Neonatal health problems have far-reaching impacts. They can negatively affect children’s cognitive and physical development as well as their academic performance, which can have unfavorable implications for their economic success in adulthood and sense of power and autonomy. 

Evidence on the Relationship between Neonatal Health and Upward Mobility Outcomes

As of December 2021, researchers have documented the following connections between this predictor and upward mobility. Asterisk (*) indicates primary reference. 

• Childhood health problems can negatively affect physical health in adulthood, which can in turn affect employment opportunities and wages (Case and Paxson 2006). It is similar for later-life mental health: people whose birth weight was extremely low are at greater risk for developmental difficulties, including problems with attentional control, anxiety, and social interaction (Mathewson et al. 2017).
• Poor childhood health predicts significantly less education, lower occupational niches, and diminished economic returns in the form of labor earnings and accumulated wealth later in life (Haas 2006*). This correlation was observed by Figlio and colleagues (2014), who matched data for all children born in Florida from 1992 to 2002 with their public school data. They found that the effects of early health on cognitive development were constant throughout children’s school career. Furthermore, these effects were similar across a range of backgrounds and invariant to measures of school quality, suggesting that they are robust on adult outcomes.
• Conley and Bennett (2000), using a sibling fixed-effects model, found that a child with a low birth weight is substantially less likely than their sibling to graduate from high school by age 19, with the probability of graduation reduced by 74 percent. The sibling fixed-effects framework—which eliminates the confounding effects of unobserved shared family-level factors, such as socioeconomic conditions and maternal characteristics—demonstrates the strength in this relationship.
• Mathewson and colleagues (2017) find that people who had extremely low birth weights are at greater overall risk for psychological difficulties. Their subsequent subgroup analyses suggest that these findings are relatively robust to region of birth, secular changes in care, and presence of neurosensory impairment.

Promising Local Policy Interventions

Research from both Urban and others in the field suggests the following policies could help communities improve this predictor. These suggestions are not exhaustive, and communities should work with residents and leaders to identify solutions that are best suited to their local contexts.

• Improving access to prenatal care, including by expanding the use of birth centers.
• Establishing home-visiting programs for first-time parents. 
• Creating parenting support and education programs for expecting families, including programs that focus on prenatal care. 
• Creating targeted supports for vulnerable groups, such as teenage parents. 
• Promoting awareness of existing programs, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). (This may also improve the Financial Security predictor.)
• Improving access to healthy food, including by creating fruit and vegetable incentive programs.

Mobility Dimensions Engaged

• Economic success
• Power and autonomy