A study of research was conducted to determine how welfare and work policies enacted in 1996 targeted at low-income parents have influenced their adolescent children. Using meta-analytic techniques, the research synthesis integrates survey data collected from parents in eight studies of 16 different welfare and employment programs, focusing on children aged 12 to 18 when surveyed, as well as drawing on ethnographic case studies. In each study, some parents were randomly assigned to a program that included some combination of three key policies--mandatory employment activities, earnings supplements, and time limits on welfare receipt--while others were randomly assigned to a control group that was neither eligible for the program's services nor subject to its requirements. Key findings of the studies were the following: (1) parents in the programs being studied reported worse school performance, a higher rate of grade repetition, and more use of special educational services for their adolescent children than did control group parents; (2) no single one of the three policies studied could explain the programs' effects on adolescents; (3) adolescents with younger siblings experienced the most troubling effects (poor school performance, suspension or dropping out of school), perhaps because they were more likely than the control group to provide care for their siblings. The study points to the difficulties low-income parents face when forced to juggle often-inflexible mandatory work or training requirements and multiple child-care responsibilities. Study methodology is examined in two appendixes. (Contains 63 references.) (KC)