In 1998, there was an average of 8,770,000 monthly recipients of cash assistance under the auspices of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), down from 10,936,000 recipients per month the previous year.

(Source: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, "Cash and Noncash Benefits for Persons With Limited Income: Eligibility Rules, Recipient and Expenditure Data, FY 1996-FY 1998"; CRS Report RL30401; December 15, 1999, in the U. S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2000 [120th edition] Washington, DC, 1999, p. 370.)

"Welfare is hated by those who administer it, mistrusted by those who pay for it and held in contempt by those who receive it."

(Source: Peter C Goldmark, Jr., NY State Budget Director, The New York Times, 24 May 77, in Simpson, James B., comp. Simpson's Contemporary Quotations, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. www.bartleby.com/63/.)

While there has been long-term documentation of the negative effects of welfare upon the academic and behavioral development of children, it has been only recently that the effects of leaving welfare have been studied.  Based on the work of four University of Michigan researchers, "children whose mothers who are able to leave and remain off welfare score consistently better on cognitive tests of their development."

In the wake of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), the Michigan social scientists sought to examine differences in child development brought about by leaving welfare.  Prior to PRWORA, the majority of the related research focused on the effects on child development of those currently receiving welfare.  Thus, in this present work, 461 three to twelve year old children of single mothers were studied in order to establish how leaving welfare effects children's development.

The investigators found that children whose mothers left welfare showed improvement in their cognitive abilities:  "[C]hildren whose mothers were currently on welfare had letter-word achievement scores lower by about one quarter of a point than children whose mothers were not on welfare, whereas the duration of time since being on welfare (among former recipients) was not associated with higher or lower scores" (p < .05).

Indeed, by some measures, those children who left the welfare rolls tested at the same level as those who had never been on welfare: "[C]hildren whose mothers were currently receiving welfare had lower scores on the applied problems tests than children of mothers who had never been on welfare.  The scores of children whose mothers had gotten off welfare did not differ from those of children whose mothers had never been on welfare" (p < .05).

However, this is not to say that the change is an easy one.  The researchers also found that the children experienced an increase of some behavior problems: "Children of mothers who were currently on welfare and children of mothers who had been off welfare for 1 to 3 years did not differ in their level of behavior problems from children of mothers who had not been on welfare in the previous 3 years.  Children of mothers who had been off welfare for 1 year or less, however, showed significantly higher levels of externalizing and internalizing behavior problems...."

The researchers posit an explanation for this behavior variation, saying that "there is a difficult transition period between full cash assistance support and self-sufficiency in which mothers may especially worried, stressed, and depressed, parenting may suffer, and children may experience resulting emotional problems."

Subsequent to this stressful transition period, however, it seems that not only do the children's behavior and emotional problems subside, but their cognitive development advances, making the temporary problems almost certainly justified.

(Source: Sandra L. Hofferth, Julia Smith, Vonnie C. McLoyd, and Jonathon Finkelstein, "Achievement and Behavior Among Children of Welfare Recipients, Welfare Leavers, and Low-Income Single Mothers," Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 56, No. 4 [Winter 2000], 747-774.)