美国儿童福利政策的最新变革与评价

本文介绍了美国儿童福利政策的整体框架、特点以及最近所进行的改革.美国的儿童福利具有明显的残补性、分权和立法先行的特点,社会服务也很发达.上个世纪90年代从AFDC向TANF的改革被认为是美国对其<社会保障法>最重要的调整.本文对TANF和AFDC进行了比较,并分析了福利改革的成效和不足.     

Sanctions and Education Outcomes for Children in TANF Families

Most research on the impact of Welfare Reform has been upon the employment status of parents and trends in declining caseloads. Recent research has examined how children in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program families are faring, with growing interest in the effects upon children of the disruptions to cash benefits that result from program sanctions, the policies that are intended to motivate parents to comply with work requirements. Adding to the body of knowledge on children and TANF sanctions, this study used administrative data to examine school attendance rates and disruptions to enrollment, for children from families with at least one sanction. Findings indicate that there are important probable connections between the factors that contribute to challenges to employment that relate to parenting and the school engagement of children in TANF families.     

美国TANF项目及其对我国的启示

为了保障贫困家庭维持基本生活,实现社会公平和社会进步,各个国家都相应实施了不同的福利政策,以实现社会救助的目的。美国的社会救助建设比我国起步早,发展成熟。TANF项目作为美国的一个联邦援助计划,1996年取代了美国推行61年的AFDC项目,是美国现行社会救助体系的核心与基础。TANF项目旨在帮助那些单亲家庭或是父母双方当中有一人无劳动能力或是长期失业的家庭,推行之后取得一定成果的同时也存在一些问题,对我国建设社会救助有一定启迪作用。     

Examining the Externalities of Welfare Reform: TANF and Crime

This study explores the relationship between welfare policy variation in the United States following the introduction of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and its relationship with various types of crime. While early studies of the effects of welfare assistance on crime consistently found a negative association, more recent examinations have complicated these findings. Nearly all prior research focuses on Aid for Families with Dependent Children or early years of TANF. Examining a longer time-series and using propensity score weighting to model the tendencies of states to select into more stringent welfare regimes, we find a strong association between states with greater levels of welfare restrictiveness and higher rates of violent crime. There is mixed evidence that this relationship also exists with property crimes.     

WHAT IF ALL THE MONEY CAME HOME?

Since its inception, the public child support program has functioned primarily as a welfare cost recovery mechanism: $2.1 billion of child support collected annually for current and former welfare families is kept by the government to repay welfare costs. However, Wisconsin research findings suggest that low-income fathers pay more support and are less likely to work in the underground economy when support payments are passed through to their children. Regular support reduces poverty and welfare use, and increases child well-being. A consensus has emerged to reform distribution rules so that more child support is paid to the families, not to the government.     

Comparing Welfare Service Delivery Among Public,Nonprofit and For-Profit Work Agencies

Since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996, there has been a proliferation of contracting for welfare services, specifically around Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and related benefits and services such as child care. The services most commonly contracted include those around the work or employment function, such as training, education, job placement, and support services to promote job entry or retention.

The purpose of this article is to examine differences in the quality of service provision among public, nonprofit, and for-profit auspices in the delivery of work-based welfare reform services. The findings show that there are some differences in welfare programs across the three sectors. The significance of this issue relates to the critical question of whether social needs can be best met through competitive outsourcing.     

The Social Ecology of the Transition to Work

SUMMARY

The State of Illinois provided intensive case management to assist women making the transition from welfare to work. Case managers involved in this process discovered that a variety of challenges faced the women. A social ecological approach to organizing these challenges found six distinct considerations: (1) awareness of the requirements of the law; (2) the environmental context and social norms common in a neighborhood; (3) family support, family structure and family expectations; (4) emotional well-being; (5) literacy and education; and (6) appropriate expectations of the work environment.     

Clinical Application of the Service-Learning Model in Psychology

SUMMARY

Students in Abnormal Psychology who pursued a service-learning opportunity worked with troubled youth in the juvenile justice system. Consistent with an a priori hypothesis, results revealed the following pattern: (a) service-learning students and traditional students exhibited similar levels of academic performance early in the semester; and (b) as the semester progressed, and service-learning students became more involved in course-related service, they showed increasingly superior academic performance relative to traditional students. As hypothesized, service-learning students were more likely than traditional students to perceive themselves as: (a) achieving personal development in the area of social responsibility and (b) learning to apply course concepts to new situations. Preliminary evidence that the project made clinically significant contributions to the service agency is also presented. Innovations to be implemented in this ongoing project are discussed, and recommendations for research are noted.