REPORT

RAPID-Harris County Data Update

Abstract

RAPID-Harris County
The RAPID Survey Project on child and family well-being has partnered with Harris County and the UH Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality (IRWGS) to hear from families with children under six, since March 2023. IRWGS works with community partners to connect with parents and other caregivers, who were paid for their time. The data gathered on material hardship, health, mental health, child care use and needs, and much more will be used to provide stakeholders with actionable insights to inform both immediate and long-term program and policy decisions.

As of September 2024, 1,125 parents of children aged five and younger contacted through 17 community partners have shared their experiences, highlighting both successes and challenges. The respondents represent a diverse racial and ethnic background: 46.43% identify as Hispanic/Latine, 25.58% as White, 19.16% as Black, and 8.82% as other races or ethnicities.

These parent voices offer a crucial perspective on the needs and concerns of families and will allow policymakers to better serve our community.

Conclusion

Recent inflation affected many families, especially food and utilities. The demand for electricity drove the
utility burden, which will likely stay high as the climate changes. That hardship and other social factors may have affected the worsening mental health of young mothers over the survey period. Nonetheless, many parents were able to utilize child care to work, enabling them to better deal with rising prices.

Among those who depended on FFN for child care, most called upon grandparents to help. Since family care is often used by those unable to afford center-based care, the high dependence of lower-income parents on their children’s grandparents for care points to a need for affordable center-based care to meet the needs of the large population of immigrants with children in the Houston region–from other countries and other states.