Sequence matters: understanding the relationship between parental income support receipt and child mortality

Abstract

Previous research indicates there is a complex relationship between parental income support receipt and child mortality. This research improves understanding of the relationship using a unique administrative dataset, the Second Transgenerational Data Set (TDS2), which contains information on 127,826 Australian children, almost a whole birth cohort, and their parents. Generally, parents of children who died under age 15 years were more disadvantaged and were on income support for longer periods than were other parents. A robust finding of the research is that the association between child mortality and parental income support receipt varied significantly with the time of the receipt—before, at or after child death. In particular, the incidence of parental income support receipt reduced significantly following the death of a child, probably due to a temporary loss of income support eligibility. The research suggests that income support receipt has more complicated implications than simply as an indicator of economic disadvantage in such a case, and recommends enhanced social and economic support to bereaved parents and families.