Aurora P. Jackson, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, Todd M. Franke, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, and Peter M. Bentler, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles.
Using data from a 3-year longitudinal study, we investigated whether increases in low-wage employment (from Time 1 in 1996 to Time 2 in 1999) were associated with improved psychological and parenting outcomes in a random sample of 178 single mothers who were employed and nonemployed current and former welfare recipients both before and after the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Simultaneous SEM-fitting techniques were used to test hypotheses regarding the effect of employment on mothers' depressive symptoms and parenting style at Time 2, net of prior parenting and mental health, welfare receipt, and a set of demographic characteristics. Structural equation models were estimated using maximum likelihood and robust statistics in EQS (Bentler, in press) to examine the goodness of fit for a model that included three exogenous variables of mothers' depressive symptoms, parenting style, and welfare receipt, as well as two exogenous demographic characteristics of mothers' educational attainment and number of children in the household. These five variables were modeled as predictors of the endogenous variables of depressive symptoms and parenting style at Time 2. Welfare receipt between Time 1 and Time 2, financial strain at Time 2, and two factors representing work extent and pay at Time 1 and Time 2 were hypothesized to function as mediating endogenous variables.
Findings indicated that participation in employment predicted fewer depressive symptoms and less negative parenting style over time. Employment at Time 1 was associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving welfare in the interim between Time 1 and Time 2, less financial strain at Time 2, and (through these) a decrease in mothers' depressive symptoms at Time 2. Fewer depressive symptoms at Time 2, in turn, predicted less negative parenting style at Time 2. Mothers with higher educational attainment were more likely to be employed (and to earn more) at both time points. Although mothers earned substantially more at Time 2, being employed at Time 1 (before welfare reform) was more important vis-a-vis the psychological and parenting outcomes in this study than was becoming employed by Time 2 (after welfare reform).
Implications of these findings for welfare policies will be addressed. There are few (if any other) longitudinal data on single mothers with young children who were current and former welfare recipients both before and after the 1996 welfare act.
