Unconditional Prenatal and Infant Cash Transfers and Parenting Stress in the Postpartum: Quasi-Experimental Impacts of the Rx Kids Program in Flint, Michigan

This study examined whether the Rx Kids program, launched in Flint, Michigan, in January 2024 as the US’s first community-wide unconditional cash transfer program for expectant mothers and infants, was associated with differences in parenting stress postpartum. Using structural equation modeling in a sample of N = 954 mothers (mean age: 28.9 years; race/ethnicity: 37% Black, 52% White, 11% other), Flint mothers who were eligible to participate in Rx Kids (newborns born in 2024) reported lower parenting stress (0.36 of a standard deviation lower) than non-eligible Flint mothers (newborns born in 2023). This birth-timing difference (2024 vs. 2023) was not observed among non-Flint mothers from the surrounding area, providing quasi-experimental evidence that Rx Kids may reduce parenting stress postpartum.