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Title: A National Portrait of Hispanic Children in Need

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2016

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Abstract: Communities and agencies at local, state, and federal levels have worked hard for years to meet the needs of the growing Hispanic population, particularly lowincome Hispanics,a but challenges remain. For example, it has been documented that, at least in some cases, eligible Latinos are less likely to access available social services than other populations.1-3 In part due to shifting demographics in the United States, there has also been an increased push for service providers to meet the needs of all children and families in ways that are culturally relevant. That is, there has been a push for providers to demonstrate the set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in an institution, agency, or among a group of individuals, that allows them to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.4 A first step toward effective cross-cultural work, however, is a clear understanding of the populations who need to be served. In this brief, we use nationally representative data from the 2014 American Community Surveyb to do two things: First, we show the number of Hispanic children who may be in need, based on their familys economic resources. These are children who might benefit from a variety of human or social service programs. Need can be variously defined, so we provide estimates for three separate groups of children: those in deep poverty, poverty (but not deep poverty), and near poverty (just above poverty) (detailed in Figure 1, and see the box on page 2). Consistent with some prior research,5-7 we identify near poverty as between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, as many experts believe that this level marks where the average U.S. family can just meet basic needs.8 Second, we show what proportion of these low-income Hispanic children lived in households that reported receipt of SNAP or TANFc in the past year.d We describe childrens circumstances across a range of available measures that are linked to program eligibility or to the availability of resources for children.

Url: http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016-15HispChildrenInNeed.pdf

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Authors: Wildsmith, Elizabeth; Alvira-Hammond, Marta; Guzman, Lina

Publisher: National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Poverty and Welfare

Countries: United States