Research Reports and News Posted October
2001:
Fathers—Research |
SRCD Abstracts |
Children & Families |
Census Data | Systemic
Barriers | Welfare
Reform | NCOFF Abstracts
The following recent working papers have been posted by the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, located at Princeton, University:
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Life without Father: What Happens to the Children?, Working
Paper #01-21, Sara L. McLanahan, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing,
Princeton University, August 15, 2001.
Abstract:
Do single-parent families harm children, or do they represent a legitimate
alternative lifestyle? In this paper I review the literature on the
effects of single parenthood on children and examine recent studies
that use fixed effects models and IV techniques to identify the causal
effect of father absence. I also examine research on father absence
in other western countries where welfare states are more generous and
single mothers are less poor. Finally, I discuss what policy makers
might do to discourage divorce and non-marital child bearing and to
mitigate the risks associated with father absence.
For a copy of the full report, visit the CRCW
web site.
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Taxes and Unmarried Fathers’ Participation in the Underground
Economy Working Paper #01-19-FF, Lauren M. Rich; University of Pennsylvania,
School of Social Work and Population Studies Center and Sun Yun Kim;
Concordia University, Department of Economics. Center for Research
on Child Wellbeing, Princeton Unversity, August, 2001.
Abstract excerpt:
In this paper we employ data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being
Study in order to estimate a model of underground labor supply developed
by Lemieux et al. (1994). We focus specifically on the underground labor
supply of unmarried fathers, a group that is likely to have significant
involvement in the underground economy. We also extend the empirical
analysis of Lemieux et al. by taking into account exogenous state and
local variation in marginal tax rates, as well as sociodemographic variables
related to the likelihood of participation in the underground.
In accordance with expectations, we find that a significant proportion
of unmarried fathers report participation in the underground. However,
although the theoretical model predicts a positive relationship between
the tax rate and underground hours of work (under certain conditions),
we find that the effect of the tax rate on hours is statistically
indistinguishable from zero, even after including exogenous variation
in tax rates. We also fail to find a positive and statistically significant
effect of the tax rate on participation in the underground. Within
the context of the model, these results have specific implications
for the magnitudes of the probability of detection and the penalty
on evaded tax. Therefore, we conclude that additional empirical information
is needed regarding these parameters. Future research might also employ
other datasets in the estimation of the theoretical model outlined
by Lemieux et al., as well as investigate the applicability of other
models of underground labor supply.
This paper considers whether marginal tax rates influence the likelihood
that unmarried fathers participate in the underground economy. Although
it does not directly consider the effect of the imposition of child
support payments, a primary motivation for examining the effect of
marginal tax rates stems from the possibility that such payments may
cause unmarried fathers to face high implicit tax rates on their earnings.1
To the extent these tax rates drive fathers underground, it may be
harder for state authorities to obtain child support payments. In
this way, enforcement of child support may be counter-productive.
In addition, fathers who increase their hours of work in the underground
may be less likely to build human capital that is useful in the mainstream
economy, thus further compromising their ability to contribute to
the material well-being of their children.
For a copy of the full report, visit the CRCW
web site.
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Welfare, Child Support, and Labor Markets: Are they Related to
Father Involvement?, Working Paper #01-18, Wendy Sigle-Rushton,
Princeton University and Irwin Garfinkel, Columbia University. Center
for Research on Child Wellbeing, January 2001.
Introduction:
This chapter assumes that greater investment of fathers' time and money in their
children positively effects child wellbeing. Economic theory predicts that marriage
promotes father-child involvement. Theory also predicts that welfare and child
support policies and labor market conditions effect marriage. Thus, the chapter
reviews the economic literature on the effects of welfare, child support enforcement,
and labor markets on father non-involvement with their children due to divorce,
separation, and nonmarital births. We begin with an overview of the massive changes
in household structure that have taken place in the past decades and the theoretical
rationale for why household structure is related to father involvement. In subsequent
sections on the effects of welfare, child support and labor markets on marriage,
we first explicate the predictions of economic theory and then examine the empirical
evidence for and against the predictions of economic theory. The magnitude and
the significance of relationships can provide information about whether policy
tools can effectively manipulate family structures, and in the process, perhaps
influence levels of father involvement and child wellbeing.
