TRENDS IN ALCOHOL PROBLEMS UNDER WELFARE REFORM

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DESCRIPTION: Research Component 5 speaks to timely concerns about the changing circumstances of low-income people with alcohol problems in the 1990s, a period of important changes in the economy and in federal policies under welfare reform. The project tracks change in alcohol and drug problems, and their socioeconomic correlates, by comparing an existing sample of welfare recipients interviewed in 1989 with a new, comparable sample collected in 2001. Both samples are representative of welfare recipients in a large California county interviewed at intake for federally-funded Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF, formerly Aid to Families with Dependent Children [AFDC]) and county-funded General Assistance (GA). Analyses examine trends in the burden of alcohol and drug problems on AFDC/TANF and GA to better understand secular changes in who welfare programs have to work with, in terms of the functional capacities and substance-related disabilities of their clientele. The study also examines the impact of changing substance-related client eligibility criteria, or "gate-keeping" policies, on the characteristics of the AFDC/TANF and GA caseloads over time. By incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods, we investigate the hypothesis that more punitive federal welfare reform gatekeeping policies around substance abuse have contributed to reductions in rates of alcohol and drug problems in the TANF population, while increasing the burden of alcohol and drug problems on local GA -- the welfare program of last resort for substance abusers unable to obtain federal aid through TANF. Component 5 builds on the Center?s past services research on the public agency response to alcohol problems in communities, and on the Center?s track record of research on alcohol and drug problems in the welfare population. At the same time, it expands those agendas by tracking change over time in the social handling of a large, special population of problem drinkers in America, and by examining how this population is being affected by major social policies occurring outside the narrow field of alcohol policy.