Impact of Mothers' Welfare Program on Child Outcomes

Abstract

There have been a number of programs aimed at reducing the welfare dependence of single mother families. These programs usually operate by providing young welfare mothers access to an array of education, employment, and family services to increase their human capital, employment and reduce or eliminate their reliance on welfare. Most of the existing studies examine the impact of these programs on the women they target. I try to examine the spillover effect of one such program on the family, more particularly children of the participating mothers'. Using a randomized experiment that provided education, training and life skill services to teenage high school dropout mothers' as the policy, I examine the impact of mothers' participation in the program on their preschool children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes and also try to look at the pathway through which it might be operating. My estimates suggest that the program is negatively impacting the children, both on cognitive and behavioral outcomes.