In its 2019 report, "Beyond the Border: Family Separation in the Trump Era," UnidosUS demonstrates how the current trajectory of the nation's immigration policies is threatening the future of an entire generation of American children. This issue brief on Illinois is part of a series that builds on this analysis by exploring the stakes at…

Food assistance programs--including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), the National School Lunch Program, and the School Breakfast Program--have been remarkably successful at their core mission: reducing food insecurity among low-income children. Moreover, writes Craig Gundersen, SNAP in particular has also been…

Despite the claimed success of the 1996 Welfare Reform, little research using multivariate regression has examined changes in multiple public safety-net programs. Thus, we still do not know whether public safety-net programs for the poor have shrunk or increased nationwide, along with the sharp declines in cash assistance. Using state-level data…

Even before withstanding one of the most devastating economic crises in American history, families living in poverty have battled a dominant discourse that labels them as lacking personal responsibility, initiative, and the ability to make "good" choices. This discourse is reflected in the parent-involvement mandates of the No Child Left…

Researchers have long known that poverty in childhood is linked with a range of negative adult socioeconomic outcomes, from lower educational achievement and behavioral problems to lower earnings in the labor market. But few researchers have explored whether exposure to a disadvantaged background affects immigrant children and native children…

As described in earlier articles, children whose parents have higher income and education levels are more likely to grow up in stable two-parent households than their economically disadvantaged counterparts. These widening gaps in fathers' involvement in parenting and in the quality and stability of parents' relationships may reinforce disparities…

Using data from the National Survey of America's Families, this study assesses the success of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) goals to increase employment, enhance family stability through marriage promotion, and reduce welfare reliance. In the period prior to TANF implementation, during implementation, and from 1 to 4 years after…

The promotion of marriage and two-parent families became an explicit public policy goal with the passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Marriage has the putative effect of reducing welfare dependency among single mothers, but only if they marry men with earnings sufficient to lift them and their children out of poverty. Newly released data from…

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 article explores issues of persistent poverty and income inequality. The major focus is that of the alleviation of poverty. Is there a framework that delineates the roles for government, market forces and self-reliance that can effect a reduction in the level of poverty? The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act…

This document is comprised of the three 2002 issues of a newsletter devoted to identifying and promoting strategies to reduce the poverty rate of young children and to improve the life chances of children still living in poverty. The Winter issue includes the following articles: (1) "NCCP [National Center for Children in Poverty] Responds to…

This brief examines the relationship between increased child support enforcement and frequency of visitation between children and their nonresident fathers. Data come from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families. The study emphasizes children of single mothers because children in such households face the greatest risk of long-term…

This paper documents changing rates of poverty, sources of income, and employment among rural female-headed families with children, focusing on the effects of welfare reform. Data from the Current Population Survey show that from 1989 through 1999, especially since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act…

This paper argues that the U.S.'s experience during the economic boom of the 1990s, together with its choices concerning social welfare policies, imply that child poverty in the United States will be much higher than that in most European countries. It hypothesizes that Americans reveal their preferences about the extent of poverty they are…

A study of women who went off welfare between 1997 and 1998 (n=753, 693) showed that those with the most work involvement over the year had higher levels of financial and subjective well-being. Regardless of work involvement, substantial numbers reported serious economic difficulties and financial strain. Many still needed income supplements and…