From the front lines of welfare reform: an analysis of social worker and welfare recipient attitudes

Social workers and welfare recipients operate within the same institutional framework and share a working and/or lived knowledge of poverty, but they occupy different social and economic positions. To gain a better understanding of intergroup attitudes, the author compared how social workers and welfare recipients explain poverty and perceive the welfare system. The results highlight important similarities and differences between the two groups. Although the author did not find differences for individualistic attributions, welfare recipients regarded prejudice as playing a greater role in causing poverty than did social workers. Welfare recipients also expressed stronger support for increased welfare funding and progressive welfare policies than did social workers. The author discussed implications for strengthening interclass alliances, particularly the relationship between social service providers and welfare recipients.     

Linking cause and solution: Predicting support for poverty alleviation proposals

There are multiple alternative proposals for alleviating poverty, but unless these receive public support they are unlikely to be implemented. Drawing on Feagin's work, this research predicted support for different poverty alleviation proposals among Australians based on individual characteristics and attitudes, including explanations for poverty. Overall, participants (N = 526) favoured the minimum income proposal (traditional welfare) significantly more than the guaranteed jobs or equal income proposals. The results indicated differences in predictors of support for each proposal, but structural causes of poverty had the most consistent effect across all three. Other variables included gender, age, having received welfare, self‐reported social class, self‐reported financial situation, egalitarianism, conservatism, and support for individualistic explanations for poverty. The results suggested that Australians prefer traditional welfare‐style measures to alleviate poverty, compared to the other proposals examined here. Support for all proposals, however, was predicated on people's beliefs being consistent with those underlying the proposal. Those interested in implementing more radical solutions to address poverty need to emphasise the relations between the causes of poverty and the solutions to it in order to increase public support.     

Are personality disorders associated with social welfare burden in the United States?

This study examined the association between personality disorders and use of major social welfare services in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 43,093). Social welfare services received and diagnoses of personality, substance use, mood, and anxiety disorders were assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-DSM-IV-version. Analyses quantified the association between personality disorders and forms of public assistance while controlling for numerous confounds. Logistic regression analyses revealed dependent personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and avoidant personality disorder were significantly associated with increased odds of receiving public assistance. In contrast, persons diagnosed with histrionic, schizoid, and obsessive-personality disorder were not significantly more likely to receive any public welfare service. Development of effective prevention and treatment of personality disorders would likely lead to reductions in overall social welfare burden.     

The bystander effect in an N-person dictator game

Dozens of studies show that bystanders are less likely to help victims as bystander number increases. However, these studies model one particular situation, in which victims need only one helper. Using a multi-player dictator game, we study a different but common situation, in which a recipient’s welfare increases with the amount of help, and donors can share the burden of helping. We find that dictators transfer less when there are more dictators, and recipients earn less when there are multiple dictators. This effect persisted despite mechanisms eliminating uncertainty about other dictators’ behavior (a strategy method and communication). In a typical public goods game, people seem to transform the situation into an assurance game, willing to contribute if certain others will too. Despite similarities, people do not treat a recipient’s welfare like a public good. Instead, people seem to transform the situation into a prisoner’s dilemma, refusing to help whatever others do.     

8~15岁儿童贫富观的发展特点及其与成人的比较

儿童贫富观是其价值观的重要体现,贫富观形成是儿童社会化进程中的重要方面,然而目前国内尚缺乏中国儿童贫富观的系统研究。本研究以8~9岁、11~12岁、14~15岁以及成人(主要为大学生,年龄为20.7±1.32岁)为研究对象(N=186),结合开放性问题和结构化问卷,考察他们对于贫富的感知、公平判断、归因以及对于缓解贫困对策的认识。结果发现:控制社会经济地位之后,(1)8~9岁儿童对贫富的认识局限于表面特征,11~12岁更关注心理特征,而成人提及系统特征的比例更高;(2)8~9岁儿童较其他年龄组更倾向于对贫富做不公平的判断;(3)在贫富的归因和缓解贫困的对策上,儿童和成人都认可个人因素的重要性,但成人更多关注国家政策和社会的影响,并且认为消除贫困是不可能的。中国儿童贫富观的发展与西方已有研究相比,既有共性也有文化特异性。     

