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Title: Welfare Dynamics, Support Services, Mothers' Earnings, and Child 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 Development: Implications for Contemporary Welfare Reform Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 1998 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Child Care; Child Development; Cognitive Development; Human Capital; Job Training; Mothers, Income; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Support Networks; Welfare These three prospective longitudinal studies, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), address the gap in the literature regarding the effects of welfare reform on children. Key questions addressed include whether welfare dynamics and support services relevant to welfare reform in the first five years of life are associated with subsequent mothers' earnings and middle childhood developmental outcomes. Studies 1 and 2 focus on child cognitive and mental health outcomes, respectively. Welfare dynamics variables include time on welfare, cycling on and off welfare, and degree to which welfare and work are combined. Support services include three forms of child care (relative, babysitter, and center-based), as well as human capital supports (child support, job training, and education). In study 1, 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. 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 that effects of supports on child cognitive outcomes differ according to the mother's welfare dynamics. In Study 2, no main effects of welfare use patterns or support services were found on child externalizing or internalizing symptoms. However, as with the cognitive outcomes, interactions imply subgroup differences. For example, the combination of job training and high levels of work while on welfare is associated with elevated levels of externalizing symptoms, suggesting a "stress overload" process resulting in potential harm to children's development. In Study 3, multi-dimensional cluster profiles of welfare dynamics were developed, validated using mother's earnings as the criterion, and then investigated in relation to the child outcomes. Clusters found include Short-Term, Short-Term Work Exit, Working Cyclers, Non-Working Cyclers, Cycle to Long-Term Exit, and Long-Term groups. Children of the Working Cyclers were found to show higher levels of internalizing symptoms than those of Non-Working Cyclers. Implications for contemporary welfare reform policies are discussed. Copyright: Dissertation Abstracts |
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Bibliography Citation
Yoshikawa, Hirokazu. Welfare Dynamics, Support Services, Mothers' Earnings, and Child Development: Implications for Contemporary Welfare Reform. Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 1998. |