Measuring Psychological Burden in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Inequalities across Applicants in Stress and Disrespect

Researchers have increasingly documented the importance of administrative burden in access to social programs. Such scholarship has informed a new federal burden-reduction initiative. One significant obstacle to implementing that initiative within federal agencies has been the lack of quantitative indicators for measuring psychological burdens, such as stress and disrespect. This article explores new quantitative measures of psychological burdens, using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applications as a case study and reports on original exploratory surveys of SNAP applicants. I document the distribution of two measures of psychological burden—stress and disrespect—across different applicants, particularly by age, race, and ethnicity; how these measures compare with other indicators recently proposed by scholars; and how stress and disrespect relate to changing pandemic-era relief policies, state administration, and steps in the application process. These findings provide better tools for researchers and policy makers to measure, track, and reduce psychological burdens.