Previous literature documents a strong relationship between food insecurity and mental health, and also examines the impact of safety net programs on food insecurity. However, little is known about the intersection between mental health, safety net participation, and food insecurity. In this research, we use a multi-program safety net calculator…

The past four decades have seen a rapid decline in marriage rates and a rapid increase in nonmarital births. These changes have had at least three worrisome effects on children. Scholars disagree about the magnitude of these effects, but surveys and other research evidence appear to definitively establish that the nation has more poverty, more…

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act requires welfare recipients to look for work and has made it more difficult for nonworking recipients to remain on the welfare rolls. In addition, the economic boom of the 1990s and changes in federal and state policies have raised the net income gain associated with moving…

This analysis examines poverty in families headed by working single mothers, addressing whether and to what degree their economic situations have improved. It investigates the effect of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which moved single mothers from welfare to work. Poverty data from the annual Census…

This paper examines correlations between children's educational outcomes and family structure. Although popular discussions focus on distinctions between two-parent and single-parent families, earlier research shows that outcomes for stepchildren are similar to outcomes for children in single-parent families, and earlier researchers suggested that…

This conference presentation explores current patterns of public transfer receipt (such as earned income tax credit, public health insurance coverage, food stamps, and public assistance) among single-father families and provides an update on existing census-based research on characteristics of single-father families. Data were obtained from the…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project, and Milwaukee's New Hope Project are three antipoverty programs that were undertaken in the 1990s to end dependency on welfare by "making work pay." The impacts of all three programs were reviewed and compared to those of the Seattle/Denver Income Maintenance…

Much of the discussion surrounding marriage promotion policies have little basis in the reality of life in low-income communities. Research suggests that much of the income differential between low-income and middle class women is the result of differences in educational attainment, labor market experience, and access to labor supply rather than…

These six research papers were presented as public lectures: "Federal Child Care Policy" (David M. Blau) outlined the role of the federal government in child care, the failure of market-based care programs, and the ideal goals of a federal child care policy as well as its cost (4 tables; 41 references); "Thinking About Child Care…