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Tanf Policy Implementation: The Invisible Barrier, Roberta Rehner Iversen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Barriers to participation in welfare-to-work programs are generally described in terms of human and social capital. Findings from case examination of four Philadelphia-areaw elfare-to-work programs under TANF suggest that theory about policy implementation is more applicable. Faulty policy logic, organizational and personnel incompetence, and inadequate coordination between and within funding, referral, program, and employer organizations regularly resulted in delayed program start-ups and strained program operations. Generally invisible and absent from research attention, these implementation delays and strains impeded program staff efforts and harmed TANF recipients. States' 24-month time limit policies are a critical target for advocacy efforts.

The Spatial Shift In The Growth Of Poverty Among Families Headed By Employed Females, 1979-89, W. Richard Goe, Anisa Rhea

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The number of working poor families in the United States increased substantially during the 1979-89 period. This increase was found to disproportionately consist of families headed by employed females. The growth in poverty among families headed by employed females during this period was found to be nonstructural in nature and inequitably distributed across labor markets in the U.S. It was found that at the onset of the 1980s, high rates of poverty among families headed by employed females were predominantly concentrated in labor market areas in the South. Over the 1980s, the highest increases in poverty rates among such families …

Exploitation-The Invisible Hand Guided By A Blind Eye: Confronting A Flaw In Economic Theory, Phillip Dybicz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Economics is alone among the social science disciplines in failing to have a sound theory to explain behaviors when people do not act according to their self-interest, that is, with compassion. This has resulted in a fundamental flaw in economic thought. As economies have grown in scale and complexity, there has been a corresponding distancing between consumers and producers. This flaw has revealed itself through a lack of economic structures which bridge this distance, restore a level of intimacy within the economic interaction, and hence facilitate the expression of compassion.

Do Inner-City, African-American Males Exhibit "Bad Attitudes" Toward Work?, Jill Littrell, Elizabeth Beck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many potential employers of inner-city African-American men believe that African-American men have poor work attitudes. The investigations reported here attempted to evaluate the veridicality of this assumption. The responses of African-American men who utilize a soup-kitchen were compared with college men on a variety of attitude measures, as well as on their reactions to a scenario about a man who worked for an unfair boss and quit in response. Generally, little support for the view that innercity, African-Americans men have a predilection to presume prejudice or unfairness, or to render a favorable evaluation of quitting under unfair conditions, was found.

Racial And Gender Variations In The Process Shaping Earnings' Potential: The Consequences Of Poverty In Early Adulthood, C. Andri Mizell

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This research investigates the effects of poverty in early adulthood on future earnings. While social scientists are beginning to amass a considerable literature on the effects of poverty on outcomes for children, few have investigated the damage that impoverishment may do in early adulthood when individuals are in the midst of completing education and planning careers. The findings in this study indicate that poverty does dampen earnings' potential. However, individual characteristics (e.g., aspirations, esteem and ability) and structural location (e.g., educational attainment, occupational status and job tenure) may assuage the otherwise negative effects of poverty. Other findings reveal that the …

The Impact Of Education And Family Attributes On Attitudes And Responses To Unemployment Among Men And Women, Liat Kulik

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The study deals with differences between jobless Israeli women (n = 361) and men (n = 253) in relation to the following aspects of unemployment: Reasons for rejecting potential jobs, job search intensity, and responses to unemployment. The women mentioned more reasons for rejecting potential jobs, and their health-related responses to unemployment were more extreme than those of the men. However, the men tended to seekemployment more intensively than did the women.

Married respondents of both sexes showed the greatest tendency to reject potential employment due to conflict with family responsibilities. Married women were also more likely than their male …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 27, No. 2 (June 2000)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• DO INNER-CITY, AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES EXHIBIT "BAD ATTITUDES" TOWARD WORK? - Jill Littrell & Elizabeth Beck
• EXPLOITATION-THE INVISIBLE HAND GUIDED BY A BLIND EYE: CONFRONTING A FLAW IN ECONOMIC THEORY - Phillip Dybicz
• WORK AND ECONOMIC OUTCOMES AFTER WELFARE - Thomas P. Vartanian & Justine M. McNamara
• THE SPATIAL SHIFT IN THE GROWTH OF POVERTY AMONG FAMILIES HEADED BY EMPLOYED FEMALES, 1979-89 - W. Richard Goe & Anisa Rhea
• CONFLICTING BUREAUCRACIES, CONFLICTED WORK: DILEMMAS IN CASE MANAGEMENT FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS - Linda E. Francis
• RACIAL AND GENDER VARIATIONS IN THE PROCESS SHAPING EARNINGS' POTENTIAL: THE …

Work And Economic Outcomes After Welfare, Thomas P. Vartanian, Justine M. Mcnamara

