# Protecting child and adolescent mental health in an uncertain future: commentary on Jaffee and colleagues' Annual Research Review – ‘Cash transfer programs and young people's mental health: a review of studies in the United States’

## TL;DR

This paper discusses how cash transfer programs in the U.S. can improve child and adolescent mental health, especially for poor families.

## Contribution

The paper highlights the limited U.S.-based studies and identifies meaningful effects of cash transfers on young people's mental health.

## Key findings

- Cash transfer programs show small but meaningful effects on emotional and behavioral health.
- The greatest impacts are observed in the poorest families.
- Few studies exist in Northern America despite global evidence of effectiveness.

## Abstract

Jaffee and colleagues present a masterful review of the evidence for the impacts of cash transfer programmes on child and adolescent mental health in the United States. While global meta‐analyses find evidence of effectiveness, Jaffee and colleagues highlight the limited number of studies in Northern America, but find overall results indicating small but meaningful effect sizes on improving emotional and behavioural health, and greatest impacts for the poorest families.