How welfare reform affects young children: Experimental findings from Connecticut-A research note

As welfare-to-work reforms increase women's labor market attachment, the lives of their young children are likely to change. This note draws on a random-assignment experiment in Connecticut to ask whether mothers' rising employment levels and program participation are associated with chang...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of policy analysis and management 2003-10, Vol.22 (4), p.537-550
Main Authors: Loeb, Susanna, Fuller, Bruce, Kagan, Sharon Lynn, Carrol, Bidemi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Adult Education
Child Care
Child Development
Child growth
Child protection
Child Rearing
Child welfare
Children
Children & youth
Childrens literature
Cognitive Development
Connecticut
Control Groups
Early childhood education
Earned income
Earnings
Effects
Elementary School Students
Employment
Employment Programs
Experimental Groups
Experiments
Families & family life
Family Characteristics
Family Environment
Family Income
Family Work Relationship
Home environment
Human Capital
Interviews
Labor market
Language Acquisition
MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory
Management
Matched Groups
Mathematics Achievement
Measures (Individuals)
Mothers
Museums
Parents & parenting
Participation
Policy Analysis
Policy making
Policy studies
Preschool Children
Preschool education
Program Evaluation
Public assistance programs
Public Policy
School age children
Social policy
Studies
Teenagers
Welfare Recipients
Welfare Reform
Welfare Services
Women
Workfare
Working Mothers
Young Children
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Summary:As welfare-to-work reforms increase women's labor market attachment, the lives of their young children are likely to change. This note draws on a random-assignment experiment in Connecticut to ask whether mothers' rising employment levels and program participation are associated with changes in young children's early learning and cognitive growth. Children of mothers who entered Connecticut's Jobs First program, an initiative with strict 21-month time limits and work incentives, displayed moderate advantages in their early learning, compared with those in a control group. A number of potential mechanisms for this effect are explored, including maternal employment and income, home environment, and child care. Mothers in the new welfare program are more likely to be employed, have higher income, are less likely to be married, have more children's books in their home, and take their children to libraries and museums more frequently. However, these effects explain little of the observed gain in child outcomes. Other parenting practices and the home's social environment do explain early learning, but these remained unaffected by welfare reform. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
ISSN:0276-8739
1520-6688
DOI:10.1002/pam.10153