Publications by Author

Marcia Meyers

Research

Magnuson, K. A.; Meyers, M. K.; Waldfogel, J., (2007), Public Funding and Enrollment in Formal Child Care in the 1990s, The Social service review, 81(1), 47.

Although the share of all 3- and 4-year-old children enrolled in center-based care and early education has grown steadily in recent decades, rates of enrollment for children from low-income families still lag behind those for children from families with high incomes. During the 1990s, growing public funding for compensatory preschool education and means-tested child-care assistance had the potential to increase the availability of free or low-cost formal child-care arrangements and thus the attendance of low-income children. This article analyzes repeated cross-sectional data on formal child-care attendance from the October Current Population Survey as well as data on state-level funding. The results indicate that increases in public funding are positively associated with the probability that low-income young children attended formal care. These results also suggest that gaps in formal care between low- and high-income families would have widened in the absence of public investments.

Gornick, J. C.; Meyers, M. K., (2006), L'egalite des sexes : un enjeu pour les reformes - Entre travail remunere et responsabilites familiales, le role des Etats providence - Un regard americain sur la prise en compte du care dans les politiques sociales europeennes, Revue franu’caise des affaires sociales. Cahier de jurisprudence. Emploi-travail, 60(1), 187.

An abstract for this publication is not available.

Heintze, T. C.; Meyers, M. K.; Berger, L. M.; Naidich, W. B., (2006), Housing Assistance and Employment: How Far-Reaching Are the Effects of Rental Subsidies?, The Social service review, 80(4), 635.

This article uses instrumental variables models and data from the National Survey of America’s Families to explore associations between rental housing assistance and employment among low-income, single-mother households in the United States. Results suggest that housing assistance has indirect effects on employment. These effects operate through the stability of housing residency. However, the analyses provide little evidence of direct association between housing assistance and employment. The article also finds that unit- and tenant-based assistance are differentially associated with work hours among employed, low-income single mothers.

Durfee, A. and Meyers, M.K. (2006). Who Gets What from Government? Distributional Consequences of Child Care Assistance Policies. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68:733-748.

Given the fragmented structure of child-care assistance in the United States, it has been difficult to obtain accurate estimates of which families are assisted, through which mechanisms, and at what level. Making use of survey data from New York City, we analyze the distribution of several forms of public child-care assistance. Results suggest that about 40% of all families with young children receive some form of child-care assistance. Considering all forms of assistance, the distribution of child-care help is targeted in both expected and some unexpected ways. Implications of these results are discussed in the context of U.S. child-care policies governing access and benefit levels.

Meyers, M.K., Peck, L.R., Davis, E.E., Collins, A., Kreader, J.L., Georges, A., Weber, R., Schexnayder, D., Schroeder. D. and Olson, J.A. (2006). The Dynamics Of Child Care Subsidy Use A Collaborative Study Of Five States. In R. Cabera, R. Hutchens, and L. Peters (eds.), From Welfare to Childcare: What Happens to Young Children When Mothers Exchange Welfare For Work? Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K. and Jordan, L. (2006). Choice and Accommodation in Parental Child Care Decisions. Community Development, 37(2): 1-19.

As women approach parity with men in their representation in the U.S. labor force, child care has become a critical concern both for families and for community development professionals. In this paper, wereview recent literature on parental child care decisions and on socio-economic differences in child care utilization. We contrast two bodies of theoretical and empirical research on the determinants of child care arrangements, comparing models of individual consumption choice with models of socially constructed or situated patterns of action. This research suggests that parental child care decisions may be best understood as accommodations-- to family and employment demands, social and cultural expectations, available information, and financial, social, and other resources--that often reproduce other forms of economic and social stratification.

Meyers, M.K & Durfee A. (2006). Who Pays? The Visible and Invisible Costs of Child Care. Politics and Society, 24(1): 109-128.

Although the majority of young children now spend time in nonparental child care, we know relatively little about who provides this care and how its costs are distributed among parents, government, and other family members. In this article we use data from a survey of New York City families with children younger than six to estimate the contribution of parental expenditures, government assistance, and the market value of "donated" caregiving time by family, friends, and relatives. We conclude that uncompensated caregivers provide a substantial share of child care that is "invisible" in conventional economic measures.

