Fifty percent of all non-immigrant American children will use food stamps at one point in their lives, according to a Cornell researcher who co-authored a study on childrens’ food stamp use in this month’s issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a monthly professional journal published by the American Medical Association.

Prof. Thomas Hirschl, development sociology, worked with his frequent collaborator, Prof. Mark Rank, social welfare, of Washington University in St. Louis, to analyze annual data sets from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics spanning 1968 to 1997. The researchers did not use biannual data from 1997-2009.

The researchers also found that 90 percent of African American children, 90 percent of single parents, and 91 percent of those in poverty use food stamps, reflecting a “difference in the risk of poverty,” according to Rank. Forty percent of those eligible for food stamps do not receive them, so these statistics are conservative estimates.

“This study is evidence that there needs to be new kinds of thinking about how we construct society and how we distribute resources. Children are the future, if we mess our children up, we mess our future up,” Hirschl said. Rank hopes that the study will influence “policymakers, the general public, a variety of people out there.”

Hirschl attributes negative feelings about food stamps to a societal ethic of individuality and self-reliance. “People want to be successful. They don’t want to be seen as unsuccessful, and getting food stamps is seen as unsuccessful,” Hirschl said. This ethic, the American Dream, also contributes to the desperation of those who use food stamps, according to Hirschl.

Negative feelings about food stamps correspond to socioeconomic differences. It would be more acceptable to discuss food stamps in a neighborhood where half of the male inhabitants are unemployed than in wealthier echelons of American society, said Hirschl.

Hirschl and Rank want to change public perception of food stamp users as related to the American Dream. “One of my advisees at Cornell told me that she had been getting food stamps across her years at Cornell, but she wouldn’t tell her friends because they wouldn’t talk to her if they found out. I guess it reflects the idea that if you turn to the government for help, there’s something wrong with you,” Hirschl said. “You may know someone on food stamps, but they won’t tell you. It’s actually a very widely used program.”

Food stamps indicate a family’s economic stress and “food insecurity,” uncertainty or anxiety about obtaining food. “Child welfare is really at risk and has been for a number of decades. The current recession exposes a lot of children to bad lives,” and the resulting food insecurity contributes to childrens’ behavioral problems at school, according to Hirschl. “Hungry kids are not easy kids to get along with,” he said.

According to an April 2009 report prepared by the Tompkins County Department of Administration, food stamp use in Tompkins County has increased 18 percent since last year. This statistic corresponds with a regional 16 percent increase in Upstate New York.

Hirschl and Rank are collaborating on a book which will be published by Oxford University Press in spring 2011, tentatively titled American Misfortune: The Surprising Level of Risk in Our Lives. The book will explore the average American’s risk of encountering poverty, unemployment and other forms of financial turmoil. By assessing this risk, Hirschl and Rank believe it will facilitate the formation of ideas and policies to protect Americans. According to Rank’s biography on the Washington University website, the purpose of this book will be to “shed empirical light on the tenuous nature of the American Dream in today’s society, and how to restore its relevance and vitality.”