Long-term employment and earnings among low-income families with children

Self-support through employment has become much more important for low-income mothers and welfare recipients as a result of welfare reform and decline of welfare caseloads. This study used the 2004 longitudinal panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine longitudinal patterns and trajectories of employment and earnings and to identify factors associated with long-term employment and earnings success among low-income mothers. The results indicate that despite the high proportion of low-income mothers employed, a substantial number were unable to sustain employment and had low earnings. Only 37% of low-income mothers experienced earnings success. Moreover, nearly half of the sample who had successful employment trajectories experienced stagnant or decreasing earnings. Results highlight the importance of considering the level, trend, and stability of employment and earnings in categorizing employment and earnings success. The factors associated with both long-term employment and earnings success included education, work disability, earnings of other adults in the family, homeownership, and state unemployment rates. Results also revealed some differences in factors that determined these two outcomes. The findings point to the importance of advocating for social policies that provide additional income and employment supports for low-income families with children.     

The Effect of Migrant Children on Migrant Mothers' Employment

More and more migrant parents choose to bring their children with them to their migration destination in China. Here, the data reported by China's Health and Family Planning Commission in 2017 are used to examine the influence of migrant children on migrant mothers’ employment. The results showed that migrant children have a negative effect on mothers’ employment and reduce wages of mothers who are work. In addition, considering migrant children’s age, we find that as it increases the burden of childcare is lighter; the probability of mothers’ participation in the labour market and receiving a high wage is higher. Furthermore, in terms of mothers’ characteristics, older age and better education, having a spouse or parents who migrated, longer migration history and an across-provincial move have positive effects on migrant mothers’ employment.     

Youth outside the labour force — Perceived barriers by service providers and service users: A mixed method approach

BackgroundYoung people who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) have received increasing attention in Western countries. While some young people in the labour force are unemployed because of a shortage of jobs, others would be without employment even in periods of economic growth, when more jobs are available. The latter group is referred to as neither in the labour force nor in education or training (NLFET), and such people need intervention to improve their chances of work participation. However, this group is poorly understood, and more knowledge is needed to develop efficient measures. The purpose of the study is to investigate the NLFET population and to identify barriers to education or employment.MethodInterviews were conducted at all labour and welfare offices in a representative county in Norway, and an internet-based survey among 586 persons aged 18–29 years who met the NLFET criteria was conducted. Sixty case managers of young service users and 30 managers/assistant managers were interviewed at the 25 offices in the county.ResultsThe local labour and welfare offices prioritize young clients, and some have designated follow-up teams for young service users. Three main barriers to education or employment were identified through the interviews at the offices: client motivation, the sense of lack of achievement/defeat, and unrealistic expectations about working life. A survey of the young people revealed other barriers, such as health problems (60%), low education (55%), lack of work experience (41%), the feeling of being exhausted (38%), low self-esteem (36%), feeling depressed (35%), sleeping problems (35%), and very often a combination of these barriers.ConclusionsHealth problems, social and other problems are highly prevalent among the NLFET population. The majority of the population wanted to find a job or to complete their education. We conclude that mental health problems often camouflage social problems. Treatment of complex problems should not be left to mental health services. Given the nature of the barriers identified, follow-up by strong multi-professional teams, including social work and health professions, should be part of the measures allocated to the NLFET population.     

How Mothers Cope When Their Welfare Grant Is Cut

Abstract

In this qualitative study of welfare mothers' perceptions and responses to receiving an economic sanction, we recruited a convenience sample of mothers of preschool children whose benefits had been cut due to noncompliance with an employment activity. The interviews combined semi-structured and open-ended questions, as well as measures of maternal depression and economic hardship. No pattern of differences in strategies was found between those women who complied with the work mandate and those who did not. Many of the women were confused about the reason for the cut in their benefit. Policy ramifications of findings in regard to the 2002 TANF Reauthorization legislation are discussed.     

Economic and Psychological Benefits from Employment: the experiences and perspectives of mothers of disabled children

This qualitative research explores the perspectives and experiences of employed mothers of disabled children particularly with respect to the potential benefits of employment. Forty families with at least one disabled child, representing a variety of family structures and work situations, participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study clearly illustrate that the economic, psychological and social benefits for mothers of disabled children from participation in paid work are strikingly similar to those for employed mothers of non-disabled children. This suggests that the low level of labour force participation of mothers of disabled children in comparison with other mothers is most likely a consequence of the inherent ideological and structural barriers these women face, rather than their qualitatively differing needs. Streamlining of the benefits system, integration both within and between health, education and social services, increased flexibility in the workplace, and dialogue and co-ordination between all of these elements, may go some way to providing the support these mothers need.     

