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The dissolution of joint living arrangements among single parents and children: Does welfare make a difference?*
Abstract
This research examines the claim that states' newfound autonomy to devise their own welfare systems will lead to more intergenerational family dissolution. Critics of welfare reform argue that children residing in states with lower welfare benefits will be more at risk of living apart from parents, as some parents will lack sufficient income to raise children. Methods. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation were analyzed employing a discrete-time hazard model. Results. The findings suggest that the risk of children living apart from parents was lower in states offering higher welfare benefits. Also, results indicate that the children at greatest risk of living apart from parents are those who are either newborns or teenagers, are white, or have parents with disabilities. Conclusions. Growing reluctance across all levels of government to provide income support for needy families may accelerate the upward trend in parent-child separation. Results further broaden the literature on household responses to economic setbacks by showing that economic deprivation leads single-parent families to reduce the number of coresident children.
... Two other studies use panel data to address the same question. Using data from the 1992 SIPP, Brandon and Fisher (2001) found that more generous welfare benefits were associated with less child fostering, and Berger (2000) found similar results using data for the original NLSY cohort of young women who were 14 to 21 years old in 1979 from interviews conducted between 1986 and 1998. Interestingly, Berger (NLSY) found that while higher welfare benefits decreased child placements in service settings, they increased placements with relatives. ...
... Impact findings are limited to African-American and white short-term or new case recipients. Like the other studies that have examined the relationship between welfare reform and formation of no-parent families (Acs and Nelson, 2002;Bitler, Gelback, and Hoynes, 2002;Brandon and Fisher, 2001), we find that welfare reform (FDP) has led to an increase in child fostering; unlike the Bitler, Gelback, and Hoynes study, we find an increase in child fostering for whites but not African Americans. 7 This is computed as change in the percent of the control group's average prevalence rate. ...
Objective. The objective of our research is to examine the impact of New Jersey's welfare reform called the Family Development Program (FDP) on child fostering among children on welfare.
Methods. The research and analytical methods we use include an experimental design and probit regressions.
Results. Our results show that FDP impacts are confined to children of short-term welfare recipients (new cases) but affects both African-American and white children in this welfare group. Among new cases, FDP decreases the probability of African-American children living in foster families, resulting in a 28 percent change from the baseline prevalence rate of 7.2 percent. In contrast, FDP increases the likelihood of white children living in foster families, leading to a 70 percent change from the baseline occurrence rate of 1.4 percent.
Conclusions. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of such segmented impacts of welfare reform for vulnerable child populations.
... Thus, single female parents have been found to face various health problems such as depression and other mental disorders (Zeiders, Roosa and Tein, 2011;Barret and Turner, 2006;Gould, 2006). The economic challenges of lone mothers also lead to the problems that have been found to be associated with their children (Brandon and Fisher, 2001) such as child morbidity (Lipman, Michael, Boyle, Dooley and Offord, 2002). However, studies that examine differences in academic achievement among single mother families and two-parent families show mixed results. ...
This article examines the coping strategies of single female parents in Accra. Single female parents within Maamobi, New Dansoman and Roman Ridge areas in Accra were interviewed through in-depth interviews and a survey. Specifically, the study sought to find out the socioeconomic factors that account for single female parenthood and how single female parents economically and socially support their households. The major findings are that divorce is principally responsible for single female parenthood mainly due to the infidelity of husbands. In the absence of men (husbands), single female parents although earning incomes which are low, bear the bulk of responsibility in the maintenance of children and the household. The fathers of the children of single female parents mostly do not assist the women in the maintenance of children. Kin of single female parents on the other hand mostly assist the women with housing and household chores. The study concludes that single female parents are to a great extent self-reliant in dealing with their responsibilities as parents.
... Many children are maturing into actual people as a result of their parents' positive actions [3]. Similarly, a lack of sufficient parental care causes many children to drop out early [4,5,6,7]. Therefore, it may be claimed that proper parental care is the only way for a child to have a healthy life [8], but excess affection is a curse for a child. Childhood is a phase in a person's life that is reflected in the future exactly as he was raised at that moment [9]. ...
A nation's most valuable resource is its children. In the future, a nation will be controlled in the same way that a kid will develop. The majority of parent's lack expertise about how to help their children develop a positive outlook. We concluded in our study by analyzing the association between parental excessive affection and the development of children's intelligence. Through the use of a questionnaire, information was gathered from 531 families. Whereas 43 percent of parents show excessive affection to their children, while 45 percent lavish proper affection. On the other hand, in our study, 48 percent of the children had an IQ score of less than 49. We have identified the alterations in their child's brain as a result of their parents' blind affection and have also identified remedies to the problem. We analyzed it so that the growth of children's intelligence is not hampered by their parents' excessive affection and that the parents and children enjoy a close relationship with their parents.
