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How welfare reform affects young children: Experimental findings from Connecticut—A research note
Author(s) -
Loeb Susanna,
Fuller Bruce,
Kagan Sharon Lynn,
Carrol Bidemi
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.10153
Subject(s) - welfare reform , welfare , incentive , demographic economics , work (physics) , psychology , single mothers , economics , developmental psychology , mechanical engineering , engineering , market economy , microeconomics
As welfare‐to‐work reforms increase women's labor market attachment, the lives of their young children are likely to change.Thisnote draws on a random‐assignment experiment in Connecticut to ask whether mothers' rising employment levels and program participationareassociated with changes in young children's early learning and cognitive growth. Children of mothers who entered Connecticut's Jobs Firstprogram, an initiative with strict 21‐month time limits and work incentives, displayed moderate advantages in their early learning, comparedwith those in a control group. A number of potential mechanisms for this effect are explored, including maternal employment and income, homeenvironment, and child care. Mothers in the new welfare program are more likely to be employed, have higher income, are less likely to be married,havemore children's books in their home, and take their children to libraries and museums more frequently. However, these effects explain little ofthe observed gain in child outcomes. Other parenting practices and the home's social environment do explain early learning, but these remainedunaffected by welfare reform. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management