"AND YOU'RE TELLING ME NOT TO STRESS?" A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS AMONG LOW-INCOME MOTHERS

Low-income mothers in the U.S. are more likely to experience postpartum depression (PPD) and less likely to seek treatment than their middle-class counterparts. Despite this knowledge, prior research has not provided an in-depth understanding of PPD symptoms as they are experienced by low-income mothers. Through in-depth interviews, this study investigated low-income mothers' ( n  = 19) experiences and explanatory frameworks for their PPD symptoms. Grounded theory analysis uncovered five main categories that linked the participants' PPD symptoms to their lived experiences of mothering in poverty, including: (1) ambivalence, (2) caregiving overload, (3) juggling, (4) mothering alone, and (5) real-life worry. The analysis further located the core experience of PPD for low-income mothers as "feeling overwhelmed" due to mothering in materially and socially stressful conditions. These findings challenge the prevailing biomedical discourse surrounding PPD and situate mothers' symptoms in the context of the material hardships associated with living in poverty.     

Sex differences in moral internalization and values.

The subjects were fifth- and seventh-grade white middle-class children and their parents. The major moral internalization indices pertain to internal moral judgment, guilt intensity, and fear of punishment. The findings support the prevalent view that consideration for others is more salient in females. They also suggest, with considerable consistency (especially in adults) that moral transgressions are more likely to be associated with guilt in females and fear in males. No sex differences in internal moral judgment were obtained. Evidence was presented suggesting that the differences in children may be due partly to different discipline and affection patterns. It was also suggested that the results for adults as well as children might be explained by differential sex-role socialization as well as by increasing pressures on males over the life cycle to achieve and succeed, which may often conflict with concerns about the welfare of others.     

Behavior analysts in the war on poverty: A review of the use of financial incentives to promote education and employment

Poverty is a pervasive risk factor underlying poor health. Many interventions that have sought to reduce health disparities associated with poverty have focused on improving health‐related behaviors of low‐income adults. Poverty itself could be targeted to improve health, but this approach would require programs that can consistently move poor individuals out of poverty. Governments and other organizations in the United States have tested a diverse range of antipoverty programs, generally on a large scale and in conjunction with welfare reform initiatives. This paper reviews antipoverty programs that used financial incentives to promote education and employment among welfare recipients and other low‐income adults. The incentive‐based, antipoverty programs had small or no effects on the target behaviors; they were implemented on large scales from the outset, without systematic development and evaluation of their components; and they did not apply principles of operant conditioning that have been shown to determine the effectiveness of incentive or reinforcement interventions. By applying basic principles of operant conditioning, behavior analysts could help address poverty and improve health through development of effective antipoverty programs. This paper describes a potential framework for a behavior‐analytic antipoverty program, with the goal of illustrating that behavior analysts could be uniquely suited to make substantial contributions to the war on poverty.     

The Effectiveness and Trustworthiness of Faith-Based and Other Service Organizations: A Study of Recipients' Perceptions

Drawing on a new community study of more than 2,000 residents of low-income neighborhoods, we examine information about the kinds of service organizations respondents have contacted for assistance and the perceptions of these respondents about the effectiveness and trustworthiness of those organizations. We compare contact with and perceptions of faith-based organizations, nonsectarian organizations, government agencies, hospitals, and churches and employ a method that takes account of respondents' varying portfolios of service providers. The results indicate that the recipients of faith-based organizations resemble those of the public welfare department in the extent of financial need and scope of family problems, and differ significantly from recipients of help from congregations. The results also indicate that recipients' evaluations of the effectiveness and trustworthiness of their portfolio of service organizations are lower when they have sought assistance from public welfare agencies and higher when they have sought assistance from congregations, but are not significantly affected by having contacted faith-based or nonsectarian organizations.     

