This study uses data from an experimental employment program and instrumental variables (IV) estimation to examine the effects of maternal job loss on child classroom behavior. Random assignment to the treatment at one of three program sites is an exogenous predictor of employment patterns. Cross-site variation in treatment-control differences is…

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of learner-centered education in conveying the message to change participants' fruit and vegetable consumption. Design: Focus groups were conducted with sites participating in the Finding the Teacher Within (FTW) program and comparison sites 4-6 months after participants attended the Special Supplemental…

The authors examined the effects of Florida's Family Transition Program (FTP), one of the first welfare reform initiatives to include a time limit on the receipt of federal cash assistance with other welfare requirements, on single-mother welfare-receiving families. Using a regression-based subgroup approach, they identified a group of families…

For the people behind the Lumina Foundation for Education, the term "network" has particular meaning. In fact, largely as a result of their work in a national college awareness and action campaign called KnowHow2GO, they have come to define networks in a specific way--and they ask their KnowHow2GO grantees and partners to form networks…

Using human capital theory, this paper identifies the factors that may affect the opportunity for rural low-income mothers to pursue post-secondary education or training in order to escape poverty. Dependent variables used in the logistic regression model included micro-level household variables as well as the effects of state-wide welfare…

We investigate associations of housing assistance with housing and food-related hardship among low-income single-mother households using data from the National Survey of America's Families (N = 5,396). Results from instrumental variables models suggest that receipt of unit-based assistance, such as traditional public housing, is associated with a…

This meta-analysis of 69 studies (1,483 effect sizes) used random effects models to examine maternal employment during infancy/early childhood in relation to 2 major domains of child functioning: achievement and behavior problems. Analyses of studies that spanned 5 decades indicated that, with a few exceptions, early employment was not…

Access to post-secondary education for welfare recipients has been profoundly curtailed by social and welfare policies. However, many low-income mothers know that post-secondary education is the best means to escape poverty. This article focuses on five "student mothers" who have persisted in fulfilling their dreams of a college education with the…

Using data from two waves of a short-term longitudinal study, the authors examined the impact of maternal socioeconomic conditions (education, employment, and income) and family processes (quality of mother-father relations, frequency of nonresident fathers' contacts with their children, and mothers' parenting stress) at time (T) 1 on maternal…

Background: Early motherhood has been linked with a number of adverse outcomes, including mental health difficulties and barriers to completing educational qualifications and workforce participation. The present study examined the extent to which these linkages could be explained by the influence of social, family, and background factors that were…

Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N = 1,162) and the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (N = 1,308), we estimate associations between material and instrumental support available to low-income mothers and young children's socioemotional well-being. In multivariate OLS models, we find…

There is little research on knowledge of the policy rules that could affect individuals, either in general or in evaluations of new programs. The lack of research is surprising, given that knowledge gaps could limit the effectiveness of reforms or lead to incorrect inferences regarding the effects of a policy change. In this article, we use survey…

Used data from Baltimore Study to examine how African-American teenage mothers worked their way off welfare. Results revealed extensive labor market activity among young mothers on welfare. Found that education facilitated more rapid job exits and cumulative work experience among less-educated mothers allowed them to eventually work their way off…

We examined the influence of income source within the context of persistent poverty on children's disruptive classroom behavior at age 12 and whether these associations were mediated by maternal supervision at ages 10 and 11. Using a subsample (N = 1,112) from the Quebec Longitudinal Study, we coded four economic circumstances indicating…

Variations in welfare benefits and increments for additional children have no statistically significant impact on subsequent childbearing decisions of young mothers in general, nor of welfare recipients. Mothers who received welfare support for their first child were no more likely to have additional children through age 23. (SK)