Alcohol Problems & Service Dynamics after Welfare Reform

本研究追踪四年来有代表性的福利受助人样本，探讨在福利改革时代，酒精和毒品问题与服务使用、贫困和失业之间的纵向关系的变化。2001年春季，在整个加利福尼亚州县对有代表性的福利受助人进行了调查，他们申请了联邦贫困家庭临时援助(TANF，以前的援助有受扶养儿童的家庭)和当地资助的一般援助(GA)。然后在基线后的12、24、36和48个月对这些接受者中具有代表性的子样本--包括酗酒者和重度吸毒者的过抽样--进行跟踪和重新访谈。目的是测试福利改革提出的重要新假设，这些假设涉及关键计划变化如何影响有酒精和毒品问题的客户，以及改变他们经济流动性和成瘾康复的前景。该项目使用事件历史分析来研究酒精和毒品问题之间的关系以及福利依赖的循环。它考察了酒精在围绕特定福利退出和重新进入事件的环境中的作用，包括这些事件如何作为后续福利回报的预测因素。进一步的分析试图更好地理解饮酒、吸毒和贫困状况之间的联系，因为它们随着时间的推移而一起变化，并与福利依赖有关。最后，该项目审查了当今加强的酒精和药物治疗福利干预，作为可能改变接受援助的人的饮酒轨迹和服务生涯的因素。

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.