Welfare
to Work Can Harm Adolescents
By Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D.
Welfare policies were reformed in 1996, and in 2002 the Congress is required to decide what aspects of that reform to keep, and which ones to change. Meanwhile, studies conducted in states with different reform programs are being analyzed and have the possibility of informing those decisions -- if only policymakers would pay attention.
A report by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation was intended for just that purpose. The authors evaluated 16 different welfare and work programs. They concluded that welfare programs that encourage mothers to be employed can have a positive impact on elementary school children, if earnings income is supplemented. Mandatory work requirements do not usually increase income and therefore do not have a positive impact on young children. However, welfare-to-work programs, whether mandatory or voluntary, tend to have a small negative impact on adolescent children's progress in school. Welfare reform did not seem to have any impact on teen pregnancy, suspensions, or dropping out of school.
The authors found that welfare mothers who went to work did not increase structured supervision of adolescents while mothers were working. There is some evidence that when their mothers went to work, teenagers had more adult responsibilities, including caring for younger siblings and finding jobs themselves to help support the family. These other activities may have harmed academic performance; previous research has suggested, for example, that teenagers who work long hours tend to do more poorly in school, regardless of parental income.
The authors suggest that mentoring by other caring adults, or their participation in other afterschool activities, might help these adolescents. Expansion of childcare for young children could also help because adolescents would be less likely to have to provide that care for their siblings.
Reference:
Welfare Policies Matter for Children and Youth: Lessons for TANF Reauthorization
Pamela Morris, Virginia Knox, and Lisa Gennetian
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
Available free online at www.mdrc.org
An earlier version
of this article was published in Diana Zuckerman's Research Watch column
in Youth Today, April 2002, www.youthtoday.org.
