“I Can Finally Say Yes!” Qualitative Associations of a Guaranteed Income Program With Economic Stress and Early Childhood Investments

This qualitative study explores whether providing families a guaranteed income (GI) payment can reduce parents’ perceived economic stress and increase investments in their children. Participants were recruited from the Los Angeles County Breathe GI pilot. Fifteen GI recipients and 17 GI nonrecipients ( N = 32) participated in semi-structured interviews. About 40% of participants worked full time, 93.8% were female, 56.3% were single, all had at least one child younger than 5, with average monthly income of $2,183. Participants were 59% Latino, 34% Black, 31% white, 3% Asian, and 3% American Indian. Compared with nonrecipients, GI recipients reported reduced economic stress and greater investments in their children. While both groups described informal activities (e.g., visiting the park), recipients reported more formal activities, including structured programs like martial arts and gymnastics and enrichment experiences like visits to the zoo or aquarium.