State-by-State Food Stamp Use

"Reaching Those in Need: State Food Stamp Participation Rates in 2002." Laura A. Castner and Allen L. Schirm, March 2005. This new policy brief looks at whether food stamps are getting to the people who need them, noting wide variation from state to state.

Innovations in Health Care

Fatherhood Issues

"Low-Income Fathers' Involvement in Their Toddlers' Lives: Biological Fathers from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Study." Natasha J. Cabrera, Rebecca M. Ryan, Jacqueline D. Shannon, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Cheri Vogel, Helen Raikes, Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, and Rachel Cohen. In Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers, winter 2004. Uses data from Mathematica's Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project to examine father involvement (whether fathers are accessible to, engaged with, and show responsibility for their two-year-old children). More than 80 percent of the two-year-old children in the study have accessible biological fathers. The majority of nonresident boyfriends and nonresident friends, as well as over a third of fathers in no relationship with the mother, are seeing their children at least once every three months. These accessible fathers are engaged in a range of activities and show responsibility for their children, although patterns vary by the father-mother relationship status and father residency. Fathers who have at least a romantic relationship with the mother are more involved with their children than those in no relationship. Many fathers who have no relationship with the mother of their child have some contact with the child, suggesting that the relationship between mother and father is not the only factor helping fathers stay involved with their children. Finally, fathers report doing a lot more caregiving than has been suggested by other studies.

"Preferences and Perceptions About Getting Support Expressed by Low-Income Fathers." Jean Ann Summers, Kimberly Boller, and Helen Raikes. In Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers, winter 2004. Examines the perspectives of fathers of low-income children about their needs and resources for support to help them with their parenting responsibilities, including barriers to fathering, sources of help available, and supports that might be useful. The primary barrier was difficulty juggling work and other time demands, and having time for fathering. A number of fathers reported no barriers and did not want help or support. Fathers described their primary sources of support as their spouse or partner, their own parents (especially their mothers), and their own internal resources (for example, motivation, patience). 

For more on the Early Head Start study, go to www.mathematica-mpr.com/earlycare/ehstoc.asp.
For more on our fatherhood research, go to www.mathematica-mpr.com/earlycare/fatheroverview.asp.

Children's Health Insurance

"Santa Clara Healthy Kids Program Reduces Gaps in Children's Access to Medical and Dental Care. In Brief #2." Christopher Trenholm, Embry Howell, Dana Hughes, and Sean Orzol, April 2005. This comprehensive study found that Santa Clara County 's Healthy Kids program—a health insurance program for children in low and middle income families—is closing a major gap in health care for county children. Since it was launched in 2001, Healthy Kids has insured over 25,000 children in Santa Clara County. Before enrolling in Healthy Kids, these children spent most of their lives uninsured: almost half (45 percent) had never had health insurance coverage of any kind, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) had had no health insurance during the six months before enrolling, and 13 percent had coverage only for emergency care.

Staff News and Changes

Surveys and Information Services. Sameena Salvucci has been named area leader for substance abuse and mental health policy. An expert in statistical design and analysis on large-scale surveys, she joined the division last year as a senior fellow in statistics.

Research Division. Senior fellow Ronette Briefel, who specializes in nutrition policies for low-income and high-risk groups, has been named area leader for food and nutrition policy. Vice president Margo Rosenbach has been named area leader for disease control and prevention policy, in addition to her existing responsibilities for state health policy.

Senior fellow Marsha Gold will address the World Congress Leadership Summit on Medicare to Transform Public and Private Alliances on May 23-24 in Washington, DC. Her topic will be vulnerable beneficiary populations in Medicare. The summit will review the implications of the Medicare Modernization Act and analyze competitive strategies to develop a sustainable Medicare product. Speakers will address strategic responses to Medicare legislation and analyze challenges and opportunities to foster strong public/private partnerships. Read more about the conference.