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We examine how changes in maternal work hours affect adolescent children's school participation and performance outcomes using data from interviews in 1998 and 2001 with 1,700 women who in May 1995 were welfare-reliant, single mothers of adolescents living in disadvantaged neighborhoods in four urban counties. We find unfavorable effects of maternal work hours on several aspects of adolescents' schooling: Full-time maternal employment (31 hours or more per week) increases the likelihood of skipping school, decreases school performance, and increases the likelihood of parent contact by a school about behavior problems. Sons seem to be particularly sensitive to changes in mothers' average hours of work, with notable increases in incidences of being late for school and declines in school performance when mothers work more hours. These findings hold up controlling for a rich array of mothers' characteristics, including their psychological and physical health and experiences with domestic violence and substance. Appended are: (1) Criteria to be Eligible for Cross-Sectional Analysis Sample; and (2) Comparison of Means for Wave 2 Analysis Sample and Children Excluded from Sample. (Contains 7 tables and 8 footnotes.)

A study of research was conducted to determine how welfare and work policies enacted in 1996 targeted at low-income parents have influenced their adolescent children. Using meta-analytic techniques, the research synthesis integrates survey data collected from parents in eight studies of 16 different welfare and employment programs, focusing on children aged 12 to 18 when surveyed, as well as drawing on ethnographic case studies. In each study, some parents were randomly assigned to a program that included some combination of three key policies--mandatory employment activities, earnings supplements, and time limits on welfare receipt--while others were randomly assigned to a control group that was neither eligible for the program's services nor subject to its requirements. Key findings of the studies were the following: (1) parents in the programs being studied reported worse school performance, a higher rate of grade repetition, and more use of special educational services for their adolescent children than did control group parents; (2) no single one of the three policies studied could explain the programs' effects on adolescents; (3) adolescents with younger siblings experienced the most troubling effects (poor school performance, suspension or dropping out of school), perhaps because they were more likely than the control group to provide care for their siblings. The study points to the difficulties low-income parents face when forced to juggle often-inflexible mandatory work or training requirements and multiple child-care responsibilities. Study methodology is examined in two appendixes. (Contains 63 references.) (KC)

The Project on Devolution and Urban Change studied the effects of welfare reform in the counties encompassing the following cities: Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In May 1995, the 3,900 women in the sample were receiving public assistance and living in high-poverty neighborhoods. After 3-4 years, the women were interviewed about their recent employment experiences. Three-fourths of the women had worked in the past 2 years, and about half were working at the time of the interview. Although many of the current and former welfare recipients achieved high employment stability, most were in jobs with low earnings, and most could not lift their families out of poverty without other sources of income. Only half the women had health insurance, and most of the women and their families faced multiple material hardships, including food insecurity, housing problems, and unmet health care needs. Nearly all those who worked faced barriers to employment. The data provided evidence that government policies aimed at addressing the needs of the working poor have fallen short of their goals. (Nineteen tables/figures/boxes are included. Key measures by site are appended along with information on employment status and stability in the urban change survey sample. The bibliography contains 44 references.) (MN)

This report examines the prevalence and severity of health problems that hinder welfare recipients' ability to get and hold jobs, using data from interviews with women who in May 1995 received welfare and lived in four poor, urban areas. The study compared the health of women who had left welfare and were working, who combined welfare and work, who received welfare and did not work, or who neither worked nor received welfare. Interviews occurred in 1998 and 1999, before anyone had reached federal time limits. These women and their children had markedly higher rates of physical and mental health problems than did national samples. Their health problems were often multiple and severe. Over 70 percent faced at least one of eight health-related barriers to work (e.g., being morbidly obese or having a child with an illness that constrained employment), and 40 percent had two or more. Working women, especially welfare leavers, were in much better health than unemployed women, but many lacked health insurance. Women with multiple health problems were more likely than other women to have been sanctioned by welfare agencies in the previous year. Unemployed welfare leavers had the most compromised health situations. (Contains 190 references.) (SM)

Drawing on 1998-99 survey and ethnographic data from research on the implementation and effects of welfare reform in four large cities, this paper describes the food security of mother-headed families in highly disadvantaged urban neighborhoods who had received or currently receive cash welfare benefits. The families of four groups of women were compared: those who worked and no longer received welfare; those who combined welfare and work; nonworking welfare recipients; and those who neither worked nor received welfare. Food insecurity in the prior year was high in all groups. About half the families were food insecure. There was hunger in over 15 percent of families. Nearly one-third of the families had food hardships affecting children's diets. Food insecurity was highest among families where mothers had neither employment income nor welfare benefits and lowest among families where mothers worked and no longer received welfare, though even in this group, 44.5 percent were food insecure, and 15 percent had experienced hunger. Interview data indicate that, in this population, women who are food secure expend considerable energy piecing together strategies to ensure an adequate amount of food available for themselves and their children. (Contains 58 references.) (SM)