This paper examines conflicting evidence regarding the impacts of welfare reform on children's wellbeing. Research shows that poverty rates, teen crime and fertility, and child maltreatment are down. Lack of appropriate state-level data on indicators of child wellbeing precludes serious analysis of the role of welfare reform for most indicators.…

This statistical fact book was developed to help New York State communities and child advocates learn how their county compares with others in the following areas: (1) number of children living in poverty; (2) number of children living in poor households; (3) number of families needing, and number receiving, child care subsidies; (4) number of…

Examined relationship between aggregate measures of family structure and homicide victimization rates of infants and children in 17 developed nations since 1965. Results indicated infant homicide rates were higher where rates of births to teenage mothers were higher; child homicide rates were higher where illegitimacy rates, births to teenage…

This study investigated the potential effects of welfare reform on children in late childhood through adolescence, examining how poverty status and family welfare receipt interacted with current poverty status and welfare receipt during adolescence to influence various outcomes. The study examined how 1998 outcomes varied for adolescents based on…

This report discusses critical social issues linked to teen pregnancy, explaining that teen pregnancy prevention should be viewed as working to improve these social issues. After providing general background on teen pregnancy, the report offers five fact sheets: (1) "Teen Pregnancy, Welfare Dependency, and Poverty" (continuing to reduce…

This report focuses on young mothers who had children as teenagers, who had dropped out of high school, and who were receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children. It was a voluntary demonstration project that provided comprehensive education, training, and other services intended to increase the long-term self-sufficiency and well-being of…

Over the past 30 years, welfare and other public policies for families living in poverty have developed a primary objective of increasing parents' self-sufficiency by requiring and supporting employment, culminating in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This legislation gave states considerable…

Using 20 years of longitudinal data on nearly 900 children aged 0 to 6 in 1968 (19 to 25 in 1987) from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the authors measure the influence of family background, individual characteristics, economic resources (or the lack thereof), and the experience of particular disruptive family events…

This study evaluated the Survey of Income Program Participation (SIPP) as a source of data on children. The evaluation sought to determine whether SIPP provides reasonable estimates of the child population, by comparing estimates derived from SIPP with estimates derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Specifically, children living in…

Connecticut's Jobs First program was subjected to a rigorous, large-scale evaluation. During the evaluation, nearly 5,000 single-parent welfare applicants and recipients in 2 cities were randomly assigned to Jobs First or to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) group. Each group's progress was compared over a 4-year period. The…

Most adolescent mothers are unmarried and on welfare. Congress enacted new welfare legislation that emphasizes reducing teen pregnancy and requiring work, but states are reluctant to meet this challenge. Discusses child poverty's new face, public policy and culture wars, welfare reform, and social norms. Concludes that reducing unwed parenthood…

As federal and state officials consider the reauthorization of the block grants at the center of the 1996 federal welfare reform law, it is critical that they use findings from research regarding the impact of welfare reform to guide their decisions. This special report examines the impact of welfare reform on children and youth, drawing on…

In 1997, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families launched the Frontiers of Research on Children, Youth, and Families Initiative to highlight recent policy-relevant research on children, youth, and families conducted by young and mid-career researchers. The initiative sought to encourage more sustained interactions between these researchers and…

An evaluation of Jobs First (JF) compared the experiences of JF participants who were subject to welfare reform policies with those of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) participants who were subject to prior welfare rules. It collected information for four years about JF's impacts on participants' children and analyzed its financial…

This study looked at New Chance, a voluntary randomized trial of an intensive program for teenage mothers and their children that operated nationally between 1989 and 1992. The study examined the effects of maternal psychosocial well being, intensity of work and educational pursuits, home environment, and use of childcare on combined experimental…