The Role of Family Income in the Intergenerational Association of AFDC Receipt

Daughters from low‐income families who did not receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) are compared to daughters from low‐income families who did receive assistance to better account for family income in the intergenerational association of AFDC. The research models the timing of a daughter's first birth and, for those who become mothers, the number of years a daughter receives any AFDC. Women whose families received AFDC during their childhood are more likely to receive AFDC as adults relative to those women whose families did not receive AFDC. Controlling for family income in a more careful and comprehensive way than past research explains part but not all of the effects of childhood AFDC receipt. Among daughters from chronically poor families, however, parental AFDC use is not associated with additional years of AFDC participation. Although the present research cannot confirm or deny a causal role for parental welfare use, the intergenerational transmission of financial resources does explain part of the intergenerational association of welfare use.     

Child day care and the employment of AFDC recipients with preschool children

In the context of recent federal initiatives to increase the affordability, accessibility, and quality of child care for the working poor, this article examines the degree to which expanding the supply of publicly subsidized child care in local communities may promote, through employment, the independence from welfare and economic self-sufficiency of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients with preschool-aged children. In a telephone survey of a random sample of 232 AFDC recipients who participated in a larger federally sponsored demonstration project in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, many respondents reported the lack of available child care as a barrier either to employment or to the attainment of a preferred job. Although it is concluded that increases in the availability of subsidized child care should be a component of any strategy to increase the level of employment participation, continuity, and success for this population, the results underscore the need for a multi-faceted intervention strategy to reduce the welfare dependency and to increase the economic self-sufficiency of these parents. Implications for further research are suggested.The data for this investigation were collected under Authorization No. 89-3-WR-NC-008 to the North Carolina Department of Human Resources from the Division of Program Evaluation, Office of Family Assistance, Family Support Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. Additional support was provided under Grant No. 5-44232 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University Research Council, Office of Research Services. The views and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the North Carolina Department of Human Resources.He received his Ph.D. in Family Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1981. He is a specialist in work and family linkages, policy analysis and evaluation, and survey research methodology. He served as principal investigator on the child care evaluation study that is the basis for this article.He received his Ph.D. in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin in 1982. He is a specialist in evaluation and research methodology, information dissemination and use patterns in public sector agencies, and welfare policy and initiatives. He served as project director for the study described in this article.     

The effects of the welfare system on marital dissolution

The economic theory of marriage predicts that the partners expectations of greater financial resources outside of marriage should increase the probability of marital dissolution. One potential implication is that marriages should be less stable in states with higher AFDC benefits. I study this implication empirically using data on separations and divorces among marriages involving women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. I find no supporting evidence that higher welfare benefits lead to increased rates of marital dissolution among married women with children.I thank Mary Ellen Benedict, Madeline Zavodny, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments, and Saul Hoffman for providing his data on AFDC benefits. Responsible editor: T. Paul Schultz.     

Welfare,Premarital Childbearing,and the Role of Normative Climate: 1968–1994

Nationally representative, longitudinal survey data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were used to examine the conditions under which welfare benefit levels affected the likelihood that low‐income women age 15–24 bore their first child prior to marriage. Benefit levels had a positive effect on premarital childbearing during the 1980s and early 1990s but not during the 1970s or late 1960s. The effect of benefit levels was also stronger where community attitudes toward premarital sex were more tolerant than where attitudes were less tolerant, but this did not account for the varying effect of benefit levels over time. The study introduces a new way of measuring normative climate using attitudinal data from the General Social Surveys.     

性别分层视角下福利对美国非裔单身母亲的影响研究 ——以20世纪六七十年代AFDC政策为例

20世纪六七十年代,美国抚养未成年子女家庭援助计划(AFDC)的支出规模出现大幅增长,非裔单身母亲接受福利援助的程度和范围扩大,但由于族群差异而构建出“他者”概念,使非裔单身母亲在女性群体内部受到阶级制度和种族制度在另外维度上的分裂,形成福利的差异化待遇以及“福利女王”的刻板印象,其面临的社会不平等实际上是性别分层下系统性种族主义的持续存在。AFDC福利政策的发展维持了美国非裔单身母亲基本的温饱,却无法从根源上解决其贫困问题。政府需要满足其现实性别需求以及战略性别需求,改变非裔单身母亲的社会从属地位,形成经济上独立自主的女性形象。这样才能消除她们所面临的结构性障碍。     

Childhood Abuse and Welfare Use

Policies aimed at reducing welfare use focus solely on adults, yet welfare users very often report experiences of childhood abuse. Such abuse is known to have long-term psychological effects and may set the stage for later welfare use. This study uses a random sample of poor women to determine how a history of childhood abuse relates to the probability of receiving cash and in-kind assistance over a five-year period. It also investigate whether childhood abuse correlates with the length of receipt among program users. Women experiencing both physical and sexual abuse during childhood were 16–25 percentage points more likely than others to use both cash and in-kind programs as adults. Conditional on program use, there was no relation of childhood abuse to the extent of program use during the study period.     

The Impact of a Mandatory Employment Program on Welfare Terminations

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal study analyzes the impact of one of the most ambitious employment and training programs in the nation, California's Greater Avenue for Independence (GAIN), on welfare terminations. The study isolates the effects of GAIN from other effects by controlling for AFDC program characteristics and labor market conditions. The findings suggest that, all else constant, GAIN increased terminations in a modest fashion. The paper discusses the difficulties future welfare-to-work programs are likely to have in substantially increasing terminations even with stringent mandatory work requirements.     

Marriage,Obesity and Dieting

Despite the importance of marriage as a basic social institution, there has been little analysis of the relationship between marriage and obesity. This paper reviews work on the prevalence of obesity by marital status; factors associated with obesity as a criterion for entry into marriage; the similarity of fatness in marital partners; changes in weight in relationship to marital problems; and the relationship between obesity and marital termination. The application of knowledge about marriage and obesity to weight loss therapy is also considered. More research is needed to specify the extent, form and dynamics of the relationship between obesity and marriage.     

Explaining Female Teenagers' Sexual Behavior and Outcomes: A Bivariate Probit Analysis with Selectivity Correction

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data, this article estimates a model of teenage childbearing. The model recognizes that teenage childbearing is conditional on earlier sexual activity and that such activity is undertaken by only a portion of the female teenage population. Consequently, rather than estimate a single equation for birth probability as much past research has done, a bivariate probit model with selectivity correction is estimated to account for the sequential nature of the process. An important result of this research suggests that AFDC benefits play a role in the decision to become sexually active as well as to become a teenage parent.     

Intergenerational and program-induced effects of welfare dependency: Evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth

This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine intergenerational and program-induced effects of welfare dependency. Three research questions are asked: (a) How do parental Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) receipt and other family background characteristics affect subsequent dependency on AFDC? (b) How do attitudes about welfare and state AFDC benefit levels affect AFDC dependency? and (c) How do the patterns and factors associated with AFDC dependency vary across racial and ethnic lines? The results suggest that women who grew up in households that received welfare during the woman's adolescence are approximately twice as likely to be dependent on AFDC in young adulthood as women whose families did not received welfare. Further, state AFDC benefit levels are associated with higher risks of AFDC dependency, but the association is significant only for Anglo women. These analyses provide little support for the hypothesis that attitudes toward welfare and low-wage work increase the likelihood of welfare dependency.