For a copy of the full report, visit the CRCW
web site.
New from Child Development, September - October 2001, Volume 72, Number 5. Society for Research in Child Development.
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The Relations of Early Television Viewing to School Readiness and Vocabulary of Children from Low Income Families: The Early Window Project, John C. Wright, Aletha C. Huston, Kimberlee C. Murphy, Michelle St. Peters, Marites Pinion, Ronda Scantlin, and Jennifer Kotler, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
For two cohorts of children from low- to moderate-income families, time-use diaries of television viewing were collected over 3 years (from ages 2 to 5 and 4 to 7 years respectively), and tests of reading, math, receptive vocabulary, and school readiness were administered annually. Relations between viewing and performance were tested in path analyses with controls for home environment quality (HOME) and primary language (English or Spanish). Viewing child informative programs between ages 2 and 3 predicted high subsequent performance on all four measures of academic skills. For both cohorts, frequent viewers of general audience programs performed more poorly on subsequent tests than did infrequent viewers of such programs. Children's skills also predicted later viewing, supporting a bidirectional model. Children with good skills at age 5 selected more child informative programs and fewer cartoons in their early elementary years. Children with lower skills at 3 shifted to viewing more general audience programs by ages 4 and 5. The results affirm the conclusion that the relations of television viewed to early academic skills depend primarily on its content.
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Infant-Mother Attachment among the Dogon of Mali, Mary McMahan True, Lelia Pisani, and Fadimata Oumar, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
This study of mothers and infants from the Dogon ethnic group of Mali, West Africa examined three attachment hypotheses: a) that infant attachment security is linked to the quality of mother-infant communication; b) that mothers of secure infants respond more sensitively to their infants than mothers of insecure infants; and c) that infant disorganization is linked to maternal frightened or frightening behaviors. Subjects were 27 mother-infant pairs from a rural town and 15 pairs from two agrarian villages; infants ranged in age from 10-12.5 months at first assessment. The distribution of the Strange Situation classifications was: 67% secure; 0% avoidant; 8% resistant; 25% disorganized. Infant attachment security was significantly related to the quality of mother-infant communication as observed in a well-infant exam. The correlation between infant attachment security ratings and maternal sensitivity (assessed in the home) was modest and approached significance. Mothers of disorganized infants had significantly higher ratings of frightening or frightened behaviors. Maternal sensitivity predicted little of the variance in infant security; however, the addition of the frightening/frightened variable in the regression equation tripled the explained variance. The findings are discussed in light of Dogon child-rearing practices and key tenets of attachment theory.
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A Twin Study of Attachment in Pre-School Children, Thomas G. O'Connor and Carla M. Croft, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
The degree to which individual differences in child-parent attachment were mediated by genetic, shared, and non-shared environmental influences was investigated. One hundred and ten preschool-aged twin pairs (N=220) were assessed in the strange situation and coded using conventional 4-way classifications and a continuous measure of attachment security. The degree of sibling similarity in attachment was substantial, with an overall concordance rate of 67% at the secure/insecure level. The degree of concordance was equally high in both monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs, 70% and 64% respectively, suggesting little genetic influence but a moderate degree of discordance. Twin similarity on the continuous measure of attachment security was r = .48 and r = .38 for monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs, respectively, also consistent with modest role for genetic influence but a significant effect of shared and non-shared environment. The implications for genetic influences on the environment and for understanding "non-shared" and "shared" environmental influences are discussed.
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Transitions on and off Welfare: Implications for Parenting and Children's Cognitive Development, Judith R. Smith, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Dafna Kohen, and Cecelia McCarton, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
The goal of current national and state legislation on welfare reform is to decrease the number of people who are dependent on public assistance, most of whom are mothers and their young children. Mothers' patterns of welfare receipt in the three years following the birth of a child are examined vis-a-vis their associations with maternal emotional distress (General Health Questionnaire), provision of learning experiences (Home Observation of the Measurement of the Environment; HOME), parenting behavior, and the child's cognitive test score (Stanford Binet) in the third year of life. The data set is the Infant Health and Development Program, an 8-site randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of educational and family support services in reducing developmental delays in low birth-weight, preterm infants (N = 833). Strong negative associations are found between receiving welfare and parenting behavior and child outcomes at age three. Outcomes vary depending on when the mother received public assistance (earlier or later in her child's first three years) and family poverty status upon leaving welfare. The parenting behavior of mothers who left welfare by their child's third birthday is more likely to be authoritarian if she leaves public assistance without also leaving poverty. Implications of these findings for the well-being of children in low-income families are discussed.
