An aid to needy children program: A study of types and responses to casework services

In a study of an aid- to- needy-children program, a attempt was made to develop a typology and assess the effect of special services on personality, discontinuance and employment. The research design was experimental and sampling random for one part and purposive for another, as special services were available for one group and withheld from a control group. The techniques involved the California Psychological Inventory for the analysis of types and measure of personality change, and discontinuance and employment rates for the measure of the effect of the special services. Five types of clients were identified: apathetic, exploitative, transitory, manipulative, and disturbed. Experimental and control comparisons revealed no differences in the discontinuance or employment rates of the random sample, while personality showed some qualitative differences. Finally, the special services affected both the employment and discontinuance rates of the employable (purposive) sample.