... increases in welfare benefits will decrease foster care placements. Brandon (2000) and Brandon and Fisher (2001) find that children are more likely to live with at least one of their parents in states with more generous welfare benefits, implying that generous welfare benefits decrease foster care entry. ...
Foster care is a source of significant costs to both governments and foster children. Policies that provide income support to households potentially reduce entry into foster care via reducing child maltreatment and improving child behavior. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 (ARRA2009), the federal government expanded the earned income tax credit (EITC), which is an important income support program for low-income working households. Using state-level data, we investigate the impact of this EITC expansion on state-level foster care entry rates. Typically, states with state-level EITC match federal EITC spending at a specific rate, meaning that increases in federal EITC spending increase state-level spending as well. We find that expansion of EITC decreased foster care entry rates by 7.43% per year in states with a state-level EITC, relative to those without. In models that separately examine foster care entry rates by age of the child, we find that the ARRA2009 had different effects on foster care entry based on the child’s age. We find that ARRA2009 decreased foster care entry rates for children age 11–15 by nearly 12% in states with a state EITC and it decreased foster care entry rates for children age 16–20 by roughly 17% in states with a state EITC, relative to states without a state EITC.
... In general, the theoretical and conceptual models reviewed hypothesize that welfare, by providing income to single mothers with children, discourages marriage (Acs and Nelson 2002, Fein 1999, Maynard et al. 1998, Moffitt and Pavetti 1999, encourages female-headship (Acs and Nelson 2002, Bitler et al. 2001, Fitzgerald and Ribar 2001, and encourages cohabitation (Moffitt and Pavetti 1999). Based on these models, the studies predict that welfare reform policies that make welfare more attractive will decrease marriage, increase female-headship, and increase cohabitation, while welfare policies that make welfare less attractive will have the opposite effects. 1 1 In a unique conceptual model that has received little attention in the literature, Brandon and Fisher (2001) suggest that more generous welfare policies help maintain a child in his family by lowering the cost of raising a child (p. 3). ...
A primary objective of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) is reducing single mothers' dependence on the welfare system. This objective is sought not only through increased work, but also through changes in household structure — particularly encouraging healthy marriages and the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. Indeed, moving from a one-parent to a two-parent family may have positive implications for the economic well-being of families with children.This literature review focuses on the relationships between welfare reform, household structure, economic well-being, and resource sharing. In particular, we address two questions:Have changes in welfare policies in the 1990s affected household structure? What are the effects of household structure on economic well-being and intra-household resource sharing? Studies examining these research questions have used qualitative and quantitative (both nonexperimental and experimental) methods. The qualitative studies reviewed are based on in-depth interviews with relatively few respondents; the nonexperimental quantitative studies are, for the most part, carried out with large-scale nationally representative data sets; and the experimental quantitative studies use both state administrative and welfare client survey data, and are based on random assignment designs. The effects of welfare reform on living arrangements have been examined using nonexperimental quantitative and experimental quantitative methods, while studies of the effects of living arrangements on economic well-being and resource sharing have used qualitative and nonexperimental quantitative methods.
... Most studies that use process measures of effectiveness at the service delivery level are coded under the work/treatment/intervention, use-of-resources, and/or performance sub-categories in the original LOG. At the work/treatment/intervention service delivery level, for example, the dependent variables are most often quantitative measures of outputs, such as average length of stay in the hospital (Udom and Betley 1998), number of merger cases filed by the US Department of Justice antitrust division (Vachris 1996), rates of patient placement on waiting 15 lists for renal transplant (Garg et al 1999), and the number of broadcast inspections and the number of discrepancy notices by the US Federal Communication Commission (Carpenter 1996 For example, indicators of organizational performance such as student test scores (Meier and Bohte 2000) and intergenerational family dissolution (Brandon and Fisher 2001) are output indicators that causally precede impacts or outcomes (for example, labor market success and child wellbeing, respectively). Modifications in the original LOG coding scheme to incorporate these two insights will clarify the findings from logic-of-governance research without altering them, as they will still reflect hierarchical causality. ...
... Further, Traustadottir (2000) reports that service providers for children expect more intensive parenting from mothers than from fathers of children with disabilities, which might be an indicator of greater social pressure for mothers to stay with these children. Finally, we know little about the process of determining with whom children will live when they do not live with their biological parents (Brandon and Fisher 2001). This includes diverse situations such as adoptive and foster parenting (Swartz 2004), as well as children living with grandparents, other relatives, or non-relatives. ...
Using data on disabilities from the 2000 Census, we found a consistent pattern of living arrangements that leaves children (aged 5 – 15 years) with disabilities living disproportionately with women. Children with disabilities are more likely to live with single parents, and especially their mothers, than are other children. Further, those who do not live with either biological parent are more likely to live in households headed by women than are other children. The results suggest that gendered living arrangements among children with disabilities are a neglected aspect of inequality in caring labor, which is an underpinning of gender inequality in general.