Bainbridge, J., Meyers, M.K., Tanaka S. and Waldfogel J. (2005) Who Gets an Early Education? Family Income and the Enrollment of 3- to 5- Year-Olds from 1968 to 2000. Social Science Quarterly, 86(3), 724-745.

Objectives. Has inequality in access to early education been growing or lessening over time? Methods. Using the October Current Population Survey education supplement from 1968 to 2000, we look at three-, four-, and five-year-olds' enrollment in early education—including center-based care, Head Start, nursery school, prekindergarten, and kindergarten. Results. Our analysis shows a strong link between family income and early education enrollment for three- and four-year-olds, especially when we compare the bottom two and the top two income groups. These differences remain even after controlling for a large variety of factors, including race/ethnicity, maternal employment, family structure, and parental education. Conclusions. Inequality in early education by income group varies by age of child: it is most pronounced for three-year-olds, who have been the least likely to benefit from public early childhood education programs; it has diminished in the past decade for four-year-olds, who have been increasingly likely to have access to public prekindergarten programs; and it has all but disappeared for the five-year-olds, who now largely attend public kindergarten. This pattern suggests a potentially important role for public policy in closing the gap in early education between children of different income groups.

Gornick, J.C., and Meyers, M.K. (2004). More Alike Than Different: Re- Assessing the Long-Term Prospects for Developing ‘European-Style’ Work-Family Policy in the United States. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 6(3), 251-273.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Gornick, J.C., and Meyers, M.K. (2004). Supporting a Dual-Earner / Dual- Carer Society: Lessons From Abroad. In J. Heymann and C. Beem (eds.) Societal Crossroads: Striving for Democracy and Equality in the Era of Working Families. New York: The New Press.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Magnuson K.A., Meyers, M.K., Ruhm, C.J., and Waldfogel J. (2004). Inequality in Preschool Education and School Readiness. American Education Research Journal, 41(1), 115-157.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K., Rosenbaum, D., Ruhm, C., and Waldfogel, J. (2004). Inequality in Early Childhood Education and Care: What Do We Know? In K. Neckerman (ed.), Social Inequality. New York: Russell Sage

Inequality in income, earnings, and wealth has risen dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. Most research into this issue has focused on the causes— global trade, new technology, and economic policy—rather than the consequences of inequality. In Social Inequality, a group of the nation’s leading social scientists opens a wide-ranging inquiry into the social implications of rising economic inequality. Beginning with a critical evaluation of the existing research, they assess whether the recent run-up in economic inequality has been accompanied by rising inequality in social domains such as the quality of family and neighborhood life, equal access to education and health care, job satisfaction, and political participation.

Marcia Meyers and colleagues find that many low-income mothers cannot afford market-based child care, which contributes to inequality both at the present time—by reducing maternal employment and family income—and through the long-term consequences of informal or low-quality care on children’s educational achievement. At the other end of the educational spectrum, Thomas Kane links the growing inequality in college attendance to rising tuition and cuts in financial aid. Neil Fligstein and Taek-Jin Shin show how both job security and job satisfaction have decreased for low- wage workers compared with their higher-paid counterparts. Those who fall behind economically may also suffer diminished access to essential social resources like health care. John Mullahy, Stephanie Robert, and Barbara Wolfe discuss why higher inequality may lead to poorer health: wider inequality might mean increased stress-related ailments for the poor, and it might also be associated with public health care policies that favor the privileged. On the political front, Richard Freeman concludes that political participation has become more stratified as incomes have become more unequal. Workers at the bottom of the income scale may simply be too hard-pressed or too demoralized to care about political participation. Social Inequality concludes with a comprehensive section on the methodological problems involved in disentangling the effects of inequality from other economic factors, which will be of great benefit to future investigators.

While today’s widening inequality may be a temporary episode, the danger is that the current economic divisions may set in motion a self-perpetuating cycle of social disadvantage. The most comprehensive review of this quandary to date, Social Inequality maps out a new agenda for research on inequality in America with important implications for public policy.

