Social Work Commons^™

Impact Of Asset Ownership On Social Inclusion, Margaret Lombe, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

Persistent poverty and social exclusion suggest the need for more innovative interventions to reduce severe need and create terms for meaningful participation of vulnerable individuals in economic, political, and social exchange. One such innovation is asset ownership. This study explores the relationship between asset ownership and social inclusion using the human capabilities approach. Findings indicate a significant relationship, suggesting a role for asset-based policy and programs in interventions to foster social inclusion.

The Poverty Of Unattached Senior Women And The Canadian Retirement Income System: A Matter Of Blame Or Contradiction?, Amber Gazso

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Structural and financial inadequacy of Canada's retirement income system, especially with respect to income support benefits (i.e. Old Age Security), are often identified as one major reason unattached senior women experience poverty. While it may be compelling to blame low benefit levels and changing eligibility requirements, particularly because 'crisis' policy discourses have influenced questionable restructuring over time (i.e. the clawback), this paper argues that this is too simplistic of an account of the relationship between these women's poverty and the retirement income system. Other broad social-structural factors are at play in women's lives that have the potential to disentitle their …

Gender Poverty Disparity In Us Cities: Evidence Exonerating Female-Headed Families, Sara Lichtenwalter

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Utilizing data from the 2000 Census, this study examines the impact of family composition, education, and labor force factors on the difference between female and male poverty rates in the 70 largest U.S. cities. A stepwise regression analysis indicates that 41 % of the difference between female and male poverty rates can be explained by the percent of women in the three US Bureau of Labor Statistic's lowest wage occupations. There was no evidence of a unique impact from the percentage of female headed families in each city, or the study's other independent variables, on the gender poverty gap, with …

The Financial Feasibility Of Marriage For Women Receiving Tanf: An Analysis Of Six States, Sally Margaret Brocksen

Theses and Dissertations

This project employed a descriptive case study methodology guided by rational choice theory to examine the financial feasibility of marriage for low income women. By modeling the income and expenses of eight different low income family types in six states (Arizona, California, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wisconsin) this study illustrates the financial situation of various low income families. The family types under investigation include: a single parent family, a family receiving TANF, cohabiting couple with two wage earners, cohabiting couple with one wage earner, a married family with two wage earners, a married couple with one wage earner, a …

The Welfare Myth: Disentangling The Long-Term Effects Of Poverty And Welfare Receipt For Young Single Mothers, Thomas P. Vartanian, Justine M. Mcnamara

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study investigates the effects of receiving welfare as a young woman on long-term economic and marital outcomes. Specifically, we examine if there are differences between young, single mothers who receive welfare and young, single mothers who are poor but do not receive welfare. Using the 1968-1997 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, our findings suggest those who receive welfare for an extended period as young adults have the same pre-transfer income over a 10 to 20 year period as those who are poor but do not receive welfare as young adults. While we found some differences between the two groups …

Digital Divide In Computer Access And Use Between Poor And Non-Poor Youth, Mary Keegan Eamon

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The main objectives of this study were to examine the "digital divide" in home computer ownership and to evaluate differences in academic and non-academic computer use between poor and non-poor youth. Data from a national sample of 1,029, 10- through 14-year-old young adolescents were analyzed. Results show that poor youth were .36 times as likely to own a home computer, but equally as likely to use their home computer for academic purposes as were non-poor youth. Poor youth did not differ from non-poor youth in how often they used any computer for academic purposes, but were less likely to use …

Presidents, Profits, Productivity, & Poverty: A Great Divide Between The Pre- & Post-Reagan U.S. Economy?, Richard K. Caputo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examined profits, productivity, and poverty in the United States from 1961 through 2002. Results indicated that the "great divide" thesis regarding the U.S. economy before and after the Reagan administration depends on which measure of the economy is the focus of attention. In addition, on some measures where before and after differences were detected, the nature of those differences was paradoxical. Corporate profits as a share of national income, for example, were highest in Democratic rather than Republican administrations and despite the increased income inequality of the post-Reagan years, individual and family poverty rates remained relatively constant after …

The Struggle To Make Ends Meet: Teen Employment And The 1996 Federal Welfare Legislation, Shirley L. Porterfield, Anne E. Winkler

Center for Social Development Research

This study investigates the possibility that teens in more economically-disadvantaged families may have entered the labor market in response to the 1996 welfare legislation that replaced AFDC with TANF. Data are from the outgoing rotation groups of the Current Population Survey (CPS) from September 1995-May 1996 (pre-TANF) and from September 2000-May 2001 (post-TANF). To identify the policy's effect, we compare changes in the employment of teens in economically-disadvantaged families over the study period with changes in the employment of their more advantaged counterparts (a "difference-in-difference" methodology). We find that teen employment significantly increased among those in economically-disadvantaged families relative to …

Disentangling The Dynamics Of Family Poverty And Child Disability: Does Disability Come First?, Shirley L. Porterfield, Colleen Tracey

Center for Social Development Research

Disentangling the Dynamics of Family Poverty and Child Disability: Does Disability Come First?

