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Caseworker-recipient interaction: welfare office differences, economic trajectories, and child outcomes
Erin B Godfrey1, Hirokazu Yoshikawa
1New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA. erin.godfrey@nyu.edu
Child Development
|December 21, 2011
Summary
Welfare office interactions impact family well-being. Caseworker support, caseload size, and employment focus influence economic trajectories, affecting children's academic achievement and behavior.
Area of Science:
- Social Policy
- Developmental Psychology
- Welfare Studies
Background:
- Welfare offices serve as critical ecological contexts for families.
- Understanding caseworker-recipient interactions is key to family economic stability and child development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how caseworker support, caseload size, and employment emphasis in welfare offices influence family economic trajectories.
- To assess the association between these economic trajectories and children's developmental outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized multilevel analyses on data from 1,098 families across 10 welfare offices.
- Analyzed 5-year quarterly trajectories of earnings, income, and welfare receipt.
- Examined associations with children's reading and math achievement and internalizing behavior at ages 8-10.
Main Results:
- Higher caseworker support correlated with increased earnings and income.
- Larger caseloads were linked to decreased income and welfare receipt.
- Emphasis on employment predicted reduced welfare receipt.
- Economic trajectories influenced children's academic and behavioral outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Welfare office dynamics significantly shape family economic well-being.
- These economic changes, influenced by office context, have downstream effects on child development.
- Policy and practice in welfare settings can impact long-term family and child outcomes.
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