Several researchers point to the anticipation of early death, or a sense of “futurelessness,” as a contributing factor to youth crime. It is argued that young people who perceive a high probability of early death may have little reason to delay gratification for the promise of future benefits, as the future itself is discounted. Consequently, these young people tend to pursue high‐risk behaviors associated with immediate rewards, which include crime and violence. Although existing studies lend support to these arguments and show a statistical relationship between anticipated early death and youth crime, this support remains tentative. Moreover, several questions remain regarding the interpretation of this relationship, the meanings that offenders attach to the prospect of early death, and the cognitive processes that link anticipated early death to youth crime. In this article, we address the limitations of previous studies using a multimethods approach, which involves the analyses of national survey data and in‐depth interviews with active street offenders.

This paper provides an analysis of child care subsidies under welfare reform. Previous studies of child care subsidies use data from the pre-welfare-reform period, and their results may not apply to the very different post-reform environment. We use data from the 1999 National Survey ofAmerica's Families to analyze the determinants of receipt of a child care subsidy and the effects of subsidy receipt on employment, school attendance, job search, and welfare participation. We analyze the impact on subsidy receipt of household characteristics such as family size and structure, and past participation in welfare. The most important determinant of receipt of a child care subsidy is past receipt, but we cannot determine from our analysis whether this is a causal effect or a result of unobserved heterogeneity. Ordinary least squares estimates that treat subsidy receipt as exogenous show an effect of subsidy receipt of about 13 percentage points on employment. Two stage least squares estimates that treat subsidy receipt as endogenous and use county dummies as identifying instruments show an effect of 32 percentage points. We present some evidence that is consistent with the assumption that county dummies are valid identifying instruments, and some evidence that is inconsistent with the assumption.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S ABSTRACTChild Care Subsidies and Child Development * Child care subsidies are an important part of federal and state efforts to move welfare recipients into employment. One of the criticisms of the current subsidy system, however, is that it overemphasizes work and does little to encourage parents to purchase high-quality child care. Consequently, there are reasons to be concerned about the implications of child care subsidies for child development. In this paper, we provide a systematic assessment of the impact of subsidy receipt on a wide range of child outcomes. Drawing on rich data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we document a negative relationship between child care subsidies and child development. In particular, our results suggest that subsidy receipt in the year before kindergarten lowers reading and math test scores and increases a variety of behavior problems at kindergarten entry. Some of these negative effects persist to the end of kindergarten. A tentative explanation for the poorer outcomes is that subsidized children are more likely to receive intense exposure to low-quality child care.JEL Classification: I18, I2, J13

Child maltreatment is a major social problem. This paper focuses on measuring the relationship between child maltreatment and crime using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We focus on crime because it is one of the most costly potential outcomes of maltreatment. Our work addresses two main limitations of the existing literature on child maltreatment. First, we use a large national sample, and investigate different types of maltreatment in a unified framework. Second, we pay careful attention to controlling for possible confounders using a variety of statistical methods that make differing assumptions. The results suggest that maltreatment greatly increases the probability of engaging in crime and that the probability increases with the experience of multiple forms of maltreatment. I. Introduction Child maltreatment, which includes both child abuse and child neglect, is a major social problem that has been neglected by economists. In the United States, mal-treatment is the leading cause of death from injuries in children older than a year. The death rate among children less than 15 is 2.4 per 100,000 and 1,500 children die every year (Institute of Medicine 1999). These deaths are only the tip of the iceberg. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1996), more than a million children are victims of maltreatment annually. In two of the few economic studies to address the issue, Paxson and Waldfogel (1999, 2002) show that abuse and neglect are more common in families of lower socioeconomic status, so that maltreatment likely exacerbates differences in the life chances of rich and poor children. Maltreatment may have many long-term consequences for survivors. This paper focuses on the effect of child maltreatment on crime using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We focus on crime because it is one of the most socially costly potential outcomes of maltreatment and because the proposed mechanisms linking maltreatment and crime are relatively well elucidated in the literature. Yet there is still controversy about the extent to which a "cycle of violence" in which child maltreatment leads to future crime has been substantiated (compare with Widom 1989a). Economic models of crime typically focus on the adult criminal's human capital and cost/benefit calculations (Freeman 1999). In contrast, our research offers a glimpse at the reasons why criminal capital is accumulated and suggests that the process may begin in early childhood.

We investigate the relationship between foreclosures and hospital visits using data on all foreclosures and all hospital and emergency room visits from four states that were among the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. We find that living in a neighborhood with a spike in foreclosures is associated with significant increases in urgent unscheduled visits, including increases in visits for preventable conditions. The estimated relationships cannot be accounted for by increasing unemployment, declines in housing prices, migration, or by people switching from out-patient providers to hospitals.

In recent years, child care subsidies have become an integral part of federal and state efforts to move economically disadvantaged parents from welfare to work. Although previous empirical studies consistently show that these employment-related subsidies raise work levels among this group, little is known about the impact of subsidy receipt on child well-being. In this paper, we identify the causal effect of child care subsidies on child development by exploiting geographic variation in the distance that families must travel from home in order to reach the nearest social service agency that administers the subsidy application process. Using data from the Kindergarten cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, our instrumental variables estimates suggest that children receiving subsidized care in the year before kindergarten score lower on tests of cognitive ability and reveal more behavior problems throughout kindergarten. However, these negative effects largely disappear by the time children reach the end of third grade. Our results point to an unintended consequence of a child care subsidy regime that conditions eligibility on parental employment and deemphasizes child care quality.

Previously circulated as "Health and Health Behaviors during the Worst of Times: Evidence from the Great Recession." Erdal Tekin gratefully acknowledges support from the Gary and Stacey Jacobs Fellowship. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Purpose This study aimed to determine the effects of progressive muscle relaxation exercises on the anxiety and sleep quality of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). Materials and Methods This is an experimental study. Its data were collected in the infectious diseases clinic of a research hospital from May to August, 2020. This study was carried out with 67 COVID‐19 patients (33 in the experimental group and 34 in the control group). The data were collected using a personal information form, the state‐trait anxiety inventory, and the Richards–Campbell Sleep Questionnaire. The progressive muscle relaxation exercises were performed twice a day for 5 days with the researcher's supervision. The data were analyzed using means, numbers, percentage distributions, the χ 2 test, the dependent t test, and the independent t test. Results Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups' mean posttest scores on the State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Richards–Campbell Sleep Questionnaire ( p < 0.05). The in‐group comparison of the experimental group found a statistically significant difference between their mean pretest and posttest scores on the State Anxiety Scale ( p < 0.05). The in‐group comparison of the control group found no statistically significant changes in their mean pretest and posttest scores on the State Anxiety Scale ( p > 0.05). Conclusion The progressive muscle relaxation exercises effectively reduced the anxiety and improved the sleep quality of patients with COVID‐19.