Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JenniferBrooks

Previous research using the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) found few differences in developmental risk between children in families who were currently receiving welfare and those in families that had formerly received welfare. This paper reports on new NSAF analyses revealing a pattern in which male adolescents in the families of former recipients may be faring worse than their counterparts in the families of current recipients. Differences in family characteristics, such as income, family structure, and parental employment, did not account for the elevated levels of developmental risk found among adolescent boys in former recipient families.

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