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| Our research centers on two interrelated research questions. First, we
seek to understand respondents' perceptions of contemporary welfare reform. Most of the
existing work on reform charts the material outcomes of TANF without first grappling with
women's views of these profound changes. We seek to remedy this by examining how welfare
reform is interpreted by those it targets. Are respondents supportive of reform? What
aspects of it do they find most enabling? Most constraining? What do they see as the
impetus of reform? At this level, our research also attempts to unearth respondent's
perceptions of the concrete institutional changes brought about by reform. Has the
experience of applying for and receiving assistance changed? How do they view the new
organizational dynamics in welfare offices? Have they received contradictory messages
about the objectives and the meaning of reform? Second, our study investigates concrete changes in the redistribution of resources among community and kin networks. We conceptualize community and family networks as loose organizational structures that respond to external pressures such as welfare reform. At this level, we examine the support that respondents give and receive-especially in the areas of child care, housing, and emotional assistance. One of the most important scholarly contributions of this part of the study lies in our inclusion of women who may not be embedded in networks of support. Most existing research uses snowball sampling; thus, they tend to capture those women already integrated into networks. Our broader sample of 100 respondents, half of whom have long-term histories of welfare use and half of whom do not, will enable us to address the effects of welfare reform on families not located in support systems and on those not directly involved in the welfare system itself. |
-Robin Rogers-Dillon |
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©1997 University of Pennsylvania; Last Updated
on
June 3, 2003