Alcohol Problems & Service Dynamics after Welfare Reform

本研究以4年多的福利领取者为样本，研究了福利改革时代酒精和毒品问题与服务使用、贫困和失业之间纵向关系的变化。 在整个加州县的福利受助人的代表性样本进行了调查，在2001年春天，因为他们申请联邦临时援助贫困家庭（TANF，以前的援助有受抚养子女的家庭）和当地资助的一般援助（GA）。 然后，对这些接受者的代表性子样本（包括过量的问题饮酒者和重度吸毒者）进行跟踪调查，并在基线后12个月、24个月、36个月和48个月再次进行访谈。 其目的是测试福利改革提出的重要新假设，即关键的计划变化如何影响有酒精和毒品问题的客户，并改变他们的经济流动性和成瘾恢复的前景。 该项目使用事件历史分析来研究酒精和毒品问题与福利依赖周期之间的关系。 它研究酒精的作用，在特定的福利退出和再进入事件的情况下，包括这些事件如何可以作为随后的福利回报的预测。 进一步的分析旨在更好地了解饮酒、吸毒和贫困状况之间的联系，因为它们随着时间的推移而变化，并与福利依赖有关。 最后，该项目研究了今天的酒精和药物治疗作为因素，可以改变人们的饮酒轨迹和服务职业生涯的援助，加强福利干预。

This study follows a representative sample of welfare recipients over 4 years, to examine changes in the longitudinal relationships between alcohol and drug problems and service use, poverty and unemployment in the welfare reform era. A representative sample of welfare recipients throughout an entire California county are surveyed in the Spring of 2001, as they apply for federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF, formerly Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and locally-funded General Assistance (GA). A representative sub-sample of these recipients - including an over-sample of problem drinkers and heavy drug users - are then followed and re-interviewed at 12, 24, 36 and 48 months after baseline. The objective is to test important new hypotheses raised by welfare reform concerning how key program changes are affecting clients with alcohol and drug problems, and changing their prospects for economic mobility and addiction recovery. The project uses event history analysis to study the relationships between alcohol and drug problems and cycles of welfare dependency. It examines alcohol's role in the circumstances surrounding particular welfare exit and re-entry events, including how these events can serve as predictors of subsequent welfare returns. Further analyses seek to better understand the associations between drinking, drug use and poverty conditions as they vary together over time and in relation to welfare dependency. Finally, the project examines today's enhanced welfare interventions for alcohol and drug treatment as factors that can alter the drinking trajectories and service careers of people on aid.