Quasi-experimental impacts of unconditional prenatal and infant cash transfers on postpartum parenting stress.

is the United States' first community-wide unconditional cash transfer program for expectant mothers and infants.The program offers all expectant mothers in the City of Flint a lump sum $1,500 during mid-pregnancy and $500 monthly for 12 months postnatally.The present study examined whether the Rx Kids program was associated with differences in parenting stress during the postpartum months.Using structural equation modeling in a sample of N = 954 mothers (M 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 SD lower) than noneligible 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 postpartum parenting stress.Keywords: parenting stress