Parenting and Poverty: Making the Connection

1. Parenting and Poverty: Making the Connection Laura Frame Children’s Hospital and Research Center at Oakland Jill Duerr Berrick School of Social welfare, U.C. Berkeley October, 2009

2. Overview • How and when do poverty and parenting intersect • Introduce “Leticia” • How can Linkages help?

3. What Explains The Relationship Between Employment, TANF/ CalWORKs, and Family Well-Being? Childcare Surveillance Work Sanctions& Penalties Welfare Income Family Caps Employment Income Behavioral Requirements:*Teens live at home*No drug felonies*Paternity establishment*Immunizations TANFServices Effects on Parenting: Positive Negative Complicated or Unknown

4. Poverty’s Effects on the Material Realities of Parenting

5. Material Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 1 Low Income and Restricted Resources Limit Parents’ Capacities to Meet Children’s Basic Needs

6. Material Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 2 The Dangerous Conditions of Many Poor, Urban Neighborhoods Pose Threats to Children’s Safety and Well-Being

7. Material Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 3 Institutional and Structural Obstacles Restrict Access to Opportunity or Make the Road to Economic Success More Challenging

8. Material Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 4 There are Often Persisting Effects of Deprivation Over a Parent’s Lifetime, Effects that Further Limit the Opportunities Open to Them and Their Children

9. Material Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 5 The Cumulative Effects of Poverty Conditions Can Influence Children’s Behavior, Development, and Health Issues

10. Poverty’s Effects on the Psychological Realities of Parenting

11. Psychological Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 1 The Impact of Facing Serious Difficulties in Providing the Necessities of Life for their Children

12. Psychological Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 2 A Sense of the Limited Educational, Cultural, and Material Opportunities That a Parent Can Provide in Conditions of Poverty

13. Psychological Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 3 Limited Time and Emotional Availability to Offer Children

14. Psychological Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 4 Challenges to Protecting Children from Harm

15. Psychological Realities of Parenting On WelfareReality # 5 A Limited or Foreshortened Sense of Children’s Futures

16. Parental Coping in Conditions of Poverty

17. Who is “Leticia?” • Single mother • 4 children • No job history/ no skills • 8th grade education • Began AFDC 1982 – breaks in aid due to prison, loss of children • Previous substance abuse - in recovery

18. Leticia’s Welfare/Child Welfare Timeline1982 – 1997 AFDC & SSI SSI AFDC No GA, No AFDC 1997 1982 1987 1996 LeticiaIn & Out of Prison 1st Child Born 2nd Child Born (Cut offSSI a few months later) (SSI Eligiblefor Drug Addiction) 3rd Child Born 4th Child Born 3 Children Removed, Placed in Foster Care

19. Leticia’s Welfare/Child Welfare Timeline 1997 – 2001 No GA, No TANF -------TANF/CalWORKs------- 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Leticia in Prison4th Child Living with Partner & Collecting AFDC, Removed to FC Family Cap 4th Child Removed, Placed in Foster Care Began CalWORKs & some PT work 5th Child Born Rec’d. EmergencyTANF Check (Cut offSSI a few months later) 5th Child Removed, Placed with Father 4th Child Reunifiedwith Leticia

20. Leticia’s ParentingAs Observed in 2000-2001 Characterized by: • High warmth, responsiveness, engagement • Parent and child enjoyed one another • All basic care and protection needs met • Leticia relatively secure about herself as a parent • Leticia worried yet hopeful about Dashon's future • Leticia coped quite well with parenting in conditions of poverty

21. Leticia’s Employabilityin 2000-2001

22. From Welfare to Work Leticia as a case example • Barriers to employment Inadequate education Little work experience Inadequate job skills Lack of understanding of workplace norms and behaviors • Employer discrimination • Domestic violence Substance abuse Mental and physical health problems • Inadequate child care Lack of reliable transportation

23. From CalWORKs to Child WelfareMay, 2001 • New baby • Relapsed • 4th child removedto non-kin foster care • Infant sent to father • Leticia disappeared

24. Economic Precursors toChild Welfare Involvement • Work sanctions • Family Cap • Increase in expenses related to infant

25. Leticia’s Family Vulnerability2000-2001

26. Family Vulnerabilities • Known risk factors Single parent Young child Large family Significant time on aid • Breaks in aid • Birth outcomes Substance abuse Hardships • Prior child welfare contact

27. Would Coordination of CalWORKs And Child Welfare Make A Difference?

28. Which CalWORKs clients might benefit from a coordinated services approach? What would such an approach look like?

29. Which child welfare families might benefit from a coordinated services approach? What would such an approach look like?

30. Thanks to the following for their collaboration on welfare – child welfare projects in the Center for Social Services Research at U.C. Berkeley: Stephanie Cuccaro-Alamin, Barbara Needell, Jodie Langs, and Lisa Varchol. “Material realities” were excerpted from: Frame, L. (2008). Where poverty and parenting intersect: The impact of welfare reform on caregiving. In J.D. Berrick & B. Fuller (Eds). Good parents or good workers? How policy affects parents’ daily lives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Data pertaining to “Leticia” were derived from: Frame, L. , & Berrick, J.D. (2003) The effects of welfare reform on families involved with public child welfare services: Results from a qualitative study. Children and Youth Services Review, 25(1-2), 113-138. Acknowledgements