Aber J L, Brooks-Gunn J, Maynard R A
National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University School of Public Health, USA.
Future Child. 1995 Summer-Fall;5(2):53-71.
A key question in welfare policy concerns the potential that welfare-to-work programs have to develop in teenage parents the motivation and skills to provide financially for themselves and their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was a major experiment initiated in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and evaluated by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., to test the impact of a welfare-to-work program for teenage parents which anticipated many features of the federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills training program later established in the Family Support Act of 1988. Teenage mothers entering the welfare system were randomly assigned to a regular services group or to an enhanced services group. Teen mothers in the enhanced services group faced mandatory school and work requirements enforced by financial sanctions and received support services such as case management, parenting workshops, child care assistance, and education and training opportunities. This article reviews the policy context in which the Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was designed and implemented, and describes how participation in the enhanced services group affected the teen mothers as adults and as parents. Results showed that, for the reasonable aggregate annual cost of $2,400 per participant, the program increased the 'teenagers' attendance at school and job training programs, and modestly increased the proportion who were employed to 48%, compared with 43% among those receiving regular welfare services. As the participants' earnings from employment increased, their welfare grants shrank. Because these changes offset each other, the program did not improve the economic well-being of the families, although fewer tax dollars were needed to support them. The program did not discourage further childbearing, however, or affect either the parenting behavior of the young women or the development of their children, although the mothers who were most engaged in self-sufficiency activities were more positive and supportive when playing with their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration experience revealed that the problems faced by teenage parents vary widely, making tailored services necessary. The evaluation results suggest that supportive, mandatory welfare-to-work interventions need not harm parents or their children in the short term, and that their modest positive effects on the financial independence of the teenage mothers may yield long-term rewards.
福利政策中的一个关键问题涉及从福利到工作项目在促使青少年父母培养为自己和子女提供经济支持的动机及技能方面的潜力。青少年父母福利示范项目是美国卫生与公众服务部于1986年发起的一项重大试验，并由Mathematica政策研究公司进行评估，旨在测试一项针对青少年父母的从福利到工作项目的影响，该项目预期了后来在1988年《家庭支持法案》中确立的联邦就业机会和基本技能培训项目的许多特征。进入福利系统的青少年母亲被随机分配到常规服务组或强化服务组。强化服务组的青少年母亲面临由经济制裁强制执行的强制性上学和工作要求，并获得诸如个案管理、育儿工作坊、儿童保育援助以及教育和培训机会等支持服务。本文回顾了设计和实施青少年父母福利示范项目的政策背景，并描述了参与强化服务组如何影响这些青少年母亲成年后的状况以及她们为人父母的表现。结果显示，每位参与者每年2400美元的合理总成本，该项目提高了青少年参加学校和职业培训项目的出勤率，并将就业比例适度提高到48%，而接受常规福利服务的青少年这一比例为43%。随着参与者就业收入的增加，她们的福利补助减少。由于这些变化相互抵消，该项目并未改善家庭的经济状况，尽管支持这些家庭所需的税收减少了。然而，该项目并未抑制进一步生育，也未影响年轻女性的育儿行为或其子女的发育，不过，那些最积极参与自给自足活动的母亲在与孩子玩耍时更积极、更具支持性。青少年父母福利示范项目的经验表明，青少年父母面临的问题差异很大，因此需要量身定制服务。评估结果表明，支持性的、强制性的从福利到工作的干预措施在短期内不一定会伤害父母或其子女，而且它们对青少年母亲经济独立的适度积极影响可能会带来长期回报。
