Comparing Child Poverty Risk by Family Structure During the 2008 Recession

Children in nonmarried families are at greater risk for poverty and especially so during a time of macroeconomic recession. Using carefully harmonized data, the authors analyze child poverty among nonmarried families before and during the 2008 recession in five liberal welfare states: Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although having similar demographic compositions, the authors document wide cross‐national variation in poverty risk based on marital status and gender of the household head. Through the recession, child poverty in Canada and the United Kingdom declined while it increased in Australia and Ireland and was largely unchanged in the United States. Decomposing changes within countries over time, family benefits in the form of income transfers play a major role in reducing poverty for nonmarried families. In all countries, children in cohabitating families were less protected from market instability.     

Verarmungsrisiken nach kritischen Lebensereignissen in Deutschland und den USA

We study how the impact of job loss, sickness, retirement, and family dissolution on the risk of relative income poverty differs between Germany and the United States, and whether the impact of these events has changed between 1980 and 2009. Americans are more likely than Germans to enter poverty after any of the four events, yet they also recover more quickly from job loss and family dissolution. Comparisons over time do not indicate a secular rise in the impact of critical life events on poverty risks, but our results show that poverty trajectories are subject to stronger cyclical fluctuations in the United States: Through its emphasis on market mechanisms, the liberal American welfare state raises the importance of (re-)employment opportunities for coping with the consequences of adverse life events. The absence of clear long-term trends leads to a reassessment of common views about welfare state change such as Jacob Hacker??s thesis of a ??Great Risk Shift?? or the notion of an ??Americanization?? of Continental European welfare states. So far, there is also little evidence that the often claimed recalibration of welfare states towards ??new social risks?? has alleviated the adverse economic consequences of family dissolution.     

Race,Hyper‐Incarceration,and US Poverty Policy in Historic Perspective

In this article, I bring scholarship on welfare reform into discussion with work on crime control and racial and ethnic relations. I locate the genesis of hyper‐incarceration and the moral suasion imposed on the recipients of contemporary social welfare services through the poverty policies of the Victorian era and later the postbellum south, implicating the checkered history of racial domination in the United States in the development of social welfare and criminal justice policy. I conclude by discussing the ways in which the United States has been reconfigured to facilitate these trends and of new terrain in the study of marginality in the neoliberal age. Doing so demonstrates the long‐standing collusion between welfare state and criminal justice actors, identifies the racialized target of punishment and poverty management, highlights the significance of race in the development of social policy, and exhibits the importance of social welfare policy in contemporary race and ethnic relations.     

Revisiting Welfare States. Performance in Reducing Poverty through Longitudinal Multinational Comparison

This article presents the results of a comparative study on the effects of social welfare programs in selected developed countries. Using a fully comparable longitudinal data file from nationally representative household surveys, we estimate the poverty rate and poverty gap before and after social welfare transfers and taxes in order to identify the direct effects of social welfare on poverty. In general, the findings reveal that countries with conservative welfare regimes demonstrate higher poverty performance than do countries with liberal welfare regimes. In particular, the United States lagged behind through all periods under investigation, whereas Germany exhibited the highest performance in poverty reduction.     

Charity or Entitlement Conundrum: Welfare Policies and Safe Motherhood in Impoverished Buffalo,New York

ABSTRACT

In contrast to the most industrialized Western nations, the United States faces great social and economic disparities and a deep gap between the socioeconomic strata. The child poverty rate is almost three times higher than in any other industrialized Western country, and single mother families represent 60% of all poor families in the United States. Concentrating on the situation of single mothers in impoverished Buffalo, New York, the authors argue that similar to the underdeveloped world, the fate of single mothers in the United States is tied to the global economy. This project seeks to understand how systemic (social location) and idiosyncratic (individual) factors interactively affect the health and well-being of female-headed, single-parent families. The quantitative analyses are supported by an examination of a case study of a transitional housing program, called Gerard Place. We examine the impact of this comprehensive program offered to poor mothers, including housing, counseling, education, child care, and financial support. These support systems assist female-headed families to rebuild self-sufficiency, sustainable income, and economic independence. The call to approach welfare programs as a synthesis of systemic and idiosyncratic factors concludes the study.     

Information Poverty and the Latino Community

Abstract

Social work education can help students to reach a higher understanding of the impact of information poverty on the Latino community by systematically integrating this content into social work curriculum areas of information society, information poverty, and Latino communities. The authors examine the prospects for poverty and inequality in the Latino community as the United States emerges into the information economy and suggest that the Latino population may continue to be at risk for poverty in the information age. This article reviews indicators such as education, access to computers and network communications that may influence access to the emerging economic order and offers technology-based practice strategies, such as community net works and e-commerce, to create local empowerment. It provides recommendations for curriculum development.     

