The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) is a welfare reform initiative based on enhancing welfare recipients' incentives to get a job and requiring long-term welfare recipients to participate in employment-focused activities. The effects of the MFIP were compared to those of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program through…

The validity of the notion that welfare receipt is equivalent to "dependency" and work represents "self-sufficiency" was examined in a qualitative study during which 214 recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and 165 low-wage single mothers in 4 U.S. cities were interviewed. The women were contacted…

Access to affordable, quality child care is a major barrier to successful employment for many families. About one-fifth of families return to welfare within a few months of leaving, with lack of accessible child care and transportation being the most frequently cited reasons. These issues are likely to be compounded in the rural South. Information…

This paper documents changing rates of poverty, sources of income, and employment among rural female-headed families with children, focusing on the effects of welfare reform. Data from the Current Population Survey show that from 1989 through 1999, especially since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act…

Analyzed data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to determine whether impact of adolescent childbearing on women's subsequent contact with welfare system differed for Black women and White women (n=1,894). Results supported hypothesized patterns of association between early birth, educational attainment, years spent as single parent, years…

Children eligible for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) were found to have substantially higher mortality rates than non-AFDC children, based on data from 3,679 child death certificates. The disparity appears greater for whites than non-whites. Results suggest social class differentials in health care and risks. (SLD)

The Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Committee on Ways and Means asked the General Accounting Office for information on characteristics of single-parent families receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and whether the characteristics of this population have changed in recent years. This report examines how certain…

Drawing on census and survey data from 1940 to 1990, this book offers an overview of the dramatic transformations in American childhood over the past 50 years and presents the case for overhauling national child welfare policies. The first chapter examines the life course of children and provides an introduction to the remainder of the book.…

In 1991, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) developed an empirical estimate of the magnitude of the problems mother-only families face in escaping poverty. The GAO also tried to identify federal policies that could help such families. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the Labor Market Experience of Youth were used to assess the…

Eight papers presented at a 1-day conference on poverty in Wisconsin are collected in this volume. The first six papers focus on poverty within the state and its effects on particular groups such as women, racial minorities, the elderly, and those in rural areas. The last two papers examine these findings in light of current poverty programs and…

A sample of 1010 low-wage workers in Detroit (stratified by sex and welfare status) were interviewed in 1969. Data were collected on background characteristics, labor market experiences, and work career histories. The data relate to sexism as an important determinant of income in low-wage groups (women earn less and have lower status jobs),…

This select bibliography on poverty in the U.S. is divided into the following areas: (1) general references; (2) economics of poverty; (3) the poor; (4) Office of Economic Opportunity Programs - General; (5) Community Action, VISTA, and participation of the poor; (6) manpower and poverty; (7) poverty and health; (8) education and the poor; (9) the…

This study sought to determine why some families live outside the government cash income support system despite extreme poverty. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 95 extremely poor families (cash income below 50 percent of the federal poverty level living without employment income or government cash assistance). The interview sample was…

The impact of supplemental assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on CalWORKs leavers was examined in a study of CalWORKs recipients in Los Angeles County, California, who stopped receiving welfare benefits in the third quarter of 1998. Two groups received federal housing assistance at the time of exit from…

Children are among the poorest of Maine's residents. Nearly 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, 19.3%, lived in families below the federal poverty line in the early 1990s. Most of these poor children lived in working families. The working poor are often missing from policy debates, but their numbers are likely to increase with welfare reform…