Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Welfare Reform

Depression among African American Welfare-to-Work Housing Voucher Recipients: Predictors and Practice Implications

PURPOSE: The main purposes of this quantitative study were to (1) examine the levels of depression of African American welfare-to-work (WTW) housing voucher recipients, and (2) estimate a regression model of various demographic, physical health, food hardship, social support, and family well-being that best predicts voucher holders’ level of depression.

METHODS: A random sample of 101 WTW housing voucher recipients completed self-administered mail surveys. The survey included items measuring demographic characteristics, individual and family health, housing situation employment, social support, and depression (CES-D). All of the participants were African American females. The majority were single, never been married (66%) and have between one and seven children (mean = 3) under 18 years old. Participants’ ages ranged from 21 to 53 with a mean age of 34 years old. About 47% of participants reported a score of 16 or higher (indicating clinical depression) on the CES-D. Overall, the mean score of the CES-D was 17.7 on a scale of 0 to 48 with higher scores indicating greater depression.

RESULTS: A stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted to estimate a regression model that best predicts levels of depression of WTW voucher recipients. Four factors emerged as significant predictors of depression. With a beta of -.50, physical health emerged as the most significant predictor of depression accounting for 12% of the variance in depression. The second two most significant predictors of depression were child having problem at school (beta = .29) and food hardship (beta = .22). Each factor accounted for 7.2% of the variance in depression. The last factor was informal social support (beta = -.20), however accounting for 3.7% of the variance in depression. Overall, the model explained 30% of the variance in depression (R = .55).

IMPLICATIONS: This study calls for the design of welfare-to-work initiatives that promote physical and mental health screening combined with therapeutic intervention that are culturally dependent. It also suggests greater attention to informal social supports in moving individuals to self-reliance.

See more of Welfare Reform
See more of Oral and Poster

See more of Celebrating a Decade of SSWR (January 13 - 16, 2005)