Mothers' Work and Children's Lives

Low-Income Families after Welfare Reform

The TANF program, first enacted in 1996 and reauthorized in 2006, requires single parents to participate in work activities for at least 30 hours per week. Two-parent families must participate in work activities between 35 and 55 hours per week. While this policy provides strong incentives for low-income women to enter and remain in the workforce, the tradeoff is that they have less time to spend with their families, which can have a detrimental impact on their children’s development.

Johnson, Kalil, and Dunifon focus on this tenuous work-family balance—or lack thereof—and its effects on children. What they discover is that work per se is not detrimental for single-mother families. In fact, it brings stability, routine, and a sense of pride to working women and their families. However, they also find that the nature of the work—the type of work, number of hours worked, and the flexibility of the job—is a key factor in maintaining an acceptable balance and in promoting positive outcomes for their children.

Basing their findings on the Women’s Employment Study (WES), the authors provide evidence of the links between maternal work experiences and longer-run trajectories of child well-being. When a working mother is not on a regular work schedule, has hours that fluctuate from week to week, or works at a full-time job that presents limited wage growth and menial tasks, her children’s behavior is more likely to deteriorate. Similar results are seen for those who bounce from job to job or are laid off or fired, since this churning often leads to frequent residential moves. The aspects of child well-being that the unique data from the WES allow the authors to examine include externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems, disruptive behavior at school, school absenteeism, grade repetition, and placement in special education.

Overall, this book sheds light on whether one of TANF’s original goals—putting low-income mothers on a path to economic growth—is being met.

157 pp. 2010
$40 cloth 978-0-88099-358-6
$18 paper 978-0-88099-356-2  

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