Riccucci, N.M., Meyers, M.K., Lurie, I. and Han, J.S. (2004) The Implementation of Welfare Reform Policy: The Role of Public Managers in Front-Line Practices. Public Administration Review, 64(4), 438-448.

This study examines the extent to which staff in local welfare systems have embraced new welfare reform goals and, if so, the extent to which local management practices contribute to the alignment of staff priorities with policy objectives. It looks at agency structure and several aspects of public management from a microperspective that prior research has linked to agency performance including training, performance monitoring, staff resources, leadership characteristics, and personnel characteristics. The research indicates that front-line workers in welfare offices continue to believe that traditional eligibility determination concerns are the most important goals at their agencies. It also finds that management practices and the structuring of agency responsibilities matter: To the extent that public managers want to redirect local staff to focus their attention on the new goals associated with welfare reform, they can create the conditions under which staff have clear signals about what is expected and could provide them with the resources and incentives to realign their priorities.

Riccucci, N.M. and Meyers, M.K. (2004) Linking Passive and Active Representation: The Case of Front-Line Workers in Welfare Agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 4(14), 585-597.

There is a rich body of research addressing the issue of representative bureaucracy in the passive sense (i.e., the degree to which the social characteristics of the bureaucracy reflect the social characteristics of the populations the bureaucracy serves). More recently, a number of studies have sought to demonstrate a potential linkage between passive and active representation, whereby persons in the bureaucracy push for the needs and interests of the persons they are presumed to represent in the citizenry. The theory of active representation holds, for example, that women as compared with men working in the bureaucracy are more likely to push for programs and issues that benefit women in the general population.

The purpose of this research is to test the theory of active representation in welfare offices. More specifically, relying on a model developed by Saltzstein (1979), the research examines the linkage between social origins and attitudes or values, which are a critical antecedent to actions and ultimately policy outcomes. Survey data from eleven welfare offices across four states are relied on to test for this linkage.

Bainbridge, J., Meyers, M.K. & Waldfogel, J. (2003). Child Care Policy Reform and the Employment of Single Mothers. Social Science Quarterly, 84(4), 771-791.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Gornick, J.C., and Meyers, M.K. (2003). Welfare Regimes in Relation to Paid Work and Care. In J.Z. Giele and E. Holst (eds.) Changing Life Patterns in Western Industrial Societies. Netherlands: Elsevier Science

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Gornick, J.C. & Meyers, M.K. (2003). Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Balancing work and family life is a problem affecting a large share of Americans today. Families That Work is a significant contribution to a growing literature on this subject. Janet Gornick and Marcia Meyers, both professors of public policy, say the U.S. continues to lag behind other industrialized western nations that have institutionalized social and labor policies that promote an equal division of labor between parents juggling work and family responsibilities. As the structure of the American family continues to change, the authors say, private solutions to solving conflicts between work and family life are no longer tenable. Their book illustrates how the U.S. falls short compared to Canada and many European countries on critical quality-of-life indicators including wage losses associated with working part-time, gender inequality in the labor market and at home, family poverty, and child well-being. In their comparative analysis, they make a strong case for an expanded role by the U.S. government to help decrease the time squeeze on employed parents, enhance the well-being of children, and promote increased gender equity in the workforce and at home.

Meyers, M.K. and Vorsanger, S. (2003). Street-Level Bureaucrats and the Implementation of Public Policy. In B. Guy Peters and J. Pierre (eds.) Handbook of Public Administration. New York: Sage Publications.

The past two decades have been marked by a period of substantial, and often fundamental, change in public administration. This major new international handbook provides a complete review and guide to past and present knowledge in this essential field of inquiry. Assembling an outstanding team of scholars from around the world, it comprehensively explores the current state of the art in academic thinking and the current structures and processes for the administration of public policy following this period of rapid transformation and change. A dominant theme throughout the handbook is a critical reflection on the utility of scholarly theory and the extent to which government practices inform the development of this theory. To this end it serves as an essential guide for both the practice of public administration today and its on-going development as an academic discipline. A major landmark publication, the Handbook of Public Administration will be indispensable to the teaching, study and practice of public administration for students, academics and professionals everywhere.

Meyers, M.K. & Gornick, J. C. (2003) Public or Private Responsibility? Inequality and Early Childhood Education and Care in the Welfare State. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 34(3), 379-411.

