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Title: Welfare Dynamics, Support Services, Mothers' Earnings, and Child Cognitive Development: Implications for Contemporary Welfare Reform
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Yoshikawa, Hirokazu |
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Welfare Dynamics, Support Services, Mothers' Earnings, and Child Cognitive Development: Implications for Contemporary Welfare Reform Child Development 70,3 (May-June 1999): 779-801. Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8624.00056/abstract Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online Keyword(s): Child Care; Child Support; Cognitive Ability; Educational Attainment; Human Capital; Job Training; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Income; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Support Networks; Welfare This prospective longitudinal study, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), addresses the gap in the research literature regarding the effects of welfare reform on children. Key questions addressed include whether welfare dynamics and support services relevant to welfare reform, both measured across the first five years of life, are associated with mothers' earnings in the sixth year and three child cognitive outcomes in the seventh and eighth years: Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) math and reading scores, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Welfare dynamics are represented by total time on welfare, degree of cycling on and off welfare, and degree to which welfare and work are combined. Support services measured include three forms of child care (relative, babysitter, and center based), as well as three forms of human capital supports (child support, job training, and education). Controlling for a range of background factors and for different patterns of welfare use across the first five years, small positive associations with mother's earnings were found for child support, education, and job training. Small positive associations were also found between child support and both math and reading scores. Finally positive associations of medium effect size were found between center care and-both mothers' earnings and child PPVT scores. Although effect sizes are generally small, the results suggest the potential value of welfare reform approaches which emphasize long-term human capital development. Interactions among welfare dynamics and support services suggest subgroup differences. Specifically, positive effects of support services on earnings are strongest among mothers with higher levels of human capital (higher levels of work while on welfare, lower total time on welfare). Babysitter care appears to have negative effects on both reading and math scores of children whose mothers report low levels of work while on we lfare. Implications for welfare reform policy are discussed. |
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Bibliography Citation
Yoshikawa, Hirokazu. "Welfare Dynamics, Support Services, Mothers' Earnings, and Child Cognitive Development: Implications for Contemporary Welfare Reform." Child Development 70,3 (May-June 1999): 779-801.
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