The Influence of Perceived Deservingness on Policy Decisions Regarding Aid to the Poor

In the current climate of welfare reform, it is important to understand how perceptions of the poor affect policy decisions. This paper examines how people distinguish between the undeserving poor and the deserving poor, and how this differentiation affects policy decisions. Survey respondents rated each policy in a set of hypothetical policies on a liberal-conservative continuum. Analyses were then conducted to explore differences in the respondents' likelihood of recommending the most liberal and the most conservative of these policies. Study 1 demonstrated that liberal policies were more likely to be recommended and conservative policies were less likely to be recommended when the target group was perceived to be deserving rather than undeserving. Study 2 replicated this effect of perceived deservingness and demonstrated an effect of attribution of responsibility. That is, liberal policies were more likely to be recommended and conservative policies were less likely to be recommended when the responsibility for the target's poverty was attributed to society rather than to the individual.     

Development of a Selection Measure for Access to Public Employment Assistance Programs

The author provides a prototype measure of employability to be used as a tool in public employment programs political and ethical implications pertaining to the use of such a selection instrument for welfare recipients are considered.     

Individuality and community: The contrasting role of the state in family life in the United States and Sweden1

Underlying moral values of individuality versus community and assumptions about what is a “just society” make public policies toward children vastly different in Sweden and the United States. This article explores the origins, cost, and benefits of welfare policies that permit child poverty in the U. S. as a cost of the high value of autonomy/individuality, and policies that prevent child poverty in Sweden, at the cost of economic competitiveness and individual initiative. I conclude that both extremes of moral values have more social costs than benefits but that children should be protected in any nation as the future of the society.     

Social Class and Reported Changes in Behavior After Job Loss

Reports were obtained from middle-class and working-class unemployed British men about change or lack of change since job loss in 37 different behaviors. The behaviors were grouped into Domestic Work, Domestic Pastimes, Other Pastimes, Book Reading, Recreations, Entertainment Through Money, and Social Contacts. Contrary to findings from 1930s research, significant increases in social contact and book reading were reported since job loss. Other significant increases were reported within all categories except Entertainment Through Money, where a significant decline was recorded. A number of social class differences were found. For instance, middleclass unemploycd men were significantly more likely than their working-class counterparts to report increased book reading for study and more visits to the public library. Working-class respondents were significantly more likely to report increased looking around shops without buying and reduced visits to the pub. Several significant associations between reported behavior changes and aspects of psychological and general health were observed.     

Welfare, Work Requirements, and Dependant-Care

abstract This article considers the justice of requiring employment as a condition of receiving public assistance. While none of the main theories of justice prohibits work requirements, the arguments in their favour are weak. Arguments based on reciprocity fail to explain why only means‐tested public benefits should be subject to work requirements, and why unpaid dependant care work should not count as satisfying citizens’ obligations to reciprocate. Arguments based on promoting the work ethic misattribute recipients’ nonwork to deviant values, when their core problem is finding steady employment consistent with supporting a family and meeting dependant care responsibilities. Rigid work requirements impose unreasonable costs on some of the poor. A welfare system based on a rebuttable presumption that recipients will work for pay, conjoined with more generous work supports, would promote justice better than either unconditional welfare or strict requirements [ 1 ].     

Child, family, and childcare predictors of delayed school entry and kindergarten retention among linguistically and ethnically diverse children

Concern about kindergarten retention is on the rise within the current climate of high-stakes testing and escalating kindergarten expectations. Kindergarten retention has been linked in previous research to various risk factors such as poverty, low maternal education, single parent status, minority status, English language learner (ELL) status, and male gender. However, these factors are also associated with poor school readiness and low kindergarten performance--the very reasons children are retained in the 1st place. This study teases apart unique and combined predictors of delayed entry into kindergarten and kindergarten retention with a large (n = 13,191) ethnically diverse, at-risk sample of children. Delayed kindergarten entry was rare for this sample but more likely among boys, native English speakers, those with poorer school readiness, less maternal education, and greater resources, and those who attended childcare rather than public school prekindergarten (pre-K) at age 4 years. Boys were more likely to be retained in kindergarten, but only because of their poorer school readiness. After strong effects for age 4 school readiness were controlled, only poverty, ELL status, and preschool program attendance predicted retention. ELL students were less likely to be retained than were native speakers, and those who attended public school pre-K programs were less likely to be retained, compared with those in childcare at age 4 years. After controlling for children's actual performance in kindergarten their 1st time, Caucasian children and children with lower language and social skills at age 4 years were more likely to repeat kindergarten.     

