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How are children and families faring a decade after welfare reform? Evidence from five non-experimental panel studies
Slack, K. S., Magnuson, K., & Berger, L. M. (2007). How are children and families faring a decade after welfare reform? Evidence from five non-experimental panel studies. Children and Youth Services Review, 29(6), 693-697. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2006.12.001
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA; P.L. 104–193) of 1996 formalized a shift in the nature of welfare policy in the United States. Although PRWORA instituted broad changes across multiple programs and policy arenas, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Food Stamps, child support, child protection, child care, and child nutrition programs, perhaps the most significant (and certainly the most debated and studied) changes dealt with the provision of cash welfare. The replacement of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) ended the entitlement to cash welfare for poor families in the United States that was first created by the Social Security Act of 1935. In addition to providing states with some latitude in the design of their TANF programs, PRWORA also conditioned federal match dollars for cash assistance on work requirements and time limits. At the time of PRWORA's passage, critics argued that these changes would lead to widespread increases in poverty and material hardship, as well as decreases in child and family well-being among low-income single-mother families (Jencks, Winship, & Swingle, 2006).
