Substance Abuse and Employment Among Welfare Mothers: From Welfare to Work and Back Again?

Abstract

We have very little research on how substance use impacts employment among welfare mothers. But welfare reform's emphasis on moving aid recipients into the workforce has brought this issue to the fore. Using Cox proportional hazard and logistic regression in a longitudinal study of California welfare mothers in 2001–2003, we examine how substance use impacts the ability to move from welfare to work and to remain economically independent after welfare. While education, work history, and family size consistently predict transitions from welfare to work and back again, substance use-related problems consistently do not. However, the jobs obtained by welfare mothers are short-term and poorly paid regardless of whether they misuse alcohol or use drugs. We argue that, if all that is open to welfare mothers are short-lived work assignments, substance use may have little time to impact job retention. Limitations of the study are noted. This IRB-approved study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Keywords:

• welfare
• welfare reform
• employment
• unemployment
• substance use
• alcohol
• drugs
• women

Notes

Notes

1. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA, U.S. Public Law 104-193), popularly referred to as welfare reform, brought about a major overhaul of the U.S. welfare system. The PRWORA instituted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a state block grant that established federally mandated work requirements and a maximum 5-year limit to cash aid receipt for clients, as well as new service expectations for local and state welfare systems. The “work first” approach, which predominates in state and local welfare programs, focuses on moving recipients into the labor market as soon as possible, rather than on increasing human capital through longer term investments in education and vocational rehabilitation (Blank and Haskins, 2001).Welfare reform includes several provisions specific to alcohol and drug use by participants. The legislation empowers welfare agencies to require recipients “to undergo appropriate substance abuse treatment” as a condition of welfare receipt (U.S. Public Law 104-193, sec. 408[b]2[A]v). While this provision stops short of an official mandate to provide treatment for substance use, it encourages agencies to address participants' substance use and substance-related problems that could be a barrier to employment. The reform bill also includes an amendment (sec. 115), sponsored by Republican Senator Phil Gramm, that bans individuals with a felony drug conviction from ever receiving federal aid. Moreover, it includes a provision (sec. 902) that allows states to drug test welfare recipients, although the constitutionality of this provision has been disputed in the courts.