... Mentoring, support groups, and education interventions have been designed to improve the parenting skills of adults with serious mental illness (e.g., Brunette & Dean, 2002; Fischer, 2002; Grella, 1996; Hoagwood, 2005; Kovach et al., 2004; Mowbray et al., 2000), and these innovative services address many of the daily hassles that beset psychiatrically disabled parents of young children, including loneliness associated with single parenthood, poverty, lack of safe housing, and poor job qualifications (Brandon & Fisher, 2001; Cairney, Boyle, & Offord, 2003; Emerson-Davis Family Development Center, 2000; Hoard & Anderson, 2004; Kost, 2001; Strug, 2003). However, few parenting programs are designed to serve parents of minor children who are dually diagnosed with a serious mental illness and a severe substance use disorder. ...
This study compared parental psychiatric symptom severity, and the absence or presence of severe substance abuse, as predictors of contact with minor children for a representative sample of adults with diagnoses of serious mental illness (N = 45). Child contact and psychiatric symptom severity were measured during regularly scheduled 6-month research interviews over a total 30-month period following each participant's entry into the project. Severe substance abuse was documented as present or absent for the 6-month interval preceding each interview. Results revealed that incidence of severe substance abuse was repeatedly associated with less frequent parent-child contact, even after controlling for psychiatric symptoms, diagnosis, gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Neither psychiatric diagnosis nor symptom severity predicted frequency of child contact when substance abuse was taken into account. Mental health agencies offering parenting classes for adults with serious mental illness should incorporate substance use interventions to reduce loss of child custody and strengthen parent-child relationships.
... Likewise, Lee and Goerge (1999) use Illinois data and find a significant relationship between poverty and the likelihood of a substantiated report for child maltreatment, even after controlling for other socio-demographic factors. Finally, while not necessarily directly related to child welfare involvement, Brandon (2000) and Brandon and Fisher (2001) find a state-level relationship between lower welfare benefits and a greater likelihood that children are living in households other than those of their birth mothers. ...
This paper discusses the ways in which existing microeconomic theories of partner abuse, intra-family bargaining, and distribution of resources within families may contribute to our current understanding of physical child abuse. The empirical implications of this discussion are then tested on data from the 1985 National Family Violence Survey (NFVS) in order to estimate the effects of income, family characteristics, and state characteristics on physical violence toward children.
The sample consists of 2,760 families with children from the NFVS. Probit and ordered probit models are used to explore relationships between income, family characteristics, state characteristics, and physical violence toward children among single-parent and two-parent families.
In both single-parent and two-parent families, depression, maternal alcohol consumption, and history of family violence affect children's probabilities of being abused. Additionally, income is significantly related to violence toward children in single-parent families.
These results reinforce earlier findings that demographic characteristics, maternal depression, maternal alcohol use, and intra-family patterns of violence may largely contribute to child abuse. This research also suggests that income may play a substantially more important role in regard to parental violence in single-parent families than in two-parent families.
A review of the literature was conducted to examine the status of single mothers. Are they thriving or merely surviving? The purpose of this study was to discuss economic and social factors that affect low-income single mothers and their children. The first objective examined was the economic factors, such as sometimes-severe financial hardships, the children's cognitive development, poverty-level living conditions, and quality child care which effects labor force participation. Financial strain was shown to have unhealthy effects on single mothers and especially on their children. The second objective examined was the social factors, such as absent fathers, below-level status, and possible behavioral problems. Single parents, whether mothers or fathers, have a difficult time maintaining an above-poverty-level lifestyle and raising their children to be healthy, well-adjusted, respectful, and successful adults.
There is a profound crisis in the United States' foster care system according to this book. No state has passed the federally mandated Child and Family Service Review; two-thirds of the state systems have faced class-action lawsuits demanding change; and most tellingly, almost half of all children who enter foster care never go home. The field of child welfare has lost its way and is neglecting its fundamental responsibility to the most vulnerable children and families in America. The family stories this book weaves throughout the chapters provide a backdrop for the statistics presented. Amanda, raised in foster care, began having children of her own while still a teen and lost them to the system when she became addicted to drugs. Tracy, brought up by her schizophrenic single mother, gave birth to the first of eight children at age fourteen and saw them all shuffled through foster care as she dealt drugs and went to prison. Both they and the other individuals that are featured in the book spent years without adequate support from social workers or the government before finally achieving a healthier life; many people never do. But despite the clear crisis in child welfare, most calls for reform have focused on unproven prevention methods, not on improving the situation for those already caught in the system. The book argues that real child welfare reform will only occur when the centerpiece of child welfare - reunification, permanency, and foster care - is reaffirmed.
