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

在21世纪初，美国贫困和接近贫困的儿童的学习水平和学校表现仍然是全国的重要问题。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成果，以进一步发展他们成为有生产力的公民的潜力。特别值得关注的是贫困中的种族/少数民族儿童的成绩水平。全国性的研究表明，黑人和白人儿童智商分数的差异有一半以上是由家庭收入的差异造成的。黑人和拉丁裔儿童面临着特别严重的经济劣势，在学校和其他环境中受到差别待遇。由于联邦、州和地方针对低收入家庭的政策气候迅速变化，种族、贫困、收入和学习成绩等问题变得尤为紧迫。随着1996年《个人责任与工作机会协调法案》（P.L. 104-193）的通过，福利改革政策在政府鼓励低收入父母脱离福利而去工作方面产生了深刻的变化。联邦儿童倡议敦促研究人员检查福利改革政策的变化对儿童的影响（科学和技术政策办公室，1997年）。目前的研究考察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。本研究旨在探索收入和就业变化可能影响儿童学业表现的多重中介途径。这些样本来自5个实验性福利改革和反贫困政策项目，这些项目都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查收入和就业的变化，这些变化是由实验操纵的，而不是主要由先前的家庭选择因素决定的。这项研究的目的有三个。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黑人、拉丁裔和白人单亲福利家庭的儿童中期学业表现的影响是否不同？其次，本研究旨在探索收入和就业变化对学习成绩影响的多重中介途径中这些群体之间的差异。所包括的领域由儿童发展的社会心理、寿命、生态和人力资本理论提供信息，并包括两个主要的微系统，或发展的近端环境（家庭和儿童保育环境）。调解员包括儿童保育使用，包括数量和类型；婚姻;养育方式，包括权威型养育和认知刺激；以及父母对孩子学业成功的渴望。中介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维度如何缓和这些直接和中介效应。我们选择了当前福利改革方案存在差异的三个主要方面进行调查：时间限制、财政激励的慷慨程度（不考虑收入和补充收入）以及强制性的就业相关活动。该研究利用了一些项目的数据集，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维度上有很大不同，反映了当前TANF计划的范围。它们涵盖了广泛的地理范围，包括来自四个州政策背景的样本（明尼苏达州、加利福尼亚州、佛罗里达州和康涅狄格州）。此外，数据集包含了足够大的黑人、拉丁裔和白人家庭的亚组，以便对中介途径进行比较。所提出的分析不同于已经并将在这些项目的主要评估报告中报告的总体实验影响。因此，这项研究提供了一个独特的机会，可以在实验设计的背景下检查收入和就业对种族/民族特定的发展影响，以及福利和反贫困政策的变化。

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.