Since their historic high in 1994, welfare caseloads in the United States have dropped an astounding 59 percent--more than 5 million fewer families receive welfare. Family and Child Well-Being after Welfare Reform explores how low-income children and their families are faring in the wake of welfare reform.

Contributors to the volume include leading social researchers in the United States. They come from both the political Left and Right, but without exception their analyses are grounded on careful and honest scholarship, not political orientation. Each chapter examines a series of questions: Can existing surveys and other data be used to measure trends in the area? What key indicators should be tracked? What are the initial trends after welfare reform? What other information or approaches would be helpful?

The book covers a broad range of topics: an update on welfare reform (Douglas J. Besharov and Peter Germanis); ongoing major research (Peter H. Rossi); material well-being (earnings, benefits, and consumption) (Richard Bavier); family versus household (Wendy D. Manning); teenage sex, pregnancy, and nonmarital births (Isabel V. Sawhill); child maltreatment and foster care (Richard J. Gelles); homelessness and housing (John C. Weicher); child health and well-being (Lorraine V. Klerman); nutrition, food security, and obesity (Harold S. Beebout); crime, juvenile delinquency, and dysfunctional behavior (Lawrence W. Sherman); and mothers’ work and child care (Julia B. Isaacs).

When welfare reform was first debated, many people feared that it would hurt the poor, especially children. The contributors find little evidence to suggest this has occurred. As time limits and other programmatic requirements take hold, more information will be needed to assess the condition of low-income families after welfare reform. This informative volume establishes a baseline for that assessment.

Douglas J. Besharov is the Joseph J. and Violet Jacobs Scholar in Social Welfare Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs, where he directs its Welfare Reform Academy. Among his recent publications are Rethinking WIC: An Evaluation of the Women, Infants, and Children Program (with Peter Germanis) and America's Disconnected Youth.