Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose: “While single mothers constitute less than one-fifth of all families, they make up half of all families in poverty…almost 40% of families headed by African American single mothers lived in poverty in 2002” (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2003, p.1). Despite the good intentions of antipoverty policies, the number of families headed by African American single mothers living in poverty continues to rise. In response to the recognition that traditional income support-based antipoverty programs are failing to reduce poverty levels, new approaches in public policy have been developed to promote asset ownership as a social development tool for low-income households. One such program that promotes asset building is the Individual Development Account (IDA). IDAs are matched savings accounts targeted to the working poor. This study used multilevel analysis to examine the experiences of African American single mothers participating in IDAs.

Methods: The data for this study come from the American Dream Demonstration, the first large-scale test of IDAs that followed 2,000 participants over 4 years (1997-2001) in 14 programs across the United States. The analytic sample consists of 431 African American single mothers. This study uses Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) because of the nested structure of the data, that is, individuals (1st level) are nested within programs (2nd level) (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Based on the assumptions of HLM, we hypothesized that the savings performances of African American single mothers were not independent of the effects of program characteristics. The outcome variable of interest was the participant's savings amount. Individual level covariates included demographic and financial characteristics (e.g., age, residency, number of children, number of adults in household, education, employment, income, public assistance, and bank account); assets (e.g., home, car, and business ownership); hours of financial education attended; and participant's savings goal. The program-level variables indicate the hours of financial education offered and whether a program offered direct-deposit and peer-group meetings.

Results: The multilevel analysis indicated that both program and individual characteristics are associated with increased savings levels for African American single mothers. The individual-level variables showed that age (p < .05) and the number of adults living in the household (p < .05) were positively associated with increased levels of savings. Business owners saved at higher levels compared to women who did not own a business (p < .05). Greater hours in uptake of financial education (p < .01) and higher levels of monthly savings goals (p < .01) were associated with increased savings levels. Program-level characteristics were also associated with increased savings. Controlling for other variables, participation in programs providing peer-mentoring groups was shown associated with a higher level of savings (p < .05).

Implications: African American single mothers have the ability to save toward accumulation of assets in IDAs. Both program and individual characteristics are important in explaining participant's saving performances. The importance of HLM techniques in evaluation of social work interventions is discussed. Recommendations are included for improved program design and IDA program promotion among African American single mothers.