Parental earnings have a big impact on children's well-being and future success. By looking at data from surveys and earnings records, researchers found that using longer time averages of parent earnings shows bigger effects on children's well-being than just looking at one year. This means that programs to support family income could be more effective than previously thought. For example, when parent earnings double over 7 years, the chances of a teenager reporting poor health drop by almost half, and the chances of a child not having enough food drop by 75 percent.