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Example research essay topic: U S Census Bureau Families With Dependent Children - 1,443 words

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Poverty in America The US is the richest country in the world, and ironically poverty can be considered tobe its most serious social problem. According to the March 2000 Current Population Survey, over 32 million Americans, which constitutes 11. 8 percent of the population were poor (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000).

A family, and every individual in it, is considered poor if its total income is below the poverty threshold, which was $ 17, 029 for a family of four in 1999 (U. S. Census Bureau, 1999). A typical poor family needed an extra annual income of $ 6, 687 to escape poverty. The poverty experience varies by family type and age group. It was not surprise for the researchers and analysts that female-headed families with no husband present were marked with the highest poverty rate: 28 percent of those families were poor, compared with only 5 percent of married families (U.

S. Census Bureau, 2001). The majority of psychologists and sociologists distinguish many types of problems contemporary single mothers are facing. Some of the problems have clear psychological nature, for instance bitterness toward the absent husband, loneliness, and insecurity about raising children without help.

Another set of problems comes from desparate necessity of single mother to work in order to support her children, and in some cases grandparents. Although these problems have social nature, they have straight economic grounding in terms of their origin and consequences. In recent years, large numbers of families headed by single mothers have moved from welfare to work. However, among people in families headed by working single mothers, there was no progress in reducing poverty between 1995 and 1999, despite an expanding economy. Reductions in poverty as a result of economic growth were entirely offset by increases in poverty due to contractions in government safety net programs.

In 1997, cash assistance reduced the poverty gap for people in working single-mother families by 21 percent, while by 2000, cash assistance reduced the poverty gap for people in this group by 13. 6 percent. Similarly, in 1995, the combination of cash assistance and food stamps reduced the poverty gap for people in working single-mother families by 35. 6 percent. In 1999, these benefits reduced the poverty gap for these families by 26. 4 percent (U. S. Census Bureau, 1999). This is a drop of more than one-fourth in four years in the impact of food stamps and cash assistance on the poverty gap for people in these families (Rogers, 191).

These findings suggest that after 1995, declines in the effectiveness of the safety net in reducing poverty among families headed by working single mothers offset the effect of the improving economy, halting the reduction of the poverty rate for these families and pushing those who remained poor deeper into poverty (Murray, 147). Although economic challenges the majority of single mothers experiences are vitally important and deserve much attention from the government and publicity, there are still many troubles for single mothers besides poverty. The position of single mother in the workplace is only considered to be secured. Thus, many report that their professional aspirations are not taken as seriously by colleagues or superiors once they have children. In particular, if they quit working for a time to stay home with their children, the gap in their resumes is regarded with suspicion. Some women feel too threatened by the repercussions of time off the job to even take a maternity leave; others report problems on reentering the workforce after such a leave.

Single mothers working in highly competitive professions are especially reluctant to lighten their work loads or schedules for fear that such measures will signal a lower level of commitment or ability than that of their peers. Poverty and serious social problems including single mothers position in the workplace weigh on the national conscience, and the major reason for this is that single mothers and theor families represent the most vulnerable parts of the American society. Poverty among those families is interwoven with other costly social problems such as crime, substance abuse, homeless, poor education achievement, and domestic violence. This is the man reason why the problems of poverty among single mother families should be resolved in the nearest future. During many years the US Government was trying to resolve the problem of poor families. Given the size, cost, and consequence of poverty, the government and the public have a substantial stake in preventing this situation and in helping as many of the poor as possible to become self-sufficient.

The first government welfare programs were established in response to the Great Depression, which started in 1929. The Social Security Act of 1935 created Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program, which was later renamed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1950. Since single mothers and children living with them have long been the most vulnerable population, AFDC was designed to provide cash assistance to single parents with children (mostly single mothers with children). Beginning in the 1940 s, more and more federal welfare programs have been created, especially in the years after 1965. Besides AFDC, there are Medicaid, Food Stamp, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), etc. Therefore, AFDC program put a good tradition in employing government assistance in social sphere.

Moreover, the term welfare, however, has long been identified with the AFDC program. The expectation of welfare was that the program would only serve a small number of single-mother families, AFDC placed little emphasis on job training or support services to help single mothers leave welfare and become self-sufficient through employment. Consequently, it became a huge program that supported millions of families headed by single mothers who were unattached to the work force. American public supports giving assistance to those who cannot expect to support themselves, along with temporary assistance to the able-bodied to help them establish in the labor force. However, the huge shift in the composition of single mothers invariably changed the public's conception of the welfare system.

Both the public and the government fear that welfare contributes to the high non-marital births and low work effort among welfare recipients. In August 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), promising to end welfare as we know it. The 1996 welfare reform legislation completely changed the philosophy of welfare policy and substantially altered the structure of income support for poor families in the United States. Among other changes, PRWORA replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children, then commonly known as welfare, with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Studies examining the impacts of welfare reform represent a mixed story. The most widely cited impacts of welfare reform are the decline in the welfare caseload and the increase in the employment rate of single mothers.

The national welfare caseload reached its peak in 1994, with 5. 1 million families receiving welfare. In June 2000, the caseload declined to 2. 2 million, more than 50 percent reduction since the peak in 1994, and about 60 percent of those who left welfare were working. The employment rate of single mothers has risen to a historically high level, and by 1999, 71 percent of single mothers were employed, exceeding that of married mothers (Brookings Review, 92). Not all these changes can be ascribed to the welfare reform, of course. Strong economy and public policies that make work pay also played a substantial role in both the decline of the caseload and the increase in employment.

The impact on earnings and income is less encouraging. Former welfare recipients who left welfare for employment typically enter jobs with low wages and do not receive employer-provided benefits such as health insurance, paid sick leave, or vacation. For many families the total income has increased very little, as the increase in the earnings is offset by the loss of welfare benefits. Another concern is that although overall poverty rate and child poverty rate have declined to the lowest level since 1979, they have not fallen as much as the caseload. The incomes of the poorest one-fifth of single-parent families have continued to fall, and many poor families have become poorer.

Bibliography: Brookings Institution. Welfare Reform and Beyond, Brookings Review, Summer 2001. Murray, Charles. Family Formation. American Enterprise Institute, 2000.

Rogers, Harrell, R... American Poverty in A New Era of Reform. New York: M. E.

Sharpe, Inc. , 2000. U. S. Census Bureau. Statistical Abstract of the United States 1999. Department of Commerce, 1999.

U. S. Census Bureau. Poverty in the United States 1999. Department of Commerce, 2000.

U. S. Census Bureau. Population Profile of the United States 1999.

Department of Commerce, 2001.


Free research essays on topics related to: u s census bureau, single mothers, welfare reform, families with dependent children, welfare recipients

Research essay sample on U S Census Bureau Families With Dependent Children

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