Changing Our Understanding of Child Welfare: Replacing the Residual Paradigm

Public policies and programs for children are shaped by collective understandings of what is possible and practical and are given expression through collective action. In the United States this collective action has primarily manifested itself through the development of the public child welfare system. Since its inception the child welfare system has been guided by a residual paradigm. This residual paradigm has been the principle organizing framework for knowledge development and practice in child welfare. It has defined the domain of the field, delineated the scope of professional inquiry, and proven to be a cul de sac that prevents finding solutions to the pernicious problems of widespread child poverty and child maltreatment.     

U.S. ratification of the CRC and reducing child poverty: can we get there from here?

If the United States finally ratifies the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), will it improve the country's to effectively combat child poverty and thereby improve child well-being? This article addresses this and related questions in two ways. First, the authors examine how ratification of the CRC has influenced the efforts of other wealthy Anglophone countries to reduce child poverty. Second, they draw on lessons learned from these other countries' efforts to generate predictions about America's postratification future. The authors conclude that, while the CRC is a compelling, practical tool, a communications strategy and business plan are necessary complements to achieve desired results.     

Enhancing parental power and flexibility in the transition from welfare to work

Recent welfare reforms in the United States shifted the emphasis from income maintenance to preparation for employment. Many families receiving welfare benefits have members with disabilities, which can complicate the process of transition into the workforce. Rehabilitation professionals have a unique set of skills, expertise and experiences which could enhance work transition outcomes for welfare recipients. This purpose of this article is to (a) familiarize rehabilitation professionals with welfare reform changes in the United States, (b) summarize the experiences of families affected by those changes who participated in a recent study, and (c) present a service delivery model to enhance parental power and flexibility based on rehabilitation principles.     

Compliance issues raised by the United States' ratification and implementation of the education articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

This article evaluates compliance issues the United States could face in ratifying the education provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The authors compare states parties' obligations under the education provisions of the CRC--as construed by the CRC committee--with federal and state education protections and programs in the United States. The authors conclude that the United States currently complies with most of the provisions and faces minimal risk in ratifying the remaining provisions.     

Food insufficiency and physical and mental health in a longitudinal survey of welfare recipients

Food insufficiency is a significant problem in the United States, and poor African American women with children are at especially high risk. An inadequate household food supply can potentially affect the well-being of household members, but it is difficult to distinguish the effects of food insufficiency from risk factors for poor health that are also common among the food insufficient, such as poverty. We examined food insufficiency and physical and mental health among African American and white women (n = 676) who were welfare recipients in 1997. Controlling for common risk factors, women who reported food insufficiency in both 1997 and 1998 were more likely to report fair or poor health at the later date. Food insufficiency in 1998 was significantly associated with meeting the diagnostic screening criteria for recent major depression. Food insufficiency at both times and in 1998 only was related to women's sense of mastery. These findings add to growing evidence that household food insufficiency is associated with poor physical and mental health.     

Ist Das Normalarbeitsverhältnis Noch Armutsvermeidend?

The article tests the hypothesis that welfare state retrenchment and labor market deregulation have increased poverty within the German working population using a time series of poverty ratios based on different income concepts for a period of 14 years (1991–2004). The basic assumption is that changes in the societal context (welfare state, labor market, houschold structures), besides individual risk factors, explain the development of poverty over time. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study it is shown that changing labor market conditions and tax regulations have increased poverty, and this has not been attenuated by additional income sources (welfare state, household members) or by recent changes in household composition. As a result, poverty has increased for full-time employees during the observation period, especially so in Eastern Germany.     

Envisioning a feminist urban ethnography: Structure,culture, and new directions in poverty studies

A “risk” discourse, characterized by the focus on behaviors of the economically marginalized especially as it relates to drugs, gangs, violence, and teen parenthood, has traditionally dominated poverty research in the United States. More recently, this hegemonic risk discourse has become contoured by the so‐called new cultural turn in urban poverty studies, which has been marked as a departure from the earlier “blame the victim” perspectives. In this article, we review the role of urban ethnographers in shaping the structure versus culture debate in the sociology of poverty sub‐discipline. We then point to a scant, but growing, body of work that is encouraging urban ethnographers engaged in poverty research to expand their vision. To conclude, we contend that this new direction can be conceptualized as a feminist urban ethnography frame that advocates for transformation of the poverty research agenda.     

The measurement of transient poverty: Theory and application to Pakistan

The present paper investigates the measurement of transient poverty when each person's welfare level fluctuates due to exogenous risk. The paper namely characterizes the sensitivity of transient/chronic poverty decomposition with respect to the poverty line and to the expected welfare level so that the decomposition analysis will be based on solid theoretical foundations and be robust empirically. Theoretical results show that poverty measures associated with prudent risk preferences perform better than other measures in assuring that the value of transient poverty increases with the depth of chronic poverty and that the decomposition is not highly sensitive to the poverty line. Poverty measures such as those associated with constant relative risk aversion are thus superior to popular Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) measures such as headcount, poverty gap, and squared poverty gap indices. These theoretical arguments are confirmed empirically by the application of the decomposition to a two-period household panel dataset from rural Pakistan. The relative magnitudes of transient versus chronic poverty are more robust to changes in the poverty line when poverty measures associated with constant relative risk aversion are used than when FGT poverty measures are used.     

