Effects of Experimental Changes in Income and Employment on Middle-Childhood Learning

在二十一世纪伊始，美国贫困和接近贫困的儿童的学习水平和学习成绩继续对全国具有重要意义。公众、政策制定者和研究人员一致认为，需要共同努力改善低收入家庭儿童的教育结果，以进一步发展他们成为有生产力的公民的潜力。尤其值得关注的是，贫困中的种族/少数民族儿童的成就水平。全国性的研究表明，黑人和白人儿童的智商差异有一半以上是由家庭收入差异造成的。黑人和拉丁裔儿童面临特别严重的经济劣势，以及学校和其他环境中的差别待遇。由于低收入家庭的联邦、州和地方政策气候迅速变化，种族、贫困、收入和学校表现问题尤为紧迫。在1996年通过《个人责任和工作机会协调法》(第104-193号法律)后，福利改革政策使政府的激励措施发生了深刻变化，促使低收入父母放弃福利，进入工作岗位。联邦儿童倡议敦促研究人员研究福利改革政策的变化对儿童的影响(科技政策办公室，1997)。目前的研究调查了收入和就业的变化如何对黑人、拉丁裔和白人家庭的孩子的学习表现产生不同的影响。这项研究旨在探索收入和就业变化可能影响孩子学习成绩的多种中介途径。样本来自5个实验性的福利改革和反贫困政策项目，这些项目显示了收入和就业的短期增长，并纳入了对儿童学校表现的后续评估。这些数据将提供一个难得的机会来检验收入和就业的变化，这些变化是经过实验操纵的，而不是主要由先前的家庭选择因素决定的。这项研究的目标有三个。首先，它旨在回答这样一个问题：儿童早期收入和就业的变化对领取福利的黑人、拉丁裔和白人单亲家庭在中学的表现是否有不同的影响？其次，本研究旨在探索这些群体在收入和就业变化对学习成绩影响的多个中介途径上的差异。所包括的领域由儿童发展的心理社会、寿命、生态和人力资本理论提供信息，并包括两个主要的发展微系统或近距离环境(家庭和儿童保育环境)。中介因素包括儿童保育使用，包括数量和类型；婚姻；育儿实践，包括权威育儿和认知刺激；以及父母对孩子在学校取得成功的期望。调解关系的种类和强度的差异是假设的，取决于种族/民族群体。第三，将探讨当前福利和反贫困政策的各个方面如何缓和这些直接和间接影响的问题。当前福利改革计划的三个主要维度被选为调查对象：时间限制、慷慨的经济激励(收入不计和补贴)以及强制的就业相关活动。这项研究利用了项目的数据集，这些项目测试了通过反贫困和福利改革政策鼓励就业和提高家庭收入的方法。这些计划在三个政策层面上有很大的不同，并反映了TANF计划的当前范围。它们涵盖了广泛的地理范围，包括来自四个州政策背景(明尼苏达州、加利福尼亚州、佛罗里达州和康涅狄格州)的样本。此外，数据集包含了黑人、拉丁裔和白人家庭的子组，其规模足够大，从而能够比较中介途径。拟议的分析与已经并将在这些方案的主要评估报告中报告的总体实验影响不同。因此，这项研究提供了一个独特的机会，在实验设计以及福利和反贫困政策的变化的背景下，审查收入和就业对特定种族/族裔的发展影响。

Levels of learning and school performance among children in and near poverty in the United States continue to be of national import at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The public, policy makers, and researchers agree that concerted efforts to improve the educational outcomes of children in low-income families are required to further develop their potential to become productive citizens. Concern is particularly warranted for the achievement levels of racial/ethnic minority children in poverty. National studies show that differences in family income account for over half of the differences among Black and White children in IQ scores. Black and Latino children are exposed to particularly high levels of economic disadvantage, as well as differential treatment in school and other settings.Issues of race, poverty, income and school performance take on a special urgency due to rapidly changing federal, state and local policy climates for low-income families. Welfare reform policies, following passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193), have produced profound changes in government incentives to move low -income parents off welfare and into work. The federal Children's Initiative has urged researchers to examine effects of variation in welfare reform policies on children (Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1997).The current study examines how changes in income and employment might affect children's school performance differently for Black, Latino, and White families. The study aims to explore multiple mediating pathways through which changes in income and employment may affect children's school performance. The samples are drawn from 5 experimental welfare reform and anti-poverty policy programs, which have demonstrated short-term rises in income and employment, and which incorporate follow-up assessments of child school performance. The data will afford a rare opportunity to examine changes in income and employment which have been experimentally manipulated, rather than determined primarily by prior family selection factors.The objectives of this study are threefold. First, it aims to answer the question: Do changes in income and employment in early childhood affect middle-childhood school performance differently for Black, Latino, and White single-parent families on welfare? Second, the study aims to explore differences among these groups in multiple mediating pathways through which effects of changes in income and employment on school performance may occur. Areas included are informed by psychosocial, lifespan, ecological, and human capital theories of child development, and encompass two principal microsystems, or proximal settings, of development (the home and child care settings). The mediators encompass child care use, including quantity and type; marriage; parenting practices, including authoritative parenting and cognitive stimulation; and parent aspirations for their children's school success. Differences in kind and strength of mediated relationships are hypothesized, depending on racial/ethnic group. Third, the question of how dimensions in current welfare and anti-poverty policy moderate these direct and mediated effects will be explored. Three primary dimensions across which current welfare reform programs differ are chosen for investigation: time limits, generosity of financial incentives (earnings disregards and supplements), and mandated employment-related activities.The study utilizes data sets from programs which test approaches to encouraging employment and raising family income through anti-poverty and welfare reform policy. The programs differ considerably on the three policy dimensions, and reflect the current range of TANF programs. They cover a wide geographic range, including samples from four state policy contexts (Minnesota, California, Florida, and Connecticut). Moreover, the data sets incorporate subgroups of Black, Latino and White families of large enough size to enable comparisons of mediating pathways. The analyses proposed are distinct from the overall experimental impacts which have been and will be reported in the main evaluation reports for these programs. The study thus presents a unique opportunity to examine race/ethnicity-specific developmental effects of income and employment in the contexts of experimental designs, and variation in welfare and anti-poverty policy.