Young children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors after mothers exit welfare: Comparisons with children of non-welfare mothers

Although not part of its stated aims, current welfare legislation is assumed to benefit children through increased parental employment and self-sufficiency. Research findings on the extent to which parental welfare participation improves child well-being are inconclusive. This study investigates the behavioral outcomes of young children whose mothers have received TANF using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2169). Controlling for maternal demographic characteristics, current financial status, and health risks, we found that the difference between children's externalizing behaviors in families of former TANF recipients relative to children of mothers who had never been on welfare decreased the longer mothers had been off welfare. However, overall, externalizing behaviors were significantly higher among children of former TANF recipients relative to children whose mothers had never received welfare. The findings suggest that ensuring healthy development for children requires long-term supports to help mothers as they transition off welfare.     

Employment Behaviors of Mothers Who have a Child with Asthma

The effects of having a child with asthma on the employment status and the continuity of full-time employment of mothers were investigated using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Mothers who had a child with asthma were less likely to be employed full-time or part-time, and if single, they were less likely to retain their full-time jobs than other mothers. The effects of having a child with asthma depended on the marital status of the mother and the well-being of the child. Employment behaviors of single mothers were affected more than those of married mothers. The bed days of children reduced the prevalence and continuation of full-time employment for single and married mothers.     

Depression Risk among Mothers of Young Children: The Role of Employment Preferences, Labor Force Status and Job Quality

This study examines how desire for employment, employment status, and job quality associate with depressive symptoms among mothers of infants and toddlers. We use the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to estimate regression models with a variety of controls including prior depression. We find that employment in high-quality versus low-quality jobs is associated with reductions in depressive symptoms, both for mothers who do and do not desire employment. Furthermore, non-employed mothers have elevated depression levels only if they desire employment. Our results demonstrate that neither employment nor non-employment is best for all mothers of young children; rather mental health depends on mothers’ employment preferences and, when they do work for pay, job quality.     

Welfare and Work: Complementary Strategies forLow‐Income Women?

We examine the effects of mothers' strategies of combining employment and welfare receipt during the first 3 years of their child's life on the child's cognitive development, behavior problems, and home learning environment at ages 5 to 6. We compare the child outcomes of those mothers who were continuously employed and received no welfare with (a) those who worked some or all of the 3 years and also received public assistance and (b) those who were totally dependent on public assistance. We studied children in single‐parent families (N= 1271 ) living below 200% of the poverty threshold using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth—Child Supplement. No negative association was found on most child outcomes with a mother's employment whether or not it was combined with public assistance. However, mothers' not working at all and receiving financial support solely from AFDC was associated with negative child outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the possible effects of the new welfare laws on families and young children.     

Local Day Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence From East and West Germany

By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extends the literature, which mostly has focused on the importance of day care availability or costs. The authors provide differentiated analyses by the youngest child's age and for West and East Germany to examine moderating influences, such as work‐care cultures, in a market with strongly state‐subsidized provision and near‐universal participation of preschool children. The empirical analysis linked the Socio‐Economic Panel and the Families in Germany Study for 2010 and 2011 (N = 3,301 mothers) with regional structural quality data and applied multivariate regression models. In East Germany, mothers with a child under age 3 years who lived in districts with smaller day care groups were more likely to be employed and to extend their work hours. For mothers in West Germany and those with older children, day care quality was not significantly related to employment.     

Long-Term Implications of Welfare Reform for the Development of Adolescents and Young Adults

We draw upon the 3-wave longitudinal dataset called Welfare Children and Families: A Three-City Study to examine the long-term implications for adolescents and young adults (N = 783) of mothers' welfare receipt and labor force participation from 1999 to 2005. In general, changes in mothers' work and welfare patterns were not associated with deterioration or improvement in youth development (ages 16 to 20 years at Wave 3). The few significant associations suggested that youth whose mothers increased employment (net of welfare participation) were less likely to show increases in serious behavior problems and delinquency compared to youth whose mothers were unemployed or employed part-time during the study period. Welfare roll exits (controlling for employment experiences) were unrelated to adolescent and young adult outcomes. Mothers' employment transitions were linked to improvements in household income and mothers' self esteem in addition to reductions in financial strain and their own illegal activities. However, these associations did not explain the relation between maternal employment and youths' improved behavior. These results do not support the predictions of either the supporters or the opponents of welfare reform, an outcome we discuss.     