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The Relation of Preschool Child Care Quality to Children's Cognitive and Social Developmental Trajectories through Second Grade, Ellen S. Peisner-Feinherg, Margaret R. Burchinal, Richard M. Clifford, Mary L. Culkin, Carollee Howes, Sharon Lynn Kagan, and Noreen Yazejian, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
The cognitive and socioemotional development of 733 children was examined longitudinally from ages 4 to 8 as a function of the quality of their preschool experiences in community child care centers, after adjusting for family selection factors related to child care quality and development. These results provide evidence that child care quality has a modest long-term effect on children's patterns of cognitive and socioemotional development at least through kindergarten, and in some cases, through second grade. Differential effects on children's development were found for two aspects of child care quality. Observed classroom practices were related to children's language and academic skills, whereas the closeness of the teacher-child relationship was related to both cognitive and social skills, with the strongest effects for the latter. Moderating influences of family characteristics were observed for some outcomes, indicating stronger positive effects of child care quality for children from more at-risk backgrounds. These findings contribute further evidence of the long-term influences of the quality of child care environments through the elementary school years and are consistent with a bio-ecological model of development which considers the multiple environmental contexts the child experiences.
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Classroom and Developmental Differences in a Path Model of Teacher Expectancy Effects,
Margaret R. Kuklinski and Rhona S. Weinstein, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
A path model of teacher expectancy effects was evaluated in a sample of 376 first through fifth grade urban elementary school children. We examined the role of two moderators (classroom perceived differential treatment environment and developmental differences) and one mediator (children's own expectations) of teacher expectancy effects on children's year-end achievement Significant differences in effects and effect sizes are presented. Both classroom environment (high versus low in differential treatment, as seen through children's eyes) and developmental diffferences moderated the strength of teacher expectancy effects. Generally, stronger effects were found in classrooms where expectancy related cues were more salient to children, but developmental differences moderated which effect was most pronounced. A significant age-related decline in direct effects on ending achievement was interpreted as evidence that teacher expectations may tend to magnify achievement differences in the early grades but serve to sustain them in later grades. Support for indirect effects (teacher expectations children's own expectations “> ending achievement) was limited to upper elementary grade classrooms perceived as high in differential treatment. In contrast to prior research emphasizing small effect sizes, analyses document several instances of moderate effects, primarily in classrooms where expectancy-related messages were most salient to children. Results underscore the importance of explicit attention to the inclusion of moderators, mediators, and multiple outcomes in efforts to understand teacher expectancy effects.
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Do Relational Risks and Protective Factors Moderate the Linkages between Childhood Aggression and Early Psychological and School Adjustment? Gary W. Ladd and Kim B. Burgess, Child Development, October 2001, Vol. 72, No. 5, Society for Research in Child Development.
SRCD Abstract:
Findings from this investigation address the question of how relational stressors and supports interface with a known behavioral risk (aggression) to influence early-emerging adjustment trajectories. Children's risk status for aggression, as well as multiple relational risks and protective factors (i.e., stressful versus supportive features of peer and teacher relationships), were assessed in a sample of 396 children, and used to predict changes in psychological functioning and school adjustment from kindergarten (Fall) to Grade I (Spring). Results were largely consistent with additive risk-maladjustment models; with few exceptions, relational experiences predicted adjustment beyond children's aggressive risk status. For some adjustment criteria, however, there was evidence to suggest that relational stressors or supports exacerbated or compensated for dysfunctions that were linked with aggressive behavior. Moreover, compared to early onset, the chronicity of children's aggressive risk status and relational stressors/supports bore a stronger association with changes in maladjustment. Analyses conducted by ethnic groups suggested that African-American children, who were typically a minority among their European-American classmates, were more likely to experience particular stressors (e.g., chronic peer rejection), and were less likely to be afforded some forms of support (e.g., stable teacher-child closeness). However, the nature of the predictive linkages found between the relational risk/protective factors and later maladjustment did not differ substantially by SES or ethnicity. The importance of investigating behavioral risks in conjunction with the relational features of children's interpersonal environments is discussed.