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Using data from the 1969 to 1993 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this article examines a number of models to determine the characteristics of AFDC recipients who fare well economically after they initially leave the welfare system. The study includes analyses of income levels, time spent employed and not employed, and time spent below the poverty line. Hypotheses regarding state welfare payments, area economic conditions, human capital and time spent receiving welfare are examined. The findings indicate that area employment conditions and the ability to quickly find work greatly affect the likelihood of faring well economically after welfare. We found …

Conflicting Bureaucracies, Conflicted Work: Dilemmas In Case Management For Homeless People With Mental Illness, Linda E. Francis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This ethnographic study finds a case management agency torn between the rules of two conflicting bureaucracies. Funded by a federal grant, the agency is administered by the county, and the regulations of the two systems turn out to be incompatible. This conflict creates dilemmas in providing services to clients: meeting eligibility criteria for services from the federal grant meant the clients did not meet the eligibility criteria for many County services. Agency staff reacted to this dilemma by bending rules, finding loopholes, and investing extra time and emotional labor in each client. The role-conflict engendered by bureaucratic disjunction creates frustration, …

Review Of Social Security In Global Perspective. John Dixon. Reviewed By Paul Terrell, University Of California, Berkeley., Paul Terrell

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of John Dixon, Social Security in Global Perspective. Westport, Ct: Praeger Publishers, 1999. $69.50 hardcover, $27.95 papercover.

Review Of The Internet And Technology For The Human Services. Howard Karger And Joanne Levine. Reviewed By Sharon Pittman, Andrews University, Sharon Pittman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Howard Karger and Joanne Levine, The Internet and Technology for the Human Services, NewYork: Longman, 1999. $27.19 paperback.

Review Of Repackaging The Welfare State. Pranab Chatterjee. Reviewed By Larry Nackerud, University Of Georgia., Larry Nackerud

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Pranab Chatterjee, Repackaging the Welfare State. Washington, DC: NASW Press, 1999. $32.95 paperback.

The Generational Equity Debate. John B. Williamson, Diane M. Watts-Roy And Eric R. Kingson (Eds.).

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for John B. Williamson, Diane M. Watts-Roy and Eric R. Kingson (Eds.), The Generational Equity Debate. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. $ 49.50 hardcover, $ 25.00 papercover.

Why Americans Hate Welfare. Martin Gilens.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999. $ 25 hardcover, $19.95 papercover.

Home Of The Shepherd: A Study Of Past Program Participants' Experience Of Organizational Values, Cynthia J. Foster

Theses and Graduate Projects

This study examined value congruency within an organization as experienced by clients as a measure of organizational effectiveness. Twenty-six females, all of whom were past program participants, were involved in the study. Study participants completed a self-administered questionnaire devised to elicit perceptions of their experience of the organization's values. Study participants had departed from the organization at least six months or longer prior to the study. Findings suggest that the values of the organization were evident in the services clients received. The clients' experience of the organizational values also had a positive effect on the clients' ability to accomplish their …

The Experience Of Recovery From The Perspective Of Chemically Dependent Women: A Qualitative Study, Heidi Kammer Jensen

Theses and Graduate Projects

Research on the experience of chemically dependent women has evolved over the past two decades. This qualitative study contributes to the increasing research on women's issues by exploring the experience and meaning of recovery for women. An interview guide was used to conduct in-depth interviews with six women about their meanings of recovery and motivation for seeking and maintaining recovery Content analysis was used to find common themes of the recovering experience. Results of the study concluded that recovery for a women is not only sobriety, but also includes change and self-discovery. Findings displayed themes of insight and pain as …

A Descriptive Study Of Accessibility To Mobile Crisis Services, Joni M. Heine

Theses and Graduate Projects

Mobile crisis services are seen as a secondary modality in provision of health care services. Past research indicated a lack of integration into the health care system and funding as obstructions. Accessing these services is limited to law enforcement, jails, emergency rooms, crisis line phone contacts, and providers. This research explored a mobile crisis service from greater Minnesota as a primary modality in health care services by examining who was accessing the service, voluntary or non-voluntary individuals in relation to hospitalization, and follow up and does this relationship vary by gender, utilizing the chi-square statistical test. Hospitalization and follow up …

Fathers' Lived Experiences Of Perinatal Loss: A Hermeneutic Study, Leann R. Nelson

Theses and Graduate Projects

Despite a growing body of perinatal loss research since 1970, the lived experiences of fathers bereaved by perinatal death are virtually unexamined. This interpretive study presents shared meanings and common themes uncovered, using hermeneutic research methodology, in the transcribed texts of in-depth interviews with three bereaved fathers. The fathers' narratives revealed how they lived with two abiding philosophical questions--"Why us?" and "What if?"--during and for a long time after the actual loss experience. Fathers' cultural understanding of life and death as a natural progression was undermined by their loss experience, leaving them with an understanding of the tentativeness of life …

