Researchers have long known that poverty in childhood is linked with a range of negative adult socioeconomic outcomes, from lower educational achievement and behavioral problems to lower earnings in the labor market. But few researchers have explored whether exposure to a disadvantaged background affects immigrant children and native children…

This article explores issues of persistent poverty and income inequality. The major focus is that of the alleviation of poverty. Is there a framework that delineates the roles for government, market forces and self-reliance that can effect a reduction in the level of poverty? The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act…

This paper argues that the U.S.'s experience during the economic boom of the 1990s, together with its choices concerning social welfare policies, imply that child poverty in the United States will be much higher than that in most European countries. It hypothesizes that Americans reveal their preferences about the extent of poverty they are…

Since the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (welfare reform), impoverished children in single-parent families receive less aid than under the previous system, and the most disadvantaged of these children have slipped deeper into poverty. This research brief summarizes a study that explored the economic well-being…

The promotion of marriage and two-parent families became an explicit public policy goal with the passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Marriage has the putative effect of reducing welfare dependency among single mothers, but only if they marry men with earnings sufficient to lift them and their children out of poverty. Newly released data from…

A framework is provided for thinking about how welfare reform affects young children with disabilities and their families and strategies are presented for addressing their unique needs. The article documents the relationship between disability and poverty, reviews major changes in the law, and highlights challenges. (Contains references.)…

This study investigated the potential effects of welfare reform on children in late childhood through adolescence, examining how poverty status and family welfare receipt interacted with current poverty status and welfare receipt during adolescence to influence various outcomes. The study examined how 1998 outcomes varied for adolescents based on…

Documents the new federal welfare policies' effects on single mothers and their children living in poverty in Michigan, focusing on family health and viability, work requirements and sanctions, postsecondary education restrictions, and access to child care. Critically questions public educators' role and raises social policy issues related to…

The National Center for Children in Poverty(NCCP)has developed a series of issue briefs on the effects of welfare reform on children living in poverty. This issue brief is based in part on "Map and Track: State Initiatives to Promote Responsible Fatherhood," a report supported by The Annie E. Casey Foundation and prepared by NCCP in…

Increasing attention is being paid to the question of how special populations are affected by welfare reform. One subgroup that has been largely ignored in research concerning the effects of welfare reform on children and families is that of children with disabilities and their families. In order to address this gap in both policy and research,…

This report examines how state welfare-to-work programs have affected young children since the 1996 welfare reform act, which moved millions of women into low-wage jobs. Researchers followed a sample of 948 mothers and young children for 2-4 years after the women entered new welfare programs in California, Connecticut, and Florida. After…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 purports to reform welfare policy and encourage parents to achieve self-sufficiency, but the legislation raises many problems for children and their families. This guide is designed to highlight an array of decisions regarding the most important welfare and child care…

The National Center for Children in Poverty is developing a series of issue briefs on children and welfare reform to help policymakers, community leaders, and advocates use the opportunities afforded by welfare changes in ways that are most likely to benefit both children and adults. This second issue brief focuses on the impact of federal and…

This report examines whether people who left welfare between 1997 and 1999 were more disadvantaged or less job-ready than were an early group who left welfare between 1995 and 1997. The study compared barriers to work and economic outcomes using data from the National Survey of America's Families. Overall, results found little evidence of poorer…

In August of 1996 Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which President Bill Clinton then signed into law. This essay will address the question, how have American Indian reservation residents fared in relation to the new work requirements? The authors are interested in the consequences of…