The Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, Pub.L. 104-193 (PRWORA) was passed creating the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Since the passage of PRWORA, many families were able to leave the welfare rolls while those remaining on welfare were likely composed of families facing barriers to leaving, such as caring for children with disabilities.
Using data drawn from the second wave of the National Study of Families and Households (n = 3,263), this study examines relationships between poverty status and hours spent doing housework. The measure of housework time was computed by summing self-reported estimates of the number of hours spent performing core domestic tasks such as ironing, preparing meals, and washing dishes. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates that compared to their non-poor counterparts, women in poverty spend significantly more time performing household tasks.
Through the use of focus groups, this paper examines how former welfare recipients living in public housing in New York City adapted to the policy changes caused by welfare reform, how they experienced their transition to the “world of work” and how this affected their perceptions about their quality of life and their personal and familial relationships. The primary theme that emerged from the focus group sessions was the difficulties reconciling parenthood with employment.
The author, a novice social worker at a program for Mexican immigrants in Chicago, describes the needs of his clients through personal anecdotes. Through these anecdotes, he shows how multiple, interconnected problems keep his clients from reaching their potential. He also describes his clients’ strength and resilience in the face of their challenges, and how his organization (Programa C.I.E.L.O) helps them by addressing multiple barriers.
The enactment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Taxpayers Relief Act of 1997 signals the U.S. commitment to developing human capital among children. However, any such initiative must be pursued within the context of the rapidly changing demographics and the current economic standing of each racial/ethnic group of children, as well as the entire population of children. This paper presents the projections of future changes in the racial/ ethnic composition of children and the results of a study on the quintile distribution of children in the U.S.
Children in poverty have been shown to master only the informal registers of the English language. Unable to understand the formal register used in schools and on standardized tests, students in poverty achieve at a lower rate in school and choose inappropriate behaviors as a result of misunderstandings that are attributed to the inability to understand the language used in the formal register. A school in Cincinnati, Ohio is teaching the skills necessary for these children to translate, understand, and use other registers and codes of the English language.
Describing social and economic inequality within the Asian American community is difficult. Depending on how “Asian American” is defined, there are twenty to thirty cultures, countries of origin, and a wide range of identities and circumstances that influence economic and social well-being. It is almost presumptuous to attempt to categorize such a diverse collection of identities as one group. At the same time, Asians and Pacific Islanders have been an increasing population group in the U.S. over the past thirty years.
This article contributes to the body of knowledge by examining the differential effects of three dimensions of human capital—education, training, and health—on the poor and upper income categories. We tested the effects using binomial and multinomial logistic regression analyses of working age individuals. The study revealed that these human capital variables are strong predictors of poverty in the binomial model but have greater effects on the near-poor than the poor in the multinomial model.
The uneven distribution of income and assets in the United States continues to have negative effects on the personal, social, and economic well-being of adults and children. Poverty affects the entire family and is often associated with household instability, school dropouts, teen pregnancies, and intergenerational poverty. Although income-based anti-poverty policy initiatives have helped individuals with children meet their basic consumptive needs, they have done little to help families lay a foundation for their futures.
The attainment of economic parity between men and women has been a focal point of the women's movements in many countries. How much worse off are women economically? What are the net, gender differences in economic well-being when other factors are taken into account? What factors explain the level of economic well-being of women compared to men's? This article reports the results of a study of the gender differences in the economic well-being of women and men in the United States from 1969 to 1999.