Strain and Enrichment in the Role of Employed Mothers in Israel

This paper analyzed some central elements in the dual role behavior of Israeli employed mothers. Two approaches can be distinquished in the study of working mothers specifically, and multiple role sets in general. The role-strain approach maintains that the two sub-roles compete for scarce resources, thus impairing their performance and adversely affecting the role occupant and her contibution to society. The enrichment approach empphasizes the reciprocal complementarity of the sub-roles and, as a result, the advantages which may compensate for the strain. Some of the skills and assets acquired in one aspect of a dual role are likely to help the role occupant improve their performance and ward off burnout. The balance between strain and enrichment characteristics the Israeli working mother was examined, and the conditions under which strain diminishes while enrichment increases were identified. A representative sample of 1,500 married couples were interviewed by means of a structured questionnaire. The main findings are:

-The average burden, measured in hours, carried by the working mother is larger than the comparable burden on married fathers or on homemakers.

-Decreasing the number of children reduces the gap between self image at work and the one at home, whereas a decrease in the hours of paid employment reduces the sense of burnout.

-Mothers who are rich in resources, schooling, income, and occupational prestige, tend to moderate the role-strain by reducing their tasks: the number of children and the amount of work hours.

-Mothers who are rich in resources are able to recruit hired help to ease the burden involved in the dual role, but they do not manage to enlist greater help from their husbands.

-Mothers who are rich in resources succeed in maintaining work continuity more than do mothers having limited resources.

-Mothers who are rich in resources tend to perceive their work as contributing to their children's education.

The findings indicate that the dual role encompasses elements of strain, internal competition for scarce resources as well as elements of enrichment. The general ramifications of these findings pertaining to the employment of women and to sexual equality are discussed.     

How do economic downturns affect welfare leavers? A comparison of two cohorts

Early welfare reform research showed high rates of employment for TANF leavers. However, work-focused welfare may not be effective during an economic downturn. We investigate the employment of Wisconsin TANF leavers, contrasting outcomes among early leavers (1998) with those who left during the 2001 recession. We use data from administrative records on about 6000 welfare leavers, tracking quarterly employment for 3 years after they left benefits. Separate panel data analyses of those exiting in two different time periods show that individual leavers are less likely to be employed when their local unemployment rate is high in the later cohort; no relationship is found for the early cohort. In a panel analysis in which the cohorts are combined, we find that leavers in the later cohort, who experienced the recession early in their post-welfare career, are less likely to be employed, a result that holds controlling for observed and unobserved characteristics. These findings raise questions about how well single-parent families and their children will fare during difficult economic times now that welfare reform has such a strong emphasis on work.     

What Women Want: Employment Preference and Adjustment Among Mothers

In this study of over 2000 mothers, we considered the alignment between employment preference and status, examining the well-being of mothers who were employed and wanting to work; employed because they need the money; not employed and not wanting work; and not employed but wanting to work. Alignment between employment preference and employment status was significantly associated with well-being, and mothers who stayed at home but wanted work had the most difficulties. Strong associations across multiple outcomes were found for emotional support variables, and costs of childcare was the most common reason for staying home even if employment was desired. Results suggest the importance of women’s self-agency in employment decisions, access to child-care, and emotional support in mothers’ lives.     

Creative work and health

Employees with greater control over their own activities have better health. People who are employed give up some control over their own activities for pay, yet employment is associated with better health. Perhaps paid jobs provide resources for productive self-expression that make up for the loss of autonomy. We find that paid employment is associated with lower autonomy but greater creativity of one's work or other main daily activities. Both have positive associations with health. Creativity's association is larger more statistically significant, and found in follow-up models as well as cross-sectional ones. The health advantage of being at the 60th versus the 40th percentile of creative work is equivalent to that of being 6.7 years younger or having two more years of education or 15 times greater household income. Education reduces the amount of autonomy lost in employment. Managerial authority and occupational attributes influence autonomy and creativity but otherwise have little or no association with health.     

