ABSTRACT
In 1996, a new welfare law replaced the sixty-year-old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF). The new welfare program emphasized the temporary nature of welfare assistance and directed poor families to attenuate their own poverty through work and child support. These changes in the welfare system appeared to promote mothers’ economic independence and children’s material well-being. Work requirements appeared to move poor mothers into the labor market where they could earn their own income, and child support enforcement requirements appeared to promote financial equity in biological families while augmenting the economic resources available to children.
