Development 81, no. 1 (January 2010): 306–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01396.x.

Duncan, Greg, and Suzanne Le Menestrel, eds. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.17226/25246.

Francis, Lucine, Kelli DePriest, Marcella Wilson, and Deborah Gross. “Child Poverty, Toxic Stress, and Social Determinants of Health: Screening and Care Coordination.” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 23, no. 3 (September 30, 2018). https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No03Man02.

Haider, Areeba. The Basic Facts About Children in Poverty. Center for American Progress, January 12, 2021. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/basic-facts-children-poverty/.

Hamad, Rita, and David H. Rehkopf. “Poverty, Pregnancy, and Birth Outcomes: A Study of the Earned Income Tax Credit.” Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 29, no. 5 (September 2015): 444–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12211.

Hoynes, Hilary, Marianne Page, and Ann Huff Stevens. “Can Targeted Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes?: Evidence from the Introduction of the WIC Program.” Journal of Public Economics 95, no. 7 (August 1, 2011): 813–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.12.006.

Hoynes, Hilary W., and Ankur J. Patel. Effective Policy for Reducing Inequality? The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Distribution of Income. Working Paper 21340. National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2015. https://doi.org/10.3386/w21340.

Sandel, Megan, Elena Faugno, Angela Mingo, Jessie Cannon, Kymberly Byrd, Dolores Acevedo Garcia, Sheena Collier, Elizabeth McClure, and Renée Boynton Jarrett. “Neighborhood-Level Interventions to Improve Childhood Opportunity and Lift Children Out of Poverty.” Academic Pediatrics 16, no. 3 (April 2016): S128–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2016.01.013.

Wilson-Simmons, Renée, Yang Jiang, and Yumiko Aratani. Strong at the Broken Places: The Resiliency of Low-Income Parents. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, April 2017.https://www.nccp.org/publication/strong-at-the-broken-places/.