A structural equation model of maternal post-TANF employment: An analysis of economic deprivation and hardship, maternal well-being, and parental strain

Implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1997 required many recipients of cash assistance (better known as public welfare) to obtain employment and leave the welfare rosters. The impact of this policy change on children of former recipients has been documented in the literature, but less attention has been given to the effect of this change on mothers and families. Through structural equation modeling, the post-TANF employment of single mothers from the National Survey of America's Families (NASF) data set is analyzed to test if the quality of post-TANF employment has a negative effect upon economic deprivation and hardship if economic deprivation and hardship has a negative effect upon maternal well-being and if parental strain has a negative effect upon maternal well-being. This study demonstrates that single mothers who left the welfare rosters and became employed experienced economic deprivation and hardship. Economic deprivation and hardship effects their well-being, and parental strain effects maternal well-being. Welfare reform has been deemed successful mainly because of the drop in the rosters this study looks at another way to measure the effects of this policy. These findings have implications for the reauthorization of the TANF legislation.