Public and Private Safety Nets, Maternal Stress, and Child Mental Health Outcomes Among Low-Income Families

Health is influenced significantly by poverty. Mothers living in poverty experience higher stress compared to mothers with more financial resources. Children who live in poverty also experience mental health concerns, including higher externalizing and internalizing mental health symptoms. Families’ support systems, or public and private safety nets, are central mechanisms for counteracting poverty’s negative impact; however, most research examines public and private safety nets separately. This study tested the extent to which public and private safety nets worked together to promote maternal and child wellbeing among a sample of mothers from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,680). Using data from waves 1, 3, and 9, results showed significant interaction pathways between public and private safety nets to child outcomes through maternal stress. The identification of these pathways can be used to inform policies aimed at providing a more responsive, equitable safety net for low-income families.