Note: Above abstracts provided by SRCD. For further information on SRCD and the Journal of Child Development, visit the SRCD web site.
Good Things Come in Threes: Single-parent Multigenerational Family
Structure and Adolescent Adjustment, Ariel Kalil and Thomas DeLeire,
JCPR Working Paper 238, Joint Center on Poverty Research, September,
2001.
JCPR Abstract:
Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS),
we find that teenagers living in non-married families are less likely
to graduate from high school or attend college, more likely to smoke
or drink, and more likely to initiate sexual activity. However, not
all non-married families are alike. In particular, teenagers living
with their single mother and with at least one grandparent in a multigenerational
household have developmental outcomes that are at least as good and
often better than outcomes of teenagers in married families. These findings
obtain controlling for a wide array of economic resources, parenting
behavior, and home and school characteristics.
For a copy of the full report in PDF format, visit the JCPR
web site.
Economic Status and Health in Childhood, Joint Center on
Poverty Research, Poverty Research News, September - October, 2001,
Vol.5, No.5. Based on research by Anne Case, Darren Lubotsky, and
Christina Paxson.
The disadvantages of low income for children are numerous, and the ramifications
can be enduring. Anne Case, Darren Lubotsky, and Christina Paxson, in
their Princeton University Center for Health and Wellbeing working paper,
Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient,
find that not only do poor children suffer generally poorer health than
higher-income children, but that the adverse health effects accumulate
over childhood; that is, the disparity in health between income brackets,
even among children with similar chronic conditions, widens with age.
As a result, children from poor households enter adulthood in poorer
general health and with more serious chronic conditions than children
in higher-income families.
In examining the relationship between income and health, it is often
difficult to untangle whether it is low income that leads to poor
health, or poor health that leads to low income in adulthood. By focusing
on children, Case and coauthors eliminate the route from health to
income, given that children do not contribute to household income.
The route from income to health, on the other hand, may be affected
by parents' ability to purchase medical care, nutritious foods, and
safer environments for their children. A child's health may also be
affected by certain parental characteristics, such as education or
genetics, which are related to household income.
For the complete article in HTML format, visit the JCPR
web site.
The Employment and Time Costs of Caring for Elderly Parents,Richard
W. Johnson and Anthony T. Lo Sasso, Joint Center on Poverty Research,
Poverty Research News, September - October, 2001, Vol.5, No.5.
The aging of the U.S. population has focused attention on the elderly
and their health care needs. Many of the elderly are poor or live on
fixed incomes, and have costly health problems. As such, they frequently
rely on help from adult children. With the number of Americans aged
85 and over expected to double over the next 30 years, families are
likely to face increasing pressure in caring for elderly parents, particularly
lower-income elders who cannot afford formal, stay-at-home care. The
financial costs of providing care to elderly parents informally can
be substantial, particularly if caregivers are forced to interrupt their
careers or retire early to provide care. As a result, more low-income
elderly persons may be institutionalized if they are unable to pay for
formal home care and their children are unable to provide informal care.
Richard Johnson and Anthony Lo Sasso in their paper, The Trade-Off
between Hours of Paid Employment and Time Assistance to Elderly Parents
at Midlife, examine how time commitments of caring for elderly
parents affect hours spent in the labor force. They find that women
in middle age who aid their parents cut back labor force hours by
58% and men by 43%.
For the complete article in HTML format, visit the JCPR
web site.
The National Report: The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
Study Baseline Report, Sara McLanahan, Irwin Garfinkel, Nancy
E. Reichman, Julien Teitler, Marcia Carlson, and Christina Norland
Audigier,
The Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, Princeton University,
August 2001.
