Working Out: Welfare reform hasn’t changed kids so far
By Bruce Bower
National welfare reforms enacted in 1996 imposed stricter work requirements for all recipients and established a 5-year limit for receiving federally funded welfare. Reformers and their critics clashed over whether children might suffer if their mothers were moved off welfare and into jobs.
A new study, published in the March 7 Science, offers encouraging but far from conclusive evidence that welfare reform hasn’t undermined children’s mental health or intellectual development, at least in the short-run.