Abstract
Welfare receipt often is correlated negatively with children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Yet, virtually all children in households that receive public assistance are poor, prompting the question of whether poor outcomes are an effect of welfare, a spurious relationship between welfare and child outcomes, or a result of welfare selection. Using the NLSY-CS, these possibilities are examined by controlling for poverty and for selection into welfare. Controlling for child and maternal characteristics accounts for the majority of bivariate associations between welfare and outcomes among Black children. Controlling for poverty does little to change the relationship between welfare and outcomes for Black or White children. Controlling for selection into welfare further reduces the relationship between welfare receipt and outcomes among White children and has little discernible effect among Black children.
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Driscoll, A.K., Moore, K.A. The Relationship of Welfare Receipt to Child Outcomes. Journal of Family and Economic Issues 20, 85–113 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022120014614
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022120014614