Individual Development Accounts In Rural Communities: Implications For Research, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Jami Curley

Center for Social Development Research

Individual Development Accounts in Rural Communities: Implications for Research

Crossing Divides: New Common Ground On Poverty And Economic Security, Tammy Draut, David Callahan, Corinna Hawkes

Center for Social Development Research

Crossing Divides: New Common Ground on Poverty and Economic Security

Weg Von Der Armut Durch Soziokulturelle Integration : Bei Sozialhilfeabhängigkeit, Alter Und Behinderung, Jonas Strom, Matthias Szadrowsky, Isidor Wallimann

Books

A person who has to live alone is marginalized and impoverished socially and culturally. A person must be able to participate in society - through education, culture, through the inclusion in civil society organizations, family and politics. If this is achieved, it will result in the person having more opportunities to secure this social and material existence and will more slowly become financially dependent and would be dependent for a shorter period of time. This in turn means financial relief for the State. It also ensures that human rights are afforded and promotes personal development.Previous research has provided many answers …

Depression And Poverty Among African-American Women At Risk For Type 2 Diabetes, Mary De Groot, Wendy Auslander, James Herbert Williams, Michael Sherraden, Debra Haire-Joshu

Center for Social Development Research

Poverty is associated with negative health outcomes, including depression. Little is known about the specific elements of poverty that contribute to depression, particularly among African- American women at risk for type 2 diabetes. This study examined the relationships of economic and social resources to depression among African-American women at high risk for the development of type 2 diabetes (N=181) using the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory as a conceptual framework. Women were assessed at three time points in conjunction with a dietary change intervention. At baseline, 40% of women reported clinically significant depression and 43.3% were below the poverty line. …

Assets And The Poor: Evidence From Individual Development Accounts, Mark Schreiner, Michael Sherraden, Margaret Clancy, Lissa Johnson, Jami Curley, Min Zhan, Sondra Beverly, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Center for Social Development Research

Assets and the Poor: Evidence From Individual Development Accounts

Use Of Financial Services And The Poor, Jeanne M. Hogarth, Jinkook Lee

Center for Social Development Research

This paper was commissioned for Inclusion in Asset Building: Research and Policy Symposium, an event hosted in September 2000 by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis. The paper presents results from an analysis using data from the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances to explore several aspects of the financial relationships of low-income households. The analyses looked at an updated profile of low-income and poor households, their financial portfolios, their attachment to the mainstream financial sector, and their use of various types of financial institutions. The findings suggest ways to move low-income households into the financial …

Who Are The Asset Poor? Levels, Trends, And Composition, 1983-1998, Robert Haveman, Edward N. Wolff

Center for Social Development Research

Who Are the Asset Poor? Levels, Trends, and Composition, 1983-1998

Armut : Der Mensch Lebt Nicht Vom Brot Allein : Wege Zur Soziokulturellen Existenzsicherung, Isidor Wallimann, Susanne Schmid

Books

While the usual discussion about the poverty of the minimum financial security speaks, the authors ask what it could mean for to be living in a secure socio-cultural minimum. The fact is that poverty can be both "caused" by various forms of exclusion, as well as the socio-cultural exclusion promotes or "causes".

Four Commentaries: How We Can Better Protect Children From Abuse And Neglect, Leroy H. Pelton

Social Work Faculty Research

The fundamental structure of the public child welfare system is that of a coercive apparatus wrapped in a helping orientation. Agencies ostensibly having the mission to help are mandated to ask whether parents can be blamed for their child welfare problems, and these agencies have the power to remove children from their homes. Thus, the public child welfare agency has a dual-role structure: On one hand, the agency attempts to engage in prevention and support, and to promote family preservation; on the other hand, it also has the task of investigating complaints against parents and removing children from them. This …

Education, Assets, And Intergenerational Well-Being: The Case Of Female Headed Families, Li-Chen Cheng, Deborah Page-Adams

Center for Social Development Research

This paper reports findings from an analysis of economic well-being among female headed households. Previous theoretical and empirical work in this area suggests that poverty among female headed families is to some extent an intergenerational process, a vicious cycle. One common explanation for this pattern is that low socioeconomic status in a woman’s family of origin results in low educational attainment and, ultimately, in low earning capacity. However, an exclusive focus on education may overlook the long term dynamics of the household as an institution that can accumulate assets to enhance economic well-being across generations. Using data from the National …