Hate Welfare But Help the Poor: How the Attributional Content of Stereotypes Explains the Paradox of Reactions to the Destitute in America1

Social scientists have documented more negative reactions to the concept of welfare versus the concept of poor, despite the fact that both labels can be used almost interchangeably in current political discussions. We believe that the most proximal explanation rests in the different attributional information contained within the stereotypes of welfare recipients versus poor people. Three studies were conducted to test this idea. The results suggest that the attributional content within stereotypes of welfare recipients, particularly their greater responsibility for their impoverished state compared with poor people, most influences the public's more negative reaction to welfare. The results are discussed in terms of how the rhetoric of stereotypes may be exploited in the political domain.     

Who Cares If They Need Help? The Deservingness Heuristic,Humanitarianism, and Welfare Opinions

Citizens’ welfare opinions are highly susceptible to cues about welfare recipients’ deservingness. Extant research argues that this deservingness heuristic is a universal feature of human help‐giving psychology, implying that all citizens, regardless of their values, are evenly affected by deservingness cues. This article suggests that the deservingness heuristic is much more conditional than previously appreciated. Specifically, its influence on welfare opinions is conditioned by humanitarianism: the belief that others in need should be helped. The more people adhere to this value, the more they need information that signals whether others are genuinely needy. Citizens should thus rely more on the deservingness heuristic the stronger their humanitarian values are. I find support for this argument in three survey experiments (two nationally representative), where citizens are exposed to cues that welfare recipients are either lazy (undeserving) or unlucky (deserving). These findings have important implications for our understanding of citizens’ welfare opinions.     

The Contradictions of Caring: Social Workers,Teachers, and Attributions for Poverty and Welfare Reform

This paper examines the attitudes toward poverty and welfare reform of a sample of social workers and inner‐city school teachers. More specifically, it focuses on the impact of poverty attributions on attitudes toward welfare reform among members of this sample. There is a mystery about attitudes toward welfare reform that the paper attempts to explain. These social workers and teachers rejected most of the 1996 changes to welfare, but they were surprisingly positive about the impact these reforms have on the families with whom they work. This contradictory set of beliefs is explained as a function of the family‐oriented view of poverty that is peculiar to this group.     

Clinical and Non-Clinical Characteristics Associated with Medication Use Among Children with Serious Emotional Disturbance

Our study explores the clinical and non-clinical characteristics associated with medication use among children with serious emotional disturbance who are referred into community-based family-driven system of care settings. Using data collected as part of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program initiative, our study provides results from analyses completed on 7,009 children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance. Using both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses, the researchers found that females entering systems of care were less likely to have received medication in the 6-months prior to entry, as were children of African-American and Native-American heritage compared to children from non-Hispanic White heritage. Children referred from mental health, child welfare or who were self-referred were more likely to use medications than those referred from juvenile justice. Children with histories of prior inpatient, outpatient, day treatment, or school-based services were between 2 and 4 times more likely to use medications than children without such histories. Children with family histories of mental illness and those who were Medicaid recipients were also more likely to use medications. Family income was also positively related to medication use and younger children were more likely to use medications than older children. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Welfare participation and social support in late life

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among participation in welfare programs, gender, and change in social support in adults aged 65 and older. It was hypothesized that older men receiving public assistance would encounter more social network problems than older women on welfare. The findings reveal that during the 7-year study older men in receipt of welfare benefits, compared with older women on welfare, received less social support from others, were more dissatisfied with the assistance they got, and encountered more negative interaction from informal social network members (i.e., family and friends). The results suggest that those who administer welfare programs, as well as public policymakers, should consider developing interventions that address the wider psychosocial problems associated with receiving public assistance.