The influence of patterns of welfare receipt during the child-rearing years on later physical and psychological health

This study examined interrelations among welfare receipt, social integratio n, and later physical and mental health in a cohort of African American mot hers from the Woodlawn neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. These wom en (N = 681) have been followed prospectively from 1966-67 to 1997-98. Find ings indicate that receiving welfare during the child-rearing stage of life is related to both social integration and later health, with those who had received welfare in young to middle adulthood being more socially isolated and having more health problems twenty to thirty years later. Findings pro vided no support for the hypothesis that social integration mediated the re lationship between welfare receipt and later physical and psychological hea lth problems. Welfare receipt had a direct detrimental effect on later heal th outcomes. Attending church regularly was protective for later physical a nd psychological health. The relationship between early welfare and later h ealth remained even when the women's current poverty was added to the model . (C) 2001 by The Haworth Press. Inc. All rights reserved.