Giving Moms Money Can Boost Babies’ Brain Activity, Study Finds

Topline

Giving mothers an unconditional cash gift of $333 each month may result in their children displaying increased brain activity, according to a study of 1,000 low-income mother-infant groups published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, reinforcing previous research linking childhood poverty to differences in brain structure and function.

A 9-month old boy wearing electroencephalogram sensors.

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Key Facts

Researchers measured stronger high-frequency brain activity—which is associated with improved language, cognitive and social-emotional functioning—among healthy 1-year-olds whose families received $333 per month for a year.

The study included a racially and ethnically diverse group of mothers, most of whom were Black or Hispanic, drawn from the New York City, greater New Orleans, Minneapolis–Saint Paul and greater Omaha areas.

Participants reported an average annual household income of a little over $20,000, making the monthly $333 gift a roughly 20% income boost.

A control group of infants whose families received only $20 a month did not show the same gains as those in the $333 group, researchers found.

The researchers were affiliated with Columbia University, Duke University, New York University, University of California Irvine, University of Maryland and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Key Background

A correlation between childhood poverty and reduced brain function has long been established, but drawing a causal link between the two factors has been more difficult. Child poverty is on the rise in the U.S., growing from 14.4% in 2019 to 16.1% in 2020, according to the Census Bureau. The enhanced Child Tax Credit, which offered families up to $3,600 per child and halved U.S. child poverty according to some estimates, expired in December. The Child Tax Credit program has been central to Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act. Manchin believed that parents might waste Child Tax Credit payments on drugs, according to unnamed sources cited by ABC and the Huffington Post. However, families responding to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse survey said they spent Child Tax Credit payments mainly on food and childcare.

Crucial Quote

“This is a big scientific finding,” University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist Martha J. Farah, who participated in a pre-publication review of the study, told the New York Times. “It’s proof that just giving the families more money, even a modest amount of more money, leads to better brain development.”

Big Number

11.6 million. That’s how many U.S. children are living in poverty, according to the Census Bureau.

Contra

Gains in children’s brain activity were noticeable but modest, similar to moving from 81st to 75th in a line of 100 people, researchers told the New York Times. Passing a bill to give families $300 per month on the basis of the study would be premature, Harvard neuroscientist Dr. Charles A. Nelson said.