The welfare/self-sufficiency gap among single mothers through theoretical lenses

Connecting Caregiver Wages and Distress: Felt Precarity, Parenting, and Child Behavior

“…Recognizing that this number alone provides little explanation for the directional change in the emotional distress effect, future studies, potentially using simulations and/or predictions based on different benefits/hours/wage scenarios, could add to the inferences possible from this finding. That said, one potential cause of this curvilinear relationship is the “benefits cliff,” the point (or points) at which increases in income result in reductions in public goods and services, for a net loss of resources (Joseph, 2018). Notably, benefit reductions are often gradual and ideally replaced by earnings that cover the expenses once offset by public benefits (Romich et al, 2019).…”

“…Operating as both a source and a result of precarity in the lives of women caregivers, the “benefits cliff” refers to the often-shifting, difficult-to-predict point (or points) at which increases in wage income trigger decreases in public goods and services, for a net loss of resources (Joseph, 2018). According to Cancian et al (2002), in part because added employment income reduced or ended their eligibility for food and income assistance, families that left welfare for work after the 1996 reform enjoyed few economic status improvements and continued to experience economic stresses and hardships.…”

“…Using the concept of felt precarity (e.g., Watson, 2016) to build on existing family stress models (e.g., McLoyd et al, 2014), we modeled relationships between mothers’ wages, emotional distress, parenting stress, discipline practices, and child behaviors. In keeping with evidence for a potential benefits cliff effect to wage increases (Joseph, 2018), we allowed for the possibility of both linear and nonlinear wage effects. Our hypotheses, identified in detail below, were that caregiver wages would have a negative and nonlinear relationship to caregiver emotional distress, and a negative and nonlinear relationship with parenting stress; that caregiver emotional distress would have a positive relationship with parenting stress; that parenting stress would have a positive relationship with harsh discipline and a negative relationship with positive discipline; that caregiver emotional distress would have a positive relationship with harsh discipline and a negative relationship with positive discipline; that harsh discipline would have a negative relationship with children’s behaviors; and that positive discipline would have a positive relationship with children’s behaviors.…”