Introduction:
In twenty cities across the United States, parents are participating
in a study of Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing. The study follows
a new birth cohort of approximately 5,000 children and their parents
in an effort to learn more about an important group of families in
the United States: unmarried parents and their children. We use the
term fragile families to underscore the fact that unmarried parents
and their children are families, and to remind the reader that these
families have a higher risk of poverty and family dissolution than
traditional families. The proportion of children born to unmarried
parents has increased dramatically during the past forty years, with
close to one-third of births now occurring outside of marriage. Despite
this trend, very little is known about the resources of and relationships
within these families, and the ways in which government policies affect
the parents’ and children’s lives. As a consequence, public
perceptions are often shaped by unsubstantiated myths about unmarried
couples, and policymakers and community leaders often must rely on
anecdotal evidence when designing policies and programs. Without adequate
information, such programs may not be as effective as intended, and
in some cases, may even unintentionally undermine the stability of
these families.
The study addresses four sets of related questions:
- What are the conditions and capabilities of new unmarried parents,
especially fathers? How many of these men hold steady jobs? How
many want to be involved in raising their children?
- What is the nature of relationships between unmarried parents?
How many of these couples are involved in stable relationships?
How many expect to get married? How many are exposed to high levels
of conflict or domestic violence?
- What factors strengthen the relationships between new unmarried
parents? What factors cause conflict between them? In particular,
how do public policies affect parents’ behaviors and living
arrangements?
- What are the long-term consequences for parents, children, and
society of new welfare regulations, stronger paternity establishment
and stricter child support enforcement, and changes in healthcare
and childcare financing and delivery?
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the
CRCW web site.
Policies Affecting New York City's Low-Income Families, Hugh
O'Neill, Kathryn Garcia, Virginie Amerlynck, and Barbara Blum, National
Center for Children in Poverty, Princeton University, September 2001.
NCCP Abstract:
This study reviews some of the most important federal, state, and
local policy and program changes affecting New York City's low-income
families, how they were implemented, and what issues need to be addressed.
Despite dramatic declines in the overall New York City welfare caseload
and the establishment of many support services, more than 41,000 of
New York City's welfare recipients are reaching their five-year individual
lifetime limit for cash assistance beginning in December 2001. At
the same time, more children not living with a parent (so-called child-only
cases) are entering the city's welfare rolls.
This report suggests important steps the city, state, and federal
government can take to meet the goals of welfare reform more effectively
and to help all low-income families meet their needs through work.
For the city, they include a more flexible approach to engagement
with the workforce, better delivery of transitional benefits, more
comprehensive planning for child-only welfare cases, a city earned
income credit program, and new service centers for working poor families.
The state can improve and extend income, health, child care, education,
housing, and other benefit programs to more groups of low-income families
. The federal government can reauthorize TANF with provisions to maintain
level funding to the states, modify the five-year individual lifetime
time limit, be flexible in defining work activities for mothers of
very young children, eliminate discrimination against legal immigrants
in all benefit programs, and increase the federal minimum wage.
Living on Little: Case Studies of Iowa Families with Very Low
Incomes, Heather Hill and Jacqueline Kauff, Mathematica Policy
Research, Inc., August 2001.
Introduction excerpt:
Surveys of current and former welfare recipients consistently uncover
a troubling, and somewhat mysterious, fact: A non-negligible percentage
of families report incomes so low that it seems inconceivable they can
survive. Most recently, this phenomenon has been documented in state
surveys of families that have left the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) program. For instance, 22 percent of "TANF leavers"
surveyed in Missouri reported $500 or less in monthly income, and the
same proportion of leavers surveyed in Massachusetts reported $150 or
less in weekly income (Dunton and Mosely 2000; Massachusetts Department
of Transitional Assistance 1999). In the spring of 2000, Mathematica
Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) conducted a telephone survey of 401 families
that had left Iowa's TANF program in the spring of 1999. At least 8.5
percent and perhaps as many as 13.5 percent of the respondents to this
survey reported $500 or less in monthly income (Kauff et al. 2001).1
On average, these families' incomes were less than 20 percent of the
U.S. Census Bureau's poverty threshold.
