Low-income work, job training, depressive symptoms or depression, and children's school performance. These topics have occupied the attention of scholars and policy makers in recent years, particularly as they pertain to single mothers in the context of welfare reform. Broadening this landscape, findings from longitudinal, multi-city ethnographic research reveal that low-income fathers also experience depression or depressive symptoms that hinder family economic mobility. Further, repeated scores from a communitybased depressive symptoms measure embedded in the ethnographic inquiry show that the timing of parents' training and employment pathways, economic conditions, and policies in firms and children's schools intersect with parents' depressive symptoms or depression to affect mobility. Program and policy supports seem to mediate these intersecting mobility challenges. The company has to worry about your condition . . . The company is liable if anything happens to you. And once you're transferred even if you have a doctor's certificate saying that you can return, the position may be filled. (Steel Mill & Foundry, Second Shift Foreman, Milwaukee) Mr. Blessed expected wage progression more than skill development or promotion in his new position, but he hoped that the new work environment would contribute to family serenity. However, the final months at Steel Mill & Foundry, and working 12-hour shifts at Printing Company, caused his wife and him considerable strain, as both reported:
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