Skip to page content

Children, Families, and Communities

Featured

RAND research addresses child health and how families and neighborhoods affect child well-being. Other family-focused research covers topics such as immigration, caregiving, and household finances. Through studies on families as well as community resilience, RAND develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous.

News Release
Mental Health Spending for Children and Adolescents Has Risen by More Than One-Quarter Since Beginning of Pandemic
Spending on mental health services for children and adolescents has risen by more than one-quarter since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing to rise even as the use of telehealth plateaued.
Oct 3, 2023
Report
What Is the Housing Cost Burden Among U.S. Veterans?
Fewer veteran households than nonveteran ones are financially burdened by housing costs. Veterans are more likely to be homeowners than nonveterans are, and have lower housing costs than nonveteran homeowners. Veterans who are younger, are female, live in high-cost housing markets, or rent are the ones most in need of housing support.
Oct 12, 2023

Topics in Focus:

Explore Children, Families, and Communities

By Category
All Subtopics
All Authors

Journal Article
Migration Narratives in Northern Central America: How Competing Stories Shape Policy and Public Opinion in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador
This report identifies and compares migration narratives within El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to understand how they influence critical policy debates and decisions in the region.
Aug 25, 2023
Commentary
Normalizing Assad Won't Solve the Syrian Refugee Crisis
As much as Syrian refugees would like to return home eventually and as much as neighboring countries would welcome an end to the challenges of hosting large refugee communities, now is not the right time for mass Syrian refugee repatriation. Regional governments could instead focus on supporting refugees where they are, especially by allowing them to be legal, productive members of local economies.
Aug 23, 2023
Research Brief
Military Academy Students Can Now Retain Parental Rights: Department of Defense Options for Managing the Change
As of 2023, DoD allows enrolled cadets and midshipmen to retain parental rights. This brief explores potential DoD policy changes that could help cadet and midshipman parents care for their children, succeed in school, and become exemplary officers.
Aug 22, 2023
Report
Ensuring Parental Rights of Military Service Academy Cadets and Midshipmen: Policy and Cost Implications
This report characterizes legal, policy, practice, and cost implications of U.S. Department of Defense options to comply with a new congressional requirement allowing service academy cadets and midshipmen who become parents to retain parental rights.
Aug 22, 2023
Commentary
Is Believing Our Kids Are Safer Worth Closing Off Some of Their Futures?
Placing an officer in a school appears to reduce violence and petty crimes within a school. But it also creates long-term negative consequences for students who are increasingly likely to become involved in the school disciplinary system.
Aug 22, 2023
Dissertation
The Role of a State Public Health Initiative in Shaping Provider Knowledge, Beliefs and Practices: A Mixed Methods Study of a Cytomegalovirus Prevention Program
Explores the impact of Utah's public health education intervention to increase pregnancy care provider awareness of congenital cytomegalovirus preventative hygiene measures, knowledge, and counseling behaviors.
Aug 21, 2023
Dissertation
Three Essays in Policy Analysis Among Vulnerable Populations
Three essays that explore policy analysis among vulnerable populations.
Aug 21, 2023
Report
Are Income Share Agreements a Viable Alternative to Student Loans?
Under an income share agreement (ISA), the student promises a share of their future income to a funder for a set period in exchange for money for school. ISAs have benefits, but their contract terms vary, they exist in a legal gray zone, and there are equity implications.
Aug 21, 2023
Commentary
Much of the Damage in Maui Will Be Invisible, but Very Real
In addition to decimating buildings and other infrastructure, disasters also destroy human capital, the collective knowledge and skills that drive individual economic earnings, as well as regional economic growth. Failing to address these more-hidden damages is incredibly costly.
Aug 21, 2023
Blog
Maui Wildires, Regulating AI, Ukraine's Civilian Resistance: RAND Weekly Recaps
This weekly recap focuses on the invisible damage of Maui’s wildfires, making the artificial intelligence supply chain safer, how Ukrainian civilians resist Russia, and more.
Aug 18, 2023
Report
How to Support Housing Affordability in New York City
The root problem behind New York City's housing affordability crisis is that housing production has not kept pace with the growing demand to live there. Six policy reforms for increasing production could lead to about 300,000 new housing units over a decade.
Aug 16, 2023
Journal Article
A Parish-Based Multilevel Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Stigma and Mental Health Treatment Disparities Among Latino Communities
A trial by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Diocese of San Bernardino aims to use a parish-based intervention, potentially bridging gaps through education, reducing stigma, and improving access for Latinos.
Aug 16, 2023
Journal Article
Improving the Quality of Written Discharge Instructions: A Multisite Collaborative Project
Participation in this 8-hospital Institute for Healthcare Improvement Virtual Breakthrough Series collaborative was associated with improvement in the quality of written discharge instructions beyond precollaborative trends only for hospitals with high baseline performance.
Aug 16, 2023
Journal Article
Association of Hospice Profit Status With Family Caregivers' Reported Care Experiences
In this analysis of national CAHPS Hospice Survey data from 653,208 caregiver respondents, reflecting care received from 3107 hospices, family caregivers reported worse care experiences at for-profit hospices compared with not-for-profit hospices.
Aug 16, 2023
News Release
Six Strategies to Boost Affordable Housing in NY Could Aid Creation of 300,000 New Units Over a Decade
Six policies aimed boosting residential housing construction in New York City could spark the production of roughly 300,000 additional new housing units over a decade.
Aug 16, 2023
Report
Russian Military Personnel Policies and Reforms 1991–2021
In the initial post-Soviet years, the personnel system of the Russian Armed Forces experienced pervasive challenges because of budget limitations and collapse of prestige. Reforms in recruitment, retention, and proficiency made some progress but multiple problems remain.
Aug 15, 2023
Report
Ukrainian Civilians' Contributions to Resisting Russia
Civilian-based resistance in Ukraine began in the first hours of Russia's 2022 invasion. Civilians' actions have potential value in helping ensure victory by regaining territorial integrity and maintaining political sovereignty. And this war offers insight into what civilian contributions in future wars could look like.
Aug 15, 2023
Commentary
Escaping Afghanistan
As of April 2023, about 152,000 Special Immigrant Visa applicants remain trapped in Afghanistan. Despite many recommendations and bipartisan support for reforming the program, only minor tweaks have been made. Meanwhile, the dangerously slow process has become practically a death sentence.
Aug 14, 2023
Journal Article
Sexual Identity Differences in Tobacco (Re)Uptake: Testing Mediation by Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms
We examined whether internalizing and externalizing psychological symptoms serve as mediators of tobacco (re)uptake among sexual minority individuals using data from Waves 4 and 5 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study.
Aug 11, 2023
Blog
Private Military Contractors, China's Efforts to Imprison Tibetans, Truth Decay: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on undermining Russia's private military contractors, what nighttime lighting reveals about the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to imprison Tibetans, how Truth Decay damages national security, and more.
Aug 11, 2023

Previous
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Next

RAND Topic:
Children, Families, and Communities

Topic Synonyms:
Dependents

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Ashley Gromis

Associate Behavioral/Social Scientist

Ashley Gromis (she/her) is an associate behavioral/social scientist whose work examines the roles of networks, place, and policy in shaping community- and population-level health outcomes and social inequality. Her primary research uses agent-based modeling to understand how spatial clustering…
Luke J. Matthews

Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist

Luke Matthews is a behavioral and social scientist at RAND and a professor at Pardee RAND Graduate School. Much of his work focuses on using formal models for cultural diffusion on social networks to better understand how people influence each other. He has applied social network analysis,…

Explore Our People »