There is reason to be concerned about families that report little
or no monthly income. In the wake of federal and state welfare reforms,
employment rates, earnings, and total income have increased for most
poor families. However, the financial situations of the poorest families
have worsened and there is evidence that "deep poverty"-defined as
income below 50 percent of the poverty threshold-has grown (Haskins
et al. 2001a; Primus et al. 1999). The families at the bottom of the
income distribution are not only far from attaining self-sufficiency
and moving out of poverty, but may face extreme hardships-such as
hunger and homelessness-that can have harsh consequences for children's
health and well-being.
Indeed, responses to the Iowa TANF leavers survey indicate that
families with very low incomes may be more vulnerable to hardships.
As Exhibit I.1 shows, leavers who reported $500 or less in monthly
income were more likely to face a variety of hardships after leaving
TANF than those who reported more than $500 in monthly income. For
instance, leavers with very low incomes were more than twice as likely
to have experienced hunger and three times as likely to have been
homeless and living on the street after leaving TANF.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF, visit the Mathematica
web site.
Work, Welfare, and Family Well-Being, Merrile Sing, Heather
Hill, and Linda Mendenko, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc, July 2001.
Press Release excerpt:
This new report from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., looks at the
effect on family well-being of moving parents who were unemployed and
on welfare in Iowa into jobs. The study found that when parents were
employed, many reported improvements in family income, standard of living,
parental self-esteem, parenting skills, and family harmony. Furthermore,
most children exhibited very good social behavior and cared about doing
well in school, regardless of parental employment status. Many parents
had difficulty retaining employment and reported that problems with
child care arrangements, physical health, and family issues made working
more challenging.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF, visit the Mathematica
web site.
Teens, Jobs, and Welfare: Implications for Social Policy,
Child Trends, Research Briefs series, September 2001.
Press Release Excerpt:
Teens in families receiving welfare are much less likely to work
than other teens, including those from other low-income families.
In contrast, working teens in families that recently left welfare
are much more likely to be working long hours than other teens, possibly
to contribute to their familiesí incomes.
While moderate levels of work can be positive for teens, longer
hours (20 or more hours per week) may lead to negative long-term outcomes.
These findings, presented in a new research brief from Child Trends,
Teens, Jobs, and Welfare: Implications for Social Policy, raise
two important policy issues:
—Teens in families that recently left welfare may
be jeopardizing their education by working long hours.
—Teens in welfare families appear isolated from the work force.
This limited exposure to employment may hinder their transition to
the world of work as adults.
For a copy of the complete press release and Research Brief, visit
the Child
Trends' web site.
How Children Fare in Welfare Experiments Seems to Hinge on Income,
Children's Defense Fund, August 22, 2001.
Press Release Excerpt:
In families where welfare-to-work programs have resulted in reduced
family income, children are more likely to suffer negative effects according
to a recent Children's Defense Fund (CDF) study. The report finds that
programs that are most helpful to children are those that raise family
income and economic security.
The CDF study looks at data from 16 welfare-to-work programs begun
in the early and mid-1990s before welfare reform was enacted in 1996.
Among the experiments studied were Minnesota Family Investment Program;
New Hope in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Florida's Family Transition Program;
JobsFirst GAIN in Los Angeles, California; and programs in Riverside,
California and Grand Rapids, Michigan. All of the programs studied
sought to encourage work, but not all succeeded in raising family
income. The study found that when families lost income, children were
more likely to experience bad outcomes such as increased school suspensions,
behavior and mental health problems including symptoms of depression,
an increase in the number of children removed from their mother's
care, increased enrollment in special classes for behavioral or emotional
problems, and health problems such as increased trips to the emergency
room. In programs where both employment and income were increased,
the impact on children was more positive.
The report raises great concerns for children in the debate over
reauthorization of the 1996 law because most state welfare policies
in effect today are far less generous than the income-lifting programs
examined in this report, there are signs that hundreds of thousands
of children have become poorer, and the weakening economy may threaten
income for many of the recently hired former welfare recipients.
The report states that welfare reduction programs must be thoughtfully
developed to help children and families avoid poverty as they strive
to become self-sufficient. Supports such as child care, after-school
activities, and more income support need to be in place for these
families to enable them to transition from welfare to work without
putting their children at risk of greater poverty and its attendant
ills.
For a copy of the complete report in PDF format, visit the Children's
Defense Fund web site.
New Citations from
NCOFF's FatherLit Database
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