Although early childhood education and care provision (ECEC) is increasing in all the industrialized welfare states, institutional arrangements for providing and financing services still vary substantially across countries at similar levels of economic development. These policies have potentially important implications for the reduction of income and labor market inequalities. In this paper we document variation in the institutional arrangements for ECEC in fourteen industrialized countries. Institutional variation is associated with equally varied levels of public responsibility for the care of young children across countries, and between age groups within some countries. The extent to which care is socialized has implications for the reduction of several forms of social inequality.

Meyers, M.K. & Lee, J.W. (2002). Working but Poor: How Are Families Faring? Children and Youth Services Review, 25(3), 177-201. The link to the abstract for this article is unavailable. Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J. & Peck, L. (2002). More, Less, or More of the Same? Publius, 32(4), 91-108.

Major reforms to cash assistance and other welfare programs in the 1990s raise questions about whether states gained new flexibility in setting social policies, and, if so, how they exercised this flexibility. We extend prior research on state social policy by examining trends during the middle to late I 990s in five areas of cash or near-cash policy affecting the economic security of low-income families. We find evidence of substantial change in the generosity and the availability of these benefits between 1994 and 1999, along with evidence of greater divergence or cross-state variation in policy choices. By considering several forms of assistance simultaneously, we also find evidence that states constricted traditional welfare-based assistance while expanding some forms of non-welfare support for the working poor.

Meyers, M.K., Heintze, T. & Wolf, D. (2002). Child Care Subsidies and the Employment of Welfare Recipients. Demography, 39(1), 165-179.

Changing patterns of maternal employment, coupled with stronger work requirements for welfare recipients, are increasing the demand for child care. For many families, the cost of child care creates a financial burden; for mothers with low incomes and those who are former welfare recipients, these costs may be an insurmountable barrier to employment or economic self-sufficiency. Despite increased public spending in this area, the receipt of any child care subsidy appears to be a relatively rare and uncertain event. In this study, we use data from a sample of low-income single mothers (current and recent welfare recipients in California) to estimate the probability of their receiving child care subsidies and the effect of this probability on labor market activity.

Gornick, J.C. & Meyers, M.K. (2001). Lesson-Drawing in Family Policy: Media Reports and Empirical Evidence about European Developments. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 3, 31-57.

Since 1980, the U.S. press has painted a vivid picture of widespread welfare state dismantling in Europe. Yet our analysis of social expenditures in 14 European countries from 1980-1995 finds a pattern of resilience and, with respect to family benefits, a pattern of expansion. Our review of qualitative research on policy reforms upholds the expenditure-based findings. We conclude that U.S. media misrepresentation of social welfare developments in Europe is likely to impede "lesson-drawing" from abroad by U.S. policymakers. This constitutes a lost opportunity, as the U.S. is now engaged in social policy reformulation, especially with respect to programs for families.

Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J.C. & Peck, L. (2001). Packaging Support for Low Income Families: Policy Variation Across the U.S. States. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 20(3), 457-486.

This paper addresses a gap in state-level comparative social policy research by analyzing policies that support low-income families with children. Variation in state policy packages is measured by considering three characteristics of 11 social programs. Individual measures of policy are found to be weakly and inconsistently inter-correlated at the state level, but when cluster analysis is used to analyze multiple dimensions simultaneously, five clusters or regime types are identified that have distinctive policy approaches. These range from the most minimal provisions, to conservative approaches emphasizing private responsibility, to integrated approaches that combine generous direct assistance with employment support and policies that enforce family responsibility. A comparison of a subset of programs at two points in time (1994 and 1998) suggests that states made substantial changes in cash assistance and taxation policies after the 1996 federal welfare reforms. The magnitude and direction of these changes remained consistent with the state clusters identified in 1994.

Meyers, M.K., Riccucci, N. & Lurie I. (2001). Achieving Goal Congruence in Complex Organizational Systems: The Case of Welfare Reform. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 11(2), 165-201.

Public management and implementation scholars suggest that congruence between the formal goals of policy officials and the operative goals of implementing agencies may be a prerequisite for the achievement of policy objectives. Substantial research also suggests that the achievement of goal congruence can be difficult in complex implementation contexts.

