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	Teenage Parent Demonstration Program: Findings Available

Findings Available

Interim Implementation Findings
Interim Impact Findings
Final Impact Findings

Findings

06/01/93: Teenage Parent Demonstration Program: Building Self-Sufficiency Among Welfare-Dependent Teenage Parents: Lessons from the Teenage Parent Demonstration (2 year impacts)

Interim Impact Findings: "It is feasible to design and operate mandatory education, training, and employment programs that serve large numbers of teenage parents, despite the fact that the needs of this population differ substantially from those of adult AFDC recipients" (2). "With active monitoring of participation, it is possible to achieve significant rates of participation. Nearly 90% of the young mothers ...identified as eligible... and, of those who enrolled, 92% participated in program activities beyond the initial intake and assessment" (2). "The number of new AFDC applicants who are teenage parents is a relatively small proportion of the applicant caseload- 17 to 26 percent in the demonstration sites" (3). "About one-third of the young mothers used agency-funded child care. The remainder relied on unpaid care—generally provided by relatives—or paid for the care themselves or with the assistance of family members" (3) . "These types of programs can promote significant and sustained participation in education, training, and employment activities—activities that are likely to affect the young mothers’ long-run prospects for self-sufficiency" (3). "The largest impacts were on school enrollment (12 percentage points)- a 42 percent increase over the levels of participation these young mothers would have had under the regular AFDC regulations and services" (3). "The demonstration programs also led to significant increase in employment and participation in job training (gains of 4 to 5 percentage points—12 to 19 percent)" (3). "Programs for teenage parents can achieve these significant impacts while case managers maintain relatively large caseloads—50 to 80 active cases or total caseloads of 100 to 140 young mothers. The keys to effectively managing caseloads of this size were reliance on automated case tracking systems and routine use of the mandatory participation requirements as a case management tool" (3). "The mandatory participation requirement and sanction policy compelled many of the teenage parents to get involved in the program and maintain their participation... Overall, 62% of those who completed intake were warned at some time of possible sanction because they failed to fulfill requirements... More than one-third had their grants reduced one or more times for failure to comply..." (xxi)". The benefits of participation in the demonstration programs included increased rates of school attendance, job training, and employment. The program-induced increases in employment were accompanied by earnings gains that, in combination with program sanctions, resulted in lower rates of dependence on public assistance. However, there was little or no measurable change in economic welfare, except for those who became employed. The hoped for improvements in social and demographic outcomes generally have not been observed to date. Also, we have not yet examined possible impacts on the children of these young mothers" (xxi). Interim Implementation Findings: "Success depended on staff’s acceptance of the notion that it was appropriate to target teenage parents for this type of intervention. It also depended on their accepting- or at least tolerating- the idea of requiring these mothers to go to school, job training, or work..." (49). "Programs had to recognize and address the special circumstances that prevented some young mothers from maintaining a full-time schedule of work or school... it was essential for the program to offer services designed to help the mothers conquer the barriers. Staff had to provide follow-up and use project resources for those in need..." (49). "Staff had to be trained creatively to work with the teenage mothers to address their special needs" (49). "Four aspects of program implementation were especially challenging: outreach and recruitment; designing workshops appropriate to the needs of this group and promoting attendance; strong training and oversight for case managers; and developing appropriate school, job training and employment options..." (49).

08/01/96: Teenage Parent Demonstration Program: Moving from Welfare to Work: What about the Family?

Interim Implementation Findings:

"There were no differences between the treatment and control groups in mothers’ psychological functioning, the organization of the home environment, or children’s development. With regard to mothers’ parenting behaviors, a treatment effect emerged for one of the eight parenting behaviors. Specifically, intervention group mothers were less authoritarian—less harsh and controlling—during free play with their children than the control group... These findings not only indicate no evidence of harmful effects of mothers’ participation in mandated self-sufficiency activities but also suggest an association between mothers’ participation in mandated self-sufficiency activities—when accompanied by special support services—and more positive parenting behavior" (pp. ix-x).

"We also examined differences between mothers in terms of their participation in self-sufficiency activities regardless of treatment group status� Greater maternal participation in self-sufficiency activities was found to go hand in hand with positive maternal and child behaviors" (p. x).

02/01/98: Teenage Parent Demonstration Program: Moving Into Adulthood: Were the Impacts of Mandatory Programs for Welfare-Dependent Teenage Parents Sustained After the Programs Ended?

Final Impact Findings:

“The first phase of the evaluation showed that states can operate large-scale, mandatory work-oriented programs for teenage parents”(xvi).

“The demonstration programs increased rates of school attendance, job training, and employment but produced few significant differences in marriage, living arrangements, fertility, or child support during the first two years following intake”(xvii).

“For most of the young mothers, the cycle of welfare dependency has not yet been broken”(xvii).

“The promising early impacts of the programs on employment-related activities and welfare dependence faded once the demonstration programs ended and participants returned to regular AFDC and Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) programs”(xvii).

“The early impacts of the programs on employment-related activities and welfare started to erode at about the time sanctions and support services ended for the enhanced services group”(xviii).

“Mothers in both the regular- and the enhanced-services groups reported receiving very little financial aid support”(xviii).

“On average, during the six- to seven-year follow-up period, the young mothers in both the regular- and the enhanced-services group became pregnant twice and gave birth to between one and two additional children”(xviii).

“Exposure to the demonstration welfare policies and programs did not substantially reduce subsequent pregnancies and births”(xviii).

“When they were in elementary school, the first-born children of the teenage mothers performed poorly, compared with children nationally, on several measures of development and well-being”(xix).

“The programs produced no impacts on mothers’ parenting or on the quantity of the home environments they provided for their first-born children” (xix).

“Requiring teenage mothers to participate in activities, and increasing their use of child care when their children were very young, had neither harmful nor beneficial effects on their children’s development” (xix).

“Teenage mothers respond positively to clear expectations when financial consequences and support services accompany those expectations"”(xx).

“Most teenage parents are capable of employment but need encouragement and some support services” (xx).

“Ensuring access to child care was an important part of the intervention, but fewer participants use program-provided child care subsidies than had been anticipated” (xx).

“The evaluation results suggest that requiring teenage mothers of young children to participate in full-time (30 hours per week) out-of-home activities is not harmful to children, as some worried that it might be” (xxi).

“It is important to help teenagers reduce their fertility, but different strategies than those tried in this demonstration are needed” (xxi).

“The demonstration underscored the difficulty of changing the life courses of poor teenage parents by intervening after they become parents” (xxi).

“The noncustodial fathers of children born to poor teenage parents provide little social or economic support” (xxi).

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