Substance Dependent Women And Family Support, Christina Marie Decker

Theses and Graduate Projects

This hermeneutic study was undertaken to discover the lived experience of two substance dependent women with family support. This study attempted to capture the experience of two women and show how this experience affected their recoveries. The use of the hermeneutic research method allowed the researcher to engage in a process with the participants, both shaping and being shaped by the experience. The women's experiences were interpreted around the theme of connection. This involved a fluid process by which the women disconnected from original family, connected with other supports and then reconnected with original family in their new role as …

Trends. Abuses Of Child Abuse: Suspecting The Usual Suspects In The World Of Elian Gonzalez, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the concept of child abuse, and expert opinion about it, pertaining to the Elian Gonzalez case. Many different definitions of child abuse were applied to the situation (from differing perspectives) as authorities tried to decide if Gonzalez belonged in Miami, Florida with is "new family," or in Cuba with his father.

The Role Of Community Support Programs With Mothers And Fathers Who Are Mentally Ill, Deborah A. Hesli

Theses and Graduate Projects

Although issues faced by adults with mental illness have been visible for centuries, the implications of mental illness on parenting have only recently been considered. Consequently, service providers in the mental health field have begun to examine their roles with these families, such as balancing the rights of the parent with disabilities with the vulnerabilities of the children. This study asked service providers in the mental health field about their roles working with parents with mental illness and their children. A questionnaire was completed by twenty-one Community Support Program staff working in an urban setting with parents with a mental …

The New Philanthropy In The New West Virginia, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Although philanthropy is a very old concept, many authorities today see a new philanthropy, including dramatic increases in donations and the assets of foundations. Also a new West Virginia may be emerging from the past of the forest agriculture of buckskin-clad mountaineers and coal mining. This presentation examines the convergence of the new philanthropy and this new West Virginia.

The Changing American Mosaic: An Introduction, Wilma Peebles-Wilkins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article, in addition to introducing the special journal issue on the changing American mosaic, provides a synthesis of issues associated with changing demographic trends as the number of people of color increase between 2000-2050. Welfare reform, structural inequality, and the convergence of race, class and gender issues are discussed in a civil rights context. A brief summary of the other journal articles by Glen Loury; Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca Zinn; Ruth Sidel; Mary Krist, Douglas Gurak, Likwang Chen; Doris Wilkinson and Margaret Gibelman is also provided.

The Missing Safety Net And Families: A Progressive Critique Of The New Welfare Legislation, D. Stanley Eitzen, Maxine Baca Zinn

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is an overview essay on the 1996 welfare legislation and its consequences. The paper is divided into five parts: (1) The basic elements of the legislation; (2) The conservative assumptions undergirding this legislation and the progressive responses to them; (3) The consequences of the legislation for individuals and families; (4) The missing elements in the new welfare legislation; and (5) The progressive solution to welfare.

Affirmative Action At The Crossroads: A Social Justice Perspective, Margaret Gibelman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reviews the basis for the policy of affirmative action within the context of changing social values. Both the aims and unanticipated consequences of affirmative action are explored, the latter of which have resulted in substantial backlash and the real possibility of policy overturn. Within this context, the position of the social welfare community toward and involvement in affirmative action is traced. An agenda for social work in current and future debates about affirmative action is offered which takes into account the original social problem-discrimination-within redefined societal values and political realities. Alternative remedies to affirmative action, it is argued, …

Review Of The Future Of Child Protection. Jane Waldfogel. Reviewed By Leroy H. Pelton, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas., Leroy H. Pelton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Jane Waldfogel, The Future of Child Protection. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. $39.95 hardcover.

Managed Care In Human Services. Stephen P. Wernet.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Stephen P. Wernet, Managed Care in Human Services, Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books, 1999. $32.95 papercover.

Recasting Egalitarianism: New Rules For Communities, States And Markets. Samuel Bowles And Herbert Gintis.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Recasting Egalitarianism:N ew Rules for Communities, States and Markets. New York: Verso, 1999. $13.00 papercover

Review Of International Development. David Stoesz, Charles Guzetta And Mark Lusk. Reviewed By Anthony Hall, London School Of Economics And Political Science., Anthony Hall

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of David Stoesz, Charles Guzzetta and Mark Lusk, International Development. Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1999. $56.67 hardcover.

The Enemy Within: The Demonization Of Poor Women, Ruth Sidel

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The denigration and demonization of poor women was central to the effort to repeal Aid to Families with Dependent Children by the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The utilization of negative stereotypes involving race, class and gender effectively marginalized impoverished women and their children, who were blamed for virtually all of the social problems of the United States during the 1990s. Despite the massive concentration of wealth and income in the hands of the wealthiest Americans and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, the United States continues to ignore the need for …