Washington, D.C.-- In families where welfare-to-work programs have resulted in reduced family income, children are more likely to suffer negative effects according to a recent Children's Defense Fund (CDF) study. The report finds that programs that are most helpful to children are those that raise family income and economic security.

The CDF study looks at data from 16 welfare-to-work programs begun in the early and mid-1990s before welfare reform was enacted in 1996. Among the experiments studied were Minnesota Family Investment Program; New Hope in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Florida's Family Transition Program; JobsFirst GAIN in Los Angeles, California; and programs in Riverside, California and Grand Rapids, Michigan. All of the programs studied sought to encourage work, but not all succeeded in raising family income. The study found that when families lost income, children were more likely to experience bad outcomes such as increased school suspensions, behavior and mental health problems including symptoms of depression, an increase in the number of children removed from their mother's care, increased enrollment in special classes for behavioral or emotional problems, and health problems such as increased trips to the emergency room. In programs where both employment and income were increased, the impact on children was more positive.

The report raises great concerns for children in the debate over reauthorization of the 1996 law because most state welfare policies in effect today are far less generous than the income-lifting programs examined in this report, there are signs that hundreds of thousands of children have become poorer, and the weakening economy may threaten income for many of the recently hired former welfare recipients.

The report states that welfare reduction programs must be thoughtfully developed to help children and families avoid poverty as they strive to become self-sufficient. Supports such as child care, after-school activities, and more income support need to be in place for these families to enable them to transition from welfare to work without putting their children at risk of greater poverty and its attendant ills.

To see the full report, visit our Web site at www.childrensdefense.org

---Children's Defense Fund

Back to The Science of Mental Health