Maternal Welfare and Employment Experiences and Adolescent Well-Being: Do Mothers' Human Capital Characteristics Matter?

Using a representative sample of over 900 low-income urban families from the Three-City Study, analyses assessed whether maternal human capital characteristics moderate relationships between mothers' welfare and employment experiences and young adolescents' well-being. Results indicate synergistic effects whereby greater maternal education and literacy skills enhanced positive links between mothers' new or sustained employment and improvements in adolescent cognitive and psychosocial functioning. Greater human capital also enhanced the negative links between loss of maternal employment and adolescent functioning. Mothers' entrances onto welfare appeared protective for adolescents of mothers with little education but predicted decreased psychosocial functioning among teens of more educated mothers. Results suggest that maternal human capital characteristics may alter the payback of welfare and work experiences for low-income families.     

Women at work: Commitment and behavior over the life course

Women at every stage of the family cycle are increasing their labor force participation but few maintain the continuous, full-time attachment characteristic of employed men. What does this mean in terms of women's subjective work commitment? Using data from six waves of the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics this study investigates the relationship between the pattern of employment over a five-year period and employed women's psychological commitment to work; findings suggest congruence as well as incongruence between labor force attitudes and behavior at different stages of the life course. Commitment to work in 1976 is also incorporated in a model estimating 1977 employment status. Results reveal that the greatest congruence between subjective commitment and labor force attachment is found in young women who have not yet begun their child bearing. On the other hand, employed mothers of preschoolers emerge as the group most likely to evidence discrepancies between labor force behavior and psychological commitment to the work role. Subjective commitment to work is shown to have a slight positive effect in estimating labor force activity the subsequent year, but the greatest predictor is women's work pattern over the previous five years.     

Maternal Work Absence: A Longitudinal Study of Language Impairment and Behavior Problems in Preschool Children

Combining work and family responsibilities is challenging when children have special needs, and mothers commonly make employment‐related adjustments. In this study, the authors examined associations between maternal work absence and child language impairment and behavior problems in preschool children. Questionnaire data at child age 3 years from 33,778 mothers participating in the prospective population‐based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were linked to national register data on employment and long‐term physician‐certified sick leave at child age 3–5 years. Mothers who reported having a child with language impairment had a consistently higher risk of not being employed and were at increased risk of taking long‐term sick leave at child age 5 years. Co‐occurring problems were associated with excess risk. Language impairments in preschool children, in particular when they are co‐occurring with behavior problems, are likely to have a range of negative short‐ and long‐term consequences for the financial and overall health and well‐being of mothers and their families.     

Work Hours,Schedules, and Insufficient Sleep Among Mothers and Their Young Children

Studies have linked parents' employment, work hours, and work schedules to their own sleep quality and quantity, but it is unclear whether these associations extend to children. The authors used data from the 5‐year in‐home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,818) to examine the associations between maternal work hours and schedule and insufficient sleep among disadvantaged mothers and their young children. They found that mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared to mothers who worked fewer hours, whereas children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours. Nonstandard work schedules were associated with an increased likelihood of insufficient sleep for mothers but not their children. The results highlight a potentially difficult balance between work and family for many disadvantaged working mothers in the United States.     

Community distress predicting welfare exits: The under-examined factor for families in the united states

Using a quasi-experimental design, a sample of female welfare clients (N = 91) was followed over 32 months to compare two competing models used to describe welfare dependency. The individual deficit model suggested that clients would not engage in work activities on their own initiative and that legislative sanctions were required to force clients into employment. The ecological/community model suggested that community economic distress, rather than lack of skills or motivation, prevented clients from becoming gainfully employed. Results showed that while both models explained the rate at which clients left the welfare system, the community that one lived in was a stronger predictor of welfare exits than government programs mandating individual effort. Results revealed that many clients were employed regardless of whether or not it was mandated. Furthermore, clients who resided in lower income communities and were required to work to keep receiving welfare benefits under the new legislation, spent an average of nearly twice as much time in the welfare system (22.75 months) as individuals who faced neither stress (11.5 months). The findings highlight the need to incorporate community economic development strategies in the overall program to decrease welfare dependency, rather than focusing solely on individual remediation.