This study offers knowledge about factors associated with a key type of family change, namely, two- to-three-generation household transformations, which are poorly understood, despite increasing numbers of three-generation households, especially ones headed by females. Using a representative sample of 5,874 Australian children, results showed that the circumstances of children in two-generation households differed greatly by family structure. Thus, before investigating determinants of three-generation household formation, children were first grouped as living in either two-parent or single-mother households. For both groups of children, several factors were found associated with three-generation household formation. In two-parent households, the odds of three-generation household formation decreased with mothers’ ages, fathers’ higher educational attainments, and more children, but increased as children grew older. In single-mother households, the odds of three-generation household formation decreased with mothers’ higher educational attainments, increasing income, and more children, but increased if mothers had never been married and worked more hours. Living in rural areas decreased odds of three-generation household formation for children in both types of households. Overall, grandparents appear to play a relatively more important resource role in three-generation, mother only households than in three-generation, two-parent households.
Household and family living arrangements have become increasingly visible in public policy discussions, especially with the passage of the landmark Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA).1 The legislation-a response to a trend of rising rates of childbirth outside of marriage-emphasizes the reinforcement of marriage as the preferred arrangement for families with children. PRWORA also attempts to influence children's living arrangements in another way-by mandating multigenerational households for teen parents who have not completed high school. Although the population of teen parents receiving welfare is small, the focus on their living arrangements signals policymakers' interest in shaping living arrangements beyond marriage.
We examine how child maltreatmentincluding neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and other forms of maltreatmentis affected by parental economic circumstances. Using state-level panel data on cases of maltreatment and numbers of children in foster care, we find that increases in the fractions of children with absent fathers and working mothers in a state are related to increases in many measures of maltreatment, as are increases in the share of families with two nonworking parents and those with incomes below 75% of the poverty line. Decreases in state welfare benefit levels are associated with increases in foster care placement.
In this paper, we use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to estimate the effects of income, maternal employment, family structure, and public policies on several measures of children’s living arrangements. We use both linear probability models and discrete-time event history models to explore the effects of these factors on: (1) the probability that a child is living out-of-home in a given year; (2) the probability that a child is removed from home in a given year, conditional on the child living at home in the previous year; (3) the probability that a child is removed from home for the first time; (4) the probability that a child is reunified with his/her biological parent(s) given that the child was living out-of-home in the previous year. We also analyze whether these estimates differ by types of out-of-home placements. Our results suggest that children from lower-income, single-mother, and mother–partner families are considerably more likely both to be living out-of-home and to be removed from home. A change in family structure also tends to place a child at higher risk of an out-of-home living arrangement, unless this transition functions to bring a child’s father back into the household. Maternal work appears to increase the probability that a child lives at home. Additionally, once a removal has taken place, we do not find a relationship between income and the probability of a family reunification, but we do find that single-mother and mother–partner families are less likely to reunify. Finally, our analyses provide some evidence that welfare benefit levels are negatively related to out-of-home placements. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004
This paper uses data from the NLSY to estimate the effects of income, family structure, and public policies on the probability that a mother has children living in various out-of-home settings. Results suggest that lower-income mothers and those living in single-parent and mother–partner families are more likely to have children living out-of-home in a given year than are mothers in higher-income and mother–father families. Higher welfare benefits are associated with decreased probabilities that children are living in service settings, but increased probabilities that they are living with relatives. Higher foster care payments are associated with increased service setting placements.
The AFDC program contains incentives for family dissolution, as well as the usual incentives regarding work effort inherent in transfer programs of its type. The research discussed below attempts to determine the extent of the impact of these incentives. Cross-section analyses of SMSAs in 1960 and 1970 are presented, relating the proportion of female-headed families and the proportion of the female population receiving AFDC assistance to the size of the AFDC payment and related variables. The results indicate that both female-headship rates and AFDC recipient rates are significantly affected by the relative size of AFDC payments in white and nonwhite populations alike.
After describing the development and dimensions of the American welfare system, this paper explores the relationship of illegitimacy to welfare. Alternative measures of illegitimacy are discussed. The relationship of the welfare package and the illegitimacy ratio is examined over time and across states, by race. A bivariate relationship of welfare and illegitimacy exists among whites but not among blacks. Among blacks, a strong cross-state relationship exists between density of the black population and the illegitimacy ratio. The relationship is robust, persisting after controlling for a variety of demographic and economic variables, and persisting across time. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.
Despite 20 years of concern about poverty, the most recent census figures show that 20 percent of children in the United States live in families with incomes below the poverty line. In understanding why, it is important to recognize the reasons for poverty among children in both two-parent working poor families and single-parent families. Examination of the evidence suggests that family poverty basically reflects the economic and social changes that affect most United States families.