Developmental well-being among low and normal birth weight U.S. Puerto Rican children

Low birth weight is a more common occurrence among Puerto Rican children than among children from most other racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and they are more likely to experience the added risk of living in poverty. This study addresses what is protective for the development 602 normal birth weight and 554 low birth weight children from the Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study. The results presented in the current analysis identify several protective influences for development (particularly maternal social support, medical insurance, and paternal employment) among low birth weight children (who are at a high risk for developmental problems), and almost none for normal birth weight children. The results largely support the contention that protective factors emerge, or increase in strength, only in the presence of risk, indicating the use of targeted child health programs based on birth weight are an effective and efficient way to improve the developmental well-being of young Puerto Rican children in the United States.     

The Measurement of Child Poverty in the United States

How poverty is defined and measured has significant implications for the identification of children in need. This article evaluates the current measure of child poverty in the United States in order to gauge its appropriateness for assessing child well-being. The article begins with a brief discussion of the meaning of poverty and evaluates the history, structure, and strengths of the official measure of child poverty. In addition, critical shortcomings that potentially mask the known deprivation of poverty are revealed and Amartya Sen's capability approach is introduced as a tool for capturing this deprivation. The overall premise of this article, therefore, is that the discourse on poverty might benefit by reconceptualizing approaches to measuring and defining poverty.     

Inheritance of Welfare Recipiency: An Intergenerational Study of Social Assistance Recipiency in Postwar Sweden

Intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency has received increasing attention among social scientists, especially in the United States, as greater availability of longitudinal data has shed new light on this issue. It remains unclear, however, to what extent the intergenerational correlation of welfare recipiency observed in the United States reflects or interacts with unobserved variables, the racial composition of the population, and the institutional structure of social policies. This study focuses on Sweden, a country with an ethnically homogenous population and institutional social policy structures that differ from those in the United States. It utilizes an internationally unique longitudinal data set to test hypotheses on the inheritance of welfare benefit recipiency as indicated by reliance on means‐tested social assistance. A clear intergenerational effect is observed. This effect, however, reflects a combination of social assistance in the family of origin, children's school adjustment, and parental criminality. Children who lack this combination of problems do not show signs of intergenerational welfare dependency.     

Children's behavior problems in the United States and Great Britain

We analyze the effects of family capital on child behavior problems in the United States and Great Britain by comparing a longitudinal survey sample of 5- to 13-year-old children from the 1994 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,864) with a similar sample of children from the 1991 National Child Development Study "British Child" (N = 1,430). Findings suggest that in both societies, male children, those with health problems, and those whose mothers are divorced are at increased risk for behavior problems, while those with stronger home environments are at reduced risk. Family structure effects are more pervasive in Great Britain than in the United States, although some of these findings are a function of our racially diverse U.S. sample. We conclude that parents are important in both societies in promoting child social adjustment, and evidence that the more developed welfare state in Great Britain may substitute for capital at home is weak.     

The high cost of neglecting children: The need for a preventive policy agenda

Millions of children in the United States suffer from poor care and inadequate services due to neglectful national social policy. More than 13 million children live in poverty and its negative consequences, at great individual and social cost. This paper outlines the need to seriously advocate for a preventive policy approach to child welfare and presents a blueprint for individual and collective political action. The cost-effectiveness and social benefits of preventive policies are demonstrated. Social workers understand the value of prevention in working with children and families, and are needed to advocate on the policy-making level for a preventive policy agenda.     

Systemic differences in views on risk: A comparative case vignette study of risk assessment in England,Norway and the United States (California)

This article examines how child welfare workers from three countries assess risk to a child in the context of different risk assessment tools, child welfare systems and welfare regimes. Previous research suggests that there are distinct differences between child protection-oriented child welfare systems such as England and the U.S., and family service-oriented child welfare systems such as Norway (Gilbert et al., 2011). We use a case vignette method to analyze how 299 child welfare workers from England, Norway and California (U.S.) assess risk. The case vignette describes the case of ‘Beatrice’, a nine year-old girl of Black African descent who was born with an organic heart disease and a cleft palate. We found that respondents from California assessed the risk to be the lowest, followed by respondents from England and Norway. The risk factors that respondents highlighted as important for their assessment also varied significantly between countries, displaying different perceptions of elements in a case constituting risk. Respondents from Norway, who, comparatively, practice within the context of the least regulated assessment platform, identified the most homogenous assessments and types of reasoning, whereas both the assessment of risk levels and identifications of risk factors were more heterogeneous among workers in England and California. We argue that the different risk assessment tools only partly influence what workers identify as risk factors in a case, and that type of welfare states and child welfare systems is also an influence. This study thus supports existing scholarship on the distinctions between child welfare systems. However, we also found significant differences in perceptions of risk factors between England and the United States.