This research assessed the effectiveness of a family-centered approach to out-of-home care in reunifying children with their families by comparing differential exit rates of children whose families received family-centered services with children whose families received routine child welfare services. The sample included 472 children who were in…

The authors examined how welfare recipiency is associated with savings outcomes in individual development accounts (IDAs), a structured savings program for low-income people. They investigated whether welfare recipients can save if they are provided with incentives. Data for this study ore from the American Dream Demonstration (ADD), the first…

This paper proposes a blended experimental and quasi-experimental research strategy which we believe will help improve the external validity of evaluations of welfare reform and other social policies. We draw upon data from New Jersey's imposition of a family cap, where welfare benefits instead of increasing remained the same for women who…

The main rationale for defining two-parent families eligible for welfare was to keep families intact by eliminating an incentive for union dissolution. But there are other reasons for family instability, most notably women's reduced economic gain from marriage associated with having a chronically unemployed husband. This article explores the…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 instituted a compulsory work mandate for welfare recipients. However, recipients who experience difficulties finding employment may increase their involvement in criminal activities and their frequency of substance use as a means to deal with changes precipitated…

The authors explored the relationship among childhood sexual abuse (CSA), physical and mental health work barriers, and employment outcomes using a large panel study of current and former welfare recipients. Controlling for human capital and demographic characteristics, they found CSA was associated with significantly fewer months worked over the…

Only in the last few years have researchers begun to pay close attention to the child-only cases that fall under the provision of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Few attempts have been made to talk directly to kinship caregivers to understand their day-to-day lives. This triangulated study utilizes multiple strategies to…

Little guidance exists about how to tailor empowerment and resistance sexual assault programming to be responsive to varying groups of women. Using an investigation of 415 college women who completed a self-administered survey about a range of sexually aggressive experiences by a known male assailant, this investigation tested for distinct…

This manuscript reports on a study of how low-income employed single mothers and young adolescents manage household daily life. Analysis is based on longitudinal ethnographic data collected from families of 35 young adolescents over 3 years following the 1996 welfare reforms. Although mothers worked, young adolescents spent time unsupervised,…

The promotion of marriage and two-parent families as a strategy to reduce welfare dependency continues to be a major public policy goal of the 1996 welfare reform. Based on the assumption that women will marry employed men and that their earnings will lift poor mothers and their children from public dependency, this objective raises important…

This paper considers the earnings of refugees and their utilization of financial assistance programs, including Food Stamps and several cash assistance programs. The first section provides a summary of available data on refugee earnings, emphasizing the 1975 cohort of Indochinese refugees, on whom substantial information is available; data on…

This briefing report provides information on recent trends in: (1) the number of households applying for food stamp benefits; (2) the number of households participating in the Food Stamp Program; and (3) the percentage of households whose food stamps were improperly denied or terminated. The data were reported by the 50 U.S. states, the District…

This paper reports the findings of a study which examined the problems of homeless adults in New York City. The goals of the study were twofold: (1) to document and analyze the life circumstances of homeless adults in New York City who are dependent upon the public sector for their sustenance; and (2) to develop explicit standards for the…

This report describes a cooperative effort by a city college, a private group (Work Training Program, Inc.), and government agencies to rehabilitate local, long-time unemployed families. After considerable frustration and bureaucratic delay, the project concentrated on basic education and three vocational courses: gardener/groundsman,…

Investigated incidence of, and factors associated with, marriage and separation/divorce in welfare recipients. Race significantly affected probability of marriage; young child in the household and wife's employment status correlated with marital dissolution. Changes in welfare benefits, number of public assistance programs received, and length of…