As 2022 winds down, Child Trends would like to highlight its 10 most viewed research products on childtrends.org. This mix of products reflects the range of all that we do on behalf of children and youth, from agenda-setting research on child poverty, to research that changes the narrative on Black families, to comprehensive interactive state data tools. Take a look at the most-read products on our website and dive into those you didn’t read the first time around.

2022 was a strong year for Child Trends’ research on child poverty.

• Lessons From a Historic Decline in Child Poverty—a report co-led by Dana Thomson and Renee Ryberg—analyzes the economic and demographic trends, and the social safety net programs, that contributed to an unprecedented 59 percent decline in child poverty in the United States from 1993 to 2019. Kristen Harper, James Fuller, Katherine Paschall, Jody Franklin, and Lina Guzman also contributed to the report.
• Our interactive data resource, State-level Data for Understanding Child Poverty, allows state policymakers to see how their state’s poverty rate, along with nine other economic and demographic indicators, changed over time from 1980 to 2020—and to view the shifting role of the social safety net.
• During tax season, Katherine Paschall wanted families to know about the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC)—a lesser-known credit than the Child Tax Credit, but one that can offset the costs of child and dependent care for many working families, including the cost of child care centers, day camps, and in-home care, as well as care for spouses or dependents who can’t care for themselves.

We expanded our portfolio of research that advances well-being for Black children and families.

• Chrishana Lloyd and her co-authors—Sara Shaw, Mavis Sanders, Maria Abdul-Masih, and Catherine Schaefer—examine the relationship between Black families with children in the United States and the policies and institutions that have impacted their well-being. In particular, the authors talk about why new research perspectives are necessary to best serve Black families, review select cultural assets that anchor Black family life in the United States and how these assets may have changed, and identify steps for improving research practices with Black families.
• An applied research agenda on Black children and families can fuel efforts to advance the well-being of Black children and families by ensuring that policies and practices are responsive to Black children and families’ diverse strengths, experiences, and needs. In this brief, Sanders, Lloyd, and Shaw offer a three-step process to carry out this vision.
• To create a society that supports all children and youth, it’s essential to recognize both the strengths and positive attributes of Black children and adolescents in the United States and the issues and challenges they face. In Black Children and Adolescents Can Achieve Greater Heights With Research-informed Policies and Practices, Sanders, Joy Thompson, and Kristen Harper detail the ways in which Black children and adolescents have excelled, as well as the policies that have expanded or diminished their opportunities.

Our work on child welfare, school nurses, and LGBTQ+ youth also earned a lot of attention.

• Child Trends updated its hugely popular interactive state data tool for understanding child welfare in the United States with fiscal year (FY) 2020 data. This tool provides state- and national-level data on child maltreatment, foster care, kinship care, and adoption. Kudos to Sarah Catherine Williams for her ongoing leadership of this work!
• Child Trends’ Hannah Lantos, Fadumo Abdi, Kristin Anderson Moore, and Zakia Redd worked with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ChildFocus, and two young adult fellows to develop the STRENGTH principles, a roadmap for practitioners to apply Positive Youth Development approaches—which focus on young people’s assets and build on protective factors—to their work with young adults in the child welfare and justice systems.
• In collaboration with EMT Associates, Heather Steed and co-authors Devan O’Toole and Kajol Surani examine how states govern the roles, responsibilities, and requirements of school nurses. Understanding the current landscape of state statutes and regulations related to school nursing is critical to identifying opportunities to better support school nurses.
• In 2021, more than 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures. Catherine Schaefer, Alyssa Liehr, Brandon Stratford, and Astha Patel explain the ways in which discriminatory policies and environments put transgender children and youth at higher risk of experiencing violence, family separation, poor health outcomes, and other injustices. Policies must protect and expand access to developmentally appropriate supports for gender-diverse children and youth.

Child Trends can’t wait for 2023!

Thank you for your continued support of our mission to improve the lives of children and youth.