Babies born into poor families often face a long list of challenges – their parents may struggle to find proper food, access to quality child care and steady income - and now an Urban Institute study finds that nearly 50 percent spend half of their childhoods in poverty.

Researchers found those 49 percent of babies in their study who were born poor and spent much of their childhoods in poverty often struggled later in life.

Those poor at birth are more likely to be poor between ages 25 and 30, drop out of high school, have a teen nonmarital birth, and have patchy employment records than those not poor at birth. – “Born Poor? Half of These Babies Will Spend Most of Their Childhoods in Poverty; Significantly More Likely to Be Poor 30 Years Later.”

As the nation tries to shake off the effects of the worst recession in decades, the study could influence current debates about how to help families, such as whether or how to increase child care subsidies, funding for Head Start and the Child Care Development Block Grant program, and support for job training.

The study’s authors suggest focusing aid, such as training, education and child care subsidies, on poor families with infants. Of course, in this era of tight budgets, their idea raises another key question: Where do you cut so you can give more aid to these families?

The research summary is full of findings for the early learning community:

• “13 percent of all children are born poor”
• “10 percent of children spend at least half their childhood years (9 years or longer) in poverty.”
•  “The likelihood that an individual drops out of high school, has a teen nonmarital birth, or has a spotty work record generally increases with the number of years poor as a child.”
• “Childhood poverty rates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, have ranged between 15 and 23 percent over the past four decades.”