Meyers, M.K. & Gornick, J.C. (2001). Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): Cross-National Variation in Service Organization and Financing. In S. Kamerman (ed.) Early Childhood Education and Care: International Perspectives. New York: Columbia Institute for Child and Family Policy, New York NY.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J.C., Peck, L. & Lockshin A. (2001). Public Policies that Support Families with Young Children: Variation Across the U.S. States. In K. Vleminckx and T.M. Smeeding (eds.) Child Well-Being in Modern Nations. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K., & Gornick, J.C. (2001). Gendering Welfare State Variation: Income Transfers, Employment Supports, and Family Poverty. In N. Hirschmann and U. Liebert (eds.) Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe. New Jersey: Rutgers University

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K., Han, W.J., Waldfogel, J., & Garfinkel, I. (2001). Child Care in the Wake of Welfare Reform: The Impact of Government Subsidies on the Economic Well-Being of Single Mother Families. Social Services Review, 75(1), 29-59.

Using microsimulation techniques to estimate the impact of welfare reform in New York, we find that 5 years after federal and state reforms child-care use and costs will rise substantially and families will bear most of these costs. When family incomes are adjusted for child-care costs, most single- mother families will continue to be poor even with greater earnings, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and food stamps. The distribution of child-care costs between government and families, and the implications for poverty, will depend on the extent to which government subsidizes the child-care of single mothers.

Lukemeyer, A., Meyers, M.K. & Smeeding, T. (2000). Expensive Kids in Poor Families: Out of Pocket Expenditures for the Care of Disabled and Chronically Ill Children and Welfare Reform. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 62(2), 399-415.

A significant minority of poor families care for children with disabilities and chronic illnesses. This study is among the first to explore private costs resulting from children's disabilities among low-income families. We find that almost half of the sample of California AFDC families with special- needs children incurred some direct, out-of-pocket expenses in the preceding month, and about 20% incurred total costs exceeding $100. We also estimate lost employment income among low-income mothers caring for children with disabilities. We conclude that both out-of-pocket expenses and foregone earnings represent a substantial burden for many low-income families with special-needs children, and we discuss the policy implications of these findings.

Meyers, M.K., Gornick, J. & Ross, K. (2000). Public Child Care, Parental Leave and Employment. In D. Sainsbury (ed.) Gender Policy Regimes and Welfare States. Oxford University Press.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K., Brady, H. & Seto, E. (2000). Expensive Children in Poor Families. San Francisco, California: Public Policy Institute of California.

Although disabilities affect children of all income groups, poor children are far more likely to suffer from them. In this study, Marcia K. Meyers, Henry E. Brady, and Eva Y. Seto provide important new estimates of the private costs and public effects of childhood disabilities among welfare recipients. Based on over 2,000 interviews with household heads in Los Angeles, Alameda, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties, their estimates cover direct expenditures by families and indirect costs due to employment reductions. They also examine participation rates in public assistance programs and estimate the likelihood that families with disabled children will exit these programs to independence. They conclude that public assistance may be an essential part of an income-packaging strategy for many of these families.

Meyers, M.K. & Dillon, N. (1999). Institutional Paradoxes: Why Welfare Workers Can't Reform Welfare. In G. Frederickson and J. Johnston (eds.) Public Administration as Reform and Innovation. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.

An abstract for this article is unavailable.

Meyers, M.K. & Garfinkel, I. (1999). Social Indicators and the Study of Inequality. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Economic Policy Review, 5(3), 149-163.

The New York City Social Indicators Survey demonstrates the use of social indicators - repeated, population-based measures of economic, social, and health outcomes - to answer questions about inequality and well-being. First year findings from the New York City Social Indicators project are presented. An overview of the issues that motivated the project is offered. Data collected in 1997 are used to tell the story of income and outcome inequality in the city - first, in terms of the well-being of poor and economically secure residents of the city. Future research plans for the Social Indicators project are described.

Meyers, M.K. & Heintze, T. (1999). The Performance of the Child-Care Subsidy System. Social Service Review, 73(1), 37-64.

