How Welfare Policies Affect Adolescents' School Outcomes: A Synthesis of Evidence From Experimental Studies

Gennetian, Lisa A.; Duncan, Greg J.; Knox, Virginia; Vargas, Wanda G.; Clark-Kauffman, Elizabeth; London, Andrew S.

doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2004.00080.x

Cited by 75 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Syntheses based on three pre-PRWORA welfare reform experiments 5 ("waivers"), some of which included features such as work requirements and time limits that later were included in the PRWORA legislation (see Data section) did not find consistent evidence that work incentives had a significant impact on adolescents having trouble with the police or being suspended or expelled from school (Gennetian et al 2002(Gennetian et al , 2004. Grogger and Karoly (2005), reviewing a broader set of waiver programs, concluded that there may have been adverse effects of welfare reform on outcomes generally for youths age 10 years and over.…”

Section: Empirical Studies Of Effects Of Welfare or Employment On Teementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Youth Crime

Corman

Dave

Kalil

et al. 2017

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This study exploits differences in the implementation of welfare reform across states and over time to identify causal effects of maternal work incentives, and by inference employment, on youth arrests between 1990 and 2005, the period during which welfare reform unfolded. We consider both serious and minor crimes as classified by the FBI, investigate the extent to which effects were stronger in states with more stringent work incentive policies and larger welfare caseload declines, and use a number of different model specifications to assess robustness and patterns. We find that welfare reform led to reduced youth arrests for minor crimes, by 7-9 %, with similar estimates for males and females, but that it did not affect youth arrests for serious crimes. The results from this study add to the scant literature on the effects of maternal employment on adolescent behavior by exploiting a large-scale social experiment that is still in effect to this day, and provide some support for the widely-embraced argument that welfare reform would discourage undesirable social behavior, not only of mothers, but also of the next generation.

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Section: Empirical Studies Of Effects Of Welfare or Employment On Teementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Youth Crime

Corman

Dave

Kalil

et al. 2017

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“…Extant scholarship suggests that parents' experiences in employment, such as the stimulation and supportiveness of the work environment , the stability of work schedules (Han, 2005;Presser, 2003), or the strain resulting from balancing work and family roles (Morris & Coley, 2004) may influence parenting practices and the home environment. Related research also notes that parents' use of additional services, such as child care and afterschool programs, may serve as an important conduit through which welfare reform and maternal employment experiences influence children (Gennetian et al, 2004;Huston et al, 2005). Finally, psychological models of family stress (Conger et al, 1992;McLoyd, 1998) suggest that the link between economic resources and children's development is mediated through complex systems of interrelated family processes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal functioning, time, and money: The world of work and welfare

Coley

Lohman

Votruba‐Drzal

et al. 2007

Children and Youth Services Review

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Numerous studies have assessed families' employment and financial stability following welfare reform. Yet little research has addressed whether welfare and work transitions are linked with other changes in family functioning. Using a representative sample of approximately 2,000 low-income urban families from the Three-City Study, analyses assessed whether mothers' welfare and employment experiences over a two-year period following welfare reform were related to changes in family well-being. Lagged regression models controlling for family characteristics and earlier levels of functioning found that moving into employment and stable employment (of 30 hours or more per week) were linked to substantial increases in income and improvements in mothers' psychological well-being. Movements into employment also were associated with declines in financial strain and food insecurity. Sustained or initiated welfare receipt was related to relative declines in income, physical health, and psychological well-being, but also to improved access to medical care. In contrast, mothers' welfare and work experiences showed very limited relations to changes in the quality of parenting or of children's home environments. These patterns were similar for families with young children and those with adolescent children. Results suggest that parenting behaviors are more resistant to change than are maternal emotional and economic functioning.Vociferous welfare reform debates in the 1990s reflected arguments concerning how moving low-income mothers out of welfare dependency and into stable employment would affect women's well-being and the family environments provided to children. Some viewpoints held that leaving dependency and moving into self-sufficiency would help boost the financial resources of families and enhance economic security. Moreover, the experiences of employment-becoming economically self-sufficient, gaining new skills and social connections, and creating a new work identity-would improve low-income women's selfCorresponding author: Rebekah Levine Coley, Associate Professor, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, coleyre@bc.edu, Phone: 617-552-6018. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptChild Youth Serv Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2007 August 14. Published in final edited form as:Child Youth Serv Rev. 2007 June ; 29(6): 721-741. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript esteem and psychological well-being. Finally, it was hoped that the...

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“…In the current welfare system, Cambodian youth's "carrying capacity" exceeds their ability to balance family, work, and school obligations (Burnham, 2001). A strong sense of parental and sibling obligation may be misinterpreted as a cultural deficit (Gennetian, Duncan, Knox, et al, 2004, but this is because the actions of youth are viewed outside the logic and meaning of family survival strategies that have been threatened by policies that disadvantage poor youth. The loss of public assistance to their families contributes to their decision to take low wage jobs rather than toward educational opportunities, which would increase their social mobility but would not address the immediate needs of their family members.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Youth programs should recognize that despite intergenerational conflicts, parents and children often work together to ensure economic security. Parental and sibling obligation can lead to a sense of responsibility and inspire achievement; however these relationships have been portrayed as a potential detriment to individual achievement (Gennetian, Duncan, Knox, et al, 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Qualitative Study of the Long Term Impact of Welfare Reform on Cambodian American Families

Quintiliani¹

2015

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

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Many Cambodian American families have struggled on the economic margins since their arrival to the U.S. in the 1980s. To raise families in poverty Cambodians created family survival strategies to buffer themselves against economic uncertainty and the vagaries of the social welfare system. They combine public assistance with formal and informal work activities of family members, including teenagers and young adults, to survive. With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 or Welfare Reform, Cambodians lost vital economic resources. Based upon a longitudinal qualitative study from 1998-2007, this article looks back on how first generation Cambodians adjusted to changes in welfare policy practices and how the loss of vital resources impacted the youth (15-19 years old) coming of age in these families. The research findings and family case histories presented in this article illustrate the shared struggle of Cambodian family members in poverty. It reveals the significant challenges second generation Cambodian Americans face to achieve higher education goals when welfare policies systematically undercut family survival strategies.

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How Welfare Policies Affect Adolescents' School Outcomes: A Synthesis of Evidence From Experimental Studies

Cited by 75 publications

References 29 publications

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Youth Crime

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Youth Crime

Maternal functioning, time, and money: The world of work and welfare

A Qualitative Study of the Long Term Impact of Welfare Reform on Cambodian American Families

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