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Findings Available
Interim Impact Findings
Interim Descriptive/Analytical Findings
Findings
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10/01/00:
Women's Employment Study: How They’re Faring Work and Earnings Under Welfare Reform
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Danziger looked at several personal characteristics that might impede employment, including lack of a high school degree, low work experience, few work skills and work norms (also called "soft skills"), perceived experiences of discrimination, lack of access to a car, mental health diagnoses, substance dependence, health problems of the mother and her children, and domestic violence. Not surprisingly, women who had a greater number of these problems are more likely to have difficulty finding and keeping a job. The percentage of months worked between February 1997 and Fall 1998 falls from 82% for those who did not have any barriers to only 7% for those with six or more barriers.
On average, welfare-reliant women had about twice as many barriers as did wage-reliant women. Over half (52%) of welfare-reliant mothers, for example, lacked access to a car or driver’s license, compared with 21% of wage-reliant mothers. One-quarter of welfare-reliant women met the diagnostic screening criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, compared with about one-tenth of wage-reliant women. Similar disparities were evident for most of the barriers examined.
The two most common barriers to working were lack of a high school degree and transportation, followed by few work skills, and mental health issues. Nearly one-fourth (23%) of wage-reliant mothers had less than a high school degree, while approximately one-third of those combining work and welfare and those neither working nor receiving welfare lacked a high school education (32% and 35%, respectively). Among welfare-reliant women, 46% lacked a high school degree. Lack of work norms was low on the list of barriers; 9% reported fewer than five work norms.
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06/01/00:
Women's Employment Study: Human Capital, Health, and Mental Health of Welfare Recipients: Co-Occurance and Correlates
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While about half of the respondents do not have potential barriers to employment [including mental health disorders, substance dependence, and physical health or disability], a third have one barrier, and the remaining fifth have multiple barriers. Mental health and human capital problems, when present, tend to occur in isolation about half the time. However, physical health and substance dependence are more likely to co-occur with at least one other type of problem. Women with co-occurring human capital, mental health, and physical health problems have the poorest work outcomes. Controlling for other correlates of employment and demographic differences, women with a human capital deficit or with problems in two or more domains worked in significantly fewer subsequent months (20-30 percentage points less) than women who met none of the criteria for problems in the different domains. The findings suggest the need to design and implement more assessment, referrals and service provision for health, mental health and human capital problems to support women to meet the challenges in the transition from welfare to work.
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04/01/00:
Women's Employment Study: Does it Pay to Move From Welfare to Work?
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We analyze data from a sample of single mothers, all of whom received welfare in February 1997, and find that those who left welfare and work or who combined work and welfare were financially better off, on average, than those who remained on the welfare caseload but did not work. Those who worked had higher household incomes, experienced less material hardship, engaged in fewer activities to make ends meet and had lower expectations of experiencing hardship in the near future than did non-working welfare recipients.
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Women who are accumulating t he most labor market experience, measured by the proportion of months worked between February 1997 and Fall 1998, have higher levels of financial and subjective well-being. They have higher monthly earnings and income net of work-related transportation and child care expenses, have experienced fewer material hardships, (even though they are less likely to have health coverage than women who have not worked), and are less likely to report engaging in other activities to make ends meet, such as pawning possessions, seeking charity, or engaging in illegal behavior. They are also less likely t o report subjective financial strains. Nonetheless, a substantial proportion of respondents, regardless of their level of work involvement, report serious economic difficulties and subjective financial strain. For example, the Fall 1998 poverty rate for those who worked in every month was 36.9 percent, about one-third received cash welfare, two-thirds received Food Stamps, and a fifth reported two or more experiences of material hardship , such as lacking health insurance and experiencing food insufficiency. In addition, one quarter resorted to at least one activity to help make ends meet, 56 percent found it difficult to live on their income, and 21 percent expected to experience additional hardships in future months. These respondents are successfully making the transition from welfare to work, but continue to rely on government for income supplements and subsidized access t o medical care and child care. The extent of material hardship and financial strain that we have documented, even among women who are working in every month, demonstrates that declining caseloads do not automatically translate into improved well-being. Working is associated with reductions in, but not elimination of, economic vulnerability and material hardships.
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05/01/02:
Women's Employment Study: Maternal Work Behavior Under Welfare Reform: How Does the Transition from Welfare to Work Affect Child Development?
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Interim Impact Findings:
Moving from welfare-reliance to combining welfare and work is associated with a decrease in harsh parenting, an increase in positive parenting, and decreases in both internalizing and externalizing behavior patterns among children.
The sample still has relatively elevated levels of behavior problems compared to a national sample.
The beneficial effects of being wage-reliant are no stronger than the benefits of combining welfare and work - combining welfare and work is predictive of improved parenting and child behavior while wage-reliance is not.
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12/01/00:
Women's Employment Study: Mental Health Problems Among Single Mothers: Implications for Work and Welfare Reform
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Interim Impact Findings:
Findings indicate that 17 percent of all single
mothers, 22 percent of women receiving welfare and 20 percent of non-working single mothers,
had experienced a psychiatric disorder within the past year.
Logistic regression results reveal
that having a psychiatric disorder is associated with a 25 percent lower likelihood of working.
Mental health problems may prevent women from undertaking the tasks necessary to find
employment, or women with these problems may lack the self-confidence needed to take on new
challenges. Even after obtaining employment, mental health problems can play an important
role in welfare and self-sufficiency outcomes.
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07/01/01:
Women's Employment Study: Why Some Women Fail to Achieve Economic Security (Research Forum Newsletter)
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Interim Impact Findings: Women who have multiple barriers to obtaining and holding employment will be the least likely to obtain economic self-sufficiency under the new welfare regime begun by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The most important barriers include low job skills and mental health problems. An evaluation of Michigan’s welfare-to-work programs concluded that the services provided do not address the needs of jobless recipients with the greatest barriers to employment.
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