Government funding has increased substantially in recent years for child- care subsidies targeted on the poor. Given the importance of child care for the achievement of public policy goals, including the promotion of families' economic self-sufficiency outside the welfare system, the performance of the child-care subsidy system deserves scrutiny. We use data from household-level surveys to compare the target efficiency, coverage adequacy, and equity of the child-care subsidy system for low-income and welfare-recipient families in California. The results suggest serious limitations in the system as of the mid-1990s. Low-income families in which mothers were employed or in education and training programs were very likely to be regularly paying for child care, and very few were receiving public subsidies targeted explicitly to the poor. These findings have important policy implications for new state child-care and welfare programs.

Meyers, M.K., Glaser, B. & MacDonald, K. (1998). On the Front Lines of Welfare Delivery: Are Workers Implementing Policy Reforms? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 17(1), 1-22.

The impact of policy changes on the local delivery of services has been over-looked in several decades of largely unsuccessful efforts to "reform" welfare. This article uses one case of state-level welfare reform in the early 1990s to examine the implementation of policy changes in local welfare offices. Direct observation of transactions between welfare workers and clients suggests that policy reforms were not fully implemented by street- level bureaucrats. The instrumental transactions that continued to dominate interactions with clients were consistent with processing claims and rationing scarce resources, but they were poorly aligned with new policies aimed at changing the services and message delivered to welfare clients. The failure to fully implement reforms on the frontlines has implications for the achievement of policy objectives and for equity in service provision. Implementation issues will have even greater urgency as welfare is devolved from federal to state governments.

Gornick, J.C., Meyers, M.K., & Ross, K.E. (1997). Supporting the Employment of Mothers: Policy Variation Across Fourteen Welfare States. Journal of European Social Policy, 7(1), 45-70.

Despite their broadly similar political and economic systems, the rates and patterns ofmothers' employment vary considerably across industrialized countries. This variation raises questions about the role played by government policies in enabling mothers to choose employment and, in turn, in shaping both gender equality and family economic well-being. This paper compares fourteen OECD countries, as of the middle-to-late 1980s, with respect to their provision of policies that support mothers' employment: parental leave, child care, and the scheduling of public education. Newly gathered data on eighteen policy indicators are presented; these indicators were chosen to capture support for maternal employment, regardless of national intent. The indicators are then standardized, weighted, and summed into indices. By differentiating policies that affect maternal employment from family policies more generally, while simultaneously aggregating individual policies and policy features into policy "packages", these indices reveal dramatic cross-national differences in policy provisions. The empirical results reveal loose clusters of countries that correspond only partially to prevailing welfare state typologies. For mothers with preschool-aged children, only five of the fourteen countries provided reasonably complete and continuous benefits that supported their options for combining paid work with family responsibilities. In the remaining countries, government provisions were much more limited or discontinuous. The pattern of cross-national policy variation changed notably when policies affecting mothers with older children were examined. The links between these findings and three sets of outcomes are considered. The indices provide an improved measure of public support for maternal employment and are expected to help explain cross-national differences in the level and continuity of women's labor market attachment. Prior findings on women's labor supply provide initial support for this conclusion. These indices are also useful for contrasting family benefits that are provided through direct cash transfers with those that take the form of support for mothers' employment. Cross-national variation in combinations of transfers with employment supports is found to correspond to differences in child poverty rates. Finally, these policy findings contribute to the body of scholarship that seeks to integrate gender issues more explicitly into research on welfare state regimes. This study suggests that the country clusters identified in the dominant regime model fail to cohere with respect to the subset of family policies that specifically help women to combine paid work with parenting.

Meyers, M.K. (1993). Child Care in JOBS Employment and Training Programs: What Difference Does Quality Make? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55(August), 767-783.

Under the provisions of the Family Support Act of 1988, AFDC recipients in JOBS welfare-to-work programs are entitled to child care assistance during their education and job search activities. Data from a 1-year panel study of a JOBS program indicate that participants increased their use of substitute care and their use of licensed day care homes and centers, after beginning job readiness activities. The care they obtained was highly variable in terms of convenience and program quality, however, and compromises in the adequacy of care or in the congruence of care with parents' preferences increased participants' odds of dropping out of the program without completing education and job search activities.