INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT EFFECTS ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

收入和就业对儿童和家庭的影响

• 批准号: 2705827
• 负责人: ALETHA C HUSTON
• 金额: $ 64.38万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-02-01 至 2002-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2705827
• 关键词: adolescence (12-20); behavioral /social science research tag; child behavior; child care; child psychology; clinical research; education; employment /unemployment; family structure /dynamics; health care; health insurance; health services research tag; human subject; income; interview; longitudinal human study; middle childhood (6-11); motivation; preschool child (1-5); psychological stressor; public assistance; quality of life; self concept; social behavior; urban poverty area

The long-term consequences of economic policies for children's development and healthy families have both theoretical and practical import. Almost all extant studies testing income effects on children and families are non-experimental; therefore, they are subject to the criticism that unmeasured correlates of income may account for all or part of the effects observed. This is a proposal to assess the impact on family functioning and child well-being of the New Hope Project, a 3-year random-assignment experiment designed to test the effectiveness of a multifaceted employment-based anti-poverty program for families who are economically poor. Because its goal is reduction of poverty, New Hope rests on different assumptions than many interventions designed to reduce welfare dependence. It provides job-search assistance, wage supplements that raise income above the poverty threshold, and subsidies for health insurance and child care in a rigorous random assignment experimental design; hence, it represents a strong test of the causal effects of income, benefits, and employment on family functioning and child development. Because control group members are also affected by changes brought about by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Act, this project offers information that is especially pertinent to public policy affecting the working and nonworking poor. An extensive survey, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, is currently being completed 24 months after the point of random assignment to families with one or more children ages 3 through 12. Information is collected on parents' income, employment, use of child care, health care, psychological well-being, and parenting practices. Children's educational progress, aspirations, school motivation, well-being, and social behavior is assessed using information collected from parents, children, and teachers. This proposal seeks funding to: (i) complete the 24-month analysis; (ii) collect and analyze ethnographic data from 40 experimental and 20 control families between 24 and 60 months after random assignment; (iv) collect and analyze data from a survey administered to sample families 60 months after the point of random assignment. The primary analytic questions are the extent to which: (i) the likely increase in maternal labor supply alter family schedules to the benefit or detriment of children; (ii) the higher incomes occasioned by the wage supplements translate into resources for children; (iii) social-psychological changes in adults' stress or self-esteem are affected, and (iv) how all of these changes in turn affect family life and children's well-being, educational progress, and social development in early childhood through early adolescence.

经济政策对儿童发展和健康家庭的长期影响具有重要的理论和实践意义。几乎所有现有的测试收入对儿童和家庭影响的研究都是非实验性的；因此，它们受到了批评，即未测量的收入相关性可能解释了所观察到的影响的全部或部分。这是一项评估新希望项目对家庭功能和儿童福祉影响的提案。新希望项目是一项为期3年的随机分配实验，旨在测试针对经济贫困家庭的多方面就业扶贫计划的有效性。由于其目标是减少贫困，新希望建立在与许多旨在减少福利依赖的干预措施不同的假设上。它在严格的随机分配实验设计中提供求职援助、将收入提高到贫困线以上的工资补贴，以及对医疗保险和儿童保育的补贴；因此，它代表着对收入、福利和就业对家庭功能和儿童发展的因果影响的有力检验。由于控制组成员也受到1996年《个人责任和工作机会法》带来的变化的影响，该项目提供了与影响贫困劳动者和非贫困人口的公共政策特别相关的信息。由麦克阿瑟基金会资助的一项广泛的调查目前正在完成，调查是在随机分配给有一个或多个孩子的3至12岁的家庭24个月后完成的。调查收集的信息包括父母的收入、就业、对儿童保育的使用、医疗保健、心理健康和育儿实践。使用从父母、孩子和老师那里收集的信息来评估孩子的教育进步、抱负、学校动机、幸福感和社会行为。该提案寻求资金用于：(1)完成为期24个月的分析；(2)在随机分配后24至60个月期间收集和分析40个试验性家庭和20个对照家庭的人种学数据；(4)收集和分析在随机分配点后60个月对样本家庭进行的调查数据。主要的分析问题是：(I)母亲劳动力供应的可能增加在多大程度上改变了家庭的日程安排，对儿童有利或不利；(Ii)工资补贴带来的更高收入转化为儿童资源；(Iii)成年人压力或自尊的社会心理变化受到影响；以及(Iv)所有这些变化如何反过来影响儿童早期和青春期的家庭生活和儿童的福祉、教育进步和社会发展。