Does welfare affect family processes and adolescent adjustment?

Recent welfare reform legislation requires increased parental work effort a nd imposes time limits on the receipt of federal assistance. These changes were based in part on assumptions that parental welfare receipt may be nega tively related to family processes and children's attitudes and behaviors. Currently, researchers know Little about the effects of welfare by itself r elative to the effects of related variables such as family demographic char acteristics, economic strain, and neighborhood factors on processes among f amilies with adolescent children. This study investigates parenting behavio rs, parent-adolescent relationships, and adolescent attitudes and behaviors in three family types. Families of adolescents ages 11-15 who received inc ome from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in the previous 12 months are compared with poor families who have not received AFDC in the la st year and with families who are neither poor nor welfare dependent. We fo und minimal support for the hypothesis that welfare is negatively related t o family processes and adolescent attitudes and behaviors, although mothers receiving welfare report fewer effective parent management practices than their poor non-welfare counterparts. Implications of the findings for curre nt social policy debates are discussed.