Doing Good And Welfare Dependency, Beryl Hugen

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Poor You Will Have With You Always, Beryl Hugen

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Four Perspectives On Appalachian Culture And Poverty, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Poverty is as closely associated with the Appalachian region as coal mining and the hammer dulcimer. Appalachian poverty has seldom been portrayed simply as poverty, but as the expression and symbol of something larger. Images of poverty - poorly dressed, sooty, emaciated, barefooted, mostly white, rural children and adults beside cabin porches - are as closely associated with Appalachia as cowboy hats with the West or moss-covered trees and white-columned mansions with the Old South.

The Significance Of Aspirations Among Unmarried Adolescent Mothers, Naomi Farber

Faculty and Staff Publications

Adolescent out of wedlock childbearing is associated with persistent poverty, particularly among urban underclass black youth. This article examines findings on the educational and vocational aspirations of teen mothers, how they are associated with class and race and how they may influence economic dependence. The analysis suggests the importance of distinguishing between poor teens' socially normative aspirations and their ability to fulfill those aspirations.

Women, Welfare, And Work, Norman L. Wyers, Portland State University School Of Social Work

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are many popular misconceptions about people on welfare. This study challenges these myths with empirical findings, confirming the results of earlier studies. Four misconceptions contradicted by the findings of this study are as follows:

1. MYTH: She Doesn’t Want to Work
2. MYTH: Welfare Breeds Welfare
3. MYTH: She Rides the Gravy Train
4. MYTH: She Finds Life is Easy on Welfare

Attitudes Of Income Maintenance Line Workers In The State Of Oregon About The Causes And Amelioration Of Poverty, Gene Lamar Stutzman

Dissertations and Theses

It has been of some interest to the profession of social work that eligible persons underutilize or fail to use social services and benefits to which they are legally entitled. A number of different reasons have been cited in the social work literature and otherwise generally accepted within the ranks of the social work profession as possible or probable causes of underutilization or lack of use. The variety of reasons includes client lack of knowledge about programs, lack of motivation on the part of eligible clients to apply for benefits and services, client unawareness about legal recourse in securing services, …

Social Workers' Attitudes About Poverty, Trudy Hussmann

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to assess the attitudes of a select group of social workers in the Portland area. The study will focus on their attitudes about the causes of poverty and actions to deal with problems of poverty. These attitudes will be examined in the context of a theoretical framework. The sample consists of those social workers and social work-related professionals who serve as field instructors for the Portland State School of Social Work. This means that the study will also provide information about the attitudes that Portland State social work students are likely to encounter in …

Community Action Programs And Poor People Of Maine : A History, Maine. Division Of Economic Opportunity

Maine Collection

Community Action Programs and Poor People of Maine : A History.
State of Maine. Division of Economic Opportunity. Augusta, Maine, 1975.

Contents: 1.Introduction / 2.Myths of the Poor in Maine / 3.Concepts / 4.Head Start / 5.Legal Services-The Poor and the Law / 6.Health / 7.Native Americans / 8.Housing / 9.The Elderly-Never Too Late to Fight Poverty / 10.Manpower Training / 11.Donated Commodities / 12.Vista / 13.Poverty Is Here to Stay / 14.Results of the War / 15.The Role of SEOO and New Directions for CAP

Party Politics And The Poor: A Research Note, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Following the “rediscovery” of poverty in the Kennedy years (1960-1963) and the initiation of the Johnson-era (1968-1968) War on Poverty, there has been much interest in the social sciences on the question of the relationship between poverty and politics in American society. One of the most interesting hypothesis in recent research is the suggestion of a correlation between welfare payment levels in various states and the level of inter-party competition in those states. If this is the case, there is a strong case that citizens are being treated differently by their government in violation of the equal protection clause of …

Barriers To Attainment Of Health Care In West Central Maine : A Critique By The Poor, Health Facilities Planning Council

Maine Collection

Barriers to Attainment of Health Care in West Central Maine : A Critique by the Poor

"Conducted by the Health Facilities Planning Council, 11 Parkwood Drive, Augusta, Maine under contract to Maine Department of Health and Welfare, June, 1969."

Contents: Foreword / Table of Contents / Introduction / Map / Franklin County / Housing / Dental Rot / Franklin County Memorial Hospital / Family Planning / RN's / State Public Health Nurses / Unmet Health Needs / The Last Outpost / Home Visit in Farmington Falls / Home Visit in Industry / Home Visit in Rangeley Area / Conversations on …