Children and Youth Services Review

Children and Youth Services Review 29 (2007) 698 – 720 www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth

Family economic well-being following the 1996 welfare reform: Trend data from five non-experimental panel studies
Kristen Shook Slack a,⁎, Katherine A. Magnuson a , Lawrence M. Berger a , Joan Yoo b , Rebekah Levine Coley c , Rachel Dunifon d , Amy Dworsky e , Ariel Kalil f , Jean Knab g , Brenda J. Lohman h , Cynthia Osborne i a School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1350 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, United States b Columbia University, United States c Boston College, United States d Cornell University, United States e Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, United States f University of Chicago, United States g Princeton University, United States h Iowa State University, United States i University of Texas at Austin, United States Available online 10 January 2007

Abstract This analysis summarizes trends in family economic well-being from five non-experimental, longitudinal welfare-to-work studies launched following the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The studies include a sizable group of parents and other caregivers who received TANF at the point of sample selection or shortly thereafter, and share a wide range of similar measures of economic well-being. This analysis provides descriptive information on how these families are faring over time. Our results confirm what has been found by previous studies. Many families remain dependent on public benefits, and are either poor or near-poor, despite gains in some indicators of economic well-being. We caution that these aggregate statistics may mask important heterogeneity among families. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: PRWORA; TANF; Welfare reform

⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: [phone]. E-mail address: [e-mail] (K.S. Slack). 0190-7409/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier

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