Research Library

From an early age, children spend many hours interacting with screens: phones, tablets, and laptops. A new policy brief from the Child Health Policy Program explains the importance of unstructured free play for healthy child development and recommends four policy approaches to reduce screen time and ensure children’s well-being in the digital age.

Non-medical drivers of health, also known as social determinants of health, have a significant impact on health outcomes. As fellow Sandra McKay and her co-authors explain, adequate funding to identify and address non-medical drivers — housing and food insecurity, transport issues, and financial strain — can improve patients’ health and health care delivery systems, while also reducing costs.

The number of children walking and biking to school has been in decline for more than 50 years, yet associated death and injury rates remain high. In a new brief, nonresident fellow Zoabe Hafeez and co-author Shruti Natarajan review child pedestrian and bicyclist injuries in Houston, analyzing the worst hotspots and identifying how infrastructure improvements can have outsized benefits.

In a new brief, McClain Sampson, fellow in Maternal and Reproductive Health, and co-author Priscilla P. Kennedy summarize how the recent Texas Medicaid and CHIP extension will benefit families and explore the expected impacts of this extension.

Turkey currently hosts nearly 4 million refugees — predominantly Syrians who have fled their country’s civil war. Ensuring adequate legal protection for those seeking asylum and improving the capacity of Turkish institutions and civil society organizations to serve those in need is vital. This policy brief, based on a conversation with Refugee Solidarity Network founder and director Zaid Hydari, explains how domestic and international bodies can support the many refugees in Turkey.

Egypt doesn't need help securing its coastline against migrants. International aid should instead go toward the grassroots efforts to help the Sudanese refugees already in Egypt and at the country’s southern border, writes fellow Kelsey Norman.

Biden's new Welcome Corps program enables regular Americans to sponsor refugees. In this brief, Kelsey Norman and Ana Martin Gil outline a conversation with Craig Damian Smith, co-founder of Pairity, on the Canadian model for private refugee sponsorship and how it can inform the U.S. context.

Building on the success of hunter education courses in Texas and experience in other states, fellow Sandra McKay and other Texas physicians explain how mandatory firearm safety courses and waiting periods for young firearm buyers could reduce gun violence.

President Joe Biden's new border rule will route many asylum seekers to Mexico — where migrants face abuses and a growing asylum case backlog. Kelsey Norman and Ana Martín Gil explain why Mexico isn't a "safe third country" for asylum seekers.