{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T05:21:42Z","timestamp":1772688102731,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"Duke University Press","issue":"6","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>This study investigates the effects of welfare reform\u2014a major policy shift in the United States that increased low-income mothers' employment and reliance on earnings instead of cash assistance\u2014on the quality of the home environments mothers provide for their preschool-age children. Using empirical methods designed to identify plausibly causal effects, we estimate the effects of welfare reform on validated survey and observational measures of maternal behaviors that support children's cognitive skills and emotional adjustment and the material goods that parents purchase to stimulate their children's skill development. The results suggest that welfare reform did not affect the amount of time and material resources mothers devoted to cognitively stimulating activities with their young children. However, it significantly decreased emotional support provision scores, by approximately 0.3\u20130.4 standard deviations. The effects appear to be stronger for mothers with lower human capital. The findings provide evidence that welfare reform came at a cost to children in the form of lower quality parenting. They also underscore the importance of considering quality, and not just quantity, in assessing the effects of maternal work-incentive policies on parenting and children's home environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1215\/00703370-11037907","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,31]],"date-time":"2023-10-31T09:30:17Z","timestamp":1698744617000},"page":"1791-1813","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Welfare Reform and the Quality of Young Children's Home Environments"],"prefix":"10.1215","volume":"60","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7506-5023","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ariel","family":"Kalil","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0213-1392","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Hope","family":"Corman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ, USA"},{"name":"National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, NY, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4514-3761","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Dhaval","family":"Dave","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, USA"},{"name":"National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, NY, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0771-4340","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ofira","family":"Schwarz-Soicher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Donald E. Stokes Library, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7285-1515","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Nancy E.","family":"Reichman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers University\u2013Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"73","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,12,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3386\/w29216","volume-title":"Intended and unintended effects of e-cigarette taxes on youth tobacco use","author":"Abouk","year":"2021"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C2","unstructured":"Agostinelli\n              F.\n            \n          , & SorrentiG. (2021). Money vs. time: Family income, maternal labor supply, and child development (Working Paper No. 273, Revised). Zurich, Switzerland: University of Zurich, Department of Economics. 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A. (2014). Costs of early childhood home visiting: An analysis of programs implemented in the supporting evidence-based home visiting to prevent child maltreatment initiative (Final report). Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. 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(2022). Investing in early childhood development in preschool and at home (Working Paper No. 2022-58). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. 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The Earned Income Tax Credit and the distribution of income","volume":"53","author":"Hoynes","year":"2018","journal-title":"Journal of Human Resources"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"747","DOI":"10.1007\/s13524-011-0086-4","article-title":"Employment patterns of less-skilled workers: Links to children's behavior and academic progress","volume":"49","author":"Johnson","year":"2012","journal-title":"Demography"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"623","DOI":"10.1002\/pam.20194","article-title":"Changes in the welfare caseload and the health of low-educated mothers","volume":"25","author":"Kaestner","year":"2006","journal-title":"Journal of Policy Analysis and Management"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-08308-7_5","article-title":"Inequality begins at home: The role of parenting in the diverging destinies of rich and poor children","volume-title":"National Symposium on Family Issues: Vol. 5. 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J., PortillaX. A., BurrellL., LeeH.,\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0KnoxV. (2019). Impacts on family outcomes of evidence-based early childhood home visiting: Results from the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (OPRE Report No. 2019-07). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. 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Designing cash transfers in the presence of children's human capital formation (HCEO Working Paper No. 2022-019). Retrieved from https:\/\/hceconomics.uchicago.edu\/research\/working-paper\/designing-cash-transfers-presence-childrens-human-capital-formation"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C49","unstructured":"National Longitudinal Surveys. (2022a). National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 [Dataset]. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.nlsinfo.org\/content\/cohorts"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C50","unstructured":"National Longitudinal Surveys. (2022b). The HOME (Home Observation Measure of the Environment) [Dataset]. 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Impacts on welfare participation, employment, income, poverty, and family structure","author":"Schoeni","year":"2000"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C55","first-page":"22","article-title":"Welfare reform and the families it left behind","volume":"2018","author":"Shaefer","year":"2018","journal-title":"Pathways"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jeconom.2020.09.006","article-title":"Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects","volume":"225","author":"Sun","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Econometrics"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"153","DOI":"10.1080\/10888691.2017.1345634","article-title":"Early home learning environment predicts children's 5th grade academic skills","volume":"23","author":"Tamis-LeMonda","year":"2019","journal-title":"Applied Developmental Science"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C58","unstructured":"Trisi\n              D.\n            \n          , & ShermanA. (2016). Incomes fell for poorest children of single mothers in welfare law's first decade (Report). Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/family-income-support\/incomes-fell-for-poorest-children-of-single-mothers-in-welfare-laws"},{"key":"2023121218065047900_dem11037907C59","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1802","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.96.5.1802","article-title":"Did unilateral divorce laws raise divorce rates? 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