Trzcinski, Eileen. "Middle School Children's Perceptions on Welfare and Poverty: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study." Journal of Family and Economic Issues 23.4 (2002): 339.

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OVERVIEW

 

The welfare reform act of 1996 changed the timelines and eligibility that families could get and remain on welfare.  Welfare reform research has focused on caseload reduction, employment outcomes, infants, pre-schoolers, and grade school students.  None of the research includes perspectives of children and how poverty, welfare, and maternal employment affect their lives. This study looks at how children view poverty and welfare. 

 

DESIGN

 

Thirty middle school children and their mothers were recruited by mailings from an urban, public, charter middle school.  Eligible families had to have had cash assistance in the TANF program reduced within previous nine months and increased work hours of the mother.  Through stages of data collection, the pool was narrowed to mothers who worked long or non-traditional hours.  Mothers were interviewed before children and asked how they discuss welfare or food stamp use to their kids.  Then children were asked what they knew and thought about welfare and food stamps, as well as their and their mother’s daily schedules.  Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using QSR NU*DIST, and from the emergent forty categories, four major themes were organized.  The four themes were children’s perspectives on welfare, food stamps, and poverty; teasing and harassment related to those topics; perspectives on maternal employment; and children’s responsibilities when moms work.

 

FINDINGS

 

Mothers hide involvement with welfare and food stamps, have open discussion of welfare and avoiding it, or do not intentionally avoid or intentionally discuss welfare.

 

Children’s perspectives on welfare, food stamps, and poverty are very similar to the ambivalent attitudes of adults in contemporary U.S. society.  They mentioned welfare abuse, drug addiction, lying, laziness, and distinctions between deserving and non-deserving poor. 

 

There was a distinction between their families and other families on welfare in a negative way.  Children with experience or exposure to the welfare system reported negative impressions and reluctance to use them, describing embarrassment.

 

Children are subject to teasing about welfare, poverty, and food stamps and often respond with sadness, anger, and embarrassment.  Sometimes victims ignore it but others retaliate.  Many children are aware of this type of teasing behavior, and say it is because of a taunter’s low self-esteem or meanness.  Children decide who is poor based on clothing, shoes, and cleanliness.

 

Children think that mothers should work, but that schedules should match the school schedule so they could be home in the evenings or weekends so they could talk to them or get help with their homework.    Often heavy work schedules lead to a decline in grades, lateness to school, bad sleep patterns, and frustration over availability to their mother. 

 

Children often had a higher level of responsibilities at home because of mom’s work schedule, and they expressed resentment, frustration, resignation about these responsibilities that often were not chores or babysitting, but parenting and household management.  Socially, children who had to watch other children could not interact with friends. Academically, homework support for the caregiver child was often the last priority.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

What the article shows us is that students perpetuate the negative stereotypes of adults. It also shows that the mother-child relationship is very important, and other outcomes are probably affected by this relationship.  Children with young siblings often have heavy childcare and household responsibilities.

 

CRITIQUE AND EVALUATION

The study begins to uncover the ideas of children about welfare and poverty.  This study questions children who have heard of or experienced welfare what they think about poverty and welfare.  It does not get data from a cross-section of the population of middle school students.  If it were to question children of multiple classes, the definitions might not be so assumed and there might be more of a child’s uninfluenced perspective that hasn’t been influenced by adult stereotypes.  It might also get perspectives of children who have been on welfare or experienced poverty at a distance (5 or 10 years) and children who have to go on welfare due to financial stress on the family. 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What other stereotypes do you find your young people perpetuating?

2. How much does class influence the work your program/ministry does?

3. How can your ministry/program help support families who are transitioning from welfare or have heavy workloads because the mothers are struggling financially?

4. How does your program support students who have grown-up responsibilities?

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

Often the laws and programs intended to change social conditions and empower people, or relieve the government of the burden have unintended consequences.  Children and youth often suffer when their parents have to respond to new laws and social programs.  In this case, grades, and possibly health, are affected by mother’s work schedules.  When those in youth work seek so support youth, they often must support families.  The challenge is getting into homes outside of the normal workday and the on the weekends when students need